Colours and context : A study on how colour expectations change depending on the narrative context

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study was to research what effect a game narrative can have on players’ colour expectations in a game scene. To answer the proposed research question a practical experiment was conducted. 6 testers were given one narrative belonging to a non-existent game and were then tasked with colouring a 2D image said to belong to the same game, based on this narrative. They then repeated the process a second time with a new narrative. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted in an attempt to determine the reasoning behind the participants’ colour choices and any eventual factors that might have affected said choices. Clear indications suggesting that the narrative did indeed affect the colour expectations of players in a game scene was found. The analysis further showed patterns indicating that low values of saturation and brightness were associated with negative concepts, while high values of saturation and brightness were associated with positive concepts. The analysis also led to a hypothesis suggesting that the cultural background of one of the participants had a major impact on the participant’s interpretation of the narrative, which resulted in a result that differed from the other participants’ results.