Farewell North Developer Shares Secrets Behind the Game’s Unique Color Mechanic

Kyle Banks, creator of the indie game Farewell North, has finally revealed the secrets behind the unique color mechanic that brings his world to life. After documenting his development journey over the past four years, Banks has released a detailed explanation of how this effect works and how it was achieved. Now that Farewell North is officially launched, Banks felt it was time to dive into the technical side of the color system.

In Farewell North, players control a character who restores color to different areas by interacting with special objects, known as “color sources.” When a color source is activated, it spreads color across the nearby environment, turning a grayscale world into a vibrant landscape. The effect is central to gameplay and story, as each area remains colored after completion, marking the player’s progress.

This mechanic is built using shaders, a visual tool often intimidating for new developers. Banks shared that by using a simple system of checking if objects are “inside” or “outside” a color source, he achieved the effect without overwhelming complexity. “It’s basically about switching between colored and uncolored values based on the location of the color source,” he explained. For example, if a tree is near an active color source, it appears in full color; otherwise, it stays grayscale.

Banks wanted precise control over how color appears in different parts of the game. He opted not to use a post-processing effect (a common technique) but instead built the color effect directly into the game’s shaders. This approach allows fine detail, such as selectively coloring water or sand while they overlap in the same scene, something that would be challenging with post-processing.

Additionally, Farewell North uses multiple techniques to handle overlapping color sources, color transitions, and even “pulsing” color effects, adding a more organic look: “By animating properties like the radius of a color source, I created effects that look as though color is growing and fading in the environment,” he concluded.

Find out more about the game in our Q&A session with the dev here.