In video game development there is a thing called crunch time. This occurs at particularly crucial moments in the development cycle (especially towards the end), when the entire team is expected to just not leave the office for periods of up to several days in order to get a game finished. Considering the size of the teams it takes to produce even a modest title, that's upwards of fifty - if not more - people all working around the clock for a ludicrous amount of time. That's how much goes into making games. Considering how much blood, sweat and tears it takes to get a completed game to shelves, you can't blame developers for wanting you to see everything they've done. That's what's been blamed for the downward trend of video game difficulty, and the hand-holding narratives and mechanics of games like Call Of Duty and Battlefield. Seriously, if you'd suffered through a crunch, you'd want people to see all your hard work, too. Then there are the mavericks. The developers who apparently don't give a fig whether you find their work. The programmers who secrete things so well in their games that it takes years, if not decades to find them. Hidden messages, weird surprises and sarcastic commentators are all part of the ten video games Easter eggs that took years to find.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
