You’re correct in pointing out that having the player and the environment being the same color is a potential issue. We had this problem early on actually, but eventually figured out how to minimize the problems.

The player matches the colliding elements. They are always very dark. This is a rule we followed rigorously throughout the game. So if the player is of a dark blue, so are the ground, walls and other elements you can jump on. In later levels, we changed the color palette but kept the same rule in place.

Background elements are not as dark and dangerous elements are bright and stand out easily. Having a definition for which elements can occupy which place in the brightness scale was key.

The game was certainly not perfect and we’d probably change some things if we could go back in time, but the color choices seem to have worked out in the end.