So one of the frequent problems I run into on OpenGameArt is that, while we have a lot of pixel art, we frequently run into issues of consistency.  Given a general lack of consistent palettes for particular types of games, it can be difficult sometimes to find pixel art to use together in a game that doesn't clash.

We've had some luck lately with the Arne and Dawnbringer palettes (which I'm a huge fan of), but those are both intended to be fairly universal, as opposed to catering toward specific types of games.  As such, I've been thinking about trying to put together a few 32 color palettes that are geared toward specific artistic styles rather than universality.  The first one I'm working on is a bright fantasy palette that's geared toward the look of the first Secret of Mana game, or the Chrono Trigger overworld.

I'm looking for comments on what I have so far:







You can play around with this palette in my gradient tool at this link:
http://static.opengameart.org/gradientifier-dev/rainbow2.html

So, why not DB32?  For the effect I'm looking for, I find that it lacks some of the really saturated midtones.  I realize that having more muted colors makes DB32 more versatile; what I'm aiming for here is to give up some of that versatility in favor of something more stylized.

This palette is in fact deliberately weak in terms of muted colors (particularly midtones), and also in terms of brownish-greens that you might see in games that are going more for a sense of realism.

Specific stuff I was considering when I made the palette:

• Skies
• Oceans
• Foliage (light colors for grass, darker for trees)
  
• Dirt, roads, etc
• Stones
  
• Bright accents (flowers, etc)
• Skin tones
• In general, yellow highlights and blue shadows
  

Current issues?  I've got two very close off-whites, one of which I think I can probably get rid of, and replace with some other color (maybe a rust color or something).  As for other issues (apart from the aforementioned deliberate weaknesses), I have no idea, which is why I'm posting here. :)

Plans for other palettes right now include something more appropriate for realistic or post-apocalyptic games, and also perhaps something dark and moody along the lines of the Speedball II palette.


Edited by Lendrick - 08 May 2014 at 3:41pm

Test it out by remapping some artworks that you like, and show them here! That should help with critique too!

The current palette contains 2 times the same dark brown, so it is only 34 colors. Also I think the red and your dark pink are super close to each other, especially on my second screen (it is hard to make palettes if you have multiple screens >.<)

I made a couple of quick remaps for you. To me most of them look way too bright, and the dark colors too saturated. I hope this can be fixed and still fit your style idea!
All images below have your palette

Here, changed things up a bit.






I think the above images do fairly well at demonstrating the look that I'm aiming for with this palette.  Hopefully the color choices make a bit more sense this way.


Edited by Lendrick - 09 May 2014 at 10:10pm

Good work guys, you identified some redundancies and replaced them with the missing pink/magentas. However there's still clumping in the bright-yellow and dark registers (why no proper yellow?). The red(s) need some attention too, as it's close to the brown but far from the orange. Also note that there's accidentally some menu-colors included in the last analysis.

In general I wonder if these close ramps of green and blue is enough for a nice varied grass/water world. Perhaps more green-yellow and more blue ramps with a set of interpolating cyans would be more powerful, and better suited for the aesthetics of "Mana"-like games.

Your two darkest colors are almost identical [20,20,20] & [24,29,33]. The yellow is still too pale and similar to the "sand" color. The "skin" and bright-purple are quite close and could be optimzed. The gap between the two darkest greens is too big. The brown / red need some attention; try drawing some trees...there's one very saturated red-brown, an orange and two beige colors to choose from. Options are limited and a bit wonky right now.

Hm, think you changed the wrong green (but it was still an improvement, so don't undo it :) ).

Right now your middle greens are clumped together a bit. It can be a great help to study the brightness plots (just under the rightside hue-brightness diagram), to get a good sense of how ramps are spaced, and where possible interpolators are located.


The brightest green and blue/cyan are very close, maybe darken that green just a wee bit?



Edited by DawnBringer - 11 May 2014 at 6:34am

Small change here: I sacrificed the lightest cyan color for a darker cyan midtone that I think will be more useful for both foliage and water:



The SOM image isn't affected by this change.

how do you guys make these colour space diagrams?

where can I get my hands on those tools? are those some kind of Grafx2 scripts?

Thanks! I even figured out how to run them! Is there any sort of documentation on how to write one of those? This kind of functionality extension is definitely a powerful tool to be able to tap into. Are there any pointers you can share on how to write them? 

Hello, I picked 36 colors from Finecolour Markers

Based on Your palette.



Here are the marker numbers:

0
2
10
26
41
44
50
86
96
107
119
121
136
140
152
156
163
167
179
184
191
205
206
212
228
229
234
244
246
255
262
269
272
273
274
283

@yrizoud numbered colors on the left side are the actual colors based on scanned drawing (you can still see paper facture on them). I will post ( if won't forget ) a test color chart made with this markers when they arrive, be patient for a few days until the shipping arrives.