digitalsmear
12-15-2009, 06:33 PM
Perhaps, being a college student, the practical application of my professional qualifications for making a claim like this are limited, but I believe that the nature of color theory is such that every person understands it. They just don't yet have a vocabulary for discussing it. So on hearing the arguments, keeping the points in mind and then going into a game, I think the truth of the matter will suddenly become apparent, if it isn't already, to the non-'trained artist' players.
Why is visual appeal relevant if gameplay is good? I think anyone who has played video games since the 80's, like I have, can tell you - sometimes you just don't want to play a great game if it's no fun to look at. Also, as I will explain, poor visuals can also lead to less impressive gameplay.
As an art student, I've spent countless hours stressing over color theory - discussing and practicing the understanding of value and contrast, the dynamics of color complements as well as clashing colors, spatial push/pull relationships of color, and optical blending.
HoN has some serious color and value use issues. Let me point out the most obvious first.
Nearly everything in the game is the same low-key(dark range) value and it results in an overwhelming flatness to the game.
For a simple but effective tutorial on understanding the basics of value and contrast, look here:
http://www.coloredpencilpoints.com/depth_values.html
Pay close attention to the example with the leaf drawings to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
The trees are the same color and value range as the ground, as are the minions. This causes minions to be uninteresting, trees to seem pushed over and runes to barely look like they are there.
The worst case scenario is one that seems to happen quite often, especially while playing with out particle effects and only low shaders enabled (no glow on the characters is very problematic).
In big fights, especially team fights with lots of effects going on, all the characters can literally blend into each other and it becomes very easy to loose track of who is who and where!
I promise you, this problem is due to the simple color palette and lack of value contrast in the game. Proof is simple... Play a game as Krakken, and notice how, despite his size, his color is what stands out the most, then play a game as Chronos - he literally can get lost in the scenery, especially durring high action scenarios. This is a HUGE issue and I hope it's taken seriously!!
In regards to the color palette, this is a more complex issue, but is rooted in the lack of value differentiation. There is a very dramatic optical blending that is contributing to the flatness of the game world. There are three things working against the current design right now. With out getting into too much of what takes an entire class to just begin to understand...
When two different neighboring colors(physically speaking) are also color analogs(neighboring on the color wheel) and of the same value, your mind will blend them in such a way that they appear to be the same exact color.
While painters like Chuck Close (http://www.google.com/search?q=Chuck+Close) can use this sort of technique to great effect, the way it's applied (Unintentionally, I hope?) here has a detrimental effect on the depth of the visual aspects of the game. Just take a look at Chronos with graphics settings low. The grays and purples which make up his skin are not quite as dramatic as what I described above, but it's headed that direction.
The second issue with the color palette is the use of true black and it's relation to the lack of true highlights. If you took a screen shot of nearly any position on the map, I would bet money that near half the pixels on screen would be a value of somewhere in the zone range (http://www.cameraposition.com/podcast/images/CP43/zonescale.png) of 0 to 2. This might not be such an issue if it wasn't for the fact that...
Dark tones next to even darker tones actually appear to be even more dark than they really are(read: less apparent difference), if there are no nearby highlights for your brain to compare them to.
If you want to see some excellent examples of this sort of idea at work(the push/pull of highlights and shadows), take a look at the work of Baroque masters like Caravaggio and others who employed tennibrism in their paintings.
The third color issue I was going to bring up has to do with shadows and how they're really more of a color complement, rather then a black, and it's relation to contrast and "vibrating boundaries" - but I think I've already gotten my point across. I think it's important to take into consideration, though, because I think it's application(even if just to hue-imbue the blacks in the cracks of the ground texture) would help to add a lot of perceived space to the game while working to maintain the brooding feel you are obviously going for.
I understand that you(the designers) are going for this dark and brooding world and striving to separate yourself from the cartoony illustrative quality of WC3, but dark colors are not the only solution. Take a look at games like Fallout 3 or Gears of War and movies by people like Guillermo Del Toro(Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing example of how scary and colorful can be intermingled! Hellboy's use of color is pretty awesome, too) for some examples.
Good luck! I hope you are able to take a potentially very interesting and addicting game and turn it into one that is worth looking at for as long as you want to play it, too!
Why is visual appeal relevant if gameplay is good? I think anyone who has played video games since the 80's, like I have, can tell you - sometimes you just don't want to play a great game if it's no fun to look at. Also, as I will explain, poor visuals can also lead to less impressive gameplay.
As an art student, I've spent countless hours stressing over color theory - discussing and practicing the understanding of value and contrast, the dynamics of color complements as well as clashing colors, spatial push/pull relationships of color, and optical blending.
HoN has some serious color and value use issues. Let me point out the most obvious first.
Nearly everything in the game is the same low-key(dark range) value and it results in an overwhelming flatness to the game.
For a simple but effective tutorial on understanding the basics of value and contrast, look here:
http://www.coloredpencilpoints.com/depth_values.html
Pay close attention to the example with the leaf drawings to get an idea of what I'm talking about.
The trees are the same color and value range as the ground, as are the minions. This causes minions to be uninteresting, trees to seem pushed over and runes to barely look like they are there.
The worst case scenario is one that seems to happen quite often, especially while playing with out particle effects and only low shaders enabled (no glow on the characters is very problematic).
In big fights, especially team fights with lots of effects going on, all the characters can literally blend into each other and it becomes very easy to loose track of who is who and where!
I promise you, this problem is due to the simple color palette and lack of value contrast in the game. Proof is simple... Play a game as Krakken, and notice how, despite his size, his color is what stands out the most, then play a game as Chronos - he literally can get lost in the scenery, especially durring high action scenarios. This is a HUGE issue and I hope it's taken seriously!!
In regards to the color palette, this is a more complex issue, but is rooted in the lack of value differentiation. There is a very dramatic optical blending that is contributing to the flatness of the game world. There are three things working against the current design right now. With out getting into too much of what takes an entire class to just begin to understand...
When two different neighboring colors(physically speaking) are also color analogs(neighboring on the color wheel) and of the same value, your mind will blend them in such a way that they appear to be the same exact color.
While painters like Chuck Close (http://www.google.com/search?q=Chuck+Close) can use this sort of technique to great effect, the way it's applied (Unintentionally, I hope?) here has a detrimental effect on the depth of the visual aspects of the game. Just take a look at Chronos with graphics settings low. The grays and purples which make up his skin are not quite as dramatic as what I described above, but it's headed that direction.
The second issue with the color palette is the use of true black and it's relation to the lack of true highlights. If you took a screen shot of nearly any position on the map, I would bet money that near half the pixels on screen would be a value of somewhere in the zone range (http://www.cameraposition.com/podcast/images/CP43/zonescale.png) of 0 to 2. This might not be such an issue if it wasn't for the fact that...
Dark tones next to even darker tones actually appear to be even more dark than they really are(read: less apparent difference), if there are no nearby highlights for your brain to compare them to.
If you want to see some excellent examples of this sort of idea at work(the push/pull of highlights and shadows), take a look at the work of Baroque masters like Caravaggio and others who employed tennibrism in their paintings.
The third color issue I was going to bring up has to do with shadows and how they're really more of a color complement, rather then a black, and it's relation to contrast and "vibrating boundaries" - but I think I've already gotten my point across. I think it's important to take into consideration, though, because I think it's application(even if just to hue-imbue the blacks in the cracks of the ground texture) would help to add a lot of perceived space to the game while working to maintain the brooding feel you are obviously going for.
I understand that you(the designers) are going for this dark and brooding world and striving to separate yourself from the cartoony illustrative quality of WC3, but dark colors are not the only solution. Take a look at games like Fallout 3 or Gears of War and movies by people like Guillermo Del Toro(Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing example of how scary and colorful can be intermingled! Hellboy's use of color is pretty awesome, too) for some examples.
Good luck! I hope you are able to take a potentially very interesting and addicting game and turn it into one that is worth looking at for as long as you want to play it, too!