Kera CudmoreYou may be know about Easter Eggs hidden in video games - but did you know they also exist on the web and on our devices? Read on to find out more about the history of easter eggs, some cool ones that can be found online, and how to include some in your own projects!
Easter eggs signify a hidden surprise and originally date all the way back to Russian imperial families who would gift jewel-encrusted Faberg茅 eggs containing a secret surprise inside.
Nowadays, easter eggs are more of a tech thing - they are jokes, messages, or even games hidden in video games, on our devices and on the web. So lets have a look at some cool easter eggs, and how you can create some of your own!
Easter Eggs Online
Google offline dino game
Not so much of a hidden easter egg anymore, but a classic is the Google offline Dino game! Use your keyboard space to start a game and then help Dino avoid the obstacles. A fun way to distract yourself when the internet goes down - you can also play this game at chrome://dino/ 馃
Wikipedia Easter Egg hedgehog 馃
Take a look at the page linked above, and hover your mouse over the hedgehog in the picture - something might happen if you click on it!
Konami Code
The Konami Code is a cheat code that was used in a number of Konami games, and then later on in Nintendo games that allowed the user to unlock a secret feature within the game. Tell your favourite voice assistant the code and see what they have to say! This code is also a popular easter egg on a number of other sites online, so have a search around for some more fun examples.
Google Text Adventure Game
Visit google and search for text adventure - then open up the console to play a fun text adventure based game! But be warned, you could get lost in this one for a while!
Spotify Star Wars
Visit Spotify and play a song from one of the Star Wars films and keep an eye on the play progress bar - a really nice easter egg for all you Star Wars fans
Create your own Easter Eggs
Now that you've seen some a few examples of the cool easter eggs out in the wild, why not add some to your own project!
Ascii Art
Ascii art is when a picture is created using the 95 text characters defined in the ascii standard, and can be a fun way to hide an easter egg in your documentation.
Some fun resources for creating your own ascii art:
Scroll Effects
Scroll effects can be a fun way to add a hidden easter egg on your site, and I've included two examples of these below.
Using JavaScript
JavaScript is a really powerful way to hide some easter eggs on your site - like the Konami code above which utilises key strokes. I've also created easter eggs that change the cursor when you hover over a spot on a page which can be clicked to activate an easter egg. There are so many opportunities with JavaScript to be really creative with your easter eggs, take a look at the following examples below to add some JavaScript magic to your easter eggs!
This article barely scratches the surface of what is possible in regards to hiding easter eggs - feel free to share any awesome examples that you've found, and I'd love to hear if you've hidden any Easter Eggs in your own projects!
