Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Over the last few decades, the rigid color preferences deined by gender differences have been fading;
you now see men wearing sport uniforms from the secondary or tertiary palettes, such as purple, orange,
and teal. Do not be afraid to push the color envelope. Sometimes, clients just need to be shown that the right
shades of lime green and magenta will actually enhance their blue and red color scheme, giving the overall
design more impact.
7.3.1.3 Educational and Socioeconomic Inluences
Consider the difference in the colors of the website for McDonald's restaurants and the Per Se restaurant in
New York. The McDonald's website impacts the eye with bright primary colors like red, green, and blue.
The Per Se website has sliding image panels in muted browns with gold highlights. Dinner at McDonald's
will cost about $20; the tasting dinner with wine at Per Se will cost much more. All around, in everything
you buy, every advertisement you see, a carefully chosen color scheme is used to market those goods and
services. You should begin to make it a habit to notice how color is used for that purpose and be aware of
the ways you can utilize it in your virtual world design. Generally, the higher the economic class and edu-
cational level of the customer, the more sophisticated and nuanced the palette used for representing those
goods and services will be. Complex colors like mauve, teal, and celadon green are used to create the idea
of rarity, preciousness, and good taste. Simple colors like red, blue, and black are used to create the feeling
of strength, solidity, and power. For instance, if you are building a virtual world dedicated to opera, consider
a sophisticated palette with tints and tones of colors such as you might see in a French rococo painting by
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and if you are building a virtual world dedicated to Formula 1 racing, you could use
a palette from the high-energy images of Pop Art artist Roy Lichtenstein. The tints and more complex colors
of the Fragonard will denote sophistication, and the bold primary colors of the Lichtenstein will create power
and movement in the visual ield.
7.3.1.4 Chronological and Generational Inluences
The age of your client will inluence color preferences in a couple of ways. Color preferences are inluenced
by past experiences in the childhood and teenaged years [9]. If someone had happy experiences as a teenager
sipping cherry coke in a hometown pastel-colored sweet shop, the person will most likely enjoy pastel colors
his or her entire life because of the fond memories. These speciic color preferences will be subjective, client
by client, but there are also age-related cross-cultural preferences that develop based in the client's genera-
tional color history. You should think of your client's cultural age as well as the chronological age. Is he or she
a Millennial (born 1980-1996), a Generation Xer (born 1964-1980), or a Baby Boomer (born 1945-1964)?
The color palettes of these three generations are very different. A boomer may fondly remember the pop
colors of a Peter Max painting, while a Gen Xer favors the colors of his or her irst video game. By under-
standing the history of color and how it applies to your client's cultural group, you will easily ind common
ground with the client for discussion about the color palette of the design. Figure 7.3 shows a chart of some
colors from each decade, derived from images of the popular culture in that decade.
Today's children and young adults have more color choices than ever, and many of them enjoy experi-
menting with color in their graphics programs and games. Undoubtedly, they will grow up expecting this
customization in their virtual environments and be very sophisticated consumers, able to enjoy many com-
plex color schemes.
7.3.1.5 Psychological and Experiential Inluences
Finally, you should remember that color, above all, is a subjective preference. Your client's childhood memo-
ries and collective experiences, good and bad, will affect the client's likes and dislikes for color. Knowing
