Level Design - Hidden Features

Hidden Features

Level designers sometimes create hidden rooms and areas that usually require more tries to reach or to notice. These usually give some additional rewards, such as ammo or powerups. Casual players usually do not discover these, but these areas are interesting enough to be discovered and documented by dedicated gamers. Sometimes, they serve as easter eggs, containing messages such as the level designers' names or pictures, or political or humorous messages. One of the first games with a 3D engine to feature hidden features was Wolfenstein 3D, where certain walls could be "pushed" to reveal hidden passages. For example, Quake has many secret areas that reward the player with ammo, weapons, quad damage powerups, and in one hard-to-reach secret area, Dopefish makes an appearance. In fact, the hardest difficulty level, titled "Nightmare", is only reachable through a secret portal in the fourth dimension's entrance hall.

Sometimes, a whole level may be designed as a secret level.

Read more about this topic:  Level Design

Famous quotes containing the words hidden and/or features:

    “Our courage breaks like an old tree in a black wind and dies,
    But we have hidden in our hearts the flame out of the eyes
    Of Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “Each reader discovers for himself that, with respect to the simpler features of nature, succeeding poets have done little else than copy his similes.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)