--- title: Avoiding yellow paint was a conscious choice in Control... description: Control Resonant director Mikael Kasurinen explains why the studio deliberately avoided "yellow paint" signposting, a common visual cue in open-world games... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Avoiding yellow paint was a conscious choice in Control Resonant | daily.dev og:description: Control Resonant director Mikael Kasurinen explains why the studio deliberately avoided "yellow paint" signposting, a common visual cue in open-world games... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/APUFwGmlk.png og:image:alt: Avoiding yellow paint was a conscious choice in Control Resonant og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Avoiding yellow paint was a conscious choice in Control Resonant **[Game Developer](https://daily.dev/sources/gamedeveloper)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Control Resonant director Mikael Kasurinen explains why the studio deliberately avoided "yellow paint" signposting, a common visual cue in open-world games that tells players where they can climb or navigate. He wanted players to feel they discovered their own path through the Pattern-warped Manhattan setting rather than being told where to go, relying instead on subtler orientation cues like consistent gravity direction affecting rain and wind. The piece also covers the broader industry debate around yellow paint, referencing UI designer Ed Coates' commentary on how players have learned to read this visual language and the trade-offs between guidance and difficulty. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did Control Resonant avoid using yellow paint for level design signposting? Director Mikael Kasurinen made it a conscious choice so players would feel they discovered their own path through Manhattan rather than being told where to go. He believed excessive signposting like yellow paint makes exploration feel like a decision already made for the player, undermining the sense of figuring things out themselves, which he considers key to the game's horror-inspired, reality-questioning atmosphere. _daily.dev surfaces design discussions like this for developers weighing player guidance versus discovery in their own games._ ### What is yellow paint in video game level design and why is it controversial? Yellow paint refers to yellow-colored visual markers used to signal climbable ledges or interactable objects, a convention UI designer Ed Coates says has become an industry-wide visual language players now expect. It's controversial because overuse is seen as excessive handholding, while removing it risks confusing players trained by other games to look for it, creating tension between accessibility and immersion. _developers debating signposting choices can track how studios like Remedy justify design trade-offs on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Remedy's Arhi Makkonen on designing the "biggest world we have ever done" for Control Resonant](https://daily.dev/posts/remedy-s-arhi-makkonen-on-designing-the-biggest-world-we-have-ever-done-for-control-resonant-qusjlkzsr) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to direct unconventional games like Control Resonant](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-direct-unconventional-games-like-control-resonant-rznfrn0dl) · Game Developer · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Tim Cain Didn't Notice Fallout 3's Green Hue Because He's Colorblind](https://daily.dev/posts/tim-cain-didn-t-notice-fallout-3-s-green-hue-because-he-s-colorblind-nvvdyxwro) · 80 LEVEL · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Speaking the language of color](https://daily.dev/posts/speaking-the-language-of-color-hth3jwenx) · Figma · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux), [#game-design](https://daily.dev/tags/game-design) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Avoiding yellow paint was a conscious choice in Control Resonant","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk"},"datePublished":"2026-09-29T17:05:45.636Z","dateModified":"2026-09-29T17:06:15.781Z","description":"Control Resonant director Mikael Kasurinen explains why the studio deliberately avoided \"yellow paint\" signposting, a common visual cue in open-world games...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4a7e7126b56f866b310a7dfe066b98d0?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/4a7e7126b56f866b310a7dfe066b98d0?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Game Developer","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Game Developer","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/5fbb7418db8746769a45f55309bbdf13","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamedeveloper"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ux,game-design","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Game Developer","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamedeveloper"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Avoiding yellow paint was a conscious choice in Control Resonant"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/avoiding-yellow-paint-was-a-conscious-choice-in-control-resonant-apufwgmlk#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Control Resonant avoid using yellow paint for level design signposting?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Director Mikael Kasurinen made it a conscious choice so players would feel they discovered their own path through Manhattan rather than being told where to go. He believed excessive signposting like yellow paint makes exploration feel like a decision already made for the player, undermining the sense of figuring things out themselves, which he considers key to the game's horror-inspired, reality-questioning atmosphere. daily.dev surfaces design discussions like this for developers weighing player guidance versus discovery in their own games."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is yellow paint in video game level design and why is it controversial?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Yellow paint refers to yellow-colored visual markers used to signal climbable ledges or interactable objects, a convention UI designer Ed Coates says has become an industry-wide visual language players now expect. 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