Avatar preference selection in game design based on color theory

Selecting color schemes for game objects is an important task. It can be valuable to game designers to know what colors are preferred. Principles of color theory are important to select appropriate colors. This paper presents a perceptual experiment that evaluates some basic principles of color theory applied to game objects to study if a particular combination is preferred. An experiment was conducted with 15 participants who performed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) preference experiment using 236 pairs of images each. The pairs were based on color harmonies derived from the colors red, green, and blue. The color harmonies were evaluated against each other and included analogous, complementary, split-complementary, triad, and warm and cool colors. A high and low saturation condition was also included. The color harmonies were applied to an existing game character (avatar) and a new object (cube) to study any potential differences in the results. The initial results show that some color harmonies, in particular triad and split-complementary, were generally preferred over others meaning that it is important to take into account these aspects in game design. Additional results also show that color harmonies with a base in green were not as popular as red and blue color harmonies.