The way I see it, video games are, in a strange way, a conversation between the game developer and the player. It's the player asking, "What happens if I deviate from the intended path?" or "How...
The way I see it, video games are, in a strange way, a conversation between the game developer and the player. It's the player asking, "What happens if I deviate from the intended path?" or "How does this game handle things if I attack the mayor of the friendly town?", and the game developers answering with, "This is what happens!".
I agree with rewarding curiosity and exploration, and to me, if I find nothing behind every waterfall I try, I usually play through the rest of the game assuming the developer didn't hide secrets. You don't have to hide some unbelievably valuable item in there... just give me something that says, "Yes, I thought about this. This is a game with hidden spaces."
I like finding caves behind waterfalls (and I, too, check EVERY waterfall I encounter). In the developer/player conversation that is a game, a cave behind a waterfall is the developer saying, "I know you're going to be looking for little secrets around the world, and I have placed secrets for you to discover." If I find even one cave behind a waterfall, to me, that's an indicator that it is worth my time to scour for secrets in that game. And I find scouring for secrets to be fun.
The way I see it, video games are, in a strange way, a conversation between the game developer and the player. It's the player asking, "What happens if I deviate from the intended path?" or "How does this game handle things if I attack the mayor of the friendly town?", and the game developers answering with, "This is what happens!".
I agree with rewarding curiosity and exploration, and to me, if I find nothing behind every waterfall I try, I usually play through the rest of the game assuming the developer didn't hide secrets. You don't have to hide some unbelievably valuable item in there... just give me something that says, "Yes, I thought about this. This is a game with hidden spaces."
I like finding caves behind waterfalls (and I, too, check EVERY waterfall I encounter). In the developer/player conversation that is a game, a cave behind a waterfall is the developer saying, "I know you're going to be looking for little secrets around the world, and I have placed secrets for you to discover." If I find even one cave behind a waterfall, to me, that's an indicator that it is worth my time to scour for secrets in that game. And I find scouring for secrets to be fun.