Dynamic Colour Ideas

First Written    Sun Oct 17 05:35:37 2021
File Modified    Wed Feb 14 18:32:26 2024
Latest Upload    Fri May  2 12:48:25 2025

I recently rediscovered some old mockups from one of my Game Maker projects, Ecosystem Consumers!

One of the things I love about these pics is how much variety in game environments can be conveyed just by tweaking spawn rates and changing the ground and shadows.

The ecosystem is a large enclosed environment with a central light and heat source. Shadows point away from the source and are offset for flying or hovering creatures.

Here's a standard patch of terrain:

A dense "forest" of plant cover and rich soil:

Cold outer fringes far from the light source:

A wasteland of decay and debris, represented by the purple beads that dead lifeforms crumble into:

Arid, mountainous terrain with the occasional plant:

Green, toxin-inundated soil that looks almost like grass:

I'm glad to have found these old pics because I've been thinking about what I want Tributary's world to look like.

I think I've settled on orange during the day and blue during night, maybe with streams of light during the night and bokeh effects during the day. (Or vice versa?)

In either case, it will probably help that I've built in an easy way to tint the whole screen!

Tags: Blog, Miscellaneous