User:Toomai/Costume colour logic
The majority of the costume colours for all current games are currently named by me. It seems like a good idea to share my thought process while doing so.
Basically: Whenever possible, all of a character's costumes should be named after the colour of one single piece of them. For example, Fox's costumes are all named based on the colour of his jacket. Sometimes this is not possible, so a secondary bit is usually used - for example, in SSB4, Ness's colours are named for his hat first, and his shirt if there's a "tie". It would be nice if costume names were always the same between games, but they don't make it easy - for example, Falcon's default is quite purple in SSB4 but much more indigo afterwards, character redesigns (e.g. Ganondorf) can require a new set entirely, and Little Mac's transition from SSB4 to SSBU was very difficult to squeeze in.
This table contains the list of all valid colour names as well as restrictions and example shades. Note that it's entirely possible for a new character/costume to force an addition to the list (such as Roy in SSB4 having so many purples that violet had to be added).
Colours[edit]
Primary colours are preferred when possible. Secondary colours are fine if something fits well. Tertiary colours should only be used to resolve collisions.
| Colour | Priority | Ideal usage | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | Primary | ||
| Grey | Primary | ||
| White | Primary | ||
| Brown | Primary | ||
| Red | Primary | ||
| Pink | Primary | ||
| Orange | Primary | ||
| Tan | Secondary | the lighter of two browns or oranges | |
| Yellow | Primary | ||
| Chartreuse | Secondary | the brighter or yellower of two greens | |
| Green | Primary | ||
| Aqua | Tertiary | the greener of two blues or cyans | |
| Teal | Tertiary | the darker of two cyans | |
| Cyan | Primary | ||
| Navy | Secondary | the darker of two blues | |
| Blue | Primary | ||
| Indigo | Secondary | the purpler of two blues | |
| Purple | Primary | ||
| Magenta | Secondary | the darker or more saturated of two pinks | |
| Lavender | Secondary | the whiter of two purples, or the purpler of two pinks | |
| Violet | Tertiary | the redder of two purples |
Non-colour names[edit]
Sometimes a costume is simply impossible to usefully describe in a single colour word, a good example being Mario's American outfit "Striped". In these cases, a single word that describes the costume's identifying feature is used.
It's also quite valid to name costumes "Male", "Female", "Classic", or similar. This is generaly done on a case-by-case basis, but here are some examples:
- Mario's wedding outfit is just "White" because there's no need to specify it any further.
- Robin has one "Female". "Female Pink" is not necessary because everything is sufficiently distinct, so just "Pink" is used.
- The Ice Climbers' costumes are different enough that there's no need to name them "Nana Blue" or similar.
- Cloud has an "Advent" for his default alt, and "Advent (colour)" for the others, because it would otherwise be very hard to distinguish everything.
Using "Default" for the first costume is discouraged, but sometimes it's necessary if it's a blue but there's also another blue that deserves "Blue" more, or the base character is quite multi-coloured and all their costumes are easily single-coloured.
All of Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon turn yellow in the Yellow costume, but it's possible for transformation groups like this to be more difficult, like Zelda/Sheik's default being blue and pink (though this specific example isn't too bad because all their alts are shared colours between them, and "Default" can be used for the first). So far, Pyra/Mythra is the worst offender, one costume even using an in-universe word ("Gormotti") that is not necessarily understood but perfectly reflects both characters' costumes. We can only hope it doesn't get worse.
Full, simple words are the standard. There shouldn't be a case where the only option is to use an abbreviation or acronym.
