The Language of Color in Games | Semi-Ramblomatic

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This week on Semi-Ramblomatic, Yahtzee discusses the language of color in video games.
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[@richardb561]

Red means explosive barrels, and sometimes modern games seem to forget this by colouring barrels that do not explode red. Stop that, right this instant.

[@carlosemilio5180]

Normal colored barrels with nickelodeon radioactive slime spillimg out the top also count

[@HA-ot6uf]

I don't mind devs making explosive barrels that aren't red, as long as there's something else dangerous-looking about them. Like in Doom. But they should never make red barrels that don't explode.

[@_ac39]

For me red instantly made me think ENEMY. Guess I've been playing a few too many PvP games in the last couple decades.

[@voittolehti2432]

@@_ac39 You can also add that you are under leveled to wear certain gear

[@mjc0961]

I never understood this one. I grew up with Doom and Command & Conquer, gray barrels explode. Exploding barrels do not need to be red, non-exploding barrels are not banned from being red. If there's any barrel, I'm likely going to try shooting it to see if it explodes or not.

[@mikkmakk901]

The reason why Yellow is so commonly used as a color for climbable/destructible objects is because it is the color that the human eye directs attention to first. It's a brute-force solution to the problem of readability caused by the asset bloat of modern games, to make sure the player immediately recognizes it as an interactable object within the world. This is why taxi cabs in New York are yellow for example, or why many eye-catching KZbin thumbnails prominently feature it

[@Quinnzel101]

This. It's a super common solution for leading players through what could be an otherwise complex environment. Its attention-grabbing quality is why it's used so much in advertising and a great deal of warning signs as well. Bright red too. High contrast grabs attention.

[@tbotalpha8133]

You could also point to things like high-vis jackets, industrial/construction vehicles, hazard stripes, warning signs and so on, all of which use bright, fluorescent yellows to stand out from their environment.

[@jack_reaver]

This also explains why yellow is frequently used as a highlight. Take for example Dishonored where Dark Vision makes creatures and treasure a glowing yellow. The highlight on environmental interactables in Payday 2 being yellow, Terraria loot/ore being yellow with the right potions, Endless Legend dungeons you bet are yellow, Endless Legend quest enemies are a part of the yellow faction, XCOM 2 it's your loot drops, your flanked enemies, etc etc. So what is it? It's the eyecatcher, its entire purpose is to get the player to look at the things the devs want to stand out. If we're doing a Croshaw comparison it's the sun, it's bleeding bright and impossible to ignore. Follow the yellow brick road.

[@Hirtenmainaart]

yeah, cuz yellow is the brighest colour on the percieved spectrum. The same reason blues and purples are associated with everything dark and misterious - cuz they are the darkest ones and can still be percieved in the darkness

[@comicsansseraphim4934]

Coinincidentally the original Zero Punctuation look

[@cruye9633]

So now we need a game where you are armed with magic spray paint that can manipulate the enviroment. Paint a barrel red to make it explode or a red spot on an enemy to add a weakpoint, paint a ledge yellow to make it climbable, and so on.

[@Tassalat42]

I've never played Warhammer 40K but my understanding is that this is basically how Ork technology works.

[@Michael-bb1cw]

Alternatively, glowing spray paint to create weak spots. Everyone knows to hit the GLOWING WEAKSPOT for MASSIVE DAMAGE!

[@cybercobra2]

this is a fun idea. i like it.

[@KingOfElectricNinjas]

I swear there's been a few games like this, Portal 2 comes to mind with the colour-coded goop that changes the properties of surfaces. But it's definitely a concept that could be a lot of fun to explore.

[@Excelsior1937]

Yeah that actually sounds really fun

[@PhilipK-xk4by]

There’s also variation of colors for healing magic. Yellow is used when your healing magic is priestly and holy. While Green is used when it’s earthly and druidic. Red is also used if the healing is vampiric.

[@RoblolGames]

Black, means the powers gone out again and I am sitting in a dark room

[@justanothershrimp1908]

I think that grey is more associated with cancelling abilities or maybe I should play less jrpgs.

[@vantablack6288]

i read that as shitting instead of sitting and i was like "yeah, that happened to me once"

[@hazukichanx408]

This is what totally ruined the color for me. Persona 5 did a lot to rehabilitate the inky pitch tones, but still... it's hard to get over those moments where there's just an unexpected bloop, followed by a total lack of just about everything I rely on to get through the day. Well, except for coco, I suppose.

[@DirkTheReunification]

You aren't South African, perhaps?

[@ActuatedGear]

That got a chuckle. +1

[@MeTheOneth]

Purple is the color of psychic powers in games like XCom and Mass Effect.

[@voittolehti2432]

And in ME Yellow=Armor Blue=Shield Purple=Psychic shiel (as you said) and Red=Health... Funny

[@_Mandon_]

or pink if you're playing pokemon

[@warmachine5835]

@@_Mandon_ I still attribute that to psychic, with the recent Fairy type taking over pink. Could spill plenty of ink on the connection between the two I suppose. But Pokemon already has Ghost as well, which is dark purple. In general, purple has some connection to the supernatural in most places I've encountered it.

[@killblade6]

For mass effect, yes and no? Yes the biotic shield is indicated by purple but whenever someone is using biotics they are enveloped by a blue aura, because it's space magic Could just be my eyes if you see it more purple than I am but I see it in a lightish blue

[@thestoneyone06]

In The Binding of Isaac, purple tears are the homing ones

[@trise2033]

Pedantic point of order: Red Dead Redemption uses Sepia tone. Less pedantic follow-up: Sepia tone (which is itself a yellow-brown, and conveniently fits both definitions listed here) is often shorthand for "old/ancient" (books, artifacts, cutscenes, etc.), as well as "map/navigation tools" (i.e. every map ever; some quest items, etc.). Fittingly, when used in the world, Sepia often replaces the regular colors to indicate either "things are happening in the not-now time, presumably in the past." or "we are doing a travel now".

[@YellaChickenOG]

I thought the exact same thing, you got there a touch before me 👍

[@bensteinhauser784]

Yup, a similar thing happens in Timespinner when stopping time.

[@xk445g]

It's also Cinematic shorthand for Mexico

[@Sylfa]

Worth noting is that sepia has a strong connection to photographs. Which is why it's commonly used for a "time-stop" effect, even if most time-stops are actually slow-downs for balance reasons.

[@George-zj9rr]

It also means you're in Mexico/The Cartel Dimension.

[@BillyBtheman]

I cannot stress how badly I would enjoy listening to Yahtzee explain how all video game characters exist across one giant multiverse. Maybe even more so if it was written like a crazed manifesto.

[@TheCloven]

The Unraveled episode we never got. If Yahtzee attempted this, he would definitely need to bring in Brian David Gilbert

[@jamesverner9132]

Whenever you loss a scout in Frostpunk do they canonically become the player character in a survival run of THE LONG DARK?

[@grphine3688]

@@TheCloven the crossover i'd die to see

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

4:25 To me Magenta means "Missing Texture" because of Unity.

[@daanstrik4293]

And the (I think) older: Source

[@OrangeDog20]

@@daanstrik4293 It was also the common key colour for transparent in e.g. Unreal Engine.

[@DemienC.]

It's general color of "missing texture" since magenta is rare color and can be easily to make transparent without ruining rest of texture. Like green in green screen. ...So technically magenta is default color of any 3D world until you populate it with textures.

[@daiyadoggo]

So magenta games are lacking in content, just like the missing textures

[@aubekin]

True. Bug or something is broken

[@ng_canadian]

Master Belch and the Great Mighty Poo are the same entity. They just came out of different ends

[@drakkondarkspell]

Brothers, obviously.

[@Ragetiger1]

Here, I was thinking both are voiced by the same person.

[@Raindrop_2401]

​@@Ragetiger1But..... Master Belch has no voice actor

[@Shuizid]

So they are not the same, but originate from the same? Some weird monsterous entity that excretes sentient bodily products? Then there should also be sentient pee, sentient sweat, sentient shavings, sentient giant hands... damit that thing might be the origin of Elden Rings Fingers! OMG maybe whatever that thing is, got split up into various videogames and is desperate for re-unification?!

[@VirGnar]

@@Raindrop_2401 Achkstually it's Hirozaku Koyano who did the belch sound

[@InsufficientGravitas]

On yellow, (at least aside from the it's gold without the shiny uses) it's other uses may have to do wit the fact that yellow is generally considered to be the most attention grabbing colour (which is why it's used on warning signs a lot) so having things the devs want you to spot painted in yellow makes sense.

[@devindaniels1634]

Right, wet floor/caution signs are yellow, caution tape is yellow, yellow is at least in the US pretty associated with "needs your attention". I think there's a further reason for that. It also tends to be a rare color in nature, aside from flowers and things that are warning you with their coloration that they're toxic. So yeah, I don't think you can even say using yellow like that is just a human thing.

[@Redvox57]

Red: enemy health bars, explosive barrels, own health bar, syphon ability, fuel Orange: fire ability, hard difficulty, medium health, explosive ammo Yellow: broken equipment, yellow direction paint, critical hits, stoic faction Purple: poison damage, debuff ability, undead, epic tier loot Green: corrosive barrels, acid, stamina, health kits, grenade ammo pickups, night vision, high tech Blue: electric damage, shields, big health item, potions, objective markers, ally team White: common gear, angelic abilities, tactical equipment like flashbangs, over leveled enemy markers, flashlights Grey: mundane abilities, trash, dead ends, fog, usually common resources, mining Brown: slowing effects, resupply crates, ammo boxes, stealth Black: insta kill, jump scares, silencers Pink: support ability, customization, highlighted text, sunset sections of games, small heals, sleep effects

[@Saltience]

Ooo surprised he didn't mention that yellow is also used for stasis and rewind from BOTW/TOTK that also supports the idea that time is yellow. The epoch from chrono trigger also has yellow accents, plus its wings of time. Although I think its more that *gold* is associated with time, because gold/brass colors are common colors for classy clock parts.

[@voittolehti2432]

Doesn't 'Remember me' also play around with yellow and it kind of has a time theme to it

[@Vesperitis]

I think it’s because sepia is also a kind of “yellow”, and we associate sepia with “old photographs/windows into a distant past”

[@tokilladaemon]

Also the big yellow shard thing you use in that one level of dishonored 2, no spoilers but you know the one

[@stephentomsky9576]

Also In World of Warcraft, it is the Bronze Dragonflight that control and maintain Time.

[@jacobdagun3670]

My mind likewise skipped straight to Stasis from BOTW

[@anonymaton948]

I’d say red can also mean ENEMY or HIT WEAKPOINT, but it varies

[@starmaker75]

To quteo doom, red means shot it until it dies

[@noahguttman7011]

That is still the language of health.

[@vozh-kc]

​@@starmaker75wait, what's the color of it being dead though

[@vozh-kc]

@@noahguttman7011 or soon to be lack thereof

[@_Mandon_]

​@@vozh-kcblack probably

[@Tat011]

"There's one thing we all associate with red" Me: Violence? "Health" I mean i guess but there's a bigger element at play here

[@ScorchedIce]

I feel like white is usually used to convey interactability like, something glowing and flashing in white is probably telling you "over here dumbass" or "press interact on this" sometimes you'll also see it as a slight glint around an object indicating its a collectible or smashable.

[@oceandark3044]

A lot of color theory actually might be dependent on the general colors of the game. All games have a kind of "field" palette that makes up the "general shit you climb over or walk through that doesn't need interacted with." Anything you need to be able to visually parse therefore has to contrast with that. Most often that's done with a light/dark motif, but as things get more colorful, you actually end up having to do that with movement. If your world is faded and brown, your ammo tin can be black with red stripes on it without much trouble. If your whole world is a kaleidoscope of colors, your ammo box might have to be a rotating tetrahedron to be noticeable. So normally red is the color associated with health, but if it ends up being green it's generally because red doesn't stand out well against the field color, or that it simply stands out better. It tends to be that your health bar has to be absolutely the most important thing to be able to quickly assess in combat because you aren't likely to be able to stop to look at it. Being low on health almost universally happens when your eyes are glued to the screen. Hence the ubiquitous "red heartbeating haze around the edges of my vision" motif used for "you are definitely low on health." If you're in a red hazy game, because it's gotta be the color of blood, bro, you'd have to make that something else. In fact, I kind of think an even more interesting idea than color language in games these days has been the inventive way that the UI has been reduced and replaced with visual motifs. It's been a definite trend to get the numbers and meters off the screen as much as possible in most games to keep your immersion intact, and some of those efforts have been very inventive.

[@DelphinusW]

Green health pickups can also mean "the Red Cross threatened to sue us."

[@rikamayhem]

@@DelphinusW To be fair, the ISO standard logo for first aid is a white cross on a green background. And if you insist on using red for your game, just invert the colors of the Red Cross, like the Swiss flag; no need to risk breaking the Geneva convention. The only ones that still break it are J&J, for historical reasons, and they had to reach a settlement with Red Cross to do so.

[@KingOfElectricNinjas]

I think there's probably at least some examples of visual motif UIs going way back in games, especially in the really retro eras where you got limited pixels and processing power to work with. Even going back to Mario's size and colour being a health bar- or both Crash and Spyro having little floating companions whose presence and colour directly indicates how many more hits they can take. But of course, those are also deliberate choices, and I think both series were showing off what they could do with fancy new 3D graphics; see also how Spyro had a fully 3D interface down to text being rendered polygons.

[@josephhooton7781]

I think the white-green-blue-purple-orange/gold item tiers is a wow thing?

[@cunt5000]

I think remember it first from Diablo rather than WoW but it's definitely a blizzard thing imo

[@jonathanmelton5756]

And Diablo. Basically blizzard sent the standard.

[@cranapple3367]

Diablo had a different palette, with blue < yellow < green/gold. But green < blue < purple < orange is definitely WoW. You might cut blue for accessibility; certain kinds of colorblindness make blue and purple hard to distinguish (but green/purple/orange are as distant as three hues get). That's especially especially if the purple is bluish and the green isn't, since the most common colorblindness (particularly among the men who dominate gaming's demographics) is red-green, not the much rarer blue-yellow.

[@josephhooton7781]

Also at least in a traditional western sense it has a logic to it. Things made of gold or dyed purple are very expensive where as green dye is much cheaper with blue something in between

[@trise2033]

It's a Blizzard thing, but many other games call back to it. (Though the specific rankings can vary)

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Red and blue are more abstractly associated with offense and defense respectively. Not only does this show up a lot in the design of the UI, I also remember there being studies which showed that a team's color in multiplayer games impacted that team's strategy by influencing their psychology. So a team with red as it's color in Starcraft would play more aggressively and impulsively while a team with blue as it's color would play more defensively and strategically. This refelcts how many games give players two broad task they can pursue: in TF2, killing an enemy player is almost alwyas good for your team, but you don't win by killing enemy players enough times -- you win by completeing the objective. You can always kill the enemy as a short term step, but it's the team coordinting for the long term goal of grabbing the intelligence that has the better chance of success and can overcome an overly aggressive team even if they are technically better, more experienced players in terms of combat.

[@MrDrury27]

TF2 actually took a big fat shit on that whole idea by making the red team always defend and the blue team always attack on asymmetrical maps.

[@Roxor128]

Red and blue being associated with offence and defence? Must be why in most countries, red goes with the left-wing political parties and blue with the right-wing ones. The left wants to change things, while the right wants to keep things the way they are. Offence and defence, but applied to policy rather than combat.

[@hyperon_ion9423]

When it comes to “energy” weapon projectiles, I’ve found that what color it is tells me just about everything I need to know about from the slightest glance. Yellow is pretty much the basic default. Does damage, but probably not much. A deep blue can be sometimes switched out for it through. A very light blue or white means Ice, or if you have a dark vs. light theme, Light itself Green is plasma. Can melt through metal. No further discussion needed. Purple is “exotic”. It’s either some kind of alien super-tech or something that messes with space-time. Can often be the most “niche” of the colors. Red is either evil, or heat lasers. In either case it’s often used to start fires. And if the game is psychedelic enough to have a rainbow one, it’s either a joke weapon or the most powerful projectile in the game

[@mjc0961]

I would say green is the default, yellow means it's electrified, and red covers plasma and other heat effects because the general idea is meant to be "it's really hot innit"

[@undvined]

Doom's plasma gun firing blue is too salient in my mind to think of blue being other than plasma; which is to say, I have never seen a 'green' plasma.

[@terg7822]

@@undvined The Plasma Beam in the 2D Metroids has traditionally been green, though it usually gets overwritten by the Ice Beam's blue as you usually get the latter much earlier.

[@Colamarine]

@@undvined Halo conditioned me to react to green projectiles in two very different ways. Small green = Minimal risk. Avoid if possible but prioritize other threats. Big green = DEATH IS COMING GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY-

[@dustinmillar120]

I think the idea of purple and orange/gold being the most rare is using the common tie to purple and gold representing royal/empirical leadership

[@garamoth2286]

Interesting. The good video game loot is purple because Roman emperors liked clothes dyed in rare purple shellfish goop.

[@dustinmillar120]

@@garamoth2286 it's all about that literal shellfish drip

[@ZaydinTTV]

I think it's easier to say it's because "World of Warcraft did it" and ingrained in gamers that Green is Uncommon, Blue is Rare, Purple is Epic and Orange is Legendary.

[@Sorcerers_Apprentice]

Purple and orange/yellow/gold also tend to contrast and stand out in comparison to green, blue and brown, the colors of most organic things found in nature such as grass, water, dirt, rocks and trees, making them easier to see. Purple used to be a very rare and expensive dye that could only be naturally obtained from rare sea snails in the days before cheap synthetic dyes became available, hence its association with power, mystery, magic and sometimes poison or evil.

[@CyberDragon10K]

I have a lot of these associations from old Blizzard games like Diablo II and WoW. Gold Unique Items, Yellow Rares, Blue Magics, and then Green Uncommons and Purple Epics.

[@GayBearBro2]

It was inevitable: white associated with Ice or Holy/Divine elements while also being the common tier of item, basic damage (if it isn't red), and characters who will either sacrifice themselves for the party or turn into crazed, evil villains.

[@jacobdagun3670]

Oh yeah, crazed white party member describes a certain *pancake* nicely. Glad we never saw that twist coming.

[@kairider1770]

If basic damage isn’t red, then red will be used to indicate critical damage

[@GayBearBro2]

@@kairider1770 punctuated by an exclamation point for games with attitude!

[@Michael-bb1cw]

For Holy/Divine elements, I find it’s more common for them to be white with gold accents.

[@VoxAstra-qk4jz]

​@@kairider1770Destiny crits are yellow

[@bmckelvy5717]

I think the yellow / time motif might just be a happy convergence of a number of unrelated factors- For a mineral MacGuffin, yellow connects to gold as simply “a valuable substance” For a more scientific / fantastical material, yellow is associated with electricity and *energy* more generally, distinct from its source And for time distortion, yellow / brown is the color of images from the past- yellowed paper, old discolored paintings, tintype photographs

[@GermansLikeBeer]

Yellow/shiny brass is also the color of clock parts, which fits the time aesthetic

[@shybandit521]

And the color of amber, known in pop culture for freezing bugs in time

[@Rigel_6]

Also yellow-ish is the sand in an hourglass, very often associated with time manipulation. To me the first thing coming to mind are the bronze dragons (that are actually gold/yellow) from warcraft and their whole schtick is time, timelines, continuum etc.

[@Roxor128]

I don't tend to think of yellow when I think of a colour to pair with electricity. I think of blue or purple, given that arcs through air end up a blue-purple colour.

[@asteriondeltoro124]

The yellow paint on ledges is less to do with utility and more to do with yellow being a color that attracts the eye. Something painted yellow is saying "hey, look at me!" This is, in fact, is why it's used for caution signs in real life. And yes, the yellow paint is kind of necessary; I prefer the more subtle white/off-white paint, but I'll take either over the early 00s, where we would struggle to climb our way up a mountain, fighting off dodgy jump controls and obnoxiously sticky world geometry, only to discover an invisible wall because the designers didn't expect us to go that way despite the fact that the NPC told us to go West. The Green/Blue/Purple/Orange rarity system is mostly everybody ripping off WoW, though it also has some logic to it. Purple is high up because it's the color of royalty, orange is above it because it represents gold. Though, now that I think of it, it could obliquely be referencing the nobility of the cardinal elements. (Earth (green) is the lowest element because it sinks to the ground, Water (blue) is higher because it flows upon the earth, Air is next because it floats above, and fire is the most noble because it rises above them all, ultimately becoming the sun.)

[@AnotherDuck]

And Mirror's Edge used red for the attention-grabbing colour, since other colours were commonly used in the scenery. Although you could turn it off. But yeah, you want a colour not normally found in the level design. Probably the most subtle that still sticks out. Yeah, WoW popularised those colours, which they got from earlier Diablo games. All Blizzard, though. Diablo 1 (which only had white, blue, and gold for normal, magic, and unique respectively) might've gotten inspiration from something earlier, but they could also have made the decision on their own.

[@KingOfElectricNinjas]

I think a lot of them copied WoW not just because WoW was popular but because it did it pretty well. A lot of specific colour-coding sequences have a bit of a cycle to them going from neutral colours to cool ones to warm ones, and purple/pink/magenta being at the top brings it back around a bit to cool colours. Purple stands out amongst blue, gold stands out amongst purple.

[@Shooter__Andy]

Ooooh, surprised he forgot to mention: White - the color of stuff that's just there, it's functional, it's structural, it's common. See - common item rarity, most of the world in Mirror's Edge, etc. Cyan - outside of the color of indie protagonists' hair, weirdly enough, I think it's a color fo "nebulously good things", such as the Xen healing pools in Half-Life, but I think it's also associated with safe places in general.

[@zioniczenko]

Funny you say yellow manipulates the space-time continuum, because yellow to me means "perfect timing". The parry flash in Dead Cells and ULTRAKILL, the yellow zone that marks the seventh beat in Rhythm Doctor, heck, half the rhythm games I've played display perfect hits as yellow. Maybe it's close to gold, and gold is associated with flawlessness or being number 1. Actually, I can think of some other yellow things associated with number one...

[@Rehteal]

+SCRONGBONGLED

[@Rogeryoo]

Okay, unrelated, but why is pee number 1? Poo is number 2 because it rhymes, so why not make pee the number three?

[@Crocogator]

@@Rogeryoo because then number ome would be... oh

[@Tsarius11]

Either way, it is associated with time.

[@pizzajoke3561]

Rhythm Doctor mention 👀

[@FrankenSteinsGate]

Yellow could potentially be associated with time manipulation because it's the color that old photos and paintings turn into as they age. Even the pristine white casings of electronics from the '90s have yellowed over time. So I think in a lot of people's minds, any yellow/orange/brown-tinted thing sort of inherently takes on an "aged" feel to it.

[@junktruck]

Don't forget about amber, it can literally be a time capsule

[@joa1401]

I also think it’s associated with energy from electricity and the sun. If a large amount of very useful but volatile power is being generated, orangey-yellow feels right somehow

[@messofstuff1116]

I think it's more about quartz crystals used in oscillators in computers and watches to keep time. The yellow light seems to always be associated with crystals in the examples given.

[@joew1237]

Yellow is probably for time/space manipulation because it is a high-contrast color while still being visible through. It indicates thing is happening and it makes sure thing is still visible as opposed to, like, purple or something. A purple filter would probably be much harder to look at as opposed to a yellow filter.

[@iamawsum2]

Yellow is also time manipulation in Zelda totk with recall turning shit yellow as it moves back in time. And botw with stasis

[@arsezxvi]

Razbuten also made a nice video about this. Though more focused on the color purple "the color of corruption".

[@elalaela2694]

Comepleately different type of channel, but I also love Abitfrank's yellow in horror video where she covers a lot of videogames

[@danieladamczyk4024]

Every color is a corruption.

[@chrislinks6867]

'Wibbly-Wobbly-Purple-Badness-Juice'

[@protonevoker891]

The reason for why everyone seems to have come to an agreement on the colors of different quality levels of loot is actually very simple: because that’s how WoW did it. Remember that period of time where everyone and their dog was trying to make the next big MMO? Every one of them aped World of Warcraft’s system of “grey is trash, white is common, green is uncommon, blue is rare, purple is very rare, and orange is the best available”, so now whenever someone makes a MMO inspired loot system (like a looter shooter) they use the same system.

[@kempolar9768]

Purple is often times a "corruption" type thing, where some otherworldly source is reaching out and taking over the beings/places of our world.

[@roboknobthesnob]

This is one of those videos that hits different when you’re colorblind

[@ItsmeInternetStranger]

Well you see, Grey represents health, Grey is stamina, Grey is used for shields and technology, and Grey means time travel.

[@Sylfa]

"Roses are gray Violets are gray I'm *dead* and colourblind!" - WoW undead faction /silly

[@Sylfa]

In more seriousness, some games/devs focus hard on getting the colours to read properly for colourblind people. Some, simply don't.

[@roboknobthesnob]

@@Sylfa to this day, Doom and Doom Eternal are probably the best AAA implementations I’ve seen of a colorblind mode.

[@jaykolokithas9329]

Same. Like the heck is a magenta. On a side note, I love when colorblind modes have separate modes for different types of color blindness. Just make the icons different, not your whole game, ty.

[@TheyCallHimBOSS]

Red: Stop. Green: Go. Yellow: Go fast.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

@@SimuLord They literally stop IN the intersection? That's hilarious.

[@damianabregba7476]

Explain that to Sonic

[@Jeedan]

blue: gotta go fast

[@gregoryvn3]

**nods in Starman**

[@gabrote42]

White is often associated with divinity and majesty but also concreteness and information. Stuff that is white tends to involve text (paper), hints (Think Final Ninja/Ghost Trick thought bubbles), item information, item listing, movable pieces on the game world (on more stylized games), stuff you are expected to always have, verbs, dialogue you have not heard yet, and, of course, light. Very rarely does blue or green replace them in these functions, and mostly on interface-looking games like C:DDA/Duskers, or very stylized games like Swirl W@tch. Gray is often on stuff that is obscured, old or useless. It's the color of static, unreadable stone tablets with foreshadowing, Low quality night vision (see Metroid), unusable vendor trash, stuff so much worse than your current gear to be pointless, a menu item you have already selected, a conversation you already had, and other such things. Also on photographs and stopped time. There are more but I'm kind of in a hurry. Sorry!

[@rickhamilton930]

the green

[@CivilWarMan]

For me, magenta also represents the 1980s. Not that the game was *made* in the 1980s, but that if the environment contains magenta, it's more likely to be set in the 1980s.

[@LoganChristianson]

You're just probably broadly thinking "neon."

[@WhiplashSL]

Overwatch uses yellow to represent health regenerated by healers (i.e. Mercy, Zenyata, Lucio, etc.), but it's also the same color for armor and ability cooldowns, though the latter could be more of an orange hue than yellow. Also, in multiplayer games, red can represent enemy players (whether it's the color of a player's name when you aim/lock onto them or in the kill feed).

[@dljb7463]

Red also means enemy factions in tactical games like fire emblem or baldurs gate. With grey/yellow being used for other/ai

[@King_Rowlet]

I remember writing an essay on how color theory has been used in game design for one of my university projects. I don’t remember much of it but I remember referencing how games ended up using colors to convey their own meanings, like how purple is used to not only convey darkness, but corruption

[@TheLangenator]

Yellow is also often associated with navigation. Quest markers, waypoints, and the like are almost always yellow. (Although they're sometimes white) And as you said, the climbable ledges are often colored yellow in a signal to the player that they're supposed to go this way. This could potentially be due to stars being mostly yellow and/or white, and them being the primary means of navigation for centuries.

[@nicklager1666]

The two key games i think of is firstly Limbo that really showed how it can represent something rather dark and gloomy with few colors. But no matter how dangerous the world is and how it wants you dead you have one option go forward. Or in the case of video game talk go right. I would also like to mention the subtelty of tha rather subudued colors in Shadow of The Colossus. It was a game world that used colors to show the barren nature. No matter where you turned when you wernt fighting the colossi you had a world that seemed to be in hibernation. It never explained why it were so empty at first glance.

[@GreyWolfLeaderTW]

Yellow is likely associated with time and space manipulation because gold (the metal) does not tarnish with age and/or exposure to the elements. That, and old mechanical clocks are typically made from brass (also yellow).

[@ZumikoRavenlocke]

Yellow also stands in for stamina quite often. Specifically in instances where green stands in for health but you still need a stamina bar.

[@comradebusman3]

I actually really want to see Yahtzee’s video game crossover theories because that snippet about flashlights was actually really cool!

[@GodOfWarConnoisseur]

Yellow is part of that same brown era. The "piss era" reference NFS Most Wanted, Haze

[@Rehteal]

These days it definitely has ties to "THIS WAY, IDIOT"

[@LoganChristianson]

How do you disparage Most Wanted, my beloved.

[@stevethepocket]

And _Deus Ex: Human Revolution._

[@dodderythedromedary6890]

New Vegas as well

[@donowa5637]

gray is also another color i think of when i think of the xbox 360 era, probably because i played so much burnout paradise (and that game has a very desaturated and overcast aesthetic)

[@Omnywrench]

You briefly mentioned how Orange is typically used to symbolize valuable, high-tier loot. When it comes to the color Orange, I find it's often used to highlight valuable information, especially stuff you need to look at right this minute, similar to the flashing emergency lights found on construction vehicles. A lot of games will use orange flashing to signal health being dangerously low, or that an enemy or boss is currently vulnerable to attack like the Glory Kills from Doom: Eternal. Other games with crafting/building elements will use it as a marker for what or where to build next, or just an environmental marker to guide the players towards their next destination, like how Half-Life 2 and Left 4 Dead use orange lights or open flames to catch the player's attention. Speaking of flames, it's typically used as a symbol for fire or heat, either to show fire or lava-based hazards, flame-based superpowers or weapons, overheating warnings, and so on.

[@Cheficide]

I love the cross over idea, i always liked those now ancient machimina style videos with the every different series and franchise fighting or randomly working together

[@TheGiggleMasterP]

"Just add yellow paint everywhere you want them to jump" Ancient Chinese Proverb

[@yuu-kun3461]

It's just a theory, a GAME THEORY! Having Yatzhee do such an episode, even as an April's fools would be hilarious.

[@icarue993]

Nick, here's an idea for a patreon/donation goal

[@cyansuy3062]

Meanwhile, in new Doom, blue is health, green is armor and red is what you should see when shooting demons. Also, I think one of the reason why brown was the color of the modern shooter era might be because it closely resembles brass, the color of bullet casings.

[@huttyblue]

Games from the "brown era" tended to have a single dominant color for a couple reasons, but mainly because that movies were doing it. CG for that era wasn't as robust so having a global tint on your color palette helps hide lighting mis-matches between in-camera and cgi elements. And because games wanted to be taken seriously like movies they imitated the look for a veneer of seriousness. It also helped to hide the limitations of the lighting engines from that era of games. It wasn't always brown, matrix did this with green. But brown comes up often in the settings most games took place so it was a natural color to pick.

[@KingOfElectricNinjas]

As another comment put it, a lot of games develop their own visual language based on their particular colour palettes and aesthetics, and you want a colour that stands out in that specific context. Doom has always had a lot of red (especially since it's set variously on Mars or in Hell) and thus red isn't a good colour to use for important items, but a cool colour that contrasts it is.

[@PendragonDaGreat]

Also Space-Time manipulation Yellow: Recall in TOTK where the return path is shown as yellow arrows. But as is partially discussed elsewhere I think colors also have association based on context. That is, is it in the environment, or your HUD? if it's in the environment how does one interact with it? Is it a pickup or an environmental object?: If I see a red pickup, or in my hud, it's health. But if it's around a person or environment object it's "antihealth" i.e. something that can take my health. An enemy, an exploding barrel, a trap (ex. Lara Croft in reboot trilogy after unlocking that ability) Same with green: On the ground it's probably something corrosive and nasty, as a pickup or hud item it's probably energy or stamina.

[@Josh-99]

The loot system colors of (sometimes gray)-while-green-blue-(sometimes yellow)-purple-orange-(sometimes gold)-(sometimes red) is a Blizzard creation, specifically from Diablo 2 and World of Warcraft. Those games are so ubiquitous and so recognizable even by people who didn't play them that almost every other game since has followed suit and it's what we have.

[@SimaanFreeloader]

Gray means dead.

[@Nathanael_Forlorn]

What I am surprised by, is that most colours have multiple associations, sometimes very different and sometimes somewhat close by or even contrary. And yet, (western) humanity somehow managed to agree on what makes sense and what doesn't.

[@vtmarik]

I've always associated Purple in games with anything that falls outside the typical classical elements or defies physics, like Eridium in Borderlands or the Wave Beam in Metroid. You also see Green being wind more often in Japanese games given the association with wind blowing through tall grass and the occasional leaves being buffeted along. The other color association i've always seen in games is Orange being the color of Enhancement, see the power ups in Gradius and UN Squadron or the Force in R-Type.

[@corvididaecorax2991]

Hmmm. For RTS games there is a definite one of Green being the player's stuff, Blue being friendlies, Yellow being neutral, and Red being enemy. That has gone a long way back in various forms, sometimes with blue and green switched. To go with red for health we have blue for magical mana or equivalent and green for physical stamina or equivalent. Yellow gets used for lots of things that get used as currency, even if they aren't directly money. Just from my game library in no particular order we have: Elerium and Meld from XCOM, Dust from the Endless series of games, Energy Credits from Stellaris, Tacknium from Final Theory, and Energy from Interplanetary. And an odd one I have noticed a few times. If experience points or other equivalent character upgrade materials drop on the ground as items to be picked up they tend to be some sort of light blue, but only if there is just one type of them in the game. If there is multiple there will most likely be three, which will be red/blue/yellow.

[@pretzelbomb6105]

The use of yellow for navigation aids (a job it shares with white) probably comes from associations with light. The sun, moon, and stars are traditional navigation aids in those colors. They also stand out well in dark or otherwise muted areas without seeming loud, making them ideal for subtly catching the eye.

[@samuelpierce2.088]

This. But also… Yellow sometimes shares duties with red as a way to communicate “caution” to the player. Yahtzee’s example of the yellow anomalous crystal from from Half-Life is a good one, but it’s also sometimes used for things like the edges of road dividers, tunnel pillars, and various big vehicles like buses, construction equipment, etc. (In this way, it also sort of acts as a midpoint between blue/green and red when applied to navigation; Take notice and approach carefully, but you don’t need to stop moving or turn around altogether.)

[@drewforchic9083]

To expand on Blue being mana and force fields, it’s also often Power Sources or Electricity. A Power Cell or battery, used as the sci-fi equivalent of mana to power that force field, is often blue. Sometimes Electricity/Power is Yellow instead though.

[@davinogarcia5665]

Talk about a video coming in handy! I was looking to study color theory and I got now a very exemplyful idea of the colors now

[@Rocketboy1313]

I love color theory and symbolism in media. I remember reading a very simple article ages ago talking about common color associations and what comic characters used them well. I ended up looking at some games and found "Tales of Symphonia" as having some of the best use of "color indicates some tone or function". The main character Lloyd is passionate, red passion on a workman's shirt, indicatinghis life learning smithing with its design; he has a mysterious origin (human raised by dwarf not knowing what happened to his human parents) so he gets a lot of black, especially in his bottom layer of pants and undershirt; and he is a very pure spirit good guy, long bright white scarf and flashing swords.

[@WhisperingNostrils]

Symphonia is one of my favorite games and I'd love to hear more regarding its color usage.

[@superspider64]

Fun Fact! Purple is also associated with royalty, this is mostly due to how difficult and expensive it was to get the pigment, whcih could only "reliably" be found in a particular breed of snail

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

Let's talk electric arc/lightning bolt type effects. Literal electricity might be blue or yellow, depending if there's something else to contrast it against. If there's ice or water mechanics it's almost certain to be yellow to contrast. In more technological settings bolts that are intentional because they're part of the effect that does something (it's a zapper, it zaps something) is most likely to be blue, and if its a byproduct like an arcing wire to show the power is on, it'll likely be yellow. If a lightning bolt is green, it's alien.

[@2dextreem]

Rainbows are often paired with extraordinary abilities, usually flashing or displaying a gradient to get your attention. Somehow mixing all of the colors dials up the exclusivity of the power in question. Power Stars in Mario games render you invincible which allows you to ignore an entire gameplay mechanic (avoiding enemies). In FF7 and the Remakes the ATB bar flashes rainbow to show the availability of Limit Breaks which deal incredible damage among other things. In Undertale the final boss's attacks leave rainbow trails as his form represents his achieving ultimate power.

[@bluecoin3771]

Red: Combat. Blood, fire, meat, lasers, typically the enemy color but can also be used to signify valor, bravery, military prowess Green: Nature. Trees, plants, wind, poison (well no one said nature was always kind) Blue: The Spiritual, The Magical, the Cosmic, Technological Advancement Yellow: Wealth, resource Purple: Corruption, be it the upper class or the forces of darkness. Black: Maturity White: Purity Pink: Femininity (or smex for older audiences) Brown: Grit, Down to Earthness Grey: Industrial, uniformity Orange: Yellow wasn’t available.

[@messofstuff1116]

I think the reason yellow is used for time manipulation is because most game developers are likely to be computer engineers. And bear with me a second here. In computer architecture, you learn that computers keep time using crystal oscillators. Usually quartz. Quartz is used to keep time in old fashioned clocks and watches. So the yellow is most likely referring to quartz crystal itself which tends to be clear or slightly yellow if impure. Also, having a pure white crystal may confuse it with ice or glass.

[@wyrduncleradio9157]

wonderful analysis. I feel like we see a lot of interesting video game color theory on display in the Super Giant catalogue (some departures, some typical). Also I like you noticed the contentions between red, green, and blue. Each one seems to try and have their play for core mechanics. We see blue in deadspace (for example). But I tend to enjoy the blue "as magic" or "techno-logic magic" as per the halo comparison, and the guns. Wonderful work as always Yatz. On a specific note in the conversation of "red health, green stamina, blue magic", which was a small tweak between DS2 and DS3 that made me very happy, because I, personally, love the blue magic bar... I had hoped in tears of the kingdom for there to be a similar shift, because one of the more iconic zelda games actually featured the strange appearance of a GREEN magic bar, in Ocarina of time. I think the phantom painting, whatever its called, also featured the less common "green magic" theme. Anyway, not trying to "ooh, you missed something"... just love the idea of having an analytical discussion with you and wanted to contribute. Hope you have a good day

[@chrishorobin1751]

The earliest colour scheme for loot I ever saw was in Diablo II Which went White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold (And then there were other colours for people who got really deep into breaking that game) Which then carried over into WoW (from what little I remember) So I'd imagine that's where that spectrum of rarity came from.

[@SmashYamato]

I have no comment on color. I just had to come and comment with joy over the fact that I heard Yahtzee mention the Wold Newton Universe. That amazing connection by Phillip Jose Farmer made me truly appreciate a lot of the stories I read as a kid. Thank you for remembering.

[@mattwo7]

0:27 That came from MMOs though. Mostly WoW though in WoW rare is blue, super or impossibly rare is purple ( 1% droprate mounts like Invincible are purple), extra rare or lore relevant rare is orange, -tan- "light gold" is a lore relevant rare you got for free (although some of them have not a lot of lore relevance contrast others) and "Blizzard Blue" is for gear for powerleveling alts (herilooms) and regulated RMT (WoW Token).

[@mediocremarty4500]

Master Belch is just the Great Mighty Poo from a timeline where he went a different direction in life.

[@xxGhostXIIIxx]

i remember looking this up recently since the item color code Green=Uncommon Blue=Rare Purple=Epic Orange=Legendary first popped up in Diablo but its since spread out far Beyond blizzard games Tiny Tina's wonderland also uses the same system SAO: fatal bullet is Red for Uncommon Blue for rare Yellow for epic and green for legendary

[@Seikyuu]

"Blue isn't normally found in nature" Me: Looks over to the window where there's a blue bird by blue flowers eyeing my blueberries through the glass.

[@Doctor_Nu]

Who decided the colour of loot rarity? Diablo did. Who agreed? The massive player base. Who was the committee who voted? Every game that came afterwards.

[@SawedOffLaser]

0:27 It's Diablo. You know the insanely popular series that arguably started the idea.

[@EmeralBookwise]

I don't play a lot of games, but another association I've seen for yellow is armor. Specifically in games like Borderlands and Mass Effect, where it is used to represent the "healthbars" of robots or other hardened targets. Also, when it's not stamina, a green bar can be an alternative to blue for mana, as it was in most Zelda games prior to Breath of the Wild.

[@RubyGalaxyYT]

Black in video games can be assiciated with the Void as seen with Hollow Knight, sneaky characters such as Ninja's, ODST from Halo being the setting's equivalent of Navy Seals. It can also be for serious characters such as Anget 47 is suit being black which also meshes with being sneaky. One thing to consider is that any colour can have a different meaning depending on where you are in the world, such as yellow being happiness, joy and caution in western culutre but is masculinity, sacred and royalty in far eastern culture. A more dramatic version is red in western is: love, danger and action but in the middle eastern culture is: danger caution and evil. In India it's Beauty, Wealth and Power.

[@FailureOfAName]

"Mana Bar" woah that's a throwback I wasn't expecting, especially when yahtzee used to own a bar named as such when he was in Australia.

[@Tsarius11]

Yellow is the color of "You should slow down" in driving, which definitely could be the link towards time manip being that color.

[@Latronibus]

That second-to-last bit of finding connections between unrelated games gave me some real "THE HIGHER I RISE THE MORE I SEE" vibes. Kudos if you got that reference.

[@Cercular]

Grey/Greyscale/Desaturation are often employed dynamically when your health is getting low, sometimes accompanied by red. Also often used to mark something as inactive like a button and its alternative state of red or green works off the grey to signify it as interactable.

[@2CPhoenix]

Red=Health/Healing, but also explosives and danger Orange: Hazards and danger again, also generally heat in any game with a weather or temperature mechanic Yellow: Goal. It generally seems to be the color most often used as a main objective marker, signpost, or helpful arrow Green: pretty much impossible to pin down, it’s certainly the most versatile color, possibly because we as humans have the easiest time recognizing the most varieties of green hues. Blue: Mana, or anything with mystical/advanced technological properties. I also associate it with Secrets Purple: rarity/importance. Something extremely valuable, this probably came about because of its association with royalty.

[@benb9882]

For red my mind immediately went to ground effects/telegraphs you don't want to stand in. Mostly a hold over from MMO dungeons/raids but they drilled that into me pretty hard.

[@BAMFshee]

I would argue that energy shields being associated with blue is because blue is commonly associated with electricity, at least in games where yellow is already "taken". Since energy shields are typically powered by electricity or something similar, it only makes sense that they'd get the same treatment.

[@iwasakikoji6969]

Blue has also been shorthand for "good guys." A very recent example is Unicorn Overlord. Friendly units are blue. No matter what the character looks like in cutscenes, their battle sprite is blue. When they join you, they become blue. Enemies are always red. Blue as shorthand for good guy also seems to connect to the use of blue (along with a lot of white or sometimes gold) to convey piety, nobility, holiness. Look at any game with a bog-standard church and its holy knights. They will almost invariably be blue and white (Final Fantasy XIV and XVI both come to mind).

[@FireFox64000000]

Two things First of all I would love to hear your theory. It sounds fascinating and perfect for one of these videos. Second green also seems to represent an unstoppable hero who is consistently there to fight evil. Think Doomguy Link and Master Chief Petty Officer John 117. I think on a deeper level green seems to represent consistency. Poison is constant damage, Link is constantly fighting Gannon, the Incredible Hulk is constantly mad, your stamina is constantly recharging, health pickups help keep you consistently alive, etc etc. It might have something to do with the human subconscious desire to be near green Forest areas because it's the surest sign of abundant resources. Bonus thing I just thought of. Brown is the color of everything is dying and your screwed. See my above point about the color green and forests. It's a consistent color and a color that we have a lot of reasons to want to get away from. Being surrounded by it is sadness and depression.

[@annatheerisian7878]

In a generally brownish environment, Yellow also stands out nicely without contrasting super hard. It's also the lightest color, which makes it easy to overlay on something without obscuring what it is too badly. Good general-highlight color, and aptly enough the most common color of highlighter markers.

[@kamilslup7743]

when poison is represented by purple there's also a good chance that green is currently busy being acid most likely

[@draconusfrigidus]

I've found purple has also come to represent mysticism or elitism as well, possibly harkening back to when it was a color only the monarchy and the super-rich could afford to wear. Sea of Stars uses it for alchemy, which is tied to the party member who's called 'The Immortal Alchemist' for a good reason, the Legend of Spyro uses it to denote the most powerful of all the breath weapons, Halo uses it for the Elites (for obvious reasons) as well as the general color for the Covenant to show how they're a superior force to humanity, and so on. Silver is kind of a weird one in that it simultaneously means '2nd Best' when used for a ranking system, but can also mean 'apex tier' when used as a hair color (either to denote an entity is old enough to be a master, or because they're a demon/Sephiroth knock-off/both).

[@unnamedx2]

Thr colour orange being used to signify "normal", i don't know how to explain it better than that but i've seen that a lot

[@talleywa5772]

Red, yellow, and green are also used on outlines in the world. Red outline is hostile/hazardous. A n enemy will attack on sight. A barrel will explode if shot. It marks the AOE of abilities. And if applied to a name is a fine indicator that you shouldn't engage unless you want to be a yellow smear across time and space. Yellow is neutral. Characters won't help or hinder you unless you press them. Also letting you know who to aim your fireballs at. Green is allied/beneficial. A healing aura. An allied character. A safe space.

[@100164]

What a great video, please make more

[@zedrake]

Answer for weapon grade colours: Green, blue, purple, gold order likely comes from the UX law known as “Jakobs Law”. It boils down to people spend most of their time somewhere else and like what is familiar (because it takes less mental load) so track back and find the game that hits a ratio of “popular” and “uses that colour pallet” and you’ll find why. If you’re making the next big thing and it has weapon grades in it, you don’t want to teach the user / player new stuff all the time. Same logic applies with button mapping.

[@CivilWarMan]

Regarding the color coding for loot quality, a quick search seems to indicate that the color coding largely originated with Blizzard. The Diablo series seems to have initially popularized the concept, with one of the designers crediting getting the idea from an old Lord of the Rings-inspired Roguelike named Angband. More specifically, Diablo had white/blue/gold for common/magic/unique, Diablo II had grey/white/blue/yellow/orange/green for inferior/common/magic/rare/unique/set, and then World of Warcraft kind of established the primarily used color-coding moving forward with grey/white/green/blue/purple/orange for inferior/common/uncommon/rare/epic/legendary.

[@redgeoblaze3752]

Yellow being associated to Time might also go back as far as Back to the Future. The Flux capacitor had yellow energy swirling around it, and I notice a lot of sciencey looking things are yellow. Like the hazmat suits needed for handling dangerous materials. For fantasy settings, Yellow sometimes is used to represent holy or light based magic, similar to how purple is dark.

[@Aceedius]

Yellow for utility is a good observation that goes even further. Yellow (or orange when it's busy being currency) is frequently used when you want to color code some abstraction of "engineering", e.g. engineering research in Stellaris and production points in civ, progress bars for using or crafting something in more games than I can count, and I'd think of more examples if I didn't have a job I should get back to doing. When the context of electricity is "something you use to power devices" rather than "force of nature" (though also then depending on art style), that's also usually yellow. Stellaris even puts yellow on double duty with energy production as the representation of currency. And, in games that include both "shield" and "armor" with the former being a special damage nullification force field (often regenerering) and the latter a sturdier extra health bar, they're often blue and yellow respectively. I guess you can trace all of this back to two different sources: the coding of yellow as a bright and very noticeable color for labour clothing, and as a transitional state between red for "stop" and green for "go", the color of "we're getting there". I guess the former informs armor, engineering and climbable ledges, and the latter progress bars, with some overlap between them e.g. in games that put "casting a spell" in blue and "using a device" in yellow. Fun stuff to think about!

[@DangerB0ne]

In the original Phantasy Star Online, purple and black represent the "Dark" enemy type found in the Ruins level prior to fighting Dark Falz. They're sort of deep sea creature looking aliens and they bleed purple iirc. Purple often represents mysterious, corrupition, or darkness when applied to an enemy color palette. In Pokemon, purple pulls triple duty being the color for both Poison and Ghost type as well as the accent color for a lot of Dark type's more energy based moves (e.g. Dark Pulse). In Monster Hunter purple pulls poison duty because green in health, red is recovering health, and yellow is stamina.

[@Maverickx25]

For yellow/gold, I thought of Time because gold pocket watches or hour glasses are used as a symbol of time (Sands of Time went all out on that one).

[@silverlight6074]

Orange was only ever mentioned once, specifically when talking about the usual "white/green/blue/purple/orange" gear rarity structure in a lot of games. But outside of that, I think orange is mainly used for two things: fire and obstructed pathways. Fire is obvious, and for blocked paths, orange traffic cones/signs work well to convey "you can't go this way"

[@sonfoku73]

Stuff like this is why I love second wind, shockingly good insights into prominent and non-prominent parts of games/game design

[@dpetersz]

I like the strategy game color scheme: Green is food, blue is science, red is military, orange is industry, purple is politics (sometimes pulling double duty as espionage), and yellow is money.