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My day-job project is almost at launch date, so I have less time for solo-deving. Just played a couple of levels of my Snake in the Dark after a break from development and I'm second-guessing my color choices. I feel like the game could use more color and clarity. WDYT? #indiedev #indiegame

I mean it’s always a matter of personal taste right. I like colorful games. But I don’t think I’m in the majority. Then again, I might be in the majority among your target audience! That’s harder to say hmm..

It's less of a matter of preference or taste and more a matter of clarity and accessibility. I want the game to be approachable. I feel making the levels more readable by adding color, simplifying the tilesets, and making the play area less dark in the players area of vision will do just that.

The monochrome visuals are appealing to me - a DOS veteran player, who remembers fondly the games played on monochrome displays. But this sort of graphics - while nostalgic in a good way - makes it difficult for some players to understand what's happening on the screen. The playtests evidenced that.

Ah, I see! I misunderstood. Then you should do something about it for sure. But are you sure color is necessary for clarity? If you really like the current color palette maybe there are other ways to add more contrast. I saw talk about outlines in another reply. Can you add it without more color?