Happy Holi from Pixel P&L!

We're taking a short break today to celebrate Holi with family and friends. Regular editions resume tomorrow.

In the meantime, we've got two recommendations to keep you company. Holi is all about colour and art, so it felt right to pick two pieces about how both work in games.

Read: "The Art of Hades" by Clément Pico

Clément Pico wrote an extensive piece tracing the artistic DNA of Supergiant Games' Hades. He maps the line from Mike Mignola's ink work and Fred Taylor's railway posters to Yoji Shinkawa's Metal Gear concept art and Mannerist painting, showing how Jen Zee and the team pulled these influences together into one of the most distinctive art directions in recent memory. It also digs into how the studio wove Greek mythology into its narrative design, treating ancient stories as raw material rather than scripture. If you work in game art, narrative design, or IP development, it's worth your time.

Watch: "The Psychology of Colour in Games" by Juniper Dev

This video from Juniper Dev breaks down how colour functions in games, both emotionally and mechanically. It covers the science of wavelength perception (why warm palettes in games like Firewatch feel inviting while Portal's cool tones feel sterile), how Journey uses a warm-to-cool shift to mirror its narrative arc without a single line of dialogue, and why red means danger across nearly every game ever made. It also gets into colour as a mechanical tool: Mirror's Edge using red to guide parkour flow, Cuphead using pink to signal parryable objects, and how Diablo's 1996 loot system created the colour-rarity language that Fortnite and every looter since still uses. A solid primer for anyone thinking about UX, visual design, or player psychology.

Both pieces show how colour and art direction aren't cosmetic choices. They're design systems that shape how players feel, move, and make decisions.

Enjoy the festival. See you tomorrow.