How do people find game secrets?

[Brian Boru]

You know those Easter Egg articles/videos, eg:

This Windows 1.0 easter egg managed to stay hidden for nearly 37 years

This "Gabe Newell" guy in the hidden credits will never go anywhere!

www.pcgamer.com

Darktide easter eggs for diehard Warhammer fans

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is full of secrets, including messages written in Chaos Runes. Sit down and let a veteran tell you all about them.

www.pcgamer.com

The first one is Windows 1.0, not Win 10!

Throw in walkthrus too, just for fun. So… anyone know anyone who digs out this kind of stuff? Is there a secret society, with secret handshake—and the only way to join is to discover the handshake all on your lonesome

I see/read about these finds and just shake my head, trying to imagine how much time and sanity it would've cost me to chase 'em down. Or maybe someone made a checklist, and they divvy out all the tests amongst the group…

—

 

[Colif]

It would have been impressive hiding a win 10 EE for 37 years... time travel?

I guess that some are found by looking through code, others by people who just keep playing same game for ever... a lot of secrets seem to be found by people who have only just started playing the game and don't know what they aren't supposed to do. And post about it on forums... as its word of mouth that spreads these things.

Like waiting at the start of one Far Cry game just to find the secret ending. Possible someone went AFK there... or just someone messing around. Not wanting to do what you expected.

Sacred 2 was full of them, I may have found a few. I did submit pictures to the wiki long ago.

 

[Brian Boru]

looking through code

Ah, hadn't thought of that. Yeah, makes sense—I could see modders especially tripping over 'em as they explore the code.

Yeah, that was FC4, "Enjoy the Crab Rangoon" proved great advice

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not sure, but Guido is constantly finding Easter eggs simply by thinking about level design and being observant. For instance, we'll often be playing something, and he'll say, "This looks suspicious" and go investigate whatever it is. More times than not, he'll find something, usually some treasure, but sometimes it will be an Easter egg. Part of it is just the way his brain processes visual information. It's like he can see the whole screen all the time and even notice details. What kills me the most is his sense of direction. Go through a maze, and he can lead you back out without ever taking a false turn. That also means that he can explore the maze and find things without getting lost.

I, on the other hand, can be standing right in front of an Easter egg and not notice it. Part of that is my bad vision, but a lot of it is just that I have a singular focus.

 

[Frindis]

Some secrets I find through exploration like the sign I found decades ago in Duke Nukem 3D saying: "You are not supposed to be here" or the more obvious secret lady hiding behind the waterfall in Shadow Warrior. I find small easter eggs like that every now and then, but I have not found any really rare ones. It is also cool that the developers hide some of the secrets that you can only get to by using different combat mechanics, like the rocket jumping secrets in Serious Sam 2.

Some secrets are so hidden that you'll have to glitch in the world to find them, like glitching under Stormwind in World of Warcraft Classic. Some secrets are hidden away and only supposed to be used by developers themselves like the developer's chest (I think there was more than one) in Skyrim with all the loot in the game or the GM island in WoW that I belive the developers used for some R&R.

I guess some stuff is found out of pure luck like the one in Goldshire in WoW where you can hear a sound saying "You will die" from time to time. There are also children forming satanic symbols in the same place or around it which is supposed to be a reference to the movie Children of the Corn.

I just remembered a fun "secret" that a lot of players tried to do in the auction house at the city Stormwind in WoW. Back in the golden days of WoW you could jump on some invisible ledges inside the auction house and from doing that manage to get up on some wood structures or even stand in the same place as the NPC's selling stuff. People did it because they could and it was a lot of fun trying too. I hardly think this is some secret the developers hid just to see who would be able to parkour the best, but it is cool that some people find stuff like that invisible to the naked eye.

 

[Colif]

Sacred 1 - You could find the mask/weapon of Jason from Friday 13
Sacred 2 - An entire hidden quest with all the staff from Devs scattered around the world...

Essentially the complexity of EE increased over 2 games. Hate to image what they might have put in another game, had they ever made one.

easter eggs used to be rare but it got to point in recent years that the entire game was Easter eggs or references to real world things that it became expected... and not as surprising any more. Its surprising not to find any

 

[Zloth]

What kills me the most is his sense of direction. Go through a maze, and he can lead you back out without ever taking a false turn. That also means that he can explore the maze and find things without getting lost.

He'll do very well playing Descent (or one of its many spiritual successors). When the countdown begins, you've got to find your way back out of the 3D caverns you've been in.

 

[ZedClampet]

He'll do very well playing Descent (or one of its many spiritual successors). When the countdown begins, you've got to find your way back out of the 3D caverns you've been in.

It wouldn't be a problem for him. I've long since stopped worrying about trying to find my way in co-op games. I just get behind him and follow. I'm actually really jealous he can do this, but to me it's miraculous because I'm the exact opposite. What's weird is I have no directional problems in real life, only in games.

 

[Brian Boru]

I just remembered there were hidden ant and dinosaur missions in the early Command and Conquer games—I had no clue until I read/saw it somewhere.

 

[Zloth]

Final Fantasy 7 had two hidden characters, complete with fairly deep stories!

I remember I was programming something and I wanted to test what would happen with a really long string. I had finished FF7 a few years earlier and I knew it had a BIG story, so I figured I would grab the walk-through for that off GameFaqs and plug it in. When I look it up, though, I see FAQs talking about how to get Yuffie and Vincint? Whodat!? And what is all this about breeding chocobos?? Well, get the file and get back to work.

That night I got the file at home and read through it - and was floored! I went through that whole game and enjoyed it a lot, but this FAQ was showing me that I missed half the game!

 

[ipman]

I rely on YT detectives. There are so may hidden secrets in a game like WD's Legion; references to British culture like the tardis in the safe house, or the tribute to Bowie, references to other WD's games and also references to other Ubisoft games.

But most are so well hidden I'd never find them on my own.

Legion Easter Eggs.

 

[mjs warlord]

Dont know if you would class this as a secret or a bug due to a bit of careless programming ......

In the first Far Cry game instead of travelling the whole length of the island and encountering masses of enemy , you could go for a long swim and eventually appear on the shore of the other side of the island.

 

[Brian Boru]

first Far Cry … go for a long swim and eventually appear on the shore of the other side of the island

That the first island? So you could swim around to the aircraft carrier from the starting islet?

 

[mjs warlord]

Hi Brian ... i cant answer that as it was a very long time ago , all i can remember is that it was possible.