Research and Conceptual Foundation
Color Space
Jonathen Wilks
A Brief Intro
This page explains some of the foundational research behind Color Space. The goal is to show how scientific ideas and visual metaphors directly inspired design decisions throughout the game. This is not a full development history or a complete narrative breakdown.
Why a Black Hole
Color Space is a game about using light-based color to solve puzzles. I knew from the start that I wanted color to be the core mechanic, but figuring out the narrative was more challenging. What motivates the player to engage with these puzzles?
I began by asking: what is the opposite of light? The natural answer was the absence of light, a black hole. This led me into research on astrophysics. I learned that not even light can escape a black hole once it passes the event horizon, which is why black holes appear pitch black at their center. Anything crossing that boundary is effectively erased from the observable universe.
If the enemy of the game is a black hole, then defeating it would require something equally fundamental: energy. Light is energy, so it made sense that light itself would be the tool the player uses to counter the black hole's destruction. Some speculative theories even suggest that under certain conditions, black holes might transform into white holes, hypothetical objects that emit energy instead of absorbing it. Whether or not white holes exist, their theoretical existence gave me a framework to utilize.
The Science of Color
Color models for RGB, HSV, and HSB
Image Source: Brown University
Experts, both artists and scientists, have developed different models to better understand color. Color Space is built on the RGB model, which is the same system that powers most digital screens and reflects how light actually behaves. Unlike subtractive models, like those used in paint mixing, RGB is additive: Red, Green, and Blue light are combined to create new colors. These light waves are made of photons, and each photon’s frequency determines its color. For example, when Red and Green light overlap, they do not produce Yellow photons, instead the brain interprets the blend as Yellow. Color Space transforms this phenomenon into a core gameplay mechanic, asking players to think like light in order to solve puzzles.
RGB was chosen for Color Space not only because it's the standard for digital screens, but because it mirrors how light and color actually function in the physical world. The RGB model uses numeric values between 0 and 255 to describe color intensity: (0, 0, 0) is the darkest black (no light), while (255, 255, 255) is pure white (maximum light in all three channels).
This numerical system aligns with how we perceive color in real life. Color isn't a fixed trait of an object, but the result of photons reflecting off surfaces and hitting our eyes. The more red photons hitting our eyes, the “more red” an object appears. Color Space translates this principle into its core mechanic: players manipulate RGB sliders to emit different combinations of light and interact with color-based environments.
Image of a photon
Credit: Dr. Benjamin Yuen
Photons as Currency
Since photons are the building blocks of light, it only made sense to use them as the player's “currency” for color manipulation. Each time the player changes color, they're allocating photons to a specific color. The more photons in a slider, the brighter or more intense the color, just like in the real world. The more photons bouncing off an object, the more intense the color appears.
Just before development began, two scientists, Dr. Benjamin Yuen and Professor Angela Demetriadou, captured the first image of a photon in late 2024. I used that image as a visual reference to create the game's photon icon, drawing a grayscale version in Adobe Fresco. After drawing it, I converted it into a PNG with a transparent background. A black-background version appears in the UI to track available photons. Because the image is grayscale, it also works well for emissive materials and as a particle sprite for a Niagara system.
Gray-scale drawing of a photon inspired by the work of Dr. Benjamin Yuen and Professor Angela Demetriadou
Credit: Jonathen Wilks
Shattered Prisms
Image of a prism separating white light into its individual wavelengths.
Source: Britannica
In Color Space, a black hole is destroying the world and color (light) with it. When it first appeared, it shattered the player's prism into three separate pieces. "Conveniently," one for each slider of the RGB controller. Since prisms divide white light into separate wavelengths, each shard represents control over one part of the RGB spectrum: red, green, or blue.
Each photon has its own wavelength, which determines the color it appears as. Using this concept as a foundation, with a bit of creative discretion, I designed the prism to be the mechanism by which the player controls their color. The player must locate each prism shard in the game world to unlock its corresponding slider. Once a slider is unlocked, the player can allocate a "white photon" (which, scientifically speaking, doesn't exist as a single particle) to that channel. Allocating photons adds intensity to the selected color, altering the player’s appearance and abilities.
This prism motif extends beyond mechanics. Crystalline shards also appear throughout the game’s menus, HUD, and title screen, reinforcing the visual and conceptual identity of Color Space.
Slider Handle and Prism Shards to unlock sliders
Shards used for UI elements
Conclusion
The research behind Color Space provided a foundation where science and gameplay could inform one another. Concepts like RGB color theory, photon behavior, and the physics of black holes weren’t just background material; they directly shaped the game’s core systems, its narrative, and its visual identity. From the way players unlock abilities through prism shards to the way color is “spent” via photons, every interaction is grounded in light as both subject and mechanic. This conceptual work gave me a framework to build puzzles that feel logical, immersive, and meaningfully connected to the game’s themes. The next step was translating that foundation into playable, engaging systems. A process shaped by rapid prototyping, iteration, and a lot of problem-solving.