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The Importance of Color

ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Color is one of the most important features to making sure a game is aesthetically pleasing, and I often see games fuck it up; specifically in the post apocalyptic setting. Right away, games like Wasteland 2, or FO:NV come to mind. The sheer amount of brown and grey present in these post apocalyptic environments robbed them of any chance they had at being even remotely pleasing to look at.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand that in a post apocalyptic environment, there is supposed to be a lot of death and destruction and decay. That doesn't mean that everything suddenly stops reflecting every color that isn't brown or grey. I mean just look at some of these screenshots from some of the more famous post apocalyptic settings.

https://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/536/5360430/2913846-w2_dc_11.jpg

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l-x-1fm2cq8/maxresdefault.jpg

http://newfallout.com/images/fallout-1/play-fallout-1-on-windows-7.png

This is not only present in post apocalyptic games, but in other settings. PS:T is a famous example that comes to mind. While PS:T is my favorite game of all time, and I eventually adjusted to the colors, the initial setting of the Hive gave off a very negative impression to me. I didn't know about the existence of things like Clerk's Ward, or the other, more colorful areas of the game. When I was faced with the prospect that this is what the entire game would look like,

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/pc/planescape/images/walkthrough/hive/hive023.gif

I wasn't too excited to see much more. Naturally, this was a flawed first impression that I'm glad I pushed past, but I think it illustrates my point nicely. Age of Decadence is another example of this.

https://media.moddb.com/images/articles/1/154/153133/auto/bazaar_zpsb98d0fcb.jpg

Games that are over saturated with dark browns, blacks, and greys, that have very little in the terms of color to make them pleasing to the eye, are just plain ugly. Not only are they ugly, but I think that it strongly takes away from the overall feeling of the setting. Part of what makes a setting a good one are the feelings that it inspires in you. Games that have such shit color schemes inspire feelings of sadness, boredom, and regularity.

Long story short, pretty colors make me feel good.
 

Shadenuat

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I don't mind browns as much as violet glowing dragons breathing toxic green flames while standing in a grass that is of pure emerald color and similar wow inspired crap. And filters of course.

Coloristics in games is all fucked up to the point that sometimes it is hard to even believe that artists ever seen an actual forest for example.
 

Falksi

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s-3e9d76418f7f44de9e91c2cb1e0f454af44d3df8.jpg
 

ItsChon

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They're equally shit. I could have added another paragraph with examples of where too much color has gone fucked a game off, but I find people under using color to be a much more common issue; especially in games that people talk about a lot.
 

Bocian

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Long story short, pretty colors make me feel good.
Give me an example of a good looking colors in a game, then.
W2 graphics for me are repulsive, I liked AoD and the graphic style of Fallout I adore to this day, moreso than plenty of 3D. I don't see any correlaton between them in terms of style.
 

Cael

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I find most of the post-apocalyptic wasteland setting to be stupid as shit, especially when you are talking a hundred or so years after the apocalypse. Fallout, I am looking at you.

Unless the place is a freaking desert to begin with, there is no way a nuclear apocalypse would turn the whole world barren and brown. If that is the case, we won't have life at all, and therefore no game to begin with. In order for a setting to have survivors and animals, even mutated ones, you NEED to have plants and greenery, and if you are talking a hundred years of natural growth with no human interference then you are likely talking verdant landscapes in places like the East Coast and Mid-West of America. And Florida would be a swamp jungle of epic proportions (wow-zah! Would you look at the SIZE of that one!).

Brown is a fucking stupid colour for those games. Except New Vegas, because that is set in the Mojave DESERT.
 

Shadenuat

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They just copy Mad Max

If you go chernobyl now it's a jungle.

Biopunk could work well for that sort of postapoc. Nausicaa will always remain my personal favorite postapoc world. Beautiful, vibrant, and utterly deadly.
 

Ocelot

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I like vibrant colors too and this has deterred me from playing some games.

You aren't wrong but when it comes to game design, you should remember that it's not just about game design. Making a high budget videogame is a potential financial catastrophe, so companies must secure their sales. This means taking fewer risks on all aspects. The numbers show that post-apoc games with bland coloring sell well, which means enough people don't care about this shitty color palette. So why risk making something new?
 

laclongquan

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I dont know. It seems to me Icewind dale main theme is ice field, snow, white. I dont like it which is why I realize it in both games.

Fallout New Vegas brown desert theme is not very pleasing true, but what I look at is the body(ies) so no great loss.

Color is important, true, but NOT THAT important.
 

Shadenuat

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Colors are very important. Know how they make traditional animation? They have whole libraries of colors, and also make new colors which is a big deal. I'd say color palette is the first thing where developers usually go wrong if graphics feels wrong.
 

Cael

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They just copy Mad Max

If you go chernobyl now it's a jungle.
Mad Max is set in Australia, which is already one big desert to begin with... until the dumbfuck greenies decided to piss Gaia off and started making their usual "the dams will never fill again" predictions. Gaia promptly drowned Brisbane, Grafton and a couple of other towns in retaliation.
 

Mexi

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Easy to seperate out the Cuckdex phaggots, wanting to get credit from these appalling neckbeards, from real posters (which there aren't many of). :lol: At anyone praising Fallout's graphics.
 

ItsChon

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Stealth social agenda topic.
Keep those super predators out of my thread.

But yeah, people that rate a post shit or retarded and don't bother at least posting on the thread to call someone a faggot are the most beta male queers that exist. It's on par with Lilura and some other kid religiously rated all my BG posts shit after I exposed their shit argumets.
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

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Just do what I do and challenge them to a Skype debate.
 

FeelTheRads

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MRY

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Different settings call for different palettes, but I think it is (or should be) a basic gospel truth that the reduced range of video game colors has generally been a bad thing. IMO it's really the same reason why people pick plain colors for the clothes, home, furniture, etc. -- risk aversion. Bolder colors risk looking ridiculous, and while brown wastelands may be boring, they aren't going to subject you to ridicule.

In terms of color usage, IMO Westwood Studios is a good exemplar.

For instance:
507873-lands-of-lore-the-throne-of-chaos-dos-screenshot-but-later.png


6708-lands-of-lore-the-throne-of-chaos-dos-screenshot-gladstone-castle.gif


41776-eye-of-the-beholder-amiga-screenshot-four-heroes-decided-to.gif


414408-eye-of-the-beholder-amiga-screenshot-the-xorn-is-slow-but.png



Some adventure game examples:
438658-the-legend-of-kyrandia-amiga-screenshot-outside-the-chapel.png


438654-the-legend-of-kyrandia-amiga-screenshot-inside-the-cave-the.png


18573-the-legend-of-kyrandia-hand-of-fate-dos-screenshot-mountains.gif


369015-the-legend-of-kyrandia-hand-of-fate-dos-screenshot-use-the.png
 

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