Easter Eggs

Surprises in the game that are not related to the game diegesis.

Easter Eggs are surprises put in games that do not directly affect gameplay nor does necessarily advance any story. Often they do not even fit within the reality of the Game World. The design of Easter Eggs started as programmers' and game designers' ways of protesting against management but soon turned into a gameplay value, encouraging exploration and people to replay the games.

Examples

The first documented Easter Egg was the text "Created by Robinett." in the game Adventure. It was put there by its programmer and designer, Warren Robinett. To find it, players had find an object a single pixel large that had the same color as the background of the game and was located in a room that was inaccessible unless you used a special bridge. This object then had to be carried to a specific wall to let the players enter a secret room which contained the message.

Easter Eggs can vary considerably in sizes. The Super Mario series included entire levels as Easter Eggs, including an underwater world that is seemingly endless. Topping this, the whole game Maniac Mansion is included as an Easter Egg in its sequel Day of the Tentacle. Star Trek: The Next Generation is worth mentioning since it is a Pinball Game with a Breakout-like game as an Easter Egg.

Game series that repeatedly make use of Easter Eggs include the Dragon Age, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, and Super Smash Bros. series.

For more examples, see the site GiantBomb which has a listing of games with Easter Eggs.

Using the pattern

Designing Easter Eggs includes choosing where in the Game World they exist, what they contain, creating possible Clues to ease finding them, and making sure they are Optional Goals. Typical contents of Easter Eggs include Games within Games or Resources to modulate the Right Level of Difficulty. The use of Games within Games and other Easter Eggs that effectively change the mode of play may be more suitable in Single-Player Games, since there is no need to try and synchronize and explain changes of play mode in these types of games.

Can Be Instantiated By

Secret Areas

Minigames together with Game World Exploration

Can Be Modulated By

Clues

Diegetic Aspects

Easter Eggs typically break Thematic Consistency since they often take the form of Extra-Game Information.

Interface Aspects

Since Easter Eggs is mainly about surprising players and reward them for exploring, it is an.

Consequences

Easter Eggs are a way of providing Surprises in games by hiding secrets in Game Worlds. They are often a form of Extra-Game Information that breaks Thematic Consistency, but do encourage Game World Exploration and Replayability. In Single-Player Games, they add social components through creating Meta Games of finding the Easter Eggs before others, something that can lead to both Game-Induced Player Social Status and Bragging and through this to Social Interaction between players.

While they most often are hidden within Secret Areas these are typically harder to find than other Secret Areas in the same game are thereby support Challenging Gameplay to complete the Optional Goals of finding these. This of course assumes that players have reasons to believe they exist (which be either be due to Clues or Trans-Game Information between players).

Knowledge about their existence provides Optional Goals of Exploration and may stimulate Social Interaction between game sessions to pass Trans-Game Information. Easter Eggs may even promote Replayability, since players can have Player Defined Goals to find all Easter Eggs even after completing a game. The Consistent Reality Logic of an Alternative Reality can be negatively affected by Easter Eggs unless they only consist of Resources or purely aesthetic effects.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Extra-Game Information, Game World Exploration, Replayability, Surprises, Trans-Game Information

with Single-Player Games

Bragging, Game-Induced Player Social Status, Meta Games, Social Interaction

Can Modulate

Challenging Gameplay, Game Worlds

Can Be Instantiated By

Secret Areas

Minigames together with Game World Exploration

Can Be Modulated By

Clues

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Thematic Consistency

History

An updated version of the pattern Easter Eggs that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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