Picking a Color Palette for Your Game’s Artwork

In this tutorial, we’ll look at what color palettes are, tools for choosing colors that go together, and the secret to picking a perfect color scheme for our games!

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An Introduction to Color Palettes

The term color palette is used widely across many different industries of design. Its exact definition and interpretation varies slightly between industries, but for the purposes of game design we can simply refer to it as a predefined set of colors based on specific rules.
Traditional color palettes generally consist of five colors within a specific scheme, but this is more of a guideline than a rule. In game design, color palettes can consist of any number of colors as long as they all follow your predefined set of rules.
Before we delve deeper, consider whether you want to create your own color palette or find a ready-made scheme online. Either way, there are many tools that can help you out!

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Picking Palettes With Tools

Color palettes can be created in virtually every program with a color picker, but why use MS Paint when there are so many great websites that can get the job done better?

Kuler

Adobe Kuler is one of my favorite tools for making a color palette, simply because it acts as an all-in-one tool.

As well as being able to create your own color palette and pick colors from an image you find inspirational, you can also share your palettes and find ones created by others! This means there’s a never-ending supply of ready-made palettes for you to choose from.
I recommend using this tool if you are looking for an in-depth experience or if you are looking to find user palettes created by others.

Color Scheme Designer 3

Another great tool for making color palettes is Color Scheme Designer 3. It has all the standard features you would expect from a color palette tool, and really shines in in its interface design!

I found it effortlessly easy to jump in and make a color palette. I would recommend using this tool if you are looking for a simple experience.

Color Blender

The last tool I am going to suggest is Color Blender. Out of the three tools I would have to deem this tool the most interesting.
Read more: Picking a Color Palette for Your Game’s Artwork