Item highlight

Video game concept

Items on the ground, tables, and wherever are highlighted somehow. They may glow, glitter, have name tags shown, or otherwise blatantly give off their location. Often accompanied by an unexplained floating off the ground effect.

356

games

platforms

Alternate names: Item glow, Floating items

WIN 2016-11-18

X360 2009-10-02

WIN 2008-10-20

X360 2011-10-04

PS3 2008-11-07

WIN 2006-06-26

Front Mission Evolved

WIN 2010-09-16

Shadowgrounds Survivor

WIN 2007-11-14

Demon's Souls

PS3 2009-02

Legendary

WIN 2008-11-14

Serious Sam 3: BFE

WIN 2011-11-22

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

OSX 2015-03-10

See also: interaction highlight (in case it is done for objects that can be interacted but not picked up into inventory)

Contrast:
* Trash - item glow is unlikely to exist in these.

Related:
* Item glow: Manually activated

Usually exists for convenience, especially in multiplayer oriented games, but is a rather blatant source for losing suspension of disbelief.

This also includes other variations that accomplish the same, such as a targeting rectangle identifying the object and any other methods to make items and other things you can carry or interact with easy to spot.

Parent group

Game-like elements

Child group

Item highlight: Manually activated

Games by year

The first Item highlight video game was released in 1994.

Electronic Arts, Devolver Digital and Ubisoft published most of these games.

Platforms

Windows		161
X360		45
Linux		43
PS3		40
Mac OS X		29
PS2		9
Android		5
PS4		5
Xbox One		4
Xbox		4
iOS		3
Switch		2
MS-DOS		2
Internet Only		1
WinCE		1
Dreamcast		1
GameCube		1

Most common companies

Electronic Arts	18
Devolver Digital	13
Ubisoft	12
Activision	12
2K Games	11
Capcom	10
Bethesda Softworks	10
Deep Silver	9
Codemasters	9
Tripwire Interactive	7
Namco Bandai	7
Atlus	6
Microsoft Game Studios	6
THQ	6
Sigma Team	6