Ghost Of Yotei Dev Favours A Clean Screen Without Filling It With Mini-Maps And Infamous Yellow Paint

Ghost of Yotei developer Sucker Punch Productions has revealed that the team isn’t a fan of cramming their games full of mini-maps and divisive indicators such has the notorious yellow paint seen in more recent titles, and as such had to “figure out ways” to entice players to explore their worlds.

Speaking with GamesRadar+, Jason Connell, Creative Director for Ghost of Yotei, was quizzed about how they circumvented this issue, and those of you who have played the game will know that the open-world title makes good use of smaller indicators such as fireflies and golden birds.

Related Content – Upcoming PS5 Games 2025: The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon

“I certainly think it comes from the decision to be more diegetic, like, more inside the game world,” Connell revealed, adding “it’s actually one of the most challenging problems” for creators as “you gotta figure out ways in which you can get people excited about going to a place without putting a giant thing on the screen that says ‘go here,’ or, a giant map that says ‘go here,’ or a mini map.”

We do like having a clean screen, because we like the game. It’s beautiful. You know, the art team spends five years making the most beautiful game we could possibly imagine. Why would we muck it up with all this stuff on the screen if we can figure out other ways to guide you?

Connell said that the franchise has “this romanticised view of Japan, and Japan is filled with wonderful love of nature and just nature in general.” As a result, “nature ends up playing a big part of this, whether it’s following a wolf or a bird or the wind or flowers.”

Speaking in a separate interview, the creative director revealed that the team isn’t bothered by how many side activities players do in Ghost of Yotei, as long as they’re having fun.

Ghost of Yotei was released for PS5 on October 2, 2025 and you can read our full review here.

[Source – GamesRadar]