Secrets are never the main focus of a level's design. By nature, they are optional, extra, non-obvious, and perhaps hidden from the player. This makes designing secrets into a course a layered consideration. For secrets, we have to consider the primary layers in order to better design the secret, supporting ones.

“What if everything you see is more than what you see-- [that] the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? ... You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it is really a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things.” — Miyamoto

It's A Secret To Everybody

Secrets support the primary experience. The main point of a course shouldn't be its secret. Secrets exist when players explore beyond the obvious.

Secrets are evidence that the game world is more complex than it seems. Simply finding a secret is a rewarding experience. Secrets are valued for the experience of thinking outside the box. Even if the reward is simple, the journey often makes it all worth it.

Secrets are distinct acknowledgements of ideas, personalities, and interactive possibilities. Designing a good secret must acknowledge more the players who systematically explore a space in a straightforward way. To design a secret in a non-obvious way, the designer must get an idea of what the obvious way is. This includes understanding how they play and how other players might play as well.

Finding good secrets is an extension of core gameplay. This means hidden button combinations or esoteric routines to uncover secrets are not "good" for gameplay. By rewarding players for playing in specific ways or following their curiosity, good secrets support the core intent of the game.

“To what extent are you going to hide the secrets?” he said. “In order for a mystery or a joke to work, we have to provide the necessary amount of information. Not too much, not too little, but the perfect balance, so that in the end people can feel, How come I didn’t realize that? The difficulty with video games... is that in games it’s the players who have to find their own road to the end.” — Miyamoto

Different Types of Secrets

• Clued Secret: These are the most basic type of secret. When a game clues the player to an object they can interact with to reveal its contents, that's a clued secret. The player doesn't know what's in the ? Block (Mario) or the chest (Zelda) until they investigate. So while the clue is obvious, the contents and the methods by which the player investigates may not be.
• Disguised Secrets: These are secrets that appear to be nothing out of the ordinary. Most pipes in Super Mario Bros. are not passage ways; but some are. You can't tell by looking at a pipe if it's one way or the other. It's the same with blocks which can contain coins or power ups. Generally there are more non-secrets than secrets for these elements. So the player tends to be surprised when they find one instead of irked when it's not a secret.
• Emergent Secrets: These secrets can only be found through a specific gameplay interaction. Hidden blocks in Mario are emergent secrets. There is no clue that they're there. The only way to find it is if you jump in the precise place that it exists. You can't uncover a hidden block by running into it from the side or the top. Designing emergent secrets requires understanding how players will play.
• Impossible Secrets: These secrets are highly unlikely to be found from emergent play. They have no disguise or clue. They tend to be so obscure that players need to be explicitly told they exist and how to uncover them. The white block in Super Mario Bros. 3 is a perfect example. Who would hold down on the white block for 10 seconds? The controversial "dev door" is an impossible secret that only the developer is meant to know about and take advantage of.

Workshop Recap and Secrets