Colour can make or break the visuals of a game.
Whether you're looking at the neon headache of Hotline Miami or the subdued black and
white stylings of Limbo; colour, and how it's used, can reveal a lot about the tone of a
game. With that in mind, this is a look at some of my favourite uses of colour in games.
A limited palette is one that sticks to only a few colours, and while incorporating a broad
palette is also a valid stylistic choice, it's limited palettes I want to look at here.
Portal makes for a good place to start.
Portal's palette isn't limited purely to the
white, blue and orange that define it, but they define it for a good reason. In a nutshell
those colours are reserved for what you interact with, namely the two portals at your disposal
and the surfaces you put them on. Everything you need to know is communicated by the presence
or lack of these colours. At a glance I can tell whether I can place a portal or not and,
of course, whether I have placed a portal and all the rest is background noise of a
different colour.
Only one game is better known for its colour palette, and that, of course, is Mirror's Edge.
In a similar manner to Portal, Mirror's Edge's
particular shade of red is made so prominent in people's minds by its association with
the gameplay. Unlike Portal the so called runner's vision the game employs highlights only some
of the possible interactions available to you and it features many more colours than
the black, white and red associated with its protagonist. Blues, greens and yellows fill
a world in which colours are tightly tied to specific locations and white is tied to
the spaces in-between. Beyond the runner's vision it was an aesthetic that helped to
guide you at speed, each block of colour leading to the next, becoming a path that was, and is,
a pleasure to move through. Using colour to mark each area as unique is a trick
used by many games including Hollow Knight, which I'll discuss later, but here I'd like
to discuss TF2.
TF2 has multiple maps that are divided in two, and Valve leave signifiers to help you
tell which side you're on, primarily through texture and colour. On the red side of almost
any given map you'll find dusty reds and browns and on the blu side smooth greys and blues.
Importantly those colours are also muted, so a blu player will still stick out against
a blue background. It's a simple recipe for effective map design, but recently those simple
rules have seemingly been forgotten. Some Post-release maps have the same colour scheme
all round and others bring in lush greens or stark whites that can distract from the
players you're supposed to focus on.
Where once TF2 was easy to decipher
at a glance a lot of small changes have slowly eroded the distinct style it once had, and
even moment to moment gameplay has suffered for it. I don't think that original style
or tone has totally been lost, but it has been diminished to a significant degree.
If you’re interested in a closer look at this I’d recommend watching this excellent
video from Funke.
Establishing a palette and sticking to it can make or break the visuals of a game, but
it's certainly not the only way a game can use colour to an interesting effect.
The palette with which a game is created and how we perceive it is also affected by the
saturation of those colours.
To start looking at saturation I want to begin with Hollow Knight.
The blues of the opening areas of Hollow Knight are so desaturated that I mistakenly believed
it was black and white when I first saw footage of the game. A muted, desaturated colour palette
hardly makes it special, but it does serve to enhance the beauty of the particular areas
that are saturated in colour. That's not to imply the opening areas of Hollow Knight are
ugly in any way, but after making your way through the muted dark blues and slate greys
of the Forgotten Crossroads the greens and yellows of Green path, the pinks and oranges
of Crystal Peak and the rich blues of the City of Tears feel all the more exciting.
The game withholds certain colours, keeping them muted and restricting them to specific
areas and as a result each area feels distinct and exciting, even late into the game when
you're already familiar with them all.
A counterpoint to the relatively restricted colours of Hollow Knight is the vivid,
ultra-colourful world of Bastion.
Bastion is beautiful no doubt, but I found
it to be a beauty that didn't quite last until the end of the game.
When you use every colour
at your disposal and max out the saturation of each there's little left to surprise you
with. Lush vibrant colours bleed into lush vibrant colours and a world that's supposed
to be wild and varied felt a little samey as a result.
Certain games that have become associated with individual colours and their saturation
can have a stronger visual impact than those that don't. I could mention Mirror's Edge
again here, but instead of beating that, admittedly very pretty, dead horse instead I'll turn
my eye on the oddly yellow horse that, in my eyes, sees too little praise.
It's name is Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Human Revolution first launched with visuals affected by what has come to be less than
affectionately termed a piss filter. An off yellow, or gold if you believe the marketing,
permeates the grimy locales of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and while some people disliked
it enough that it was patched out in the director's cut, I personally loved it.
Discussing Human Revolution in this part of the video is perhaps a little awkward,
it's a world saturated in one particular colour rather than a use of colour made interesting by its saturation,
but it was choosing to saturate the world in that one colour that I think was so interesting.
It would be easy to read too much into that use of colour, that the yellow that permeates
the world is an effect of the yellow glasses Jensen wears, or that it's supposed to imply
that despite all of the differences between Detroit and Hengsha, Jensen sees them in the same light.
Perhaps such readings would be correct, but they aren't the sort I'm interested
in making. Ultimately I think the decision to saturate the whole game in shades of yellow
simply gave it character.
All of the games I've mentioned thus far have character, but Human Revolution is just bursting with it.
There’s a mood and atmosphere to Human Revolution that its sequel, the unfortunately
underappreciated Deus Ex: Mankind Divided can't match. I think a lot of the difference
between the two can be seen in the lack of the strong visual identity the so called piss
filter imparted on Human Revolution.
A final use of colour I'd like to look at here is in its significance to the narrative.
I want to start with the ultra vivid colours of Hotline Miami.
Hotline Miami used its bright colours and high contrast visuals to distract from what
was going on in the narrative. Every element was gaudy, every rug, floor and piece of furniture
a violent hue that drew your eye away from what you were actually doing. The narrative
of Hotline Miami and how it's constructed has been pulled apart to the point of redundancy,
with special attention paid to its music, but so too its visuals, so I won't say much
more here. In a nutshell Hotline Miami offered a colour palette as violent as its gameplay,
a decision that supported its narrative really well.
From the clashing hues of Hotline Miami to the black and white stylings of Limbo, colour
and its significance in supporting a narrative is readily apparent. Not every game uses colour
to support the text or subtext of a game's narrative though. It can also support the
tone or mood of a scene. I could mention the heavy handed use of mostly muted colours with
emphasised reds in Mass Effect 3's emotional scenes or try to find a way to jam in yet
more discussion of Mirror's Edge, but here the most interesting example I can think of
is The Music Machine.
The Music Machine featured imagery made entirely of a single colour and black shadows for each
of its locations. The first of those locations is lit with a sunset orange, and its shadows
cast by blocky, stylised trees. It's a colour we associate with coming darkness, and as
you explore the island and find yourself reading occasional bits of text alluding to some forgotten
past, it’s hard not to see that text as being tonally illustrated by the colour of
a sun that never sets. Perhaps I sound pretentious there, like a high-schooler trying to present
an analysis of a poem, but that's what I felt exploring that first area, and that's all
I can fairly discuss.
The sharp, hard line between colour and shadow eventually plays a part in your experience
navigating the world too, the slight difficulty the player has in understanding a world built
of only two colours reflects the disconnect between player and onscreen character that
lies at the heart of The Music Machine's narrative. Without spoiling too much you play as a vindictive
ghost that possessed the playable character, a ghost that seemingly wants to kill her.
While she can feel, touch, taste and smell the world you make her explore, you as both
the player and the ghost, can't. Your interpretation of the world is more limited than hers, and
that is illustrated through the limitations the visual style imposes. The whole game is
permeated with strong contrast and vivid, though not overly saturated, colours,
and the mood of each area is wonderfully supported by the specific colours that were used.
Where the use of colour in both Hotline Miami and The Music Machine demands attention, my
final example quietly and politely asks for it.
Here I’m going to finish up with Hollow Knight.
Hollow Knight, as mentioned earlier, is predominantly muted, with
mostly darker colours making up the background while light or vibrant colours are
generally reserved for the characters and enemies you face. This of course isn't narratively
significant, it's just a simple trick to help the player pick out what they might want
or need to interact with. Where it does become narratively significant is when you notice
that orange is associated with most of the enemies, and it becomes even more important
when you realise it isn't associated with all of the enemies. To my knowledge I don't
believe it was ever directly stated that the infection you spend the game fighting was
associated with Orange, but it definitely became clear to the player that was the case,
especially after a certain point in the game. Although it's a simple narrative device it's
used constantly to remind you of little details you might have otherwise forgotten about or
missed. For example, orange isn't associated with the Mantis tribe because they aren't infected and it
is associated with the exiled traitor lord because he was. That's only one example from
a game that's consistently clever in its use of colour. To go further into specifics would
be to head into spoilers, but we know, for example, that Hornet isn't void for reasons
I'm happy to expand upon in the comments should you disagree. Put simply, the use of colour
in Hollow Knight goes beyond simply making an area memorable or a location pretty, but
actually plays a significant part in conveying the narrative. When used properly, colour
can go beyond giving a game character or creating a strong visual identity and actually say
something. I think that’s pretty neat, and Hollow Knight offers a particularly satisfying use of colour.
Hornet still isn’t void though, at least until Silksong proves me and Mossbag wrong.
Now that I've derailed the discussion for any fans of Hollow Knight and confused everyone
else, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Did you have any different views on the examples
I offered? Are there any particularly interesting uses of colour that I missed?
As always, let me know in the comments below.