Should a casual game have easter eggs? Before we dive into that, let’s see what successful casual games have done:
- Bejeweled 2 has a large number of codes that affect the game’s appearance. There’s also one easter-egg game mode.
- Zuma Deluxe has a few easter egg commands.
- Bonnie’s Bookstore has hidden interaction easter eggs.
- Galapago has brilliant, wonderful hidden interaction easter eggs.
Most games don’t have anything resembling an easter egg, at least that I have found. (I used Google to help refresh my memory of a dozen other games.) So obviously easter eggs are not super important to a game’s success. But they don’t hurt, right? And some games do have easter eggs. So when do you include them and when not?
We struggled with this one when making Starcrossed. Here’s a list of reasons to add easter eggs:
- Secret codes give you things to talk about. When PopCap sends out a newsletter to people who bought Bejeweled 2, they can include a few secret codes. It creates content for you (or your publisher) to parcel out later.
- Interaction easter eggs make the game feel more polished. When you randomly click on the bell on the Bonnie’s Bookstore main menu, it makes a sound like a bell. This makes you smile. When you click on the shrunken heads in Galapago, you hear hilarious commentary. It makes you laugh.
- Having hidden codes means having things for other sites to talk about, too. If your game has secret codes, then the various code collection websites will collect yours. Hey, any publicity is good publicity, right? Well, maybe? It can’t hurt, though we don’t have any evidence that casual game players ever look for codes on other websites.
In the end we added a few easter egg codes, but our most important easter egg, which was a hidden game mode, became unlockable content instead of secret content. We figured having it there on the menu but grayed out (until you beat other game modes and unlock it) was better than it just being hidden away. It’s better to see the cookie at the end of the trail than to have an invisible cookie that only a few players might stumble upon. Okay, that’s a weird analogy.
So to sum up (and add arbitrary subjective opinions):
- Hidden interactions that players stumble onto are good. It makes the game feel more polished, assuming players stumble into them like they’re supposed to.
- Minor easter eggs that are unlocked via secret codes are good if you have a newsletter. Other than that, they have dubious value-add.
- Easter eggs that reveal hidden game modes are less effective than making those game modes into unlockables instead of easter eggs.