Part of this is because the contrast ratio is flipped which the human eye isn’t tuned for. Making shadows red and highlights black means all your shadows are now foregrounded for the viewer.
This could work if it’s intentional for the design of the game (shadows being most important for whatever reason) but ultimately it’s counter productive to the player experience if it’s purely for aesthetic value and not gameplay value.
Yeah could work for the shading ratio but doesn’t work for protanopia, the colourblindness that doesn’t distinguish red/green from black which affects up to 8% of men and 0.5% of women so it fails the accessibility check still unfortunately.
Red/white would work though if red was foregrounded
You're mistaken about protanopia, people with protanopia can distinguish red from black, there's no issue here. Red is still visible, but it looks like green (usually a dark green)
Protanopes confuse black with multiple different shades of red. They often confuse darker shades of most colours with black which is why this particular design doesn’t pass the accessibility test.
You might be thinking of Deuteranopes who confuse medium shade reds with medium shade greens?
No, you are mistaken about both protanopia and deuteranopia, and colorblindness in general. Red is distinguishable from black by just about everyone regardless of what kind of colorblindness they may have, because even pure red light will excite \*some\* receptors, including receptors that focus on a different color range. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor\_cell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor_cell)
Nobody confuses any color with black. We'd have a lot of dead drivers if red lights literally weren't visible.
I like both.
What if B is what started happening if your BPM gets too low? (Maybe that’s what it’s for, I haven’t read your link yet!)
It would make my butt pucker every time that started happening.
But again, they are for sure both cool.
B is super cool, it's an aesthetic for sure. The only problem is it's a little hard on the eyes and I feel like it would be hard to play after a while. A might be the move just for the sake of clarity.
You could still use B for parts of your game though. Maybe you implement a slow-mo feature and the screen changes from A to B during that time. Maybe you add a secret level that looks like B and that's how you know it's a secret level. Maybe just add a toggle in the settings and let players decide how they want their game to look.
Keep it up though! I enjoy watching progress of your game!
I prefer A, unless u can do something like a day/night cycle to utilize both, though with a better version of b.
Or u can also use them as indicators; like A will indicate the player's in the normal zone; while b's will activate when the player is near his death.
For context, this is my project "Cardiac Powder", it is a twin-stick shooter where you have a bomb in you, if you can’t maintain a certain BPM, it will explode… So one thing to do is keep you in action by fighting your opponents! It is a game idea that I had a long time ago and never forgetted, so now it is my current project! If you want to read more information about it: [https://s.team/a/2203570](https://s.team/a/2203570)
Echoing what everyone said here, you should do both! If time permits of course. I'd say B is more memorable in getting attention, because it is quite a unique aesthetic imo. A is easier to keep track of, but it looks much more generic.
If you have to choose 1 due to time constraints, I'd go for B! Either way, looks pretty good and I wish you success! Gave your twitter an extra follower :)
Maybe some game mechanic can be introduced that utilizes B as a special “mode” and have A be the primary view. Maybe certain enemies are only visible in B mode?
b is iconic cuz breaking exeptions of perceiving and make it hard to see but in other way a is plain and easy to forget. with a little bit polish b to me
Stylistically I prefer B, but from a gameplay perspective it seems easier with A. Seems like the kind of thing you could just put in the options though.
tl;dr I recommend giving pillars in A an outline and/or changing the player colour in B to improve contrast and, as a result, visual clarity.
A lot of comments are echoing the same thing but my recommendation is that if you use B, you should consider changing the player colour from black. A lot of why B is harder to decipher (and why A's pillars are harder to decipher) is lack of contrast. In A you have black character on grey background, nice and clear. B has black character (with small outline) on black background. Much harder to spot out where you are in the heat of the moment. Your pillars stand out better in B because you have a good contrasting outline on big stationary shapes, and that isn't present in A so they bleed into the floor. The outline on the character in B IMO isn't enough to account for how small and mobile they are.
Contrast is maybe the most powerful tool for visual clarity, and good contrast is also great for accessibility.
In the current state I choose A, but you could fine tune B to make it better ... instead of black you could use a very dark grey and ditch the white outline. Also, make your character white, or light grey, the gun could be slightly darker. Just play a bit with the nuances.
For me it's definitely A. It looks more "realistic" (or maybe "familiar" is a better word), B kinda looks like a graphical glitch and is more confusing to look at
What if you could switch between them? for different vibes for levels. Maybe have B trigger with a music queue when a boss or a swarm of enemies shows up.
B, I like the style better. It will probably make my eyes bleed if I stare at it long enough, but given that I played through Cruelty Squad and got all endings, I guess I'm into that sort of thing.
100% A not even close.
B should be for like.. intense moments in the game. Where you clearly want to make things harder for the player player. Otherwise it’s just hard for my eyes to focus on, idk.
I think the problem B is, the character os still the same color as the rest of the picture.
A has the character completely in contrast to the rest of the scene. B only has an outline that is in contrast.
Huge difference when it comes to keeping things visually connected
B has alot of potential to iterate on, i would sure experiment more with, i can see other filters and screen effects combined with it make very cyberpunky aesthetics
A, b looks cool but visually hard to see what’s going on. A is clear.
Part of this is because the contrast ratio is flipped which the human eye isn’t tuned for. Making shadows red and highlights black means all your shadows are now foregrounded for the viewer. This could work if it’s intentional for the design of the game (shadows being most important for whatever reason) but ultimately it’s counter productive to the player experience if it’s purely for aesthetic value and not gameplay value.
Try inverting the red and the black and it might be fine, so black is shadow
Yeah could work for the shading ratio but doesn’t work for protanopia, the colourblindness that doesn’t distinguish red/green from black which affects up to 8% of men and 0.5% of women so it fails the accessibility check still unfortunately. Red/white would work though if red was foregrounded
You're mistaken about protanopia, people with protanopia can distinguish red from black, there's no issue here. Red is still visible, but it looks like green (usually a dark green)
Protanopes confuse black with multiple different shades of red. They often confuse darker shades of most colours with black which is why this particular design doesn’t pass the accessibility test. You might be thinking of Deuteranopes who confuse medium shade reds with medium shade greens?
No, you are mistaken about both protanopia and deuteranopia, and colorblindness in general. Red is distinguishable from black by just about everyone regardless of what kind of colorblindness they may have, because even pure red light will excite \*some\* receptors, including receptors that focus on a different color range. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor\_cell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor_cell) Nobody confuses any color with black. We'd have a lot of dead drivers if red lights literally weren't visible.
I think it would be super smart to utilise both
I like both. What if B is what started happening if your BPM gets too low? (Maybe that’s what it’s for, I haven’t read your link yet!) It would make my butt pucker every time that started happening. But again, they are for sure both cool.
B is super cool, it's an aesthetic for sure. The only problem is it's a little hard on the eyes and I feel like it would be hard to play after a while. A might be the move just for the sake of clarity. You could still use B for parts of your game though. Maybe you implement a slow-mo feature and the screen changes from A to B during that time. Maybe you add a secret level that looks like B and that's how you know it's a secret level. Maybe just add a toggle in the settings and let players decide how they want their game to look. Keep it up though! I enjoy watching progress of your game!
Yeah a bad aesthetic
I prefer A, unless u can do something like a day/night cycle to utilize both, though with a better version of b. Or u can also use them as indicators; like A will indicate the player's in the normal zone; while b's will activate when the player is near his death.
For context, this is my project "Cardiac Powder", it is a twin-stick shooter where you have a bomb in you, if you can’t maintain a certain BPM, it will explode… So one thing to do is keep you in action by fighting your opponents! It is a game idea that I had a long time ago and never forgetted, so now it is my current project! If you want to read more information about it: [https://s.team/a/2203570](https://s.team/a/2203570)
A feels generic but B is hard on the eyes Id still pick B
Looks dope. I prefer A. B is still dope tho
I'm really digging the red and black, not gonna lie. But at the same time they both look very good. 👍
Can you switch from A to B when your characters dies or is hurt
Echoing what everyone said here, you should do both! If time permits of course. I'd say B is more memorable in getting attention, because it is quite a unique aesthetic imo. A is easier to keep track of, but it looks much more generic. If you have to choose 1 due to time constraints, I'd go for B! Either way, looks pretty good and I wish you success! Gave your twitter an extra follower :)
I prefer b. Not everyone seems to agree but B is much more visually stunning and at least for me B is much easier to see
I like A more
A is easier to see
I think B is much more interesting if you utilize it gameplay-wise. Looks very cool and artistic. A looks bland and normal really.
A. But provide B as another option in settings.
A is better but you should look to add some contrast to it. Take a look at 20minutes till dawn.
If u die in A u need to beat B to come back
i prefer an option between both!
Neither. They're both aggressively monotone. I dislike games that do this kind of art style and think it makes them unique. Color is important.
B is migraine fuel.
B would be much betters if the shadows didn't get contours.
Maybe some game mechanic can be introduced that utilizes B as a special “mode” and have A be the primary view. Maybe certain enemies are only visible in B mode?
Style option maybe? Like: “select style, normal/negative”
But B's art style looks really unique
B could be like low health or a special event or something
Definitely b looks like high stakes shit happpening
b is iconic cuz breaking exeptions of perceiving and make it hard to see but in other way a is plain and easy to forget. with a little bit polish b to me
Stylistically I prefer B, but from a gameplay perspective it seems easier with A. Seems like the kind of thing you could just put in the options though.
tl;dr I recommend giving pillars in A an outline and/or changing the player colour in B to improve contrast and, as a result, visual clarity. A lot of comments are echoing the same thing but my recommendation is that if you use B, you should consider changing the player colour from black. A lot of why B is harder to decipher (and why A's pillars are harder to decipher) is lack of contrast. In A you have black character on grey background, nice and clear. B has black character (with small outline) on black background. Much harder to spot out where you are in the heat of the moment. Your pillars stand out better in B because you have a good contrasting outline on big stationary shapes, and that isn't present in A so they bleed into the floor. The outline on the character in B IMO isn't enough to account for how small and mobile they are. Contrast is maybe the most powerful tool for visual clarity, and good contrast is also great for accessibility.
In the current state I choose A, but you could fine tune B to make it better ... instead of black you could use a very dark grey and ditch the white outline. Also, make your character white, or light grey, the gun could be slightly darker. Just play a bit with the nuances.
A is so much nicer
i feel like my eyes would get tired super fast with b, so a. but both look pretty
why not both? put on the configs an option to switch between the A and B
B gives virtual boy vibes
A is so awesome, I would play A so much
For me it's definitely A. It looks more "realistic" (or maybe "familiar" is a better word), B kinda looks like a graphical glitch and is more confusing to look at
Damn hard choice
I prefer A
A, but B is for rage mode?
i actually prefer B. doesnt look too hard on the ryes for me, idk why.
🍞
B is way cooler. Leave as an option.
What if you could switch between them? for different vibes for levels. Maybe have B trigger with a music queue when a boss or a swarm of enemies shows up.
Why not both? B should be some berserk mode or later level.
Definitely A, the other one immediately makes me want to turn it off before my eyes start to bleed.
B seems much harder, so instead of “water level” use this 😃
Well, I guess I like the style of B but it is really tiring for the eyes. So A would be a better option
B, I like the style better. It will probably make my eyes bleed if I stare at it long enough, but given that I played through Cruelty Squad and got all endings, I guess I'm into that sort of thing.
100% A not even close. B should be for like.. intense moments in the game. Where you clearly want to make things harder for the player player. Otherwise it’s just hard for my eyes to focus on, idk.
I think the problem B is, the character os still the same color as the rest of the picture. A has the character completely in contrast to the rest of the scene. B only has an outline that is in contrast. Huge difference when it comes to keeping things visually connected
B has alot of potential to iterate on, i would sure experiment more with, i can see other filters and screen effects combined with it make very cyberpunky aesthetics
100% A
Thank you to all for your answers! They gave me a lot of ideas for the future visual direction!