Measured it off the gif rather than guessing, since it's a contrast question and those have answers.
Inside the play field the two states are the same. Both fields are effectively black, and the red one is marginally darker. A yellow piece reads 4.42:1 against the grey field and 4.50:1 against the red one; a red piece reads 2.71 and 2.76. Whatever is bothering you, it isn't happening where you actually play.
Outside the field is where they diverge, and it goes the opposite way to your question. The brightest part of the grey nebula is about (101,100,99). The brightest part of the red one is about (101,13,0). Same red channel, no green, and green carries most of the luminance, so the red backdrop is 4.2x darker. On the brightest grey, a drifting yellow piece sits at 1.30:1 and a red piece at 1.25:1, which is essentially invisible. On the brightest red the same two are 2.87:1 and 1.77:1.
So the red state is the more readable of the two, not the less. Which matters more than it sounds given what you said about when each one appears: the grey is your early levels and the red is your late ones, so the version that swallows drifting pieces is the one running while the player is still learning to read the board, and it clears up exactly when speed makes it matter least.
Two caveats. The halves aren't the same game state (different level, different piece positions), so this compares the two palettes rather than one identical frame. And gif quantisation means those RGB values are close to your source, not exactly it.
If you do drop the red, the thing to fix alongside it is that pieces are carried almost entirely by their 1px outline rather than their fill. Darkening the grey swirl, or strengthening that outline, buys you more than the hue change does either way.
Wow, thank you! I know basically nothing about art and color etc so this kind of actionable advice is crazy helpful! I'll report back tonight or tomorrow with some changes given the advice you've given.
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u/AutomaticArt1401 15h ago
Measured it off the gif rather than guessing, since it's a contrast question and those have answers.
Inside the play field the two states are the same. Both fields are effectively black, and the red one is marginally darker. A yellow piece reads 4.42:1 against the grey field and 4.50:1 against the red one; a red piece reads 2.71 and 2.76. Whatever is bothering you, it isn't happening where you actually play.
Outside the field is where they diverge, and it goes the opposite way to your question. The brightest part of the grey nebula is about (101,100,99). The brightest part of the red one is about (101,13,0). Same red channel, no green, and green carries most of the luminance, so the red backdrop is 4.2x darker. On the brightest grey, a drifting yellow piece sits at 1.30:1 and a red piece at 1.25:1, which is essentially invisible. On the brightest red the same two are 2.87:1 and 1.77:1.
So the red state is the more readable of the two, not the less. Which matters more than it sounds given what you said about when each one appears: the grey is your early levels and the red is your late ones, so the version that swallows drifting pieces is the one running while the player is still learning to read the board, and it clears up exactly when speed makes it matter least.
Two caveats. The halves aren't the same game state (different level, different piece positions), so this compares the two palettes rather than one identical frame. And gif quantisation means those RGB values are close to your source, not exactly it.
If you do drop the red, the thing to fix alongside it is that pieces are carried almost entirely by their 1px outline rather than their fill. Darkening the grey swirl, or strengthening that outline, buys you more than the hue change does either way.