Colour script
Also said as Colour keys, Mood strip, Color script
The whole story laid out as a strip of small paintings, one per beat, so you can read its emotional arc as colour before anything is built. It answers: what does each part of this feel like, and how does it change?
Each level looks fine alone, but played end to end they all feel the same. A colour script gives the game a rhythm, so the bleak part earns the sunrise.
Say it
“Make a colour script before we build levels: twelve thumbnails, warm and gold for the opening, grey-blue through the middle, one red peak at the boss, pale dawn at the end.”
Where you’ve seen it
Ralph Eggleston painted Pixar's first colour script for Toy Story, in pastel on long strips of black paper. In games, Journey's palette shifts along a curve its artists set to follow the story; art director Matt Nava says they wanted colour to guide players' emotions.
Not to be confused with colour grading
A colour script is the plan for the whole game, made first. Grading is one of the tools that carries it out, applied at the end.