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• Basics of colour theory
Colour theory is the concept that the colours used in a piece of art game and/or move scene can drastically alter the feeling that is being convoyed. You can also use colour top influence certain emotions in the viewer and to convey certain aspects such as danger, elation, anger ext. I will be using three examples first being "we happy few", the second will be "Corpse Bride" and the final will be "Luigi's Mansion. The first two where chosen as part of the course plan but the third was chosen by me, as it is more in line with the style of game I'm planning on creating for my project.
• We happy few
We happy few is a game that focuses on the town of Wellington Wells and the surrounding area, it is based on an alternative history of 1960s England after the loss of world war 2. The basic overview of the game consists of uncovering the mystery behind an event that the populace are trying to forget/coverup using a "new" drug called "joy". This game is a story based open world adventure game with aspects of mystery and deceit in its story telling.
From personal experience of this game, it uses three main colour palettes/themes for different purposes and to convey different emotions. The following is a board of screenshots of different areas in the game:
• Set A
Set A has a very sterile and muted art style and colour palette, this seems to be used primarily in areas of the game that the creator wants a sense of unease, fear or nervousness. Each different area uses their colour palette to get subtly different results, as follows:
• The Hospital (Heath Institute)
Feels very sterile, it also feels very hostile in areas and also feels very isolated in terms that you only ever see very few people in the actual scenes. The area uses mostly grey, blue and rarely the colour green is shown this seems so coincide with more creepier parts of the games story. It is also sporadically uses other colours such as red in a seeming attempt to break up the tension of specific scenes and eventuate the feeling in others. The colour green seems to be used around a kind of "experiment" looking apparatus and seems to be used to be used to not only attract the attention if he player but also to give it a kind of unnerving appearance.
• The Offices
The offices area seem to be very sterile, just like the hospital areas this helps add to eerie feeling of the area without being to "hostile". This changes however during the chase with the "bobby". This has more of an impact at the colours used for the "bobby" blues standing out against the mostly white and grey of the surroundings.
• The Slums
This area although is still has very few colours, this is less sterile looking then the other areas so far and comes across as more natural but also jarring due to this change. The area is also inhabited by characters that have bland colours, almost blending in with the environment this is probably done to show that they want to be left alone.
• Set B
Set B isn't really used for any specific areas, instead its used any time the games titular mechanic of the drug "joy" is used this changes what ever the current colour palette is to an "overexposed" highly coloured exaggeration of the surroundings. This used in conjunction with other effects such as the character throwing up butterfly's gives the feeling that although "joy" is supposed to make you "happy" it being used to cover up something more important. The colour palette in conjunction with the other effects surrounding it, results in a upbeat cheery feeling that slowly get more unsettling the longer its used and the more you notice while using it.
• Set C
This set has such a stark difference to the rest of the games could schemes by being only in grey scale, this kind of make it gives on eerie out of place feel. Due to the fact this theme is used sparsely used during the game it has an has a kind of "shock factor" when first encountered in the game. This is further helped by the shocking visual that go along with this colour scheme.
This colour palette unlike the rest of the games palettes only consists of shades of grey, this makes it stand out amongst the other areas as they all at least had some small amount of colour. This also only shows up infrequently during specific areas, these areas are usually related to some tragic event or another, this results in any grey areas immediately putting the player on edge. This colour palette is very effective in having an unnerving and eerie atmosphere as it stands out in a game where all other palettes have a reasonable variation of colour in them, compared to only greys in this one.
• Overview
"We happy few" uses colour in a very interesting ways, it has a couple unique looking palettes that each have an associated "feeling" to them. Such as a mostly "grey" palette used on "shocking" areas, to a very vibrant yet eerie palette used for "joy usage" and then the sterile and isolated Heath Institute. This allows the game to make the player more aware of how each area is going to be depending on what palette is used along with the sound and NPC dialog.
• The Corpse bride
The corpse bride is a story that links the living and dead worlds through two of the main characters. The story itself is a an arranged marriage between two of the main characters being "Victor Van Dort" son of fish mongers and "Victoria Everglot" daughter of poor aristocrats . The third main character is Emily a deceased lady in a wedding dress, she shows up during a scene where Victor is practicing his vows in a cemetery and accidentally proposes to her.
The two scenes I will be looking at for colour theory will be the opening scene and a scene from the land of the dead. The main link between both scenes is blue but in the following ill break down both scenes separately an an overview of the differences between each:
• Opening
The opening of "The Corpse Bride" shows a window in to a very greyed out and bland version of "living world" world in the movie. At the start the main character Victor can be seen observing a butterfly that seems to be the only source of colour in this scene beyond varying shades of grey, this butterfly is then seen through the rest of the opening providing what little colour there is in this scene other then some other animals such as a cat. Most of the "living" human characters are not only mostly grey but beyond the interest victor had in the butterfly, they seem to be getting on with jobs with little interest in most things. This can be seen by most people ignoring the butterfly or shooing it off, unlike Victor that showed interest. Taking this all onto account, this makes the humans world feel dull and a little lifeless; Almost as if something is missing, giving it a very lonely and isolated feeling but it also has a bit of curiosity thanks to the colours provided by the butterfly.
• Land of the dead
The "land of the dead" in contrast with the "Opening" although the characters still show a lot of grey in there designs, they also show a variety of shades of blue as well as varying other colours. This along with the cheery upbeat music alongside the characters make the "land of the dead" feel more lively and vibrant then the "living world". The "dead" characters are mostly blue in there skin palette only really showing grey where bones are visible, this along with each of their costumes colour palettes being based on varying shades of red, blue, green and white further shows the rich and "lively" character in the "land of the dead" compered to the only grey "living world".
• Overview
The colour palettes of "The Corpse Bride" show that it greatly impacts the feel the creators are trying to convey and along with the sounds can make a really immersive feeling world. From the lonely feeling of the mostly grey "living world" to the friendly and upbeat and "lively" "land of the dead" the colour palette can make the feeling more apparent. This makes any colour used in this come with a "positive" feel and greys a kind of "negative" feeling that along with the soundtrack give great emphasis to the scenes they show up in.
• Luigi's Mansion
Luigi's Mansion is a game about about a character called Luigi who get a message about winning a mansion in a competition, he then goes to check it out with his brother Mario. But when Luigi gets to the Mansion his brother is missing and the mansion itself is haunted, the aim of the game being to rid the mansion of ghosts and to find you brother. This game is a puzzle adventure game based in a mansion, the gameplay revolves around clearing dark rooms of ghosts and this in turn causes the rooms to light up. So for this example I believe there is two main colour palettes used one for "dark room" and one for "Light rooms"
• Light rooms
Light rooms of Luigi's Mansion colour palette are similar to what you would expect in a mansion, it uses mostly warm and safe colour to give a safe feeling to these rooms. Along with the calm music used in these areas, this is to give the impression that there are no dangers left in these areas and you can safety move on. It also is more interesting when the game later removes all light rooms temperately to incite mild panic in the player as there is no longer any "safe" areas until this is rectified.
• Dark rooms
The colour palette for dark rooms is similar to the light room variants, however some colours are replaced with different ones. Most notably is pinks and reds being replaced with shades of blue, that and the pink/purple lights only showing up in dark rooms gives them an eerie feeling. Like said in light rooms, dark rooms take over the mansion for a short while in the game, they are impossible to be returned to light unless a specific event happens.
• Overview
Although there aren't many differences between the colour palettes of "light" and "dark" rooms, the minor differences alongside the colours only seen in dark rooms just barley makes them different enough. This along with the games audio being different in light and dark rooms makes them feel just slightly different enough to cause a feeling of unease in the dark rooms.
This also has another benefit, in dark rooms the main character, enemies and dangerous obstacles being lighter then the surroundings helps the player more easily focus on them then if the fights took place in the light rooms.
• Comparison "We Happy few" and "Corpse Bride"
Both the example of "We Happy Few" and "Corpse Bride" have some similar colour palettes specifically the "mostly grey" palette as well as having a palette that has more colours then the others in then he others. The more interesting parts are how each example uses there colours to achieve different results, following being a couple of examples:
• Grey
Greys are used in an interesting way, as in "We Happy Few" its used in areas that have shocking visuals and to unnerve the player due to being "out of place with the rest of the visuals. However in "Corpse Bride" shades of grey are used to give a more isolated and lonely feel to its settings, this is interesting as both use grey for subtly different reason and to bring out different emotions from the audience.
• Set B (We happy few) and the Land of the dead (Corpse bride)
These sets have an interesting similarity in the fact that they have more colours involved in them then the other palettes of their respective movie/game, however both use the additional colours for superficially similar reasons that ultimately end up at different results. "We Happy Few" uses this to give a "positive" and "uplifting" feeling that eventually gives way to unease and curiosity as it is used as a cover for more sinister issues. Whereas "Corpse Bride" uses the more colour in the "land of the dead" to convey a more livelily, upbeat and friendly atmosphere.
• Luigi's Mansion
I don't really have a comparison between the two other options for this one, I choose this as its the most relevant option I could think of in comparison to own game idea. As it just like my game is a game based in a mansion and is focused on light. So I thought it would be apt to look into a game that had similar mechanics and see what they did about their colour palettes. I like how the game has minor changes in its palette between light and dark, between that and the bright characters that stand out against the dark rooms it gives a warm cartoony feel to the game despite it being "horror".
• What I have learned
I have learned that consistency between colour palettes can make or break a project, it can also be used in an attempt to emphasis emotions and feelings in a particular scene if used correctly. Having a consistent colour palette used for items and objects in an environment can help tie the world together making it cohesive, you can however give a different colour palette to the main character and potentially NPCS/side characters can make them stand out and make it easier to keep track of. So the main point being that colour palettes are just as important as sound design and character design in creating an interesting and believable world.
• Use in my game.
I will probably create a about three main colour palettes for the environment of my game as follows:
Light room: This colour palettes will be made of cell shaded colours based on the average colours used in a typical mansion/house
• Dark room: This will be based on the light room colour palette but with dimmer more muted shades.
• Monster vicinity/possession: This will be based on the dark room colour palette but with pink/purple mixed in with some of the colours and replacing others.
The player and the "main enemy" will be given there own dedicated colour palettes as to make them stand out against the environment. The reason for the main character is so make it easier to keep track of them, as for the "main enemy" this is to show that there more of a threat then the other enemies in the game.
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