finally decided to log into the devforums to put out my thoughts, this’ll be fun
I’ve participated in egg hunts since 2010 when they were simply egg drops; i’ve witnessed bad hunts (sorry 2016, you were a bootleg 2013) and BAD hunts (2014)
To be honest, as long as a few key issues with 2020 are addressed, I strongly believe that 2021 still could be enjoyable despite being a Metaverse event. Let’s start off by addressing some of the biggest criticisms of 2020:
- lack of a hub
- no connection between games / no theming
- unenjoyable eggs/games
- ‘pay 2 win’ eggs
I’ll be very disappointed if there’s no hub again this year but I don’t think that’s a deal-breaker; the lack of a proper endgoal (defeating Evilwick from 2019 for example) makes the entire hunt feel aimless. There’s no proper goal beyond “collect all the eggs” which is kind of a given, but people lose interest when that’s all there is to it. To many people they may be heavily disinterested due to this, but I think it can still work if the other issues from 2020 are ironed out.
Onto the theming: did you know Egg Hunt 2020’s theme was “Agents of E.G.G.?” If you forgot or didn’t even know at all, I wouldn’t blame you. The description for the eggphone and the blog post are pretty much the only place that this theme applied. If the eggs in each game were to actually be themed around the event (such as how Ready Player Two had the common theme of VR headsets and glitches… for the most part) it would help the event actually feel connected. Let’s go back to Agents of E.G.G. for this example. Imagine if instead of just being told from either some random NPC or some GUI what your task was, there was a secret agent from E.G.G. disguised to fit in with the game to give you your mission. Add a couple of lines referring to the agency and overall mission of hunting the eggs alongside the quest and it’s much more engaging and immersive to the players. You’re no longer just running through a list of 50 games that you were told to; you’re now an agent working under orders to secure the valuable eggs that have been scattered across the metaverse.
This is a lot more subjective, however there have been many complaints regarding the actual games chosen for the hunt and their tasks. Some were just plain low effort while others were tedious and took too long. This is partially on the developers for creating experiences that were widely disliked, but I believe that it also leaves room for more QA testing. One of the eggs last year was broken at launch and upon collecting all of the necessary items, you weren’t awarded the egg. This felt like something that could have been ironed out had it been tested (a little more? at all? no way to tell, haha.) Other examples of ‘tedious’ and ‘unfun’ eggs come to mind such as one in a simulator game where you simply ran around the map collecting chocolate bunnies until you picked up enough. Another infamous one would be the theme park game that required you to spend 10+ minutes running around the map and going on rollercoasters in the correct order. With all due respect to the developers as I have no gripes with them personally; these are not fun objectives. They make this already daunting task of collecting eggs from 50 different games even more daunting. It’d be really nice for QA to be grouped up and assigned a few of the games to give feedback: is this egg enjoyable to obtain? Did you run into any bugs or issues? Having less games but with multiple eggs in them could be a better way to combat this; Egg Hunt 2015 was across 3 different pre-existing games but was (at least in my opinion, at the very least my friends agree) much more enjoyable due to being contained to only 3 games rather than 5. I’m not saying it should only be in 3 games again this year but 10 games with 5 eggs would be preferable to 50 games with 1 egg.
This is a much smaller point but some eggs have noticably been more… ‘pay to win.’ I can only recall one specific example, but one game had a gamepass that increased the spawn chance of the egg by a rather high amount. Stuff like this should not be allowed; it really dampens the entire event and just leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Not to mention that this game didn’t function on mobile so you could just get the egg for free by joining from a mobile device, leading me to my next point: if games don’t function on all platforms, either don’t include them or make the devs create a piece of content for mobile/console players to complete. A HUGE shoutout to Wild West from 2020 for creating a special version of the obby specifically for mobile players. That being said, that shouldn’t be shoutout worthy; it should be the norm, especially considering how big Roblox on mobile is.
If you actually read all this, kudos to you. For those who (understandably) don’t want to take the time, here’s a much more condensed and easier to read list of closing thoughts and suggestions.
- If possible, include a hub like Egg Hunt 2019 “Scrambled in Time.”
- Have the quest in each game be themed around the central theme of the hunt; have relevant NPCs and dialog and whatnot to make the games feel more connected.
- Quality assurance. More testing would be beneficial, and games / quests that aren’t up to standard should not be included.
- Don’t allow games that attempt to monitize the hunt itself with gamepasses that increase egg chances.
- If games don’t work on all platforms, have the devs create a short experience for the platforms it doesn’t work on rather than giving the egg for free.
- In games where players are going against other players or perhaps certain maps or modes need to be selected, separate instances make it a much more enjoyable experience for all involved.
Overall, I’m honestly excited for this Egg Hunt. It’s a shame to not get a game created specifically for it like we have in the past, but Ready Player Two and RB Battles were quite the step up from Egg Hunt 2020. If the issues people had with those events are accounted for, it’s very possible that opinions on Metaverse events could chance if done right. It’s a great way to explore the platform more and try out some things that otherwise players may not be interested in; as long as complaints are heard and listened to, I look forward to seeing more!
