What Makes a Great Secret?

secrets have been a crucial part of video game design since basically the start of video games the first ever gaming Easter egg and the corner of the term was found in the Atari game Adventure and involved picking up this tiny pixel yep that little guy right there taking it to a specific spot and then activating it to see the name of the lead dev who otherwise wasn't gonna be credited in the Batman Arkham games the developers over a Rox that he always left sneaky clues as to the next game in the trilogy a secret room behind a destructible wall in Quincy sharps office hints of the release of Arkham City and playing that game while console or PCs internal date his sets of December 13th 2004 the day Rocksteady was founded gives you a spooky hint about the yet to be released arkham knight story from d-list villain calendar man recently in apex legends finding and shooting all these adorable Nessie plushies scattered around the Kings Canyon map or someone a giant life-size man from the ocean which more than makes up for the fact that you almost surly lost the game trying to pull this off needless to say searching for Easter eggs and hidden secrets within games is great fun but this game design trend is more than a source of cool trivia and stealthy marketing the fun of hunting for hidden things is a crucial component to the appeal of some beloved genres has a bunch of wider applications in game design as a whole Metroidvania x' wouldn't work at all without a world full of goodies to sniff out platformers use secrets to push players into mastering each level and even bow Royales like four might use a constantly changing selection of secret fun things to keep you playing and discussing the game but before we get started we should probably agree on what a secret actually is and by that I mean I'm gonna tell you what I think was an easy broad definition of a video game secret is that it's a thing in a game that's hidden obscured or requires some sort of extra effort beyond what's normally required to beat the game to access these coins or this fire flower Mario not a secret this hidden room filled with coins and this one optical to do some tricky platforming to get hands on they are secrets get the difference okay but that makes the question what makes a good secret because it'll be very easy for a developer to just hide a secret thing in a completely random totally obscure place and make it impossible to find but that doesn't exactly make it fun or enrich the gameplay experience does it I think contrary to what might appear to be common sense the most important thing about secrets is that they're well they're meant to be found and the real value of adding them to a game is in players seeking them out not necessarily the fight itself you might think that say typically architect of games wishy-washy answer but let me explain myself that impulse to scour a game for something you've been told you're not supposed to find but actually are can be used in a variety of important ways and not just for expert players secrets can be used to help newbie start their journey as well as give experienced players something to do once they've mastered everything else take the litany of upgrades you find lying around in Metroidvania games for example stuff like the hidden upgrade gears in steam wanting to or the mask shards in Halle Knight a lot of these goodies are really quite easy to sponsor you just can't get them right away this means that they end up sticking in your mind and you can come back to pick them up once you've got the right upgrade this little gameplay loop of finding a secret and then coming back to it once you can actually acquire the damn thing is an incredibly useful tool in the game designers arsenal because it encourages players to build up a mental map of the area they're supposed to be exploring and then re explore on this cool halfpipe in the opening areas of Metroid Prime isn't just a striking pair of level geometry it also hides a missile upgrade that observant players will spot but won't be able to get this initial frustration plus the fun of going back to the chozo ruins and grabbing it once you've got the boost ball cements the place in your memory and acts as a clever teaching moment to remind players to be aware of halfpipe shaped structures elsewhere in the world because they probably hide sequels as well we tend to think of Secrets exclusively in the terms of big fun Easter eggs that make for great top 10 lists but smaller easier ones are a great way to guide players and subtly teach them how you want them to play uncovering lambda caches in half-life 2 secret rooms in Doom or tucked away and often glitchy ammo crates in Halo are particularly challenging but encourage players to keep their eyes open and off-the-beaten-path I like to call these kinds of Secrets guidance secrets because while they are hidden they are actually pretty easy to find and are mostly used to teach players most people are savvy enough to chew now obvious tutorial messaging but the thrill of finding something hidden something surprising can communicate a lesson and offer an incentive to find more very effectively in the vvvvv that's 6 ok the player is introduced to shiny trinkets the game's optional collectables in the broom trench warfare but if you're good at exploring or are just bad at the game like I am you can actually find a trinket a bit earlier in the room it's a secret to nobody accessible while missing the jump in the atmospheric filtering unit this that will secret area not only gives players a hands-on exploration experience but it also tells them that falling off the bottom of the screen isn't lethal like in most other platformers of course there's a clue in the name it's a secret to nobody beyond the Zelda reference most players are gonna find that trinket before the tutorial but doing so gives them an awesome feeling like they've got one up on the game and chasing that feeling will drive them to hunt down the other 18 trinkets using secret hunting to guide players to walls getting bearer the game works for newbies but if you just handed out freebies forever then you wouldn't be making the most of your secrets another important way of approaching them is to consider the secrets can also be a great way to help players and modulate the game's difficulty the hidden quest for the Lord of the mountain in the Legend of Zelda breath of the wild is a fantastic opportunity for experienced players to test their knowledge and understanding of the world new players will dismiss this glowy green lights as just another weird part of Hyrule they don't understand that can have fun with the more obvious content until they're ready but experienced adventurers who mapped out Hyrule and understand how the various systems interlock will be able to track the source of the light down to Satori mountain named after mr. Iwata rest in peace make the trek up to the Lord's ledge or in the dangerous nighttime and will have the experience required to tame him as a reward fighting the secret they get a cool looking mount with infinite stamina who is a perfect companion for journeying to the farthest corners of the world to Hoover up those last few shrines secrets also reward repeat playthroughs in Noida the spells slinging powder rogue-like new players will either miss or get scan off by this massive lava lake in the first level but advanced buyers will know how to cross it and will be rewarded by a special secret upgrade as well as a super fast shortcut down to a laser level by having secrets represent optional challenges designers can allow players to customize their experience and create multiple possible levels upon which the game can be enjoyed new players all those just looking for an easy playthrough aren't going to be interested in super hard optional challenges and it will probably spoil their experience if they ran into unavoidable ultra hard stuff before they were ready therefore it's important to hide or gate secrets which contain a test of mastery such the only players up to the challenge need apply in Dark Souls 2 most of the hardest bosses are optional secret fights and could be found within hidden areas in the DLCs or is the reward for completing long esoteric quest lines like in the case of aldea or the dark lager only players actively looking for a challenge are going to bother with getting to these areas and they'll hopefully relish the challenge the secret places have to offer unless is the horrible shadow reindeer from the DLC in which case they can go to hell players looking to test their mastery will still need a bit of reinforcement to encourage them to delve into the deepest layers of the game many games reward the completion or collection of Secrets with new content that has a high skill ceiling or requires advanced mechanical know-how Bayonetta choose tacky Mizoguchi big hammer sorry about the terrible pronunciation requires doing a fair bit of exploring and optional fights decay hands-on unlike the default guns which are fast and agile the hammer is sloped or powerful I can only really shine in the hands of an expert who could read enemy attack bans and knows when to strike if a new player tried using the big hammer chances are they die very quickly but for someone on their journey to mastery not only is it a fun reward but only they will be able to fully understand and appreciate its use and that brings me neatly on to the final and most important role of a good secret that they've got to make the player feel special all this time I've been going on about secrets that give or take a few examples you as a player are more or less intended to find through normal gameplay and this is a completely valid approach to secret design but what about those big flashy elusive secrets that I was going on about the star the video what's so special about them well it's because they're exclusive secrets like spelunky eggplant run take a complete and total intimacy with the game to pull off for those who don't know spelunky is a really hard roguelike platformer it's tough enough to be normally let alone doing a playthrough we collect all the secret Egyptian artifacts unlock the secret hell level and fight the secret of final boss but there's one more challenge for truly dedicated players when you sacrifice a presence to Kali the Blood goddess she gives you an eggplant or an aubergine if you're civilized this thing is pretty much useless and splats if you drop it but if you manage to bring it all the way to king yama down in hell which requires total mastery of all spunky's mechanics including the fiddly hired hands you get to transform him into an eggplant and pretty much skip the fight a journey which is of course way harder than just playing normally and fighting in Legere this almost joke is a special moment shared between you and the developer to truly appreciate it you need a level of love for the game on par with that of Derek use and it's a final little capstone to say well done you did it these sorts of high level prestige secrets don't really need to give players help like guidance secrets or extra content as an incentive to keep playing like mastery secrets because if you like the game enough to pursue these bad boys then simply get any acknowledged for your achievement by the developers is reward enough Fez is actually a really great example of all three types of secret one oh by the way there are some spoilers in Fez coming up obviously so you don't want to hear them skip to this time stab okay the yellow cubes require a bit of dimension flipping bar generally easy to find and all you need to finish the game blue antique use requires some riddle solving and mastery of the game's obscure language and oh really for more advanced players in return for getting all of them expert Fez players get to see the real ending finally you've got the red cubes which true to form don't really do much of anything each one of these requires incredibly in-depth effort to find and back in the day some of them took the entire internet working as a team to decipher seriously these things are nuts the black monolith puzzle was so fiendish but it took an entire team of players not to solve it because that was too hard but to prove faucet and to try and work out a hypothetical reasoning for the solution after the fact which involves to create a fill fish's love for 2001 a Space Odyssey and some insanity involving the game's xbox live release date because only the most dedicated players are going to be going after the red cubes all they need as a reward is prestige represented in the cubes forming a lovely image of a heart when you put them all together ah fez is a game all about uncovering hidden layers or yes sides and it's possible that many people have B in the game without ever realizing that the red cubes even exist and that's what makes them so special to collect one is a mark of Honor and collecting them all shows that you loved fest so much do you willing to find a complete literally everything the game had to offer that's why I think the answer to what makes a good secret has to come down to not how well it's hidden or what reward it unlocks but the appreciation of a game you've got to have in order to seek them out in the first place a developer putting little jokes nods and optional things into the game either to help you test you or praise you for dedicating time to it shows an understanding of the different ways people are going to play their game undertale has a secret storyline and bosses because toby fox new players were tried to murder everything rockstar put their infamous there are no easter eggs here go away sign on top of this bridge because their new players will try to get out of bounds with the jetpack and the stanley parable has a secret ending involving the essence of divine art only accessible if you play a dumb mini game for four hours because the developers new dedicated stupid dumb people with too much time on their hands would seek it out if it was their secrets are an expression of the mutual appreciation for a game shared by developer and player and there's no better example of that than in Shadow of the Colossus for years the Shadow of the Colossus community scoured the game for a legendary final secret rumor to still be in the game their hump became so massive that the developers took notice and added a special Easter ages for them in the remaster for the ps4 the 79 steps to enlightenment in recognition of their dedication and love for the game even going so far as to thank one of the main secret finders no mad Colossus by name in the credits and doesn't that say at all whether they give us something useful interesting or just the congratulations we find C granting fun because it feels like we're getting more advocate than simply a surface level look by going off the beaten path challenging our knowledge and skill er a game or even using our knowledge of the underlying rules to try and break them we're engaging with the game on a deeper level and ultimately that's probably what the designers wanted all along good secrets just encourage us to continue on that journey and in that grand tradition if you can decode this super secret message you'll get a super secret surprise Easter egg ooh it's totally gonna be worth it trust me what possible reason could I have to lie to you anyway before you do that let's get started with our usual wrap up where I tell you what cool content creating geniuses you should be watching instead of me this time it's Jacob Geller who made a fantastic video you've probably seen hanging around in your sidebar about that Shadow of the Colossus secret I was on about earlier he goes incredibly in-depth and there's even a cool moral at the end it's fantastic stuff and you should go watch him and of course if you'd like to support my work you could become one of my fantastic patrons who are the sole reason why you're not seeing me do an advert for rainshadow legends right now if you'd like to help support free independent games media then please consider pledging some cash like my top tier supporters who are alex on launch a Saran L no 94 Baxter he'll big jets Brian oh sorry Ani Calvin Han Daniel matches David Dumitrescu Dirk Jan Karen bailed doodle hog Evie Heba thon Jesse Ryan Joshua binswanger Lieberman Lucas slack lunar Eagle 1996 mace window 54 max filippov mr. tea with some tea Patrick Romberg Phil be the bill be Prospero Ray's dad Samuel Vander Plaats strategy in Ultima Yara Miren Zack Shuster and ciao thank you to all those people and to you for watching and as a special reward for watching all the way to the end I will tell you the passcode for the Visionnaire cipher I posted earlier and that is secret sec r ET have fun

Channel: Adam Millard - The Architect of Games

Views: 334,048

Keywords: Games, Video Games, Gaming, PC Gaming, Adam, Adam Millard, Architect, AoG, Architect of Games, Review, Analysis, Celeste, Platformer, Game Design, Fez, Metroid, Dark Souls, Journey to the Savage Planet, Secrets, Gaming Secrets, Easter Eggs, Video game easter eggs, Spelunky, Zelda, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Bayonetta, Top 10 Secrets, Fortnite, Batman

Id: 3D5qcaNBB2s

Length: 15min 27sec (927 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I've seen some stuff from this guy and it seems like he doesn't really know how to make games

[u/g4l4h34d]

Normally, I wouldn't care, but, the channel name is the Architect of games! He seems not only to be unaware of the actual game development process, but that the architect is an actual job title among programmers that has a very high skill and experience requirement. Thus, many people might mistakenly believe he has much more qualifications that he actually does. It doesn't help that his way of presentation doesn't mention anywhere that he examines games from the outside as an observer, rather than providing inside knowledge and experience as a specialist.