Thoughts on 'yellow paint' in games?

[Princess Viola]

You probably know what I'm talking about here, but if you don't - I mean this stuff:

Where objects in the game world have 'yellow paint' applied to them to guide the player in the right direction, let them know 'hey, you can interact with this object', etc.

I got kinda mixed feelings about it myself. Like on the one hand: modern games are so visually packed with detail that it genuinely can be all but impossible to figure out what you're supposed to do/interact with. (And IIRC multiple game devs have talked about how they've had people play test their games sans 'yellow paint' and basically all the play testers would get stuck, run right past where they had to go, etc because - again - there's so much detail in a modern game that like for a lot of people, they genuinely will be unable to figure out 'which of these objects do I need to interact with to advance' because there's like so much shit in the game world that it can be incredibly easy to miss seemingly obvious information)

So I do think having markers to subtly guide players in the right direction/to the right objects is a good thing...but I also think there should be better ways to do it in the game environment than it looking like yellow paint was splattered everywhere, especially in games where it just...doesn't fit the game world. (Like I've been playing Assassin's Creed Shadows and there's a parkour course you can find that you can go through to find a treasure chest and unlock a new piece of equipment and the path through the course is marked with yellow paint on rocks and trees and it really takes you out of the game world because...it's a game set in Japan in the late 16th century, having it look like someone took a paintbrush to rocks and shit takes me out of the game world a bit)

I actually like environmental indicators because they can feel more natural than the character commenting on what to do or a HUD icon, but I just think they should try to be more 'natural' in the game world than just 'slap yellow paint on stuff', y'know? (Of course, sometimes yellow paint can feel natural but just doing that as the default environmental indicator comes off as lazy)

 

[Far_Firmer_Peaches]

Made in mind for those new to gaming, wish it was an option to toggle it off.

Kinda feels insulting that I have to be hand held in right direction.

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

Seems like a lazy mechanism.

Sure, as you said, with modern graphics it's not always clear where you can go, what you can break, where you can climb... but still, stupid bright super-out-of-place yellow paint, or equivalent... yikes.

Indeed, there should always be an option to disable it, separate from general difficulty setting.

 

[lestagio]

Agreed here.

Like on the one hand: modern games are so visually packed with detail that it genuinely can be all but impossible to figure out what you're supposed to do/interact with.

Environmental indicators are a good idea, but I feel like in a properly designed world, it should simply be somewhat clear as to where to go. Games have great graphics these days which is good, but in the fight for realism, you lose that sense of clarity. Yellow paint seems to be a lazy mechanism for when environmental design doesn't pair with game design.

My favorite example is the Halo Anniversary Remasters (it's not yellow paint, but it's relating to graphical clarity). In Halo 1, all of the enemies are so clear and pop right out of the environment. You know the blue guy is an enemy, the red guy is the stronger version of the blue guy, etc. You focus on the enemies because they're actually the game. Now, turn on the modern graphics and you're at a disadvantage because the enemies don't have that same colorful, visual clarity that they had before and things just blend into the environment and too much shit appears on the screen at once.

I just feel like if your game is about moving the player forward, and yet the player can't figure out where the hell to go because your environment is so flashy that it conceals that proper path, it's just bad design. Modern games are too afraid to let the player go off on their own and explore a little bit, and I think that's unfortunate because you lose that sense that could make these wondrous games so rewarding.

 

[BrawlMan]

The yellow paint in most of these big budget games don't bother me. You all wanted realistic graphics (I'm talking about graphics whores or those constantly on about "ultra realism" being needed in every game). There's always gonna be consequences to what you want. You all deserve this; be proud of that.

Obvious sign posting has always been around since the 5th generation. In the 7th generation yellow paint, was already there, yet no one complained except the so called "hardcore gamers". The original Alan Wake and The Saboteur uses yellow paint and yellow/oranges torches respectively. Bioshock has the opitonal yellow arrow. Mirror's Edge (2007) used red on where to jump or go next. Sure, there are games that got more creative with them, but most just used the lazy way point finder/arrow/compass of COD/Gears, and called it a day.

Shadows of the Damned uses bright yellow rings or highlighted items with white and gold. None of them complained about telegraphing in DmC (2013). Other than hardcore classic fans, but critics praised the telegraphing of red and blue. They still do. No one complained about the use of yellow telegraphing in Hi-Fi Rush. The game does use more than yellow, but yellow is still a predominant use of going to the next area. Evil West uses white/gold on where to go next or to break something.

The only difference is nowadays, loud mouth critics and grifters are acting like it's something new, or are having a slow day with nothing worth actually talking about. Ironic, because most game critics praised obvious and colorful sign posting in a majority of 7th generation.

 

[Macaulay Kong]

Honestly, I was playing Batman Beyond on PS1 the other day and I noticed it had yellow paint telling you where to go. And that was not only an old game but an absolutely linear as you can get sideview beat 'em up. I think most of the flak modern yellow paint gets is from being too out-of-place. There's no reasonable excuse for such obvious markers on random cliffs or other nature environments and it sticks out like a sore thumb, making a lot of people notice them as opposed to how they might've looked in older games. Like the example I gave, the yellow paint was dotted lines and arrows on floors and walls of an industrial facility, where it would make sense and you'd expect to see that sort of thing there. On top of that, the game being so linear you're likely to think of those details as just "window-dressing" instead of something that's actually guiding you. Modern games with gigantic open-worlds kind of end up with that disadvantage where a lot of people might just not get that there's a path they can actually go through or something they can interact with and so they get stuck or miss out on something. But devs should really find better ways of making these less obvious and garish. Those rocks could've just been a lighter grey or brown to look more natural and still hint the player that they're different and interactable.

 

[MajorMachina]

its not the worst thing ever, but i can see why people hate how it breaks the immersion.

it feel like they're better ways of communicating what you can interact with without ruining the experience.

In Half life 2, Crates that hold supplies had labels on them, so you could tell them apart of the other crates. its a realistic and immersive way of telling the player what crates to smash

 

[BrawlMan]

I remember high reports of people constantly getting lost in Black Myth Wu-Kong, and the in-game map not being helpful. Something that still has not been updated yet. With the heavily realistic environments, it's not clear what is obviously breakable all the time, nor on where to go next and know if you're on the right path or not. Yellow paint or white cloths ain't looking so bad now.

 

[extermist]

I don't play modern games but I understand what you mean.

But at the same time, whenever I think of yellow I think of horror stories like The King in Yellow, The Yellow Wallpaper and how the color is associated with madness.
So when I think of the yellow paint in games, I think it's the game's way of driving the player mad.

 

[Tonberry]

When you lead players in a good and intuitive way, it's not noticed (but way more games do this than many may think, most of them do. Torches in Blighttown in Dark Souls always marking a ladder, for example).
When it's done in an overly obvious way, it's easy to have it be jarring and might take one out of the experience.

Yellow paint is in general immersion-breaking to me, I'd prefer it being a toggleable accessibility option rather than something so blatant, it takes me out of it. My main problem with Yellow Paint is that it's become such a noticeable graphic in many different games which is why it's turned into kind of a meme to begin with. At least differentiate the distinguishers based on stuff that makes sense in the game world. That being said, I don't hate it, I just wish it wasn't so blatant.

Graphical complexity and fidelity cluttering stuff too much being the main argument (and I do agree to an extent), I do think we should be allowed to hold designers to a higher standard than to simply go "oh whatever games look too good now it's impossible to be creative".

 

[aviaovrumvrum]

While I do think it's a natural consequence of realistic graphics, laziness and poor game design surely play a part in its presence.

 

[Tsukishima]

I don't mind it honestly.
I think what would have been cooler though is character head tracking. When something of this kind would show up you could just have the character track their head to constantly look at it.

Things like yellow paint however don't break my immersion in the first place. It's a videogame, not a movie.

 

[JellyjamLu]

Pretty gay to be honest.

 

[ArchienineZXAdventArchienineZXAdvent's icon]

I may find it useful if you get lost constantly

 

[BrawlMan]

don't break my immersion

"My immersion is breaking/has been broken" was always a nothing sentence or statement that rarely ever means anything, is still used in the wrong way, or to get their point/bad argument across without going into details and surface level explanations.

Honestly, I was playing Batman Beyond on PS1 the other day and I noticed it had yellow paint telling you where to go. And that was not only an old game but an absolutely linear as you can get sideview beat 'em up.

Gungrave (2002) is a 3D arcade corridor shooter and it gives you yellow arrows with the word GO written on top of them. The franchise still uses yellow arrows now.

Also, everyone read this:

Players get lost a lot in games. | John Hopson

Players get lost a lot in games. People who argue against “yellow paint” style signposting haven’t spent the hours any games ux researcher has watching the joy drain from players’ eyes as they wander around aimlessly looking for an exit they already passed and didn’t recognize. This picture is...

www.linkedin.com

 

[zerodayhx]

its been in games for quite a long time, a few years back when people were talking about it the "yellow paint" was just the latest thing for people to complain about not realizing similar mechanics have existed for decades

 

[Vardalis]

Just feels like a band-aid fix for bad design (and even poor graphics in some cases). Rather than make something flow naturally or leave diegetic cues they just dump a can of paint on the visuals to ensure even the lowest common denominator won't get lost or frustrated and drop their game and not pay for more stuff.

And sure, you can argue it's been in games for a long time, but there's a difference between these sorts of things being diegetic and non-diegetic, immersive or non-immersive, etc.

 

[Metalgeareris]

Personally,i think everything should be breakable, grabbable, and climbable (and yes, u should be able to jump over a few ankle high crates that are blocking a stairway). Until we get to that point, maybe yellow paint in ultra realistic games are needed. And a general direction indicator on where people should go. And items meant to be picked up just have a higher contrast or brighter color compared to other things around it.

 

[AstroboyMario]

It's completely unecessary but everyone has convinced themselves it is because the attention span/problem solving skills of modern players is so low, especially in a 3d space. They just forget the fact that games with puzzles, traversal and world exploration/interaction existed for decades before we started marking everything with Yellow paint. At the very least, there is zero reason that every game that engages in this design doesn't have an option that is just "turn off yellow paint."

 

[tht009]

I can't stand that kind of handholding. I'd rather feel dumb for not figuring something out than feel condescended to by having something obvious shoved in my face. I like the FFVII remakes (which isn't even an entirely accurate thing to call them) but I hate that they treat me like I'm 5.

 

[Mileena]

White paint now lol


I don’t mind it, really doesn’t bother me at all. There are more important things in gaming to be upset about than paint.

 

[BrawlMan]

Honestly, for those who hate yellow paint that irrationally, you might as well stick with indie, AA, and nothing else. They have their own types of signposting, but most of those don't use realism as an art style, or use stylistic realism without going too far nor the uncanny. Though even some indies that are 3D have used yellow on occasion or the alternatives like white cloth, etc.

I really see no point in raging about when most of the games y'all prefer playing don't even do it or have more creative methods.

 

[zerodayhx]

I can't stand that kind of handholding. I'd rather feel dumb for not figuring something out than feel condescended to by having something obvious shoved in my face. I like the FFVII remakes (which isn't even an entirely accurate thing to call them) but I hate that they treat me like I'm 5.

if it wasnt yelow paint its textures that stand out like a sore thumb or the character essentilly telling the player where to go.
I can understand not liking it for aesthetics but acting like this is anything new and hasnt been a thing for most of our lives is just dishonest

 

[tht009]

if it wasnt yelow paint its textures that stand out like a sore thumb or the character essentilly telling the player where to go.
I can understand not liking it for aesthetics but acting like this is anything new and hasnt been a thing for most of our lives is just dishonest

I'll gladly concede that this has been around for a long time and isn't anything new; I didn't like it back then either. Signposting can sometimes be okay and even necessary, but it should be subtle enough to guide you without you noticing that you're being guided. Kind of like how old tutorials used to work: rather than explicitly telling you how to play the game through text or dialogue, they gave you challenges where you needed to learn a specific lesson or skill to continue early in the game. From then on you knew that a certain mechanic was going to work a certain way for the rest of the game. I much prefer being left to my own devices to figure things out rather than being told what to do and where to go at all times.

 

[BrawlMan]

I much prefer being left to my own devices to figure things out rather than being told what to do and where to go at all times.

Nothing wrong with that, but you might as well not even bother with nearly AAA game at this point to get exactly what you want. You choose whatever, no different me, but it's not worth the frustration nor having a heart attack over. Got better things to think about and play.