Assassin's Creed Shadows director says the dreaded yellow paint was only added because "players were really struggling in playtests"

Assassin's Creed Shadows suffers from the dreaded yellow paint disease, but its devs say there's a very good reason for that.

If you've been extremely online within the gaming community over the last few years, you've no doubt been forced to see the endless debates whenever a game reveals it has yellow paint. For those blissfully unaware (I envy you so much), a lot of AAA releases use random splashes of yellow paint to help players know where the critical path is, as opposed to something like God of War: Ragnarok, where NPCs can't stop telling you every two seconds.

The latest game to take part in what people overreacting online call an unforgivable crime is Assassin's Creed Shadows (which had its yellow paint use praised by 12DOVE games editor Oscar Taylor-Kent). 12DOVE had the chance to talk to Assassin's Creed Shadows' creative director, Jonathan Dumont, and asked about the team's approach to using the dreaded yellow paint and how Ubisoft balanced guidance and keeping immersion in its world. Dumont revealed that it actually wasn't included in the game originally and came about after playtesting.

Dumont told us, "Well, we didn’t have it until players were really struggling in playtests to find their path when engaging in hidden trails activity." Considering how in-depth the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to be (as someone who hasn't been invested in the series since 4, the weather effects have impressed me enough to consider picking Shadows up), it caused a bit of an issue for some players. Dumont said, "The environment is lush and full, and giving a bit of guidance was needed."

No matter how you feel about yellow paint, it is clear that it works as a benefit for some players, so I don't really think it's the end of the world if it's included in games. In a perfect world it can be an in-game toggle so we don't have to talk about this tired debate for much longer.

Dumont also told us that Assassin's Creed Shadows originally didn't have Yasuke as a playable character, but the samurai was added because turning Naoe into a "stealth tank" was "diluting the fantasy of the shinobi."