Good ways to make secrets

[Castelia]

Hey. I've been thinking about better ways to create secrets in my wad, especially after receiving some helpful feedback. Most of the secrets in my wad involve opening walls with slightly different textures, which works, but it gets a little predictable.

What I'm wondering is this - what are some other good ways to make secrets? I've experimented with a few other things such as hidden switches, but that's about all I have. I've also considered hidden lifts.

Also, should secret walls be marked with slightly different/misaligned textures, or should it be up to the player to hug walls in search of secrets? I realise a lot of this probably boils down to how I want my wad to play, but I thought I might as well get some other opinions.

[Jayextee]

Get people to test your maps. If they end up breaking the map in a bizarre way by getting stuck in somewhere that looked impossible (or that you wouldn't have thought of), make it a secret. ;)

[kid marscat]

10 minutes ago, Jayextee said:

Get people to test your maps. If they end up breaking the map in a bizarre way by getting stuck in somewhere that looked impossible (or that you wouldn't have thought of), make it a secret. ;)

 

On broad terms, it's basically this, but I think it goes deeper than that.

 

I feel like the chainsaw at the start of "Entryway" is like a perfect encapsulation of the philosophy behind video game secrets in a way. What it's rewarding there, it's not merely making a mistake, but the action of taking a second to actually think what you're doing rather than just following the imaginary "adventure line" that most video game levels imply in their design. I'd also refer back to Donkey Kong Country 2 or Super Mario World, which explored that in different but equally effective ways.

 

But to basically simplify it down to one exact notion, it's the idea that a secret in a level or map is built upon rewarding the player, not for merely making a "mistake", but for going where they're not being led, either out of sheer curiosity, ingenuity or a desire to "outsmart" the designer. In practice, you should consider your map and the path you've designed for its gameplay, and look for places where you can reward the player for subverting your own design philosophy. This requires being critical of your own work, but it's what ultimately leads to good level design and mapping in general.

[[HotPocket]]

"What do these switches over here do?"

[traversd]

Sometimes make a switch action repeatable. The first time provides the necessary state to progress; the 2nd time provides access to a secret; then alternate back to the state to progress.

[Doom_Dude]

The typical texture misalignment gets old but I still use it sometimes to give a clue to the secret location. I also do a variation of this where I'll raise the floor and ceiling of the door a bit, which makes a bit of a step. Texturing the step with something different.. it's only noticeable if you look right at it usually.

 

In a dark room you can make a sector that looks like an arrow and light it up by making it a little brighter than the room. These are less noticeable if your ceiling and floors are using dark textures.

 

Then there's the room with various wall panels but one is different.. Like those marble face textures. The one that is a different demon just might be hiding something, maybe a pain elemental. ;)

 

I've hidden secret switches by placing them behind a switch that does some other thing. Basically you have a thin, raised sector on the floor, near a wall for the switch and who would think of looking behind it for a switch on the backside..

 

You can use a false wall by placing a mid texture in an opening. I have one of those in a prison map. You can see the rocket launcher in the cell but the door is locked. The adjacent cell has a wall you can walk through.

 

Maybe do something like make a sector a pool of blood against the secret door.

 

Custom textures are good for marking walls. Learn to make textures with scratches, words, blood splats, etc... comes in handy.

 

Be creative. Make a bunch of crusher pillars but hey there's one that's not moving.... hmmm.

 

Sometimes a secret in a secret works....

 

You can do what I call the Doom 3 secret where its some goodies around a corner that's slightly off the main path.

 

Giving visual clues sometimes helps the player clue in to a secret. You can place some goodies on a pedestal or a room you can only see from outside.

 

I got inspired by Quake 2... that one secret below some spiral steps, where you can break the windows and there's a parasite in an alcove. You find a switch behind a crate that opens this damned cool area. It kinda clued me in that secrets don't always have to be a box. Anybody remember what map that was... the Warehouse or something. Make em interesting I say. In one of my unreleased maps I made a rather large, ruined, dank area with lava you can see from another secret area. The end reward is a bit tricky to get to but worth it. It's like a mini-map inside the map.

 

Oh I need sleep.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Doom_Dude

[Dubbag]

I find the best way to design secrets, (for me at least) is to go against the norm. Make the player do something outside of the box in terms of thinking to achieve the secret. Also hint to the player that there might be something there but don't give away how to get to it. Or if you really want to tease them, let them SEE it and know it's there. Doesn't have to be ridiculous, for instance, there's a secret in the first map of my new WAD where there's a backpack hidden behind a METAL textured lift. The lift is high enough to create an un-climbable barrier, but short enough to see a couple pixels of the back pack hiding behind it. Plus there was a chaingun guy there previously, how was he there? METAL texture doesn't scream "LIFT" but they try it anyhow and voila! There's their secret. Make sure that the player always feels like they are rewarded for their extra exploration and time to figure it out. Make the prize something that could turn the tides of an extremely rough situation. Something they could really use at that specific moment in time. Or just spoil em if it's a really good one just for novelties sake!

 

Edited January 16, 2020 by Dubbagdarrel

[JadingTsunami]

Trigger - action - reward

 

Trigger

 

The trigger can be anything, but should be unexpected. It needs to pique the player's curiosity. Common ones are:

 

- "Out of place": a misaligned texture, a thing of the wrong color (like a blue torch when all others are red), etc. Something that doesn't match the pattern

- Sound: A distant sound is heard when crossing a threshold

- "Hard to reach": a place that looks accessible but it's not clear how to get there. Could be accessed from behind or using parkour jumping tricks

- Switches: a switch whose function is unclear can be a starting point to a puzzle-type secret.

- Automap oddity: Some strange element visible only in the automap

 

Action

 

The trigger should cause the player to act, and their action should directly result in finding the entrance to the secret. It's important that the trigger logically lead to the action, or the player will get frustrated.

 

For instance, if the trigger is a sound, let the player use sound to hone in on where to go. Don't make it too abstruse or layer bunches of different actions that don't logically connect to one another.

 

Reward

 

The reward should roughly be in line with the difficulty of the trigger and action for the secret. As a general convention, Secret map exits should be reserved for the highest difficulty as they have the highest reward value (a whole new map to play).

 

 

Other Notes

 

You can chain multiple triggers or actions for a single secret, but this is not recommended as it too often leads to player frustration. Done correctly it can be very rewarding, but it may require many iterations to get the balance just right.

Edited January 16, 2020 by JadingTsunami

[reflex17]

There are tons of ways to do secrets and I have a soft spot for plain old pushwalls that have a slightly different texture or are placed in a location a curious player might press, like in a corner behind a pillar, for example. It's common consensus that there should be *some* sort of indication that a secret is there, if all the secrets are just the same texture in the middle of long walls this might either cause frustration in the player, or they will miss a lot of them. I think even that type of secret could have a place, say a T-junction hallway, the flat wall could open a secret because it's symmetrical and makes sense to be there, if the player is searching around.

 

I'm also a fan if making secret lines appear 1-sided on the map, this makes it even more important they should be in logical locations that don't just rely on pressing tab to see where they are. Secrets add replayability to a map, if a player misses some they might go back and try again later.

 

Another good type of secret is the kind that depends only on the layout/geometry and has nothing to do with doors or platforms opening. Take for example a pathway with 8 sectors, four on either side. The sectors are all dropped down much lower than the main floor, so on first glance they look like pits. The player might try to jump down one and explore. 7 of the paths lead to an earlier area of the level that the player has been to, the last one leads to a secret. From here there are a few things the player can do:

 

1. Jump down and see that it's nothing and continue the level as normal.

2. Try each one methodically until they locate the secret, thereby rewarding exploration.

3. Fall into the correct sector the first time and find it right away.

 

#3 is the worst case scenario, which is why placement of the secret pit would be essential to ensure the player doesn't have a good chance of finding it first try. It doesn't have to be 8 sector pits, this was just an example to illustrate an idea.

 

Edited January 16, 2020 by reflex17

[ketmar]

just draw a huge arrow on the floor, pointing at the secret. please! because this is the only realistic way for me to not miss them (and even that doesn't work reliably, because i may miss that arrow).

[elend]

In my latest map I actually want to inclue more "exploration" type secrets. That is, weird corners and areas in the map that only explorers would be able to access. Either by jumping onto the right crate / ledge or explore dark corners and look behind things, etc. The map will be quite huge (sigh..) and offers many nooks and crannies to explore. People who actively enjoy looking in weird places should have at least some kind of reward.

 

Other than that I am also a fan of "weird texture here...", although this can become quite hard to notice depending on the texture pack used, etc. I am not a big fan of very obvious pointers, because they kind of diminish the "accomplishment" I feel. I do need hints, but if there is an arrow or a very obvious wrong texture, then what's the point.

Edited January 16, 2020 by elend

[Egg Boy]

I like the "spot the difference" sort of secrets. Where there may be a symmetrical area or an area with similar detailing to one before it, and the player has to investigate the different to open a secret. I like secrets that engage the player forcing them to investigate their surroundings, or think outside of the box. An example of the latter would be an arrow on the automap, pointing to a secret.

[Uncle 80]

Jumps. Maybe a wall you can jump over from running along a legde, a window you can jump through running off some crates, or even better, a window you can jump through jumping off a lift before it reaches the top and the main path.

[Juza]

I often hate secrets.

They give the player the mentality that he has to hump every suspicious, and/or detailed wall. Platforming and subtly hidden switches are a much better way to implement them; it has the player explore the map thoroughly, and to think of creative methods to access new places, rather than telling him he has to stare at walls and hope for the best.

[joepallai]

I like secrets that the player can see and have to work to get to it; usually helps if it's something valuable, otherwise the player might skip it first go.  

 

 

[Scorpius]

There are too many ways to make good secrets, and some creatively:

• You can make a hidden switch to a secret, like in Plutonia 2 MAP29.
• You can change a torch colour against all the others, like in DOOM E4M4.
• You can make a concealed teleporter that takes you somewhere, like in Perdition E4M2. :/
• You can use a switch behind a switch trick, like in No Rest for the Living MAP01.
• You can get players to jump through a window, like in KSUTRA MAP15.
• You can make use of shooting the evil eyes like in SIGIL.

I can make this list go on forever if you'd like.

[Doom_Dude]

Just woke up and remembered...

 

The pressure plate. You can make a piece of raised floor that lowers when the player walks on it and at the same time a wall lowers. It may not be a real pressure plate but it looks neat and so damned easy to make. Tiled floors are good for making those. Just put one somewhere the player doesn't normally walk. :D

 

As for shootable triggers. You can place a shootable switch that can only be seen from a window.

 

So many variations. I love secrets.

 

[edit] Oh and the classic door opening somewhere that's set off by walking over a trigger. Usually you can just hear the door somewhere. If you run for it you'll just get to it before it closes again. A variation is a tiny door in a wall that hides a switch.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Doom_Dude

[Steve D]

I love secrets. I take my cues from the classic E1M3 map Toxin Refinery. Indeed, it can be said that all of my "traditional" maps are merely much more violent Variations on a Theme From Toxin Refinery.  ;D  As @joepallai said, it's great to show players the secret item so they get inspired to hunt for the pathway to it. The classic example in Toxin Refinery is that Soulsphere you see through a window, but even better, it's part of a secret chain that also gives you a Rocket Launcher, a Backpack, and a Chaingun, and further loops you around the map in an interesting way. And on top of that, the Soulsphere and Rocket Launcher are not free, you have to fight a Sergeant and 6 Imps -- 3 in each location -- to get those goodies. There are people who believe that secret items should in fact be free, and that forcing us to battle for them is "punishing the player". I vehemently disagree, and point to the IWADs as proof that this is a normal part of Doom gameplay. I may take it to extremes because I like to make some of my secret areas very large and to fill them with big fights where the player might get killed. Is that unfair? Not to me. I view it as "bonus gameplay." There are times when up to a third of my maps can be secret areas, and players who miss them might reach the exit and wonder why their kill total is only between 65 - 85%. Answer; all those monsters are in big secret areas.

 

I still use the old reliable tricks of vertically misaligned textures, a slightly off-color texture, trigger lines for secret doors, different color torches, dead players, pools of blood and floor lamps in front of secret doors, fishy architecture, suspicious blinky lights, and so on. I have also used two-sided switches, but more often these days I use the tiny switch set into a wall. I'm also doing more Doom Parkour secrets because players who test my maps often leap onto things in hopes of triggering a secret, so I'm including them because modern players tend to expect that. It's an old trick, though, because people were doing that kind of thing at least as early as '95. Modern players also expect to find secret switches in consoles and computer panels, so I incorporate those, too. Thanks to Sigil, people are shooting at Evil Eyes in maps I made over 20 years ago, which gives me a chuckle, but it shows how iconic maps can change the whole scene.

 

One thing I've noticed from watching playthroughs of my maps is that a high percentage of players are not great at secret hunting. They blaze through too fast to catch the clues. Another problem is not fully examining a room, for example looking at 3 walls but not looking at the 4th, which is the one containing the secret door. OTOH, some players are bloodhounds with great observational skills and fine-tuned instincts honed by years of play. Hiding secrets from such players is extremely difficult, so it's a fun battle between mapper and player.

 

I would say that under no circumstances should a secret lack some kind of clue. I personally avoid automap clues because I seldom use the automap myself. Therefore, all my secret clues are visible to the player in-game. The parkour secrets are either visible -- you can see the secret item but not know how to reach it -- or intuitable -- you see structures you can use for platforming and decide to try it because it just might reveal a secret.

 

The other thing to never do is force a player to find a secret door in order to complete a map. This can lead to players not finding the secret and quitting the map in frustration. I've made this mistake myself, and regretted it.

 

So have fun with secrets. The people who enjoy exploration as much as they do combat will really appreciate cool secrets in your maps.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Steve D

[Vorpal]

1 hour ago, Steve D said:

I would say that under no circumstances should a secret lack some kind of clue.

 

The rational part of my brain agrees with you. But the child who lives in my head that grew up on wolf3d and enjoyed wall humping for secrets is still completely OK with a mapper leaving a secret with no clue and only happenstance discovery ;-P

[Pegleg]

In general, secrets should reward exploration. I personally like three types of secrets:

 

1. Door/Room accessible in an optional part of the map that you don't have to go into. Like the chainsaw in Map 01, but I mean something more like this:

You come up a corridor, which leads up a series of steps, to a landing that has a door and a switch. When you press the switch, a wall halfway down the set of stairs opens, leading to a different room. Inside the room is a switch that opens a door in that room and the door on the landing. The rooms exit to a different area, so there's not necessarily a reason to go back to that door at the top of the landing. Secret!

 

2. Room accessible in an area you needn't revisit. For instance, in the map I made for Akeldama, I put a secret room in the start room, but it opens only after you've left the start room. There's no real reason to return to the start room, so you may never find that secret unless you go looking for it.

 

3. Secret area that's shown earlier, like SteveD talked about. This can be similar to #1.

 

3 hours ago, Steve D said:

There are people who believe that secret items should in fact be free, and that forcing us to battle for them is "punishing the player". I vehemently disagree, and point to the IWADs as proof that this is a normal part of Doom gameplay. I may take it to extremes because I like to make some of my secret areas very large and to fill them with big fights where the player might get killed. Is that unfair? Not to me. I view it as "bonus gameplay."

 

I agree with this concept and I also do it. I've also done the "get the weapon in the secret, monsters spawn." I've had people tell me that's a cheap shot, a sort of "hey player, congratulations on getting that plasma rifle, now fight a bunch of cacodemons with it." But hey, there's been monsters in secret areas dating all the way back to the big outer area in E1M2. I don't think there's anything wrong with making you fight monsters in secret areas. I don't agree with the concept of "devastating fight in the secret area with no reward other than +1 to your secret count." But I don't have a problem with making the player break a sweat a bit after getting their secret weapon/soulsphere/megaarmor.

 

^{Yes, I know there's also the Ultimate Doom revision to E1M1 (version 1.9?) so that if you go out into the Megaarmor courtyard from the start room the walls open up, exposing you to fire from hitscanners ... but, personally, I don't like the version 1.9 revision of E1M1.}

[Steve D]

2 hours ago, Vorpal said:

 

The rational part of my brain agrees with you. But the child who lives in my head that grew up on wolf3d and enjoyed wall humping for secrets is still completely OK with a mapper leaving a secret with no clue and only happenstance discovery ;-P

 

Further proof that children are evil. ;D

[Maximum Matt]

I believe that completely unmarked secrets are okay only if there's a computer area map available in the level.  Checking the map for clues/unexplored areas can be rewarding, too, especially after you've cleaned out the level and are hunting for the last kill/item/secret.

[Ichor]

Here are some interesting ways to hide secrets:

 

1. (assuming jumping is disabled and there's no arch-viles around) There is a railing or platform that's 32 units high, and in front of it is a small platform that's 4 blocks high. It's too small to allow you to get up there. However, there's a hidden switch nearby that lowers it to 8 above the highest floor. Since it's already 4 units high, this raises the platform to 8 units and then allows you to get up there to the actual secret.

 

2. A wall or thing can be made to act and sound like a switch by adding the actual switch texture to a line right in front of it and setting the offset high enough to hide it in the ceiling.

 

3. A switch that opens a door or lowers a platform out of sight, but you can still barely hear it.

 

4. Stairs that start by going up, but you press a switch to make them lower (use Lower to Lowest Floor and some dummy sectors since vanilla Doom doesn't have lowering stairs).

 

5. Here's a fun one. If you make a sector with the light glowing effect (slow, gradual blinking) and make it the same brightness as the rest of the sectors, it won't glow. However, you can still make it briefly flash like a camera flash if you use something that changes the sector's brightness, like change it to 255 brightness. It will change to fullbright, but gradually go back down to the original brightness and stay that way until you trigger it again. This can be used to briefly reveal secrets, but only to the observant. Otherwise, people like think it's some kind of background effect.

 

6. Instapop items (or, items that show up in places where you've already been because there was a secret switch that instantly rose the sectors with some nifty items to ground level).

 

As for secrets themselves, you can make whole map sections where you can bypass certain hard areas or make them easier by killing some of the enemies that would appear later on. An interesting idea is a secret teleporter to telefrag a cyberdemon or some other tough enemy that would otherwise appear in the next area.

[ketmar]

can we look from a different PoV? E1M1: that's how you SHOULD NOT do secrets. i mean that "imp lift" secret. cross a random line, and some random thing will happen, and you will not even see it, and there is no indication of it. please, don't do that! and timed lift is even worser, because it is timed, and usually cannot be seen activated. i don't know what Romero were thinking when he did that

[Pegleg]

12 hours ago, ketmar said:

E1M1: that's how you SHOULD NOT do secrets.

 

I wasn't really troubled by that, but I see what you mean about the timed lift secret. Romero has said during playthroughs (I think it was the LeBreton playthrough) that he would do things to teach the player that certain actions could do certain things. For instance, in E1M2, during a firefight, you might shoot the door, which will cause it to open, thus teaching you that you can sometimes shoot a door to open it. Given that logic, I wouldn't be surprised if he thought something along the lines of "The player will shoot the imp and then walk down this tunnel toward the door. That will trigger the lift to lower, which the player will hear. They'll go investigate that sound, find the platform is lowered now, and that will let them get the shotgun and it will teach them that those sort of things can happen."

 

In the pre-Ultimate Doom releases of KDiTD, the megaarmor courtyard secret was found by pressing on a section of wall with a different color, which opened a tunnel to the courtyard and you triggered the secret by walking down that tunnel. It makes sense. When Ultimate Doom came out, Romero revised the map to add the switch near the green armor that opened a door to the courtyard. So you run out that way and trigger the secret going up the tunnel, which is backwards to how it should work. That, to me, is the better example of how NOT to do secrets.

[seed]

Giving subtle hints about their presence, making them worthwhile, while at the same time not making them extremely hard to get to or giving them far too much importance (by that I mean making them semi-mandatory as the level is otherwise too brutal).

 

They could also be used to hide entire optional areas, or as alternative routes that offer a different experience.

[Ashurion Neonix]

1. Place the items in a spot where the player can see them but make them do some clever thinking to be able to get to them.

In the image below a Rocket launcher is on a pole, but there is no visible way to obtain it.

The player Actually needs to walk around the window to drop onto the platform.

 

2. Add Hidden Shootable Switches that force the player to look around.

Examples

Quake: E1M1 - Double barreled Shotgun

Adventures of sqaure: E1A2 - Outside area

Eviternity: Map11 - Hidden Shootable Switch

 

3. Place Switches/Items in places players won't usually look.

Examples:

Doom: E2M1 - Red key card

Doom 2: Map29 - Berserk behind switch

Doom 2: Map01 - Chainsaw

 

 

 

 

[ketmar]

10 hours ago, Pegleg said:

So you run out that way and trigger the secret going up the tunnel, which is backwards to how it should work. That, to me, is the better example of how NOT to do secrets.

the wall is still there, though. i believe that the button was added for better DM connectivity.