Game Design 2
Lecture 3: Colour

Errata and News
• All tutorials now take place in the games
lab (M627)
• The Monday tutorial is now on Tuesdays at
12pm - 1pm (after this lecture)
• Lecture 2 slides and audio are online.
• Recommended Reading is online.
• http://www.comu346.com

Books

What is colour for?
• to label (colour as noun)
• to measure (colour as quantity)
• to represent / imitate reality
• to enliven or decorate (colour as beauty)

Colour in Games
• Team identification
• Item highlighting
• Mood, tone & aesthetics
• Convey information

Team Identification

Item Highlighting

Mood & Tone

Convey Information

What is Colour?

Rods & Cones
• Rods & Cones
• Tuned to RGB
• Uneven distrobution
• 64% red, 34% green, 2% blue
• Can distinguish red better than blue
• Yellow shades particularly similar

Magenta?

Colour Models
• Hue, Lightness, Saturation (Thissen 162)
• Cyan, Magenta,Yellow, Key (Fox 52)
• Red, Green, Blue (Thissen 163)

Colour Wheel
• Newton Wheel
• Red,Yellow, Green
• Blended for hues
• add whites (tint)
• or black (shade)

Combining Colours

Color Jack
Text
http://www.bit.ly/colorjack

Tip: Industry Palettes
• Find industry photograph
• Extract main colours

Tip: Mood Palettes
• Find mood photograph
• Extract main colours

DeGraeve Extractor
http://www.bit.ly/degraeve

Assembling a Palette
• Select 3 to 5 colours from colour wheel
• Also select a neutral and highlight colour
• Experiment with tint and shade
• Contrast is important
• Consider the colour blind
• Consider cultural implications

Use Colour Sparingly
• It is easy to emphasise something on
unobtrusive colours.
• On glaring colours it is difficult to
emphasise something.

Colour Blind
• 1 in 12 people
• Resources exist which can model colour
blindness.
• http://www.wearecolorblind.com

Cultural Minefield

Technical Limitations?
• Not so much of a problem on modern
consoles.
• On underpowered or web based games,
may need to use 256 colour palettes.
• Can use same bitmap with different palette
to get team colours.
• Work with a programmer!

Tufte
“Above all, do no harm.”