Same colours for character and background?

[throwawayaccount1235]

Hi!

How do you guys deal with the problem that background elements have the same colour as the player character? My character has a brownish colour, but so does dirt obviously. So when I'm in a dirt cave my character partially merges with the background.
I tried making a black outline around my character. This had the effect that he looked a bit fatter and cuter ^^ and his dimensions became 26x25 pixel instead of 24x24, wasting space, but I could surely cut some pixels and move some body parts.
He looked cuter, which I liked, but I don't really want black outlines, don't know why. It wastes space and I'd have to use it for every enemy too for consistency. It would also waste one colour from the monster palette for black (if it wasn't a planned colour, that is).
I could change my char's colour or I could the change the background colour. I don't like either option ^^
I could be like a rapper and just don't give a damn! (Is "damn" considered to be very crude? English is not my first language. I'll change it if I've hurt your feelings)
This currently the route I'm going with. If I get annoyed or confused with the colours merging I'll have to make changes.

Soo, long story short... How do you guys deal with it?

 

[chronosv2]

I try to make sure there's a dark enough color that can make a shadow/outline. That or a more varied palette. There are a lot of brightness options and even a shift up or down by one would make things potentially more visible.

Just never, never let colors clash so hard that you can't tell where the player's vulnerable area is. So long as they keep a form that the mind can piece together you should be fine. Otherwise, changes do indeed have to be made.

As one final statement, don't bank on the exact colors you're picking. Every emulator is a little different, and if you're playing on a CRT every CRT is different. The only thing you can bank on are the brightness levels of the colors being constant between them. That deep red you were banking on could be closer to a brown on an emulator or TV.

So while you should always design the way you want to, expect some variances when your game is compiled into a ROM and played.

 

[darkhog]

My character had a green shirt. Then I've used the same shade of green for background in one stage. Now my character has dark cyan shirt.