Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Abstract

When looking at the history of humanity and psychology, the relationship between human perception and color becomes apparent. The concept of "color theory," or the study of color combinations and their effects on both visuals and interpretation, has been studied and examined for hundreds of years. History has shown the earliest writings on the concept belonged to Aristotle, and his musings on color being "sent by God from heaven through celestial rays of light" (Smithsonian, 2015). These ideas were then changed and further studied by the likes of Isaac Newton, Jacob Christoph Le Blon, and others as time went on. These men discussed and examined the way that not only light produced color, but also the effects that color had on those who viewed it.In history, we see colors develop their own meanings and representation, spanning from purple representing royalty in England to red being a color of luck and happiness in China. In the modern era, color affects everything from gender identifiers to product packaging. Games, as a medium, use visuals to convey character intentions, location, and even a character's hidden intentions or goals. Through my study, I am looking at the extent to which players use the color design of a game to interpret the overarching narrative of the game. Using 3 versions of the same game, I will be researching how people react to a game with no narrative and utilize color to impose narrative onto a game. With a "neutral" (untinted) version of the game, 2 other versions of the same game will change in color. 1 version of the game will lean more into blues while the other leans into reds. Before experiencing the game, players will take a short survey to baseline their own emotional experiences with color to establish a population baseline as to compare the post-survey results against. After the experience ends, players will take a second survey to see how they reacted to the narrative and give them the space to develop their own narrative about the next "chapter" in the story. The data will then be analyzed to look at patterns of thinking and prediction. The results tell an interesting story, showing that the participants who were exposed to high levels of color variation in their experience changed their preconceptions of the game, and between the 2 variations of red and blue, their conceptions were completely different. The 'Red' participants noted high levels of stress and worry, while the blue participants felt fear and concern. The control group of untinted participants instead focused on the changing environment and world, focusing on the clues of a story provided by them instead of the colors by which the game used. --Author's abstract