Video game Easter eggs!
They’re cool!
They’re fun!
They’re things that are harder than you think!
Easter Eggs are still content.
That means they need to go to rating boards.
They still need to be tested.
They still need to be hooked up.
Chapters:
0:00 What’s an Easter Egg?
1:00 Easy? Not So Fast!
1:44 Easter Egg isn’t a Universal Concept
2:38 Keep Track
3:41 Summary
Source
This is very interesting. I've always seen easter eggs as something that probably didn't take up a lot of resources. I'm learning a lot about dev issues and it's helping me appreciate the games I play even more. Thank you for the deeper dive.
I remember finding Iron Man in Jaws of Hakkon and being very excited. Falling through the floor of skyhold and the creepy caliope cat was less fun because it meant my rig sucked and I needed to reload. Hey, what was your favorite easter egg that you shipped?
Something I'm wondering about is where an Easter Egg starts crossing the line into becoming an IP violation. In a game I'm currently working on, there are "boost capacitors" that make the vehicles go faster. I'd like to name one Go Flex after the Post Malone song (it has the lyric "push the gas, get a nosebleed" which is perfect) but I'm worried about it getting flagged as copyright infringement.
Some of the best Easter eggs I've encountered has been in FFXiV from Koji-fox. He's like a master at them 😅🤣
I honestly thought Easter eggs were a fun little thing a dev had time to put in for a laugh or a reference. I had no idea so much thought had to go into it. But now I stop and consider, of course thought has to go into it. These things don't magically appear and as you said has to ensure it passes ratings and can translate into multiple languages and cultures. I beginning to learn absolutely nothing about game development is simple or easy. Thanks Mark.
Are you using Premiere Pro? If so, consider increasing your bitrate to something like 15-20. There's a lot of fine details in your videos that are getting overly compressed.
This is cool and interesting to think about. Like, the Sad Weapon from DAI is fairly complicated in terms of acquisition and such. but! I think they're often worth it because it's really joyful to discover them. I enjoyed the emails you get at the end of MEA which had all sorts of callbacks to other BW games.
This has big John Green "Thoughts From Places" vibes and I'm here for it. Never knew Easter Eggs would take so much consideration but ot really makes sense when you explain it. Thank you for sharing!