How designers silently tell you what to do? - Affordances and Signifiers - Game Design Theory

Learn how to design game environments so that the environment tells the player what to do. Affordances are a way we can design something in our game so it communicates the way we are supposed to interact with it via it's form. If you take the example of a cup, people intuitively know how to pick it up because the big round handle looks like it can be grasped. We can apply this logic to objects in game design and level design. By constructing their form in a certain way, the player will intuitively know what to do with the object. This is often considered a form of user experience design.
Signifiers are things we add to objects when an affordance is not 100% clear. These signifiers can be words, symbols or other things, but we put them onto objects to hint at an affordance or to flat out tell a user what to do. We can take advantage of these in a similar way we took advantage of affordances by using them to guide the player with more difficult interactions.
There are many situations in games where we leverage affordance when we play. In this video we cover a number of examples and I explain in depth the definition of these terms we have been discussing. We will cover the classic door design example where we design door handles to fit the way a door opens. We also talk about how affordance isn't just for environment design but is applied all over different disciplines of design including combat design.
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[@baileymiller7738]

this is the kind of thing i wish i had learnt in university not just modelling but some actual theory to go with it, thank you.

[@dylaninthemovies]

A great example of a signifier would be how, in the game Void Bastards, any container with loot in it has a green light, whereas empty containers have no light. If the power is out on the ship, then the container lights will instead be red, signifying to the player that there is loot there, but they cannot collect it (at least not until the power is turned back on). This system greatly helps the player know at a glance what to do, instead of having to spend precious time trying to search every container

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Haven't played void bastards but that sounds great. Almost blurs the line between UI and a signifier which is a great place to be. Those little touches just make everything so much clearer to the player. I am a big fan of games that make an effort to make things easily, "glance-ably" readable.

[@happyduck1424]

The way mirrors edge contrast it's obstacles is perfect example of Affordances and Signifiers in my opinion, the red and white with sometimes scratches on key places to go.

[@KaptenKetchup]

Just found your channel and I enjoy your videos. My favorite affordance in a game is how the ladders in Breath of the Wild always have some boards on the side you're supposed to climb on. Too many games doesn't make it clear what side you should climb on.

[@sutton876]

Thank you so much to let me understand this I was confuse of what affordance is for designing a weapon, now it really makes sense for the objects and enemies. Especially for weapons and areas to go to. Hope you create more tutorials, these really help. Good luck. 👍

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Glad you were able to learn something from the video sutton876. I'm starting to make new videos again now after a long break.

[@the_richwerner]

I really enjoyed the breakdown. This is a great video for beginners to get a quick and easy to understand grasp on the subject of Feedback in games.

[@johnnybigoode]

I appreciate the subtitles, thank you!

[@suicune2001]

Awesome video! I hope you make more like these. :)

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. That is certainly the plan. Something along these lines will come out every fortnight for all sorts of different game design concepts. Keep an eye out.

[@yadav-r]

awesome, found another hidden gem on youtube. Great content, thank you for sharing, good day.

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Thanks for taking the time to check out the content x3lnThp! Glad you liked it.

[@ThereWillBeCake]

Awesome Video! I got a lot of of it. A lot of game affordances and signifiers are becoming universal learnt behaviour. Similar to the mug handle example, almost any game now with a red barrel or red box in the scene affords explosion when hit to the player. Audio can also be a great affordance. A good example being in Far Cry 2 when the player comes in close proximity to a diamond case and a faint homing signal can be heard, promoting the player to investigate. In contrast to this though the infamous Dark Souls series keeps the player in the dark and expects them to learn to play the game through trial and error. Yet is it a very successful series.

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Your are certainly right about the some affordances becoming learned behavior. Particularly within genres. The barrels is a great example of this. Even less obvious things like knee high walls afford taking cover. And dark souls, for lack of a more articulate way to put it, manages it's affordances well. Most games sensibly want every interaction to be as clean and obvious as possible, Dark souls wants that to be the case some times and less so other times. They try to keep it more subtle like the burned bodies and scorch marks on the bridge with the dragon in the first one.

[@iamoleg]

Great video, very informative and succinct. Once you know what these things are it's so easy to think of other examples in games, like the climbable vines in Far Cry, and the protruding stone work in Assassins Creed.

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Yeah, can you imagine designing spaces with all the ledges in the assassins creed games. DAMN

[@iamoleg]

There would have to be some kind of "level editor". Where they would just be like: "place building" > " select stones" > "make climbable". Or maybe even skip the "select stones" step and just "make climbable" and then the software would randomly choose which stones can be grabbed on to, and make sure that each next stone is within the players leap range. Something like that...

[@AllanNavy]

Superb take on the subject. As a student of systems analysis and dev, I found it highly informational and helpful. Hope you keep on with the videos. Also, +1 sub!

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Thanks Allan. There is some other stuff in the pipeline. And I appreciate the sub.

[@gcwwtube5968]

Man you should get more subs man. Great video!

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Thanks Gcwwtube. That's certainly the plan. If you know anyone that might be interested in learning game design, feel free to point them this way.

[@kaldo_kaldo]

Not sure why but affordances are not generally intuitive to me. I didn't figure out the green light thing in Doom, I always struggled to find where to go. In Assassin's Creed, I didn't realize that the birds signified a jump off point. I always went to the edge of a building and looked down to see if I could jump. In Uncharted, I had a lot of trouble figuring out where the hell I could go - funny enough I found the rest of the game trivial in difficulty, the hard part for me was climbing.

[@kassaran2092]

So, to try and restate Affordances and Signifiers here and relevance to gameplay loops: Affordances: Actions are accomplished through use of Affordances. Signifiers: Feedback is supported by Signifiers in the Mental Model. The Affordance to defeat an enemy is a design weakness. The Signifier attracts attention to the weakness.

[@mmonsturr]

I think there needs to be balance to this which can be difficult. For example I've seen some ways that turn into hand holding that damages challenge and turns into hand holding. This in turn can affect flow states which affects the gravity of the reward from completing a task/puzzle. Examples are when games enable a golden path, a narrow hallway, over flashing/highlighted paths, ect. These can also make an impact on immersion. Some other examples i can think of our when climbing sections make the pathway for climbing surfaces too obvious. This can often feel cheesy and almost insulting. So I think, when it comes to games, some ux fundamentals have to modified because the purpose of the product is entertainment rather than straight functionality.

[@julianmoretti7847]

This video just got you a sub, like and fav. A combo not easily given by me.

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Thanks Julian. Really appreciate you taking the time to watch the video.

[@julianmoretti7847]

Na, it was good. I'm sorta an Indie Dev myself, and always worry if my "player guidance" or Affordances are clear enough. I agree that having arrows telling you how to play should be avoided. Yet, is having Mario on the left side of the screen enough feedback to tell the player to move forward (right)? Maybe.

[@Kevin_Zed]

Assassin's Creed use both pretty well, God of War too

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

When you are jumping over rooftops and running along at speed this kind of thing is even more important so that things are easily readable at a glance. And God of War *chefs kiss*

[@kevinqueen6246]

I think accordance's and signifiers need to be different because they really are two stages of design

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

I guess that would be a personal process thing. There would be different reasons to attack it at different times. Whether you are defining a consistent visual language first or whether you are going back over your levels and trying to refine them for example. Whatever works to get the job done.

[@kevinqueen6246]

@@gamedesignwithmichael I totally agree. I'm mostly concerned with the approach to analog game design. In that realm this is near certain to be 2 complementing stages of design. Affordances are part of the mechanics design and signifies would belong more to the development stages? unless I'm seeing it wrong.

[@digitaldynamics6540]

Well done buddy. Very well spoken. You’re old pal. Zac

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Cheers Zac. Thanks for taking a look.

[@bunnyrabbit443]

⛄

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

👍

[@Amelia_PC]

And here I am... and +Sub

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Good to see you made it over. And thanks for the sub. Hope you found something in the general ball park of what you were looking for.