Hair Colors

[MaebeKnot]

Just recruited my first two people. I couldn't help but wonder, why are their so few hair color choices?! There isn't even a pure black color. Closest are two browns and a dark purple that I THINK is supposed to be the black. In my opinion the options should be at least doubled.

[6E_Pixelestial]

Regarding very dark black: We have had a few people say that the black colors look a bit purplish to them, and I think it's down to monitor settings more than anything -- although I calibrated mine to be as accurate as possible before starting work on the art, everyone's configuration is different. In any case, we didn't want to go with an extremely deep, dark black in our pixel art in general because it tends to look muddy or like a dark void, especially against the game's colorful backgrounds.

I admit, though, I thought our existing 13 colors was a lot! Other than dark black, are there any other colors you feel are missing? I can make a note and see how feasible it would be to add.

[MaebeKnot]

Did the black in the portrait not work for the character sprites? It really feels weird to me too see Kyrie's hair in the portrait as a dark brown, almost black. Then see her in battle and on world map with purple hair.

Options I would like to see to slightly flesh out the options further.

A dark, almost blackish red.
A brownish Red.
A gray more in the middle of the RGB scale.
Unnatural hair colors already in game could have two of each to make for a darker and light version.

These next options may turn out weird on hair style 9 and 11. Yet if those styles could be adjusted or adding one more color to the palette, the hair color options could be expanded significantly. Sadly in most pixel art the amount of colors and making the art still looking good depends significantly on sprite resolution. What I'm getting at is hair color palettes that give the look of highlights and/or roots.

Dark roots of brown or black with the colors:
* Blonde
* Light brown
* Red
* Pink, Purple, blue, etc etc (if you wanted to go on for a while)
Repeat above with a white/light gray root instead.

Finally, I've noticed this is pretty common lately. A natural hair color (blonde, black, brown, etc) with unnatural color (Blue, Pink, Green, etc) as the highlight. This may look well using the same idea as the roots color palettes above.

Some options may take additional hair styles to get the perfect effect of what I'm referencing above. This maybe even be something best/worth left open for modding. Not sure the plan to open up the players to add their own sprites and color schemes. Yet something to consider. Especially if a lot of the development focus is already on modding now that the game has released.

[Conan The Librarian]

Originally posted by MaebeKnot:

Some options may take additional hair styles to get the perfect effect of what I'm referencing above. This maybe even be something best/worth left open for modding. Not sure the plan to open up the players to add their own sprites and color schemes. Yet something to consider. Especially if a lot of the development focus is already on modding now that the game has released.

See this thread in regards to visual mods:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/699170/discussions/2/3726075043719535110/

Just FYI.

[Ulsfart]

Originally posted by MaebeKnot:

Did the black in the portrait not work for the character sprites? It really feels weird to me too see Kyrie's hair in the portrait as a dark brown, almost black. Then see her in battle and on world map with purple hair.

This really bothers me too. It's such a basic problem that ruins immersion that could be easily fixed. The Main character's hair colour should be the same in the portrait and in the sprites!

[Silent Shot]

I also feel as if the colors not being able to match character portraits is immersion breaking. Black, dark-brown, redish-brown and other more natural colors would be a great addition to the game. MaebeKnot really hit the nail on the head.

[darkholyPL]

I never had a problem with this. In fact I think the dev made the smart choice here. If you look at a screenshot, and zoom in very close on a character, you can see all of them have a thin black outline to seperate them from the background. Now imagine the hair being that colour, it woud look like there hair didn't load and it's just a 'hole' there. Point is, it would not look good imo.