A closer look
Spyro the dragon was originally conceptualized as a green reptile during his early development phase for the original PlayStation. The developers at Insomniac Games quickly realized a massive, glaring problem with this color scheme once they booted up the prototype levels: their beloved new mascot was perfectly camouflaged against the lush grassy environments. Players literally couldn't see the character they were supposed to be controlling because he blended into the floor like a military sniper in a ghillie suit. To fix this embarrassing oversight, they simply dragged a slider on the color palette to turn him a vibrant, obnoxious purple that wouldn't clash with the game's mostly green and blue color palette. Sometimes, iconic character design isn't born from deep artistic inspiration, but from the desperate need to stop losing your protagonist in the shrubbery!
