Colour scheme - too dark for ya?

[StillInThe90s]

I would really appreciate some help with readability of these colours on other screens. I.e. not really interested in how to improve the piece itself. (Not that it is perfect, I just can't be bothered to work on it.)
The colour scheme looks ok to me but I'm not sure if my laptop screen is playing tricks on me. I am especially worried about the darkest blue being too dark.
There are 9 colours in all, including black. Scale is originally 200x320. It is supposed to be upside down btw.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I have my colors configured for artwork so I can see the details for the most part but many people will not.

What you want to do is up the contrast a bit, change out the black to something dark but not black for instance and make the light sources brighter in the highlights so they stand out like light sources would in a dark environment.

[Chicky]

Looks fine on my monitor, but i'm in the boat as Shane. I ran into a similar predicament recently and ended up dropping in another midtone, might be worth considering.

A lovely background though, the pixels are very tidy, just the right amount of dithering to give it that weathered look. I'm interested to see how you implement characters.

[StillInThe90s]

@Shane: Thanks. I will have a go at it.
Why not use black btw? Is this a general rule? I am not too familiar with these things but to me, this black background gives a lot more contrast to it.

EDIT: I just swapped the background to black & changed the dark floor/ceiling colour slightly.

@Chicky:
This is our hero in the arctic outdoors evening atm. Colour count was kept down on both him and the background and is not that consistent with the ship interior anymore.
He might get a non alpha shadow to "connect" him to the ground.

[Armageddon]

I like the black more, brings out the colder atmosphere, and reminds me of Alien. Your characters look like they won't fit on the background though.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Why not use black btw?

I'm curious too. I know when I paint (IRL) I make the black myself -- by mixing primary colours, to make it more "alive", to give that black more "personality". Warmer or colder.
But what about pixel art? Is it really perceived by the player's eye, or does it only sabotage the contrast?

[StillInThe90s]

But what about pixel art? Is it really perceived by the player's eye, or does it only sabotage the contrast?

It feels a bit counterproductive, doesn't it.
(You paint? Start a thread and show some stuff!)

Your characters look like they won't fit on the background though.

Well, that background is not really done yet and the character doesn't have a shadow so he looks as if he is levitating atm.
I think he blends in better with the whole background since his colours are repeated in a big dark sky above. (not shown on the little image)
How would a checkered shadow feel btw? -A solid blob looked horrible.

[Snarky]

Any particular reason not to use an alpha shadow?

[StillInThe90s]

Dogma.
Edit: ...and consistency.

[Anian]

Just as a player - please don't make me strain my eyes so I see stuff in your game. You can still indicate dark by actually not drawing anything except what you want the player to see. Don't make everything be just a tiny bit different shade than the rest as an indication of light intensity. Even if my computer can display the exact same colors as yours, what if I have a light turned on in the room, then I can't see almost anything.

Can't this be the same scene? I still get that it's supposed to be darkness, but now I can actually see things that are supposed to be seen:
[IMGzoom]http://i.imgur.com/6LBlW58.png[/imgzoom]

[nihilyst]

I second Anian's suggestion. While your version was readable, I find Anian's version more pleasing to the eyes, especially in brighter surroundings.

[StillInThe90s]

@Anian: I see your point but I think the result is butt ugly. It looks like there is very little contrast between colours (except between black and everything else), so everything becomes a lightsource and unimportant objects are stealing attention from essential ones. I wonder if my screen setup isn't a bit off after all. 

...I find Anian's version more pleasing to the eyes, especially in brighter surroundings.

Do you mean "surroundings" as in a lit up room or as on a bright desktop background? -The game is intended to run in at least x3 size, so readability in an original 320x200 window is not really a priority.

Edit: Two versions  to illustrate & compensate for my crappy english.
(How do you post scalable images? Can't remember how to do that.)

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

But what about pixel art? Is it really perceived by the player's eye, or does it only sabotage the contrast?

Pure black (like pure white) has a tendency to artifically affect the brightness of the objects within its area when you're using it as a solid background, this is one reason why I tend to use off-black or off-white colors if I'm going with a base for a background (like a cutscene or whatnot).  There's nothing strictly wrong with pure black or white except that I find the result more visually stimulating when they are slightly mixed, blue-black, red-black or creme.  It can also help set a mood, like with red emergency lighting and so on.

[Babar]

Not that anyone cares, because I still use a CRT, but all I'm seeing in all the pictures is a big black screen with a couple of red and green dots .

[cat]

I like Anian's edit much better. If you really want a pitch black environment - why not skip all the gray that does not seem to be related to any lightsource anyway and make it all black except for the red and green lights?

[StillInThe90s]

@Stevens: I'm not sure I get that part about black affecting brightness of objects, but I am with you on background colour setting a mood. In this case however, the scene appears to need all the contrast it can get.

Not that anyone cares, because I still use a CRT, but all I'm seeing in all the pictures is a big black screen with a couple of red and green dots .

I have no idea what CRT is but seriously, are people really having that different screen setups?

@Cat: If you are being sarcastic - please read the board rules.
If not: Making the dark parts black would make everyone see what Babar was seing.
About Anians edit: It looks lovely and very easy to read in the 320x200 format. But bring it up to full screen, and every single pixel screams LOOK AT ME! and you fall backwards. It becomes horribly busy.

[StillInThe90s]

At it again. Would this be a feasible middle way?
I even put off-black in there. Jay!

[imgzoom]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/42681740/snow_ship_b_anian_edit.png[/imgzoom]

Still just greens & reds, Babar?

[Snarky]

A CRT (cathode ray tube) is an oldschool, non-flatscreen monitor. I'm pretty sure cat was not sarcastic: in daylight I also have a hard time making out the darker images, even on an LCD screen with the brightness turned all the way up. You have to account for quite a bit of variety in people's screens and setups, and working too close to one end of the brightness scale pretty much guarantees some people won't be able to see anything.

(How do you post scalable images? Can't remember how to do that.)

[imgzoom]

I see what you mean about Anian's being a bit "busy": there doesn't seem to be enough variation between the various shades in the lit regions, so everything stands out equally. But I think the solution to that is to bring up the value of the highlights even further.

As people have pointed out, when drawing a dark room you don't need to make every part so dark that people are squinting just to see anything: by keeping the parts of the image that are in shadow an undefined black (or off-black), and sticking with cold hues in the intermediate parts, it will read as dark even if the pixels you do draw aren't actually that close to black.

[dactylopus]

I think you've found a better balance in the newest version.  I would expect more ambient light from the reds, but I know you're mostly looking for help with color brightness.

[Babar]

I can see things in it now! Just barely, but so much of an improvement for me .

As Snarky said, a CRT is the oldschool type screen monitor, opposite of a flatscreen, and usually gives much richer colours. However, LCDs tend to brighten everything up, because unlike CRTs, they have to "show" colour, even if it is pure black, while CRTs would just show the colour at a less intense level, to make it darker. As a result, since everyone has flatscreens now, developers generally develop things for those screens, and me with my CRT is left behind.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of using literal darkness to show darkness of a scene in game, unless your actual intention is to not have the player be able to see anything as part of the gameplay (eg. those scenes in Fate of Atlantis where you had to set up a light in the underground dig). Even in movies, you'll notice that even when the characters are in darkness, you can still see them.

So like you have it now, a mostly monochromatic (but not monotonic) range of blue, just not so dark. Like in the first two Monkey Island's night scenes, Another World's night scenes, or Future Wars dark cave scenes, etc.