Before generative AI became the all-consuming omni-topic upon which we must all opine, everyone was weighing on the lighter-shaded talking point of developers using yellow paint as a directional tool. Games like Stellar Blade, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth and Star Wars Outlaws reignited the debate about splashing liquid sunshine too liberally across platforms and obstacles to aid player navigation, with the debate spilling over into 2025 as critics called it out as lazy game design.
Numerous game developers offered their perspectives on the issue. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth’s director Naoki Hamaguchi stated there is “definitely a need for that kind of thing” in games, even if players don’t like it, while The Witcher 4’s lead designer believed the problem “isn’t necessarily the yellow paint”, but the context in which it was used, and that level designers needed to “properly weaponise the entire arsenal of your toolkit” to prevent players from realising that “‘oh, I’m being guided'”.
A Friendly Dog
Fable 2 famously featured a canine companion who would dig out treasure, aid you in combat, and most importantly for our purpose, help lead the way to quest objectives. I propose that we roll this feature out for every video game, with your faithful hound barking and or/pointing in the right direction if the player is stuck for a certain amount of time.
Some of you may observe that this is similar to how characters like Atreus in God of War: Ragnarok would vocalise puzzle solutions if the player got stuck on them for too long. But there are two advantages to using a dog over a character like Atreus. Firstly, a dog is not an annoying, moody teenager. Second, a dog cannot speak, thereby requiring some interpretation of its behaviour on the player’s part.
Pros: Accessibility feature that can be petted
Cons: Player might be a cat person
Navigational Weather
This one’s inspired by Ghost of Tsushima‘s Guiding Wind, whose air currents helped point players in the direction of their next objective. Why not apply such meteorological navigation to other types of weather? You could have rain that drives in the direction players need to go, thunder that rumbles on the relevant compass point, lightning that illuminates the next part of your path.
This idea has the added benefit of making your game moody as heck, although it may not be ideal for people suffering from seasonal affective disorder.
Pros: Subtler than yellow paint
Cons: You’ll never see the sun again
Dynamic Signage
This one I’m a little more serious about. When I played Mafia: The Old Country earlier this year, my favourite system in the game was how it would generate physical road signs along any route you plotted out on the game’s map, showing you the way to go. Admittedly, Mafia: The Old Country was not exactly brimming with new ideas. But it was nonetheless a handy quality of life tool. It eliminated the need to glance constantly at the minimap, allowing me to enjoy the drive while also directing me in a way that felt consistent with the game’s visual design.
Maybe there’s a way to apply this system to any game where navigation is important. The trick, of course, is to make your dynamic signs fit with your given environment. You don’t want road signs appearing in an ancient temple or up the side of a canyon wall. But I think signs are more plausible than just spilling yellow paint everywhere.
Pros: Clear navigational tools
Cons: Harder to implement in environmentally diverse games
The Riddlemaster
A central part of the yellow paint discourse is that players don’t like feeling patronised. So one option is to make navigational hints both optional and a puzzle in and of themselves. It is with this in mind that I propose The Riddlemaster, an NPC who can be summoned at any time to provide cryptic hints on the way forward.
This does require the developer to come up with a riddle for every point at which a player may become stuck, and I’m not wholly sure how well riddles would gel with trying to find your way around. But hey, it’s more interesting than kicking over a can over Dulux over every ledge.
Pros: Provides assistance while consistently challenging the player.
Cons: Intensive to produce. Potentially annoying as fuck
Divine Intervention
Perhaps the problem with yellow paint isn’t that it’s obtrusive, but that it’s obtrusive in a really boring way. If this is the case, one solution would be to create a navigational aid so overwhelmingly awesome that players cannot help but love it. And I can’t think of anything better than God himself pointing the way to your next objective.
Picture it, you’ve been stuck on the same rocky platforming puzzle for ten minutes and are still no closer to picking your way through. Then, you hear a rumbling noise emanating from above. You look up, to see the clouds part and crepuscular rays beam down from the celestial aperture. Moments later, a giant, pointing hand descends from the heavens, as a booming voice says: “THIS WAY, IDIOT.”
Pros: Visually spectacular
Cons: Budget, possible religious discord
