Beast Breaker
The relationship between color and expression is nebulous, often dependent upon culture, context, individual perspective and a myriad of other factors. So how does a creator shape the visual language of their work with so many competing sources of interpretation?
Perhaps shedding some light on that topic is Jemma Salume, lead artist on the game Beast Breaker, a turn based RPG by Vodeo Games that debuted on Switch and PC back in September 2021. After seeing some of the beautiful biome sheets that Salume posted on Twitter, I just had to reach out and ask about the concept of color scripting, that is, the process of more or less storyboarding the emotional sequencing of a story by assigning certain color schemes and combinations to certain emotional milepoints. The conversation was illuminating, and an insightful look about how to convey narrative with color. Read on!
Game Developer: So, what exactly is color scripting? I'm not familiar with the concept, but I'd love to hear about how informed your creative process.
Jemma Salume: My first encounter with color scripting was not through games, but through animation. On a tour of the Pixar campus as a teen, I saw the color script by Lou Romano for The Incredibles on the wall, and it made a massive impression on me.
The idea behind a color script is that you take all the major plot + emotional beats of a story, and draw them out very simply and clearly in sequence to work out dominant shapes and colors in each scene/story beat. Its development is an efficient way for art team to coordinate with story team to make sure your visuals and writing are aligned. Once complete, it provides a bird's eye view of all of your story's visuals so more refined assets remain consistent.
Beast
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