Which color palette to use in this game?

[Razzie.P]

Thought about plopping this in the Classic Gaming section, but hope it's  ok to post here even thought it's a NES Homebrew and not (yet) Atari related.  That said...

 

 

 

Opinions wanted.  We all love to give opinions, right?

 

I'm making a game with a limited, nearly monochromatic color palette.  Originally, it was inspired by the game "Minit," which is black n white only.   It kind of got away from that a bit, as each area has a different shift on the color palette, but anyway --- for the first 13 stages (Area 01) it still has the Black n White vibe.   Black background, with white brick tiles.   However, someone suggested recently that I try it with gray bricks since it better portrays the "Haunted Mansion" that I'm going for with this game.  I tested it, and I'm 50/50.   Not sure if I want to keep the first area B&W, or change to Gray.

White sticks better with the "Minit" inspiration.   Gray seems to allow the hud, collectibles, and enemies to pop out a bit more, but the player's hat gets a wee bit lost when pressed against it.  Not enough to seem like a problem though, imo.

 

Keep it white or go with the Gray?   Thoughts and opinions welcome and appreciated!    (also, ignore the artifacts and garbage in the videos.  Compression seems to be a mess on the Gray test.)

 

 

White
https://youtu.be/SA0zL7DmU8c

Gray
https://youtu.be/l4zmrsq5rhE

[Machine]

Like the White version. The Gray one seems kinda washed out compared to the White!

Looks cool by the way. I originally thought it was a gameboy game, but then saw it was NES. Looks really interesting!

 

[Magmavision2000]

They both look pretty good, but I gotta go with white.

[carlsson]

Is there no grey inbetween the suggested one and the pure white? I like the contrast between background and objects, but it is a bit dark, at least in the video. Also on later areas where you will add colour, will you have access to a similar set of brightness/contrasts for each hue? I understand the monochromatic style but personally I tend to get more drawn to a game using colours from the start, different hues even.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I like they grey one better, thought it could be a bit brighter. But some occasional use of color wouldn't be bad, IMO.

[Razzie.P]

15 hours ago, carlsson said:

Is there no grey inbetween the suggested one and the pure white? I like the contrast between background and objects, but it is a bit dark, at least in the video. Also on later areas where you will add colour, will you have access to a similar set of brightness/contrasts for each hue? I understand the monochromatic style but personally I tend to get more drawn to a game using colours from the start, different hues even.

There is one other Grey, but I don't really like it much.  It seems too close the white, but just enough "off" to bug my eyes a bit     I captured a quick preview of it, though.    If I understand what you're asking, then yes, each area will have similar contrasts between the backgrounds and "maze walls."    For example, here's a quick look at the second area (Garden) and 3rd area (Basement/Cellars)     Again, please ignore the artifacts that youtube/compression adds to the videos.  The actual game is much, much cleaner  

 

 

Lighter Gray 

 

Area 02

 

Area 03

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by malrak
changed "to" to "too

[carlsson]

I never studied the NES palette closely, but I agree that the other grey is barely different from the white. However given that the other levels have white foreground combined with rather dark backgrounds, it would suggest that the first level should be dark grey too.