Argument about Colors
Gris is a game about the philosophy of colors; apart from telling stories about colors, it also makes its players associate colors with emotion and experience. Such a relationship is unique to each player based on experience in multiple beds. In a moment, yellow can symbolize solitude or green as a symbol of rain and nature. However, it can be not very interesting and can be a storm of depression from many subjective meanings. For individual colors, it is clear that physiological color associations are universal yet human in such cases. Simply put, people no longer doubt a subtle color effect.
Color is emotion, dynamic use of color that requires Nomada Studio to lift Gris‘ narrative. Regardless of the storytelling to an extraordinary degree, each game segment represents one of the five stages of grief. Known as the Kübler-Ross model, the game represents the psychology of the five stages of grief. It is about how the game also uses deep color to communicate the complexities of grief and therapy. In an inherently unique association with specific colors, there is no argument. However, that does not mean a game cannot create associations, and players gain experience. Video games are often a show in themselves in distinguishing a color. However, for specific players, there is much residual health to tell which color is red, blue, or something else.
The First Stage
In the first opening sequence of Gris, the colors are busy building such philosophy from the start. The game starts its story with a world rich in color. The protagonist, Gris, started to sing. Everything becomes beautiful so that the colors compliment each other its charm. As the world crumbled around her, she fell into the clouds. Besides the clouds, the colors are also far away from her. She knelt alone, limp, defeated, but tangled in a beautiful palace ruin. In the next scene, all becomes silent. The blank white background fills the protagonist’s feelings, becoming a symbol of destruction and the first stage of denial.
She becomes numb, refuses to accept reality, and manages the surprise by only allowing the illustrations to appear beautifully in the game’s first moments. The player can finally control the protagonist. She can move to the right and try to move forward. The camera zooms in on the world, sees the world getting bigger and the protagonist getting very small. Birds started to fly in landscape form but could only walk. After the birds fly, she can finally run. At such a moment, there is no bright color yet. However, the protagonist begins to enter the world little by little. In the next stage, anger begins to grip the protagonist’s hands, being crushed before reality returns.
The Second Stage
In the second stage, the red color contrasts with the off-white background. Most of the color dominates the layer, exposing the player to a deep red color structure. In general, the symbolism of the color red represents pain for most people. It explains why game development creates a low red health bar such as a health point. The choice of color becomes anger and almost always arises from a form of physical or mental suffering. By its prolonged nature, exposure to the color red increases the player’s heart rate intensely. In psychology, anger makes people’s blood boil. Using red visuals, players subtly began to imitate such body chemistry.
However, with the inherent physiological effects of red, the game helps build player associations with red in a narrative context. By pairing it with a mounting mechanism, the expanse of the environment is the place of a sandstorm. It would keep blowing, sweeping across the screen in maroon and a bright hue. The result is that it knocks the protagonist into hiding from the storm. It symbolizes the idea that the protagonist’s anger will be too strong to bear on the screen. Bathed in red, it is reminiscent of anger with a blind nature. Players will continue to discover new abilities to fight such a philosophy of colors, allow Gris to become heavier, overcome storms, be able to swim, and even, until the end, sing.
Abandoned Aggression
At a specific moment, the ability became heavy, allowing Gris to destroy the ground beneath her at the hole’s bottom. Players will also find out how to make Gris go through a bit of anger to escape. Apart from destroying the floor repeatedly, it is suitable when talking about health psychology. It is healthy to let go of anger during grieving. However, players could also see her shadow react maliciously when she slammed the floor. It signifies a bigger one with a new smashing mechanic in mind. In addition to slamming, players will also use the ability to solve puzzles in the last stretch of the red section.
However, the quiet moments became a specific point when the player had to destroy moving rocks to advance. The tiny robot living on a specific rock appeared. He runs away, but the protagonist tries to chase him, although he is afraid of her. In simple terms, her anger hurts others, a standard part of the second stage. The abandoned aggression noticed how the player was attacking, becoming a big step in one move. The protagonist also finds a crumpled statue at the beginning of the game. It sheds the bargain in the third stage through a canvas. Green symbolizes wavelength, is lower than red, and is much easier on the eyes of both the player and the protagonist.
Nature
In general, people often associate the color green with growth, nature, and life. Chosen to represent the bargain, the stage can follow up on a belief. Marked by necessity, it reaches an agreement in canceling feelings of loss. It is also a need to reach out to God or others to be able to ask for enlightenment or help. For example, Gris accidentally ran into a small forest creature. At first, he is shy around the protagonist. However, she begins accidentally drop an apple from a tree. He suddenly took the apple and gave birth to a relationship.
At such a moment, the player will help him find many apples while solving puzzles together. She guides him home to his family, giving him a star to continue his journey to the next stage. Regardless of the touching moment, the player will continue to move throughout the stages. The player will also notice how green is not always the color of dominance. Along with green, red is still very strong from the point of view of aesthetics and character studies. Shades of green and red complemented each other well for a beautiful beauty. However, it is more than just an artistic choice and still connects to five stages across levels.
The Third Stage
On the stage, trees also play a dominant role. The green trees can swap over time and change shape regardless of the player’s actions. However, the red tree only changes shape when the player jumps. At such a moment, the green tree represents the actions of others. On the other side of the coin, the red tree represents the player’s actions. The section presents a fat lesson in managing the protagonist’s anger. She tries to understand what she is doing and why she cannot control herself.
By being the first example, it does not leave the colors from the previous section. When the player moves to another stage of grief, the player also actually moves to another stage in reality. Players do not leave emotions from the early stages, so emotions and colors are still there. It lay quietly in the background philosophy towards the end of Gris’ first colors. She discovers what appears to be a manifestation of her dark side. Released in anger, it appears specifically because bargaining does not work. She has failed to end her grief and communicates with criminals through black.
The Fourth Stage
Although most people associate the color black with evil, it might be due to the doctrine that players are most afraid of predators. Darkness became a new encounter. Reality had returned to its philosophy of colors, and so was Gris. She felt like she could not escape her fear of such a reality. As the confrontation escalates, the green color begins to stand out. Soon, the red color began to dominate the screen a second time. Her anger overwhelms her again when she tries to fight off such frightening thoughts.
Only by using the bell could she chase away the criminals. The musical creature numbs the pain. Self-cell dies after she meets herself darker. The protagonist again finds the statue at the beginning. She is confused about what to do in the next stage. She began to cry, letting out a cascade of blue depressions, and carrying a wavelength far shorter than green and even red. Therefore, it will look very relieved and calm to the eyes. At which time, blue is the same as water or cleaning at a cooler temperature. Described as a calming color, blue is calmer than other colors.
Out of the Blue
Regardless of the subjective, blue color cognition reads prolonged exposure to light compared to warmer and livelier colors. In reality, retro blue can also be a color of crime and depression at the bottom, ending in suicide. Another point of view also tells how blue light affects the level of impulsivity to a certain degree. In essence, despite being calming, the color blue becomes a picture of depression. Depression often feels like giving up, without hope or energy.
However, the optimistic point of view tells how the color blue still has a small part of hope. Finally, it does not make a person crazy about changing circumstances. The protagonist, in blue, can feel free to escape reality. It re-emphasized how the protagonist got a new ability to be able to swim. The swimming animation is a fast player able to move and give strength in exploring the abyss in the cave with ease. It allows the underwater cave to be vast. Like depression, the deeper a player travels inward, the harder it is to find a way out. Regardless of which, the blue color is still as dynamic as the red color at the beginning.
The Color of Depression
Blue color sweeps the foreground of the screen. Therefore, like anger, it becomes an overwhelming feeling regardless of other emotions inhabiting the background. The game continues to strengthen the conditioning from before by placing a common thread. The red spill and red leaf also use the comparability ability at the start. Green bushes do not occupy a dominant role in the cave. The philosophy is often drifting into depression, guided by the red colors tortoise, representing Gris’ anger towards her sadness.
She can go deeper into the caves until she escapes. She finds herself back where she started. In general, a player moves from depression. After realizing there was no point in running anymore, she began to see yellow shadows. She received the creamy yellow moon behind her deep could fill the sky. Finally, she was ready to try at least to face reality. She tried to sing once more. Even if she could not, she tried herself. It was a big step towards true acceptance. However, it was only a step. True acceptance does not happen all at once but comes in pieces with depression.
The Final Stage
The protagonist flees from the creature until total darkness finds itself enveloping her. A small yellow light illuminates her path, having a higher wavelength than the red color. The yellow color became warmer, also increasing the attention rate of the players. The color can convey emotions of optimism in addition to caution. Vaguely, it guides the protagonist back into the light towards the path of acceptance. Such choices beautifully describe the stage. Acceptance is a slow but deliberate process. Therefore, it becomes a drop of paint simultaneously with the initial splash.
The expanse of the cave is scary in trying to return to normal after a loss can occur. Regardless of which, reality cannot change. Nature will still be unfriendly, attacked by her dark thoughts again. The protagonist starts to swim away frantically, getting closer and closer to her fear of consuming herself. The player can also feel all hope of life slipping away. In addition, the red tortoise from before got angry back to save her from such a creature. However, she refused to control her fear anymore. In her anger, she pushed the turtle down and swam to safety. Despite being a dull moment, it illustrates how the five stages of grief do not always have to run in one line. Detours and mazes can be a way of offering a realistic perspective.
Acceptance
Personally, acceptance is not just a moment; it will happen in the future and magically make everything okay. Therefore, it becomes a frighteningly subtle process involving slowly finding the player’s way back to normal. It will involve navigating all of the player’s emotions and remembering every lesson the player has learned to find peace again. When Gris climbs out of the cave with philosophy colors, she enters the city in the sky. She does a yellow butterfly and a lantern. Before being out of sight, the fireflies began to light up the protagonist’s path.
Daisies also represent a way back to the original goal, even if the anger still lingers. Driven at such a moment, it only becomes acceptable when the time is right. Earth destroyers will scare the fireflies and light up hidden structures, but try to solve the puzzle junk when the time is on the wheel. Players will also use the ability to swim with the red butterfly to open new paths. After freeing the spiders and beetles, the protagonist can continue her journey again. She begins to echo what the jungle creatures have taught her about reaching out to others. Appropriately, every meeting becomes green access.
The Color Black
In the final stage, the player will get a beautiful stretch. Gris used what she had gathered on her journey to explore the upside-down part of the city with confidence. For the first time, the player sees all the colors working together. It complements the protagonist’s well-being when the player is at a loss. Often, the player’s world is turned upside down. The levels take on a literal meaning by slowly giving the protagonist the ability to navigate what becomes her new reality. In the end, her voice returns to her, and she can interact with other people.
Finally, her world turned upside down again. Everything has changed, but people can cope with such changes. She tries to continue when she falls. Besides the full moon covering the screen, the reception had arrived. However, dark thoughts always persist only now. When things seemed to be back to normal, there was no escape. It is just a matter of time to face the creature again with the protagonist’s name. When the creature returned, she had used up all the colors. Gris has collected her colors and philosophy. It is not a coincidence either when black becomes the result of a combination of all the pigment colors and palettes.
A Painting of Narrative
Mixing abstraction, aesthetics, or subtractive makes all the colors add together. By creating white through addictive blending, all colors are present but cancel each other out. White, from the beginning, became a symbol of rejection. So many colors and feelings that nothing can be seen. Black is also a symbol of chaos, rampant but challenging to be tame. In conclusion, Gris is a black and white philosophy of colors. It is about calm and storm shelter. When she finally accepts there is no more escape from her fear, she decides to sing regardless of her new presence.
The traps of colors inside can work together to complement each other, bringing beauty back to her world. The five stages of grief imply the right way to deal with loss. The five stages lay a nice bow on things. However, it is how people grieve, not only such simplicity. While the game might as well tell the story of the stages, it does a beautiful job of painting a narrative in messy lights. Stages do not always transition between each other easily or even linearly. It becomes a daunting journey, requiring continuous effort to complete. Personally, ongoing loss offers an unpatriotic but unrepentant practice. It paints a picture of sadness, connected at an early level but not seen in the narrative.
Bibliography
- Booth, R. (2019). Game Analysis: GRIS. Rachel Booth.
- Byrne, A., & Hilbert, D. R. (1997). Colors and reflectances.
- Daryl. (2020). How Gris Made You Cry With Its Colors | Psych of Play. YouTube.
- Kübler-Ross, E., & Kessler, D. (2009). The five stages of grief. In Library of Congress Catalogin in Publication Data (Ed.), On grief and grieving (pp. 7-30).