Happy Easter

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I approach the search for Easter Eggs in a completely different way.

Exploring the virtual game world is one of the key methods of interacting with a computer game[1]. Explorers try to discover most of the facts about a game world during their gameplay. Additionally, they try to move beyond the normal path of a player in order to discover interesting features most players probably have missed.
Explorers are mostly focussed on interacting with the virtual world. They like to climb up the highest mountain or explore the deepest cavern. Following the normal approach of the game and aiming for the best outcome isn’t the direct goal of an explorer. It’s more about discovering all the wonders and enjoying every component of the virtual world.
However, it’s not just about exploring the world, it’s also about exploring the game and every feature of it. Explorers like to combine different actions in the game world to discover different outcomes. It’s mostly like permanently asking the question „What if …?“.

On the other side, following the gameplay of an explorer can be also very rewarding for computer game developers. Explorers are digging deep into the game mechanics, the storyline and the virtual world. They’re also appreciating the design work of the developers and they even notice small features most players probably might overlook. But especially these features make the world live and breath and can cost a lot of time during the design process. Furthermore, explorers are also seeing the „end“ of the world and appreciate when the boundaries of a level seem to be very consistent with the game world. In the end, explorers are enjoying every part of the game thus exhausting the creative result of the developers.

Game developers even found a way to thank these players for their thorough exploration of the game world and enjoying their content: they started to implement small but very meaningful features into the game world. This approach is almost like giving an additional gift to the explorers, because they feel rewarded when they discover a well hidden wonder that might leave them in awe.
These special special features even don’t need to be very complex. It just can be a group picture of all the developers, a small reference to another game or movie or even a game community meme, which will be identified immediately. In most cases, these special features aren’t directly related to the game world and are often a bit ironic.
The location on the other side needs to be a very special and often way off from the normal path a player should take. Explorers are then able to discover well hidden and „cool“ relics in the game world when they explore every corner of the level.

The special characteristic of being nice and little goodies which are well hidden in the game world might have caused the name these special features have received. They’re called Easter Eggs.

Happy Easter and good luck discovering every corner of your very own level!

Happy Easter

[1] Bartle, Richard (1996): Hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades: Players who suit MUDs, http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm, retrieved on 2014/04/19.