I’ve always believed that the right kind of games can do more than just entertain—they can sharpen your mind, expand your imagination, and even reshape how you see the world. Lately, I’ve been diving deep into color-based games, and I’m convinced they’re one of the most underrated genres for boosting creativity and visual intelligence. Think about it: color isn’t just decoration. It’s information. It guides decisions, evokes emotion, and in many of the best-designed games, it’s woven directly into the mechanics. I’ve spent dozens of hours playing titles that use color not just as eye candy, but as the core of their challenge—and the effect on my own creative thinking has been tangible.

Take, for example, a game I recently revisited—one where color isn’t just part of the aesthetic, but the central puzzle. You’re given tools that interact with specific colors, and learning to coordinate those interactions is the difference between success and failure. It reminds me of that line from the design notes I once read, which stuck with me: “Yet it’s still necessary to put aside the game's atmospheres, design, dimensionality, and sheer spectacle to give its mechanics the flowers they deserve, too.” That’s exactly how I feel about these kinds of experiences. When you strip away the flashy graphics and epic soundtracks, what’s left are elegant, thoughtfully designed systems that force you to think in new ways. In one standout segment, I had access to two different weapons, each capable of penetrating a specific colored shield. One broke blue barriers, the other red. Simple, right? But in practice, it became this beautiful, stressful dance of coordination—especially when playing co-op.

My friend and I must have failed three or four times in one particular chase sequence because one of us forgot to clear a blue shield for the other. That single misstep—just one ill-placed barrier—meant instant defeat. And it’s in those moments that you realize how much these games train your brain. You’re not just reacting. You’re planning, predicting, and dividing attention across multiple visual cues. According to a study I came across—though I can’t recall the exact source—people who regularly play visually complex puzzle games show up to 23% better performance in tasks requiring divided attention. Whether that number is perfectly precise or not, I can vouch for the feeling. After a few weeks of playing color-driven games, I noticed I was more aware of color relationships in my own design work. I started using color more intentionally, not just as filler, but as function.

But not all color games are created equal. Some rely on color purely as a thematic element—pretty, but shallow. The ones that truly stand out, at least in my experience, are those where color is part of the language of play. Games like ChromaGun or Hue don’t just use color to set a mood. They build their rules around it. In Hue, for instance, you shift the background color to make objects of the same color disappear or reappear. It sounds simple, but the cognitive load is real. By the later stages, you’re juggling eight colors, and your brain is working overtime to track shifts in the environment. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve walked away from a session feeling mentally tired but visually alert—like I’d just given my eyes and brain a solid workout.

What’s fascinating is how these mechanics mirror real-world creative processes. Graphic designers, artists, and even marketers use color to communicate, to organize information, and to guide attention. Playing these games feels like a low-stakes training ground for those same skills. I’ve personally found that my sensitivity to palette choices has improved. Before, I might have picked colors based on what “looked nice.” Now, I think in terms of contrast, hierarchy, and meaning. And I’m not alone—I’ve spoken to other designers who swear by puzzle games as a warm-up before starting a project. One colleague told me she plays 20 minutes of a color-matching game every morning to “activate her visual thinking.” It’s like a cup of coffee for your creative instincts.

Of course, there’s a balance. Not every game needs to be a brain trainer. But the ones that pull it off—like the title with the shield-penetrating guns I mentioned earlier—stick with you. They stick with you because they respect your intelligence. They don’t handhold. They drop you into a vibrant, often beautiful world, then ask you to learn its visual language to survive. And that process of learning—of failing, adapting, and eventually mastering a color-coded system—does something powerful. It rewires how you process visual input. I’ve noticed it in small ways: spotting typography errors faster, composing photos with better balance, even arranging my workspace so that important items “pop” visually.

If you’re looking to give your creativity a boost, or simply want to see what your brain can do when it’s forced to think in color, I can’t recommend these games enough. Start with something approachable, like I Love Hue—a soothing tile-matching game that eases you into color theory. Then maybe move to something with higher stakes, like Splitgate meets Portal with color-based mechanics. You’ll likely find, as I did, that the skills you build in these virtual worlds don’t just stay there. They spill over into your daily life, sharpening your eye and deepening your appreciation for the role color plays in everything we see and do. And honestly? That’s a win no matter how you look at it.