Yellow Paint Game Design Debate

About

Yellow Paint Debate is a viral debate surrounding the use of brightly colored paints to highlight interactable objects such as ladders and crates in video games. While sporadic discussions surrounding the topic appeared in the 2010s, a viral X / Twitter post in early October 2023 spawned a notable debate that went viral among gamers and game designers on the platform, additionally resulting in memes. The debate continued in February 2023 following another viral post.

Origin

Precursors

Early discussions and coverage of yellow paint being prominently used in video games to mark important objects or areas began appearing online as early as the mid-2010s, particularly in association with Naughty Dog's titles.^[8] One early example that received notable engagement was a post to the /r/gaming^[7] subreddit that showed a screenshot from The Last of Us and the title "Yellow always means climbable," garnering 340 upvotes in nine years.

On March 11th, 2023, X user @FPSthetics^[9] sparked a minor debate that resulted in discourse on the platform from game developers after the account tweeted four images from the Resident Evil 4 Remake with the caption "this needs to end," receiving over 16.6 million views, 15,000 likes and 2,000 replies in seven months (seen below).

October 2023 Yellow Paint Debate

On October 2nd, 2023, X^[1] user @feydemon posted a photograph of a ladder splattered with yellow paint in the 2023 video game Resident Evil 4 Remake. The user wrote, "the yellow paint is so unnecessary obviously a ladder is climbable obviously a crate is breakable why did they do this," questioning the necessity of highlighting interactable objects in video games. The post (shown below) received over 2,900 reposts and quotes and 3,700 likes in four days.

Spread

On October 3rd, 2023, several users shared screenshots of the post and quoted it with their opinions on the issue. For example, a screenshot posted^[2] by X user @autixcx received over 570 reposts and 9,300 likes in three days. On the same day, X^[3] user @FPSthetics quoted the tweet with an older White Man Has Been Here meme that received over 230 reposts and 3,000 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below).

Later that day, X^[4] user @xArcky then posted an image providing a parody solution to the issue that received over 580 reposts and 5,200 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Later on October 3rd, game developer Pedro Braga made an X^[4] thread defending the design solution in which he listed multiple examples of players being clueless in video games. The first post in the thread (shown below, left) garnered over 3,700 reposts and 19,200 likes in two days.

Following the thread, the debate achieved viral status on X. Notably, on October 5th, 2023, Cruelty Squad developer Ville Kallio made an X^[5] post attacking the solution, which received over 840 reposts and 10,800 likes on X^[6] in one day (shown below, left).

February 2024 Yellow Paint Debate

On February 8th, 2024, Dave Oshry of video game publishing company New Blood Interactive (@DaveOshry) posted a screenshot of ledges marked with yellow paint in Final Fantasy VII Remake, commenting, "THE YELLOW PAINT VIRUS HAS INFECTED FF7." The post (shown below) garnered over 4,400 reposts and 14,000 likes on X^[10] in six days.

The post was followed by viral reactions and memes as users argued for and against the notion that aiding players with yellow paint was necessary. For example, a February 10th post by X^[11] user @NonTrotski garnered over 4,600 reposts and 39,000 likes in four days (shown below, left). A meme posted by X^[12] user @bobvids garnered over 3,600 reposts and 57,000 likes in three days (shown below, right).

On February 11th, 2024, comic artist @ReffiComics posted a comic about yellow paint in games (shown below) that received over 3,900 reposts and 24,000 likes on X^[13] in three days and was followed by more topical reactions and arguments.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References