Comments on: Does Your Game Have Easter Eggs?

By: Juuso Hietalahti

Juuso Hietalahti — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:06:17 +0000

Fixed that typo Nate. You just gave one good (or the) reason to put secret stuff in games: people who like to explore the game and discover really new sort of ‘extra secrets’ will be delighted to see easter eggs in games.

By: Nate

Nate — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:03:08 +0000

Spell check error: I meant to say I’m an “exploratory person,” not “exploitative.” I do not try to exploit games, but instead I enjoy exploring games. It conveyed the wrong message as it was written.

By: Nate

Nate — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:42:42 +0000

A short while ago I was thinking about what I love most about video games and I realized that above most other aspects it’s the secrets that I love. I am a naturally exploratory person who prefers searching all the out-of-the-way places for what hidden things may be found. Usually whenever an NPC tells me I have to go someplace that is the last place I will travel to — unfortunately most games are rather linear and do not cater too much to explorers. Usually time is wasted without really finding anything of interest.

Many of the good old NES games of the past had little obscure secrets hidden in them. It’s amazing how even without the internet so many people became aware of them despite who seemingly improbable happening upon them by accident may be. People love to share secrets, which cause them to spread like wild-fire, but how they were discovered in the first place is beyond me.

The minus world in Super Mario Brothers, for example, is one extraordinary well known secret. Sure it is a bug in the game, but it merely being there seems to add something to the experience. There is a special joy in sharing this hidden area with someone for the first time. Just a few weeks ago I shared this secret with the son of a friend; he might never have known of it otherwise.

I considered once the possibility of creating a game which was all about obscure secrets. It could be played through in a straight-forward manner from start to finish, but deviating from the obvious path unlocks all sorts of possibilities — new areas, special items, alternate endings, mini-games, etc. The secrets would constitute for nearly 80% of the game, where the fun and joy of playing the game would be in discovering new things which your friends may have been entirely unaware of. There might be a few rare people who might actually have the dedication to see it all, but most will have knowledge of a small subset which they would, hopefully, enthusiastically share with others.

By: DtD Software

DtD Software — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:36:09 +0000

Of course ^_^ Some will probably be really well hidden so I can give them to family and friends, etc.

Also, Easter Eggs can help WOM. If sombody sees a really impressive easter egg, they’ll go tell thier friends about it, or post it on Wikipedia. (EG: The Half-Life 2: Ep2 and the Dharma Initiative…see Dharma_Initiative on Wikipedia)

~DtD

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:56:55 +0000

The Easter Eggs in my game were not hidden: http://www.greyaliengames.com/easterbonus.php

By: Sargon

Sargon — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:40:48 +0000

The problem with easter eggs is that they might be never discovered by the player, because they are hidden so good, no one can find it on its own.
On the other end of the scale there is the hidden feature which is so obvious, or there are many obvious hints about it, that it is not much fun to discover anyway.

By: Rodrigo Roesler

Rodrigo Roesler — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:49:44 +0000

Well, usually we put easter eggs in our games. One of them has two that don’t work, basically because the people who bought it never implemented them, so they became dead-ends, which is sad. And one of them has actually another game as an easter egg.

Other than that, we usually insert a lot of external references – from books, music, movies, real life – into the gameplay. It’s something we do for fun and because a few people will actually pay attention to all of them, but they don’t get in the way of the actual game and you don’t need to recognize them to play, so I guess they can be considered “easter eggs”.