Author: Caleb J. Ross

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Welcome to The One Thing, a video game review series that does something a bit different. Rather than try to touch on all the features that make a game great, I attempt to distill a game down to a single element that I believe is integral to the experience of the game. This may not be the only thing that makes a game great, but if someone asked me to tell them why Limbo works, I’d start with The One Thing.

The one thing is The grayscale color palette.

At it’s heart, Limbo is a simple, relatively short, puzzle platformer. And all the elements that make a great puzzle platformer are here. Puzzles and platforming, of course, but also excellent control, a fair difficulty curve, perfect level design, and a protagonist that the player can connect with in some way. In this case, a human child, and I’m assuming most of you watching this were at one point a human child.

Going into Limbo, all we as players know is that we take on the role of a child who is rescuing his sister.

Other than that, the story of Limbo is vague, and has therefore generated a ton of player theories ranging from the main character falling from a treehouse to being killed in a car accident. Every theory involves death, by the way. The developer encourages the non-specific intent of the story by refusing to answer any questions about it.

Before I dive into the game’s lack of color, I’d like to talk a bit about the title. Limbo. Not only does the title being a single word remove any additional contextual help for determining an absolute theme–it’s not called “a child’s limbo,” “Limbo Run,” or even just “The Limbo”–the term itself introduces the player to the idea of being “in limbo.” Casually speaking, being in limbo indicates a state of directionlessness, or more appropriately in the case of the game, an inability to either progress or regress, or perhaps the inability to know if you are progressing or regressing. You’re stagnant. From a religious context (I’ll speak specifically to Catholicism), Limbo refers to an afterlife state meant for unbaptized souls. The souls aren’t allowed into Heaven but also aren’t damned to Hell.

I think the game honors both the religious and the causal meaning of the term. Are you dead and trying to escape Limbo? Maybe. Is the protagonist just as unsure about his progression as you, the player? Maybe. As a side note, a child protagonist is really the only protagonist that would have worked with limbo. The implied innocence of a child further conceals any concept of right and wrong, of black and white.

So where does the grayscale color pallette come into play? Well, it’s obvious, right? Grey conveys a sense of emotional fluidity, happy to sad, angry to joyful. If white represents hope and black represents defeat, then the greys in between represent various states of indirection and confusion. And that’s what you are when playing Limbo. Confused and left without direction.

Color and emotion is an inexact science. Earlier I stated it was Obvious that grey conveys a sense of emotional fluidity. But that hasn’t always been the case. Historically, grayscale was used in things like photography and television simply because it was the only thing available and later because it was cheaper to produce than color. Today, grayscale is an artistic decision, and like with any artistic decision (or what should be the impetus to every artist decision) the artist chooses a specific presentation based on an intended reaction. That reaction can be a marketing one, one driven by the need to highlight certain details (B&W photography tends to reveal greater detail than color, for example), but it can also be an emotional one.

Modern game players (and media consumers in general) see grayscale as potentially a way to give gravitas to something, make it appear historical, for example. But I think we’ve also been trained to see it’s use as a way to convey mystery or uncertainty. Perhaps you’re familiar with trope about self-indulge art school film students using black and white to force a sense of intrigue and importance. This is what Limbo does…but not in a self-indulgent way.

Can you imagine limbo with color? Well, you don’t have to. Dorkly made a great video about this. Link below.

Research/Sources/Credits/Inspirations (this is not a comprehensive list, as that would be impossible, especially the “inspirations” items)

• https://blog.mingthein.com/2012/05/19/the-inexact-science-of-color-and-emotion/
• http://www.dorkly.com/video/33102/limbo-with-a-flashlight
• “Self indulgent art film” clip copyright Family Guy. Watch the full episode here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/171051

Music Credits

• Rhinoceros Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Welcome to The One Thing, a video game review series that does something a bit different. Rather than try to touch on all the features that make a game great, I attempt to distill a game down to a single element that I believe is integral to the experience of the game. This may not be the only thing that makes a game great, but if someone asked me to tell them why a game works, I’d start with The One Thing.

My latest obsession is DOOM, the 2016 release.

DOOM is a lot of things to a lot of people. To fans of the original PC game, DOOM is a beautiful rendition of a game that likely defined them as gamers (it seems to have impacted most everyone who played it). To fans of first person shooters, DOOM is a fast-paced entry into a genre that’s lately been dominated by duck-and-cover shooters. To casual fans of pretty much any video game, DOOM is a refreshing change of pace, one that doesn’t require extensive knowledge of a specific genre and its conventions to enjoy. With such wide-ranging appeal, DOOM obviously has a lot going for it. But what is The One Thing?

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Today I’ll be connecting the Lovecraftian, adventure game Bloodborne to Rainbow Brite. Yes, that Rainbow Brite. This is another view request episode, proof that I do listen to my viewers. If you have an idea for a connection, leave it in a comment below.

You know that social theory that everyone on earth can be connected to anyone else by no more than 5 intermediaries? They call that 6 Degrees of Separation. I do the same thing here, except I connect video game topics in strange ways using 6 Degrees of Pixelation.

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I offer a few thoughts on why people may stop caring about the stuff you create. Specially, the article that inspired this Thoughts On video (Why No One Wants To Hear About The Game You Just Finished Making) references video games, but my thoughts can apply to any creative endeavor where the end goal is more audience members (viewers, players, readers, etc).

Further Reading

• Why No One Wants To Hear About The Game You Just Finished Making
• Download Social Sessions game

I give a few thoughts spurred by an article in Game Informer, issue 281. The article is titled “Full Disclosure: Controversy Erupts Over the Ethics of Sponsored YouTube Influencer Videos.” It touches on some concerns with some YouTube gamers not disclosing their relationships to publishers who pay them to review games.

Further Reading

• The FTC Says Warner Bros. Hid Its Sponsorship of YouTube ‘Shadow of Mordor’ Videos
• Warner Bros. Settles FTC Charges It Failed to Adequately Disclose It Paid Online Influencers to Post Gameplay Videos
• The Problem With Underage Gambling in CSGO on the Rise
• Valve’s Counter-Strike illegal gambling controversy continues

Today I’ll be connecting Agent 47 from the Hitman series to Kramer from the Seinfeld series. I’m going to avoid the question of Michael Richards’ racism, and I’m also going to be a better person than to go the obvious route of somehow using The Frogger episode as a connection. Come on, I’m better than that (it is a great episode, however).

You know that social theory that everyone on earth can be connected to anyone else by no more than 5 intermediaries? They call that 6 Degrees of Separation. I do the same thing here, except I connect video game topics in strange ways using 6 Degrees of Pixelation.

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Today I’ll be connecting Sonic The Hedgehog (yes “The” is capitalized; it’s Sonic’s actual middle name) to Donald Trump. But don’t worry, this isn’t a politically proselytizing episode. I’m simply taking advantage of the politically charged atmosphere here in the US. I’m selfish. Last week I connected Mario to Hillary Clinton. Watch that episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfs2q25WVrg.

You know that social theory that everyone on earth can be connected to anyone else by no more than 5 intermediaries? They call that 6 Degrees of Separation. I do the same thing here, except I connect video game topics in strange ways using 6 Degrees of Pixelation.

(more…)