Affordance and Signifiers

An affordances and signifiers are used as a subtle way to tell the player that they can interact with something in the level. An affordance is when something allows the user to do an action. A real life for example a handle on a mug affords picking it up. For example in the assassins creeds series walls have bumps and ridges that afford climbing​.

An affordance is when something allows the user to do an action. A real life for example a handle on a mug affords picking it up. For example in the assassins creeds series walls have bumps and ridges that afford climbing.

FIGURE 1: WALL SCRATCHES (https://www.psu.com/app/uploads/2019/03/Ashina-Castle-7.jpg, 2019)

FIGURE 2: AURA EMITTED BY LORD OF THE MOUNTAIN (HTTPS://ZELDA.FANDOM.COM/WIKI/ SATORI_MOUNTAIN, 2017)

In some cases, affordances might be too complex or the affordance is too common that it might leave a player to waste time. To accommodate for this, designers put in signifiers. In the game Sekiro there are scratches on the walls to show whether a player can wall hug or grab on a ledge in order to traverse to the other side. In Breath of the Wild you can climb almost every surface but some times it might be a waste of time to go somewhere as you will not get any rewards but sometimes you might see something glowing in the night on top of a mountain. This would most likely be a shrine or the Lord of the Mountain just appeared.