Glitch, Easter egg or intentional secret? How to tell the difference
Found something weird in a game? Here's a better way to investigate without turning every oddity into a fake discovery.
Some of gaming's best moments happen when a player notices something they weren't expecting: a distant figure in the background, a door that shouldn't open, an impossible animation or a suspicious message hidden out of sight. The tricky part is separating intentional secrets from bugs, coincidence and edited footage.
First, try to reproduce it
Write down the game version, platform, mode, location and what you were doing. Can you trigger the same event after restarting? Does it happen only online? Was the game modded, or were debug tools enabled? A one-off oddity can still be interesting, but repeating a sequence gives you stronger evidence.
Look for signs of intention
An Easter egg usually has some deliberate design around it: a clue, a specific interaction, a coherent visual or audio response, or an outcome that makes sense in context. A glitch may involve geometry failing, a script firing unexpectedly or an animation becoming stuck. Of course, some developers intentionally create events that resemble glitches—so appearances alone aren't proof.
Record the evidence, not just the reaction
Short clips are excellent for sharing discoveries, but they can omit the steps needed to test a claim. Keep a longer unedited capture when possible. For online-only incidents, record the server region and approximate time without exposing private player information.
Compare independent reports
Search for other players who can reproduce the event in the same build. Patch notes, developer comments and community documentation can help, but an anonymous post isn't automatically confirmation. A popular clip can be convincing and still be wrong.
What if a bug is fun?
Not every strange behaviour needs to become a headline about a 'secret feature'. Describe it accurately: 'we encountered a repeatable collision bug' is more useful than 'developers hid a new mode' without evidence. Avoid instructions that could harm other players or compromise online accounts.
GameOnCue's approach: we'll distinguish verified secrets, reproducible glitches, player reports and speculation rather than lumping them together for clicks. Sometimes the honest answer is simply: we don't know yet.
Original GameOnCue editorial guide published in October 2026. This is practical advice, not a report of hands-on product testing.