This is more of an Easter Egg than a Secret(tm), but my favorite is still in Dishonored, where the male announcer is replaced by a female announcer voiced by Carrie Fisher in the event that he is killed. It requires you to realize the announcer is an actual in-world NPC, not just a mechanic of the game, find his location, AND kill him. Then surprise! You get Carrie Fisher.
Secrets can bring communities together, letting them get invested in solving whatever mystery they think you’ve set up. I mean, look at the Fnaf franchise or any game by Daniel Mullins or even Dark Souls, to some extent. If done well, it can be utilised to get people talking about your game when it launches, or even keep talking about it for a long time afterwards.
I do remembet that in old game, i could sniff out secrets in level design just with pacing. Old game tried to maximised grid layout, so you could very much find things just by feeling the grid 😂 I felt vindicated in mario 3, when in the sky bonus zone i guessed there was a one up in the air, at the end of the level, and that was on no Walkthrough guide of the time. Finding secrets encourage creativity and cognitive plasticity, it build confidence.
How many secrets does Anthem hold? And why is there Urgoth Prison right next to Fortress of Dawn? Also i like Mathewmathosic line about Dark Souls. "I always get the impression that Miazaki has a lot more answers for a world of Dark Souls that he ever give to anyone" So tell me the secret, Mark or i go to the Heart Of Rage and kill the Monitor. NOW!
So these tweets were a countdown (17*2, 3*11, 8*4, and so on...) to August 2020 (if I'm not mistaken). Mass Effect Legendary Edition was announced on November 2020. Was the announcement supposed to happen 2 mos before that?
@@MarkDarrahKinda seems like the timeline lines up with when Dragon Age 4 got rebooted? So possibly an announcement of a release a few months after that, giving a bit more than 3 years of development time to make that window? Not sure if that makes sense bc any delays would have messed with the timing, but maybe it's flexible enough and nice to have a monthly reminder of a long term project. Potentially December 4th, 2020 release for D4 day?
Do you think that games have been simplified too much in the last decade? We don't even get any hard puzzles or things like what we did in 2000/2010, is it a thing about genre shifting or more like a creative thing? too much hand-holding? 🤔
I’m curious how you would square posting hints/secrets online with hype culture. I’m sure we could all find stories where a community/subreddit overreacted to something someone innocuously posted online (kind of like GTA VI and the moon, recently), and when it turns out to be nothing OR something fans didn’t want, the enthusiasm becomes frustration and, at worst, harassment. I can’t think of a specific example, but I want to say that I’ve heard some devs say that they don’t post online or they limit their interactions with fans for this reason. A silly tweet blows up, people obsess over it, and it becomes an annoyance/source of harassment for a few days online. How should devs handle that kind of thing? Sorry for the long question haha love your videos!!
Yeah this can be an issue. The bigger the obsession of the core the bigger the danger. The end result is less of this gets posted which isn’t what the core wants
Bottom line, you're too clever for your own good. 😜 I keep seeing folks say the "puzzles" in Veilguard are "too easy," while I'm running around trying to figure out not only how to find one of the chests I need for completion of an area, but also how to access the damn thing once I find it. Yeah, sure, some are easy (which I appreciate), but some were really tricky! (Although I am so glad there were no audio puzzles. I still remember getting so stumped by those in Myst/Riven because of my audio processing issues).
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
This is more of an Easter Egg than a Secret(tm), but my favorite is still in Dishonored, where the male announcer is replaced by a female announcer voiced by Carrie Fisher in the event that he is killed. It requires you to realize the announcer is an actual in-world NPC, not just a mechanic of the game, find his location, AND kill him. Then surprise! You get Carrie Fisher.
That's amazing
I have no idea! What does it meeeeann?
Hints later...
Secrets can bring communities together, letting them get invested in solving whatever mystery they think you’ve set up. I mean, look at the Fnaf franchise or any game by Daniel Mullins or even Dark Souls, to some extent. If done well, it can be utilised to get people talking about your game when it launches, or even keep talking about it for a long time afterwards.
Abnsolutely
Data miners kinda spoil the fun when we leave secrets in a game
True.
I do remembet that in old game, i could sniff out secrets in level design just with pacing. Old game tried to maximised grid layout, so you could very much find things just by feeling the grid 😂 I felt vindicated in mario 3, when in the sky bonus zone i guessed there was a one up in the air, at the end of the level, and that was on no Walkthrough guide of the time. Finding secrets encourage creativity and cognitive plasticity, it build confidence.
That is a very good point
How many secrets does Anthem hold? And why is there Urgoth Prison right next to Fortress of Dawn?
Also i like Mathewmathosic line about Dark Souls.
"I always get the impression that Miazaki has a lot more answers for a world of Dark Souls that he ever give to anyone"
So tell me the secret, Mark or i go to the Heart Of Rage and kill the Monitor.
NOW!
Do it!!!!
@@MarkDarrah Its against jedi... i mean... freelancer way! I shouldnt.
So these tweets were a countdown (17*2, 3*11, 8*4, and so on...) to August 2020 (if I'm not mistaken). Mass Effect Legendary Edition was announced on November 2020. Was the announcement supposed to happen 2 mos before that?
Right thing wrong announcement
@@MarkDarrah also you left BioWare in december 2020... and there was first infodump on DA4 in august (behind the scene video). smth right?
@@MarkDarrahKinda seems like the timeline lines up with when Dragon Age 4 got rebooted? So possibly an announcement of a release a few months after that, giving a bit more than 3 years of development time to make that window? Not sure if that makes sense bc any delays would have messed with the timing, but maybe it's flexible enough and nice to have a monthly reminder of a long term project. Potentially December 4th, 2020 release for D4 day?
An intriguing thought, I never considered game developers throw in mysteries they don't want solved.
I’m not convinced they are even thinking in these terms so much as “ha ha this is funny/cool”
@@MarkDarrah That's not necessarily a bad thing either lol.
Do you think that games have been simplified too much in the last decade? We don't even get any hard puzzles or things like what we did in 2000/2010, is it a thing about genre shifting or more like a creative thing? too much hand-holding? 🤔
I think the internet has been bad for puzzles
1. Answers too easy to get
2. Too easy to criticize a puzzle for "moon logic"
I’m curious how you would square posting hints/secrets online with hype culture. I’m sure we could all find stories where a community/subreddit overreacted to something someone innocuously posted online (kind of like GTA VI and the moon, recently), and when it turns out to be nothing OR something fans didn’t want, the enthusiasm becomes frustration and, at worst, harassment. I can’t think of a specific example, but I want to say that I’ve heard some devs say that they don’t post online or they limit their interactions with fans for this reason. A silly tweet blows up, people obsess over it, and it becomes an annoyance/source of harassment for a few days online. How should devs handle that kind of thing? Sorry for the long question haha love your videos!!
Yeah this can be an issue.
The bigger the obsession of the core the bigger the danger.
The end result is less of this gets posted which isn’t what the core wants
Bottom line, you're too clever for your own good. 😜
I keep seeing folks say the "puzzles" in Veilguard are "too easy," while I'm running around trying to figure out not only how to find one of the chests I need for completion of an area, but also how to access the damn thing once I find it. Yeah, sure, some are easy (which I appreciate), but some were really tricky! (Although I am so glad there were no audio puzzles. I still remember getting so stumped by those in Myst/Riven because of my audio processing issues).
The crit path puzzles are easy but they basically have to be.
The others aren’t as easy…
The tool box of components may be a little empty…
@@MarkDarrah me constantly getting stumped by statue orientation puzzles because of my left-right weakness.
No I don't want my secret to be found.. that would mean i will go to jail. Joking... or am I?
Only a court of law will find out...
I don't like men keeping secrets from me 🤣
lol