1 Start with the feeling
Before choosing colors, decide what you want players to feel: tension, comfort, wonder, or dread. A palette that supports the game’s world, a neon city or a sunlit farm, helps each scene feel coherent.
How to choose a color palette for your game
A good palette does more than look nice. It sets the mood, guides the player, and helps important details stand out. These six ideas are a useful place to start.
2 Try the 60-30-10 rule
As a starting point, use one color across most of the scene, a second for support, and a smaller amount for accents. The 60-30-10 split is a guide, not a requirement; adjust it to suit your game.
3 Save accents for important things
Use your brightest or most saturated color for things players should notice, like objectives, pickups, or danger. If every element competes for attention, it becomes harder to know where to look.
4 Give colors consistent roles
Players learn what your colors mean through repetition. If red signals damage, avoid using the same red to mark a safe area. Choose roles for health, hazards, allies, enemies, and rewards, then use them consistently.
5 Vary lightness as well as hue
Two different hues can still look alike when they have similar lightness. Check whether sprites, interface states, and environment layers are easy to tell apart, even without relying on hue alone.
6 Try the palette in context
A row of swatches can’t show how colors work across a real interface. Try them on text, buttons, and panels, then adjust anything that feels hard to read or out of place.