The VG Resource

I'm having a color block, as in I can't decide which colors I should use and stuff. So, I'm making this thread on asking how do you decide colors for your video games or sprites.
Do you go on how you feel, or do you go by a rule? And why do you pick those colors for that character, or it can be a background, or foreground.. etc

ITT: Help me choose a palette.

thanks for the insightful input viper ♥.

as for me, there are two ways: if i feel lazy i just take colors from any of the palettes i keep, or i just throw random colors and work and equalize them as I develop the pixelwork.

since the colors are what define a piece's mood, its easy to know when you want something more colorful over something more darl or desaturated. when i said i pick colors from palettes i've used, it means i can use these colors because i know they work on the mood i want to give to a piece, there is no universally perfect set of shades for anything. also, you could try studying some games and pixel art's colors to get some inspiration, and if everything else fails, http://es-es.colourlovers.com/ is the answer.

and i barely ever dither anymore, wich means i dont have problems to add an extra color if necesary.

I'm still pretty amateur with color choices, but as Metaru said, be sure to match colors to mood. warm colors are better for happy/"sunnier" moods, cool colors for sad/creepy moods...etc. movies use this all the time.

as for characters themselves, I tend to identify my characters by color, therefore I try to keep each one's palette unique. if one guy has an excess of blue, I don't use blue so much for other characters. the entire cast sort of becomes a rainbow that way, haha.

This question would be much easier to answer if you could show us what thing are you trying to add the colors to.

Personally I pick my own colors, but if I'm trying to imitate a certain game style I get a few game screenshots and pick the colors from there.

(04-22-2010, 01:21 PM)Maneko Wrote: [ -> ]This question would be much easier to answer if you could show us what thing are you trying to add the colors to.

Personally I pick my own colors, but if I'm trying to imitate a certain game style I get a few game screenshots and pick the colors from there.

This is the picture, I'm going to use the last one onto the right.

Omnilith replied to it on a different forums and told me great advice on what should I do.

Quote:Hope you don't mind that I made an edit, Flame :>



I mostly messed with the hues and saturation of the colors in the original. I tried not to ruin the atmosphere.
One of the primary issues with the original was the lack of distinction between background elements and the character and solid ground. Since the eye tends to perceive things with lower contrast between colors and with a tint of blue as being further away, you might want to try something like that with the background. The opposite can be done to make sure the foreground stands out (well, you don't have to add red- I only did that here to further differentiate the now purple-hued background from the foreground tiles.)

The main character could also use some more contrast to help it stand out. I think the outlines around the different bricks making up the background are a little on the dark side still, but I'll let you mess around with that. Good luck!

I understand the advice and know what to do. But, all the colors I pick does not have the same setting/feeling I want for the game.
So, I'm having a color block on that basically.

tell us about the game

The game is about a Chocholate Creature name Chochoman, who accidentally destroyed the magical clock tower, which protects the city from the green gas that comes every 100 years. Now the whole town wants revenge on him, but before they could get him the green gas destroys the town and now Chochoman is force to fix the broken clock tower by finding 10 pieces around the world.

The town Chocholand which you see a small part is suppose to be dark gloomy, both other towns from the world has a different theme, which can be a lonely ice theme, or a colorful tropical theme.

you pretty much answered your own question. still, let me give you some examples on what colors you should use for each one of those ambients.


a gloomy ambient will feast on dark, desaturated colors. brown and several shades of black and yellow are usually predominant on these ambients, although other colors can exist to prevent everything to be plain and dull. if everything is darks or black, then it ceases to b gloomy and becomes darkness. the point is to express demotivated, lifeless scenario.


a cold scene could be more than just a gradient of blue and white. colros like yellow from the sunlight, purples of all saturations, even some light oranges, etc. the key is to pick cold colors and be able to make them coexist to -again- avoid a dull/plain scenario.


tropical scenarios are all about colorful and vast amounts of hues all over the places. the predominant colors is obiusly green, but you can pretty much pick anything to work on these. just remember to be careful on how much saturation you use on those, because using too many colors doesnt mean you'll, and that jungles aren't the same as forests.