The use of “yellow paint” being used to highlight objects in video games has been somewhat of a hot topic, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows recently found itself as part of the conversation. Even though the game is slightly more subtle with how it includes yellow paint than some games – I barely noticed it in my first hour and a half of playing – there has still been some debate about whether it was necessary. Well, it turns out this may have been a discussion mirrored by the game’s developers while creating Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

According to some recent information, Assassin’s Creed Shadows didn’t originally include yellow paint. Maybe the developers agree that it can be distracting, or perhaps they just didn’t want another controversy tied to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Either way, it seems that yellow paint was a late-stage edition for a very specific reason.

AC Shadows Didn’t Always Have Yellow Paint

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Added Yellow Paint After Playtesting Without It Went Poorly

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Jonathan Dumont, Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ creative director, revealed that yellow paint had not initially been part of the game. However, it was added in after “players really [struggled] in playtests to find their path” in Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Hidden Trails activities, according to Dumont. The yellow paint’s presence in the final game implies that future playtests went more smoothly with its inclusion.

One common complaint about yellow paint – which can even be seen in the comments on GamesRadar‘s Dumont interview – is that it feels like a shortcut way of signaling the right path to players. Some argue that developers should find ways to more subtly integrate these hints into a game’s environment, as opposed to using a bright color like yellow that feels unnatural. Honestly, I can understand why developers choose to go with yellow paint instead, and I don’t think it’s out of laziness or lack of originality, as arguments against it seem to suggest.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Was Right To Account For Playtest Struggles

Inaccessible Games Can Be Much More Frustrating Than Yellow Paint

If playtesters were having difficulty with the original version of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it makes total sense that Ubisoft would want to address this. After all, a few complaints about yellow paint probably don’t look as bad as complaints that trying to navigate in the game is frustrating. As for why yellow, it provides a strong contrast to the natural colors of the world in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, making it easier to see. It’s not that one game decided to use yellow, and every game after has just lazily copied it, it’s a color that makes sense for this purpose.

I previously discussed how I appreciated the use of yellow paint in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for similar reasons. Players are already being asked to devote a lot of time and attention to big open-world games like this, and making them easier to navigate helps cut down on potential frustration that could turn players off. From my experience, Assassin’s Creed Shadows also uses yellow paint much more sparingly and in more natural ways than FF7 Rebirth did, so it’s clear that developers are at least trying to disguise it while still utilizing it for accessibility purposes.

The gaming community sometimes has a habit of forming borderline dogmatic opinions about things like yellow paint, leading some to criticize all games that use it equally. Assassin’s Creed Shadows did a good job implementing it in a way that wasn’t too blatant, and the developers only did so because the game didn’t work as intended without it. It’s also worth noting it is used sparingly, and many climbable objects don’t have any yellow paint. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a good example of why the yellow paint conversation needs a bit more nuance, or to be put to rest.