Super Secret Areas

[Ragnos 122]

I recently finished work on a Super Secret area (because secret area isn't enough). In this area holds the developer weapon that I put in every single one of my games called Blank. Over the two years of my games it has developed a lore behind it though a sort of hidden lore only the player could come up with if they managed to find the weapon in each of my games. But I digress...

 

To get to this area you have to stand in a certain spot, and hit space... 102 times. Music stops... loud noises... FLASHING LIGHTS!! you spawn in a broken future dimension called. "Br0k3n R3alm" Here you have to travel in a lightless area and follow a winding path, at the end is a chest inside that holds "Blank" except in this game it's "Bl@nk". Insta-kill weapon, for testing the story events. 

 

I was wondering if anyone has created areas or even weapons like this across their games?

[Guyver 65]

Near the end of my game, you get thrown into a jail and someone breaks the wall out to help you escape. After that you have to go through a sewer and the last room has a clock pattern in it. If you want to advance, you go clockwise once and a door opens so you can reach the lever to turn off the gas and proceed. If you go counter clockwise, you'll unlock a hidden room with a fake wall that you walk through to reach a chest. Once the hidden room is open, a boss encounter will occur and you'll fight something called Nemesis which has a wide array of skills that can't be resisted or mitigated in anyway. Once you beat Nemesis, if you do, you can claim the Amare Damnum. Amare is Latin for love and Damnum is Latin for loss. The player won't know it, but it's the real name of the main villain of the game. It's the most powerful staff in the game and gives a few passive status effects as well teach the Draconic Shatter spell.

 

It can be missed, and the real name of the villain is never revealed, even during the flashback sequence involving his backstory.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Guyver

[Ragnos 122]

That's pretty cool. 

[Nirwanda 323]

Damn those sound really cool now I want to include a crazy hidden secret like that!

For now the only mainstay in my games is giving the hero a skill called cheat that fully heals the party and then does 1,000,000 hp damage to enemies.

Now that I think about it, one game had an (unnaccesible) developer's room filled with creepy messages. It would have been cool to implement a way in had the project continued....

[Chadzter01 183]

Yeah, I think i also have a secret area in my game. It is very well hidden that in order to find it you need to ask me first how to get there.

The area is a debug-kind of map. So everything in there is a mess. Full of overpowered weapons and armors but i'm uncertain if the player can use it.. lol

[Ragnos 122]

Yeah, I think i also have a secret area in my game. It is very well hidden that in order to find it you need to ask me first how to get there.

The area is a debug-kind of map. So everything in there is a mess. Full of overpowered weapons and armors but i'm uncertain if the player can use it.. lol

Same way I set up the blank room. You gotta ask me where the spot is you have to hit space 102 times. 

Only after you've beaten the game will I tell you.

[Chadzter01 183]

 

Yeah, I think i also have a secret area in my game. It is very well hidden that in order to find it you need to ask me first how to get there.

The area is a debug-kind of map. So everything in there is a mess. Full of overpowered weapons and armors but i'm uncertain if the player can use it.. lol

Same way I set up the blank room. You gotta ask me where the spot is you have to hit space 102 times. 

Only after you've beaten the game will I tell you.

 

102 times?! lol just make it 100!   

I wonder what the player will feel after breaking their space bar.

[Purple Phantom 453]

In my games, I have lots of these.

Aftermath: Gears of Hope - The Hidden Underground and The Abandoned Asylum in The Abandoned Ruins both count. To get to The Hidden Underground, you have to press buttons and try to use the water cooler several times. In there, you'll find all kinds of stuff, including lore. To get into The Abandoned Asylum, you have to get the Card Key. To get the Card Key, you have to take it from a specific character. After that, you can get in - but you have to sneak out of Grandview. Is it worth it? Yes. Is it easy? Heck no. I mean, once you figure out the one for The Hidden Underground, it's easy to get in, but The Abandoned Asylum (and The Abandoned Ruins, in general)? Noooooope. That's mega difficult.

 

Otherworld - There are five Treasure Rooms you can get into, all of which give you healing items (a rare item in the game) and better armour types (also a rare item). In one of them, the very last treasure chest contains four new weapons - one for each character - which are way better than the original weapon set. The catch? All five are rather easy to miss.

 

Nightwatch Nightmares: Act 3 - When in the nightmare world, there's a "Ross' Mario Maker Cheat"-style way to go around one of the levels. Instead of finding your exit ticket into the next level, just go to the closet door and use the action button 20 times.

[Rezanta 373]

Woo, hidden rooms! Let me start with my current games, Scalvose: Dark Tides, and Tale of Two Feathers.

 

For SDT, you can get out of Deiroace's castle after you travel to it for the second time. If you travel enough to the right of the castle entry (even thought it's small), you can try to decipher the Scalvosian words on the slab in the wall. After reading it, it'll open the way to Thyroid, which will ask you to try and uncode it and the repeat it in reverse. Afterwords, if you get it right, you have to fight Thyrois with no way to use items (As his ability Item Lock disallows it) and he has 56,000 HP. He's the god of creation, thus he is really hard, not to mention you can't damage him unless he attacks. I hope you know how to cry if you really want to beat him. If you do, you get him as a party member, thus basically breaking the game. XD

 

Tale of Two Feathers has a fun secret for players to open up. In Azureles' INN, you can talk to the townsfolk that are around. If you go in right after Syn runs off to attack the Striders, you can find Wane, who will ask about some random things. Answer his questions, and then you'll be prompted to fight him. Now, Wane is a tough cookie, so be very prepared if you choose to engage. When you win, he gifts you with a story about Man Versus Dragon (a book he carries), and then proceeds to leave. After that, you can find him randomly on different occasions, and if you find him for the fifth time, he gives you the Verdant Rose, which instantly maxes any relationship of your choosing, getting you married to another character if they're of the opposite sex.

[+ Asharonapaul 276]

now I know I should definitely do so with my game. I've never made a complete game. although, it is kind of a secret on the first quests. the player can't really talk with any of the NPCs until he has a dragon brain, because the player absorbs the languages of all dragons with it. so there is a 1/3 chance of getting it from battling any kind of dragon, and you never know if you're going to wipe out all dragons without ever getting it, like one in million chance or something of that happening. but once you have the dragon brain, the dragon npcs start communicating to you in english, and you get the choice to help them if they have quests, or just kill them. I haven't made a queast specific dragon for each type yet, just made all of one type for a scene have the quest hidden from the player. and the prologue doesn't tell you about dragon brains, because the character talking to the player has had his memory wiped clean because he is dead, he remembers only fragments.

is that an annoying feature though? if the player just kills off all dragons, they will lose, because the dragons know the secrets on the world, and help the player find hidden weapons and such.

[Rezanta 373]

is that an annoying feature though? if the player just kills off all dragons, they will lose, because the dragons know the secrets on the world, and help the player find hidden weapons and such.

To be fair, it's risk versus reward, something that if done well, will be a great work in a game.

[+ Asharonapaul 276]

I have the impression, that when I release the game, I stipulate that no Walk Throughs be made, and any let's play not show everything, like leave out certain aspects that could give away the secrets or something. but I don't know if that would hurt anything for the game.

[lonequeso 1,921]

I don't currently have or plan on having any easter egg hidden areas. They are fun little things that can make your game more memorable. 

[Kayzee 4,032]

I have a developer room in my test game. I have it scripted so you can only get there form the main area of the game from a random mirror in town and only if the $TEST variable is set to true.

[Tarq 746]

Mmm I like the idea of secret areas and all, but no-one's ever going to find something like that unless you leak it yourself. Which wouldn't make it very secret at all. Even if you told me explicitly how to get bl@nk and what it does in your game I probably wouldn't trust the intel; its Mew under the truck by S.S. Anne all over again.

 

 

 

Dark Souls did a boss job of secret area-ing: behind two hidden walls (in an, arguably, optional location) . So simple you'd never think it. Its not even wasted development time either due to the player hint system and, even if you're offline, the game conditions you to strike suspicious chests, thereby hitting the nearby wall.

 

 

 

Something to mull over. I appreciate its gamebreaking and you probably don't want it to be found often, but if its about rewarding the dedicated or just encouraging whimsy then there has to be some indication that 1) it exists, and 2) the means to acquiring it. 

Edited May 11, 2016 by Tarq

[Rikifive 3,411]

Something like this was in FNaFb. (yeah I know, don't ask)

 

You had to hit space to the wall around 250 times I believe? Then a secret area was opened, where you were able to tweak stuff like party members, items and stats.

 

Personally I'd add that kind of stuff in New Game+ , because these are just like cheats and that kinda ruins the experience. I know it may be difficult to find, but internet does its thing. Once players will complete the game - then I wouldn't mind them cheating~ =P

 

 

The idea itself is nice and interesting.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Oh people will find anything if they look hard enough... anyway it would be cool in this modern day of datamining and spoilers thrown willy nilly to have a secret like that that no one knows about.

[Rikifive 3,411]

I was thinking of making Super Secret Areas few times~

 

For example if you'd be in a certain location at 3:00 AM (based on real-time clock) ~ then there would be something strange happening.

Let's say the village is empty (everybody sleeps) at night and everything is closed, but at 3:00AM one house on the edge of the village or something opens and extremely creepy stuff is inside...

 

Or something like this. ^^

[lonequeso 1,921]

Ooo. Mysterious. Haunted house? Strange experiments? Politicians working on

anti-pony legislation?

[Rikifive 3,411]

Nope, just a room that uses a graphic that doesn't exist in game's folder thus crashing your game. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Mysterious!

[lonequeso 1,921]

I made a map like that once! Only it wasn't intentional :/

 

I just realized I had a couple nice lil secret areas. They're not really hard to find, but they require field skills that you don't get till later in the game. It's more a matter of remembering them than finding them.

[Rezanta 373]

Hmm... Like about those moving secret areas? I won't bring up Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky, but Gates to Infinity had some great secret rooms to find, and you needed to rely on the right party to open the doors to get into the noticeable ones.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Rezanta

[Purple Phantom 453]

I know that in my newest project (perhaps one of the first games I ever planned out to any extent before I got VX Ace), I plan on having several rooms you can only get to from doing certain things, having a specific party member, backtracking through entire areas or collecting all # of a collectible item. The rooms often contain optional bosses, statues (they help with things - thank you, magic), one-shot weapons, etc.

 

Thank you, 2 years ago me, for writing this stuff down.

[Nyuuchan353 147]

Debug rooms are awesome. Just make sure the conditions that need to be met to access them are really obscure (or hide them behind a NG+).

[Tap Attakz 0]

Just a quick question, can you send a link to the download? Also I might add some SSRs to my game (I've only made a W.I.P sprite I can't program l0l)