Color

Just some notes:

Color Language - we are trained from a young age to associate colors with different sensations or knowledge (tactile, emotional etc.). for example blue is sad, red is angry or in love, yellow is happy, green is growing, black is bad or tough, white is good or robotic or sterile etc.  Also that when red and blue are together that can mean hot and cold, good and bad, different teams etc.  W

CONTEXT: A single color can have various meanings depending on it's context. Red for example.
Red = heat, blood, courage, patriotic, off, scary, medical, danger, healthy, tasty etc.

different cultures may interpret some colors differently - for example people in the U.S. associate the red white and blue to patriotism, courage, heros etc (just look at our superheros!) where'as another country may use different colors to emblemize patriotism.

Color is often not noticed by the audience, but it affect's the viewer's perception of a character.  Think about how easy it is to identify a hero vs. a bad guy vs. as sidekick? recognize someone's minions,  innocent villagers, royalty etc.

Iconic Colors - Less is more - use a small selection of iconic colors to make your character distinctive.  

MAIN CHARACTERS/PROTAGONIST
Primary Colors - plus green

these are your classic color combos. - they are the dominant colors in any color scheme and are thus often attributed to the main character.  

SECONDARY CHARACTERS
Tertiary colors - are secondary to Primary colors - they are less dominant and often are used in secondary characters.

MINIONS 
Associated colors - we are trained to associate groups of colors with teams.  it is thus easy to recognize in a line-up who belongs with whom - or in the case of the antagonist and protagonist, who is the opposite of whom.

COLORS INDICATE HEIRARCHY - either in a class system, good/bad,  personal development

 



SATURATED = STYLIZED
DESATURATED = REALISM

however stylized (realistic vs. exaggerated or cartoony) your design, you can strongly tip or influence it closer towards realism or stylization by the color saturation you choose to use.  Bright pure colors are more cartoony and remind us of crayons, toys and candy, while desaturated colors, browns, grey and neutrals will seem more grungy and realistic.  

some color wheels (Complementary, split, Triadic, tetradic color schemes) - 

Some articles:
Colors in Game Design - by Anjin Anhut
Lessons in color theory for Spyro the Dragon