A game as popular and as long-standing as Minecraft naturally hides a few secrets in its code. Over the years, Minecraft has received many little Easter Eggs that can be found by keen players. These are not only fun to look at but also provide an extremely interesting insight into the game’s development. What started as a one-man project by Notch is now the world’s most successful game. And correspondingly chaotic and quite funny are some of the hidden secrets found in Minecraft.
Discover Surprises in the Minecraft Main Menu
Even before you venture into one of your worlds, you can already discover some cool things. For one, there’s the Minecraft logo itself. There is a 1 in 10,000 chance that it will display “Minceraft” instead of the normal “Minecraft.” Presumably, there are enough players to whom this has happened, but they clicked away too quickly.
Next to the logo, a splash text appears at every game start, randomly switching between over 500 different displays. Over the years, several Easter Eggs have sneaked in here, too. For example, there are many shoutouts to other games, including Terraria, Project Zomboid, and Braid. So, it’s worth taking a closer look at the main menu each time you start the game to not miss these secrets.
When you then check the options and change your FOV to the maximum setting, you will see the text “Quake Pro.” A small nod to pros of the well-known arena shooter who always play with an extremely wide field of view.
Discover Secrets in Minecraft’s Animal World
Minecraft’s animal world also has many secrets to offer. For this, you need a name tag, which you can rename accordingly at the anvil.
- With a name tag “Grumm” or “Dinnerbone”, you can flip animals, monsters, and even other players upside down.
- Name a sheep “jeb_” and it will glow in all the colors of the rainbow. Unfortunately, you cannot obtain rainbow wool.
- You can get a special black-and-white texture for a rabbit with the name “Toast”. This is a nod to a request from a player whose girlfriend lost her rabbit in the real world.
- You can also rename a Vindicator to “Johnny”. He then becomes a very aggressive monster, killing everything around him with his axe. This is a reference to the book and film “The Shining”.
In a previous article, we already talked about Ghasts (Discover the New Happy Ghast in Minecraft 1.21.6) . It’s not necessarily an Easter Egg, but a very funny fact that the sounds come from C418’s cat.
Another nod to another gaming franchise can be found with the Evoker. He magically turns all blue sheep nearby into red sheep. Anyone who has played one of the old Age of Empires games might find this familiar!
Explore the Hidden Clues in Minecraft’s Development
Over the many years, a lot of textures have accumulated in the game. And many developers want to immortalize themselves in them. A clue that has been in the game since the alpha is a text within the texture of the Zombie Pigman. This mob was suggested by the user XaPhobia. A corresponding dedication was thus directly embedded in the game files by Notch, with a “THX XaPhobia”.
A constantly evolving texture is that of the armor stand. Originally designed by a developer named Searge, his name is embedded within the file. When textures were changed for the 1.14 update, the new artist Jappa also added his name. A little later, the name Chiwi was added, another Mojang employee who further adjusted the texture.
The Creeper also holds some secrets that players might not notice at first glance. Did you know that its texture is actually that of the original leaves? Notch himself once described the Creeper as a leaf monster and said it was “as crunchy as dry leaves.” They hide among the leaves, a kind of camouflage that worked really well, especially in the alpha days! Additionally, the Creeper texture is one of the few that has never been changed. Probably because it’s just too iconic.
Dive into the Minecraft Enchantment Writing
Anyone who enchants in Minecraft has surely wondered what is actually written in that menu. The writing is not chosen at random but is a nod to the game “Commander Keen,” a well-known platformer from the 90s. While you can read the “Standard Galactic Alphabet” with a translation, it still doesn’t tell you which enchantment you will get.
But you can also play the entire game in a funny language. Besides many real languages, you can also choose a few unconventional ones. How about Pirate Speak? Or Shakespearean English? LOLCAT would also work. Languages from “Star Trek” or “The Lord of the Rings” are also available!
Discover Hidden References in Minecraft Paintings
Minecraft also offers some beautiful paintings that you can hang on your walls. And here, too, there are plenty of references and Easter Eggs, which are sometimes more and sometimes less obvious. Most of them were designed by the artist Kristoffer Zetterstrand, but some also by Sarah Boeving.
The large “Donkey Kong” image is probably familiar to most, as it is easy to recognize. Less known, however, is King Graham from the game series “King’s Quest,” an old Sierra adventure. Three of the old 1x1 paintings are based on maps from “Counter-Strike”. The skeleton from “Grim Fandango” can also be found. Additionally, many paintings are based on real paintings, which is also exciting for art lovers!
Decode the Hidden Messages in Minecraft Music
Finally, let’s take a look at some Easter Eggs hidden within Minecraft’s music. Many of these need to be accessed with external software, a so-called spectrogram. Here, some secrets reveal themselves, and many of them are a bit creepy.
Record number 11 is inherently eerie. It is not only 1 minute and 11 seconds long but also contains no direct music. And in the spectrogram, a strange Steve face appears, as well as the numbers 12418. These stand for C418, the composer at the time.
Cave sounds number 14 and 21 also reveal creepy secrets in the spectrogram. Sound 14 shows a Creeper face and sound 21 a Morse code that reads “behind”. Such knowledge only makes the respective sounds even creepier! They are likely inspired by the old creepypasta of the “Lavender Town Syndrome.”
Conclusion
Minecraft has countless little references that we can’t possibly list them all. But hopefully, our little list has inspired you to look at some things in the game from a different perspective. Rent a server for Minecraft with us and search together for some of these secrets and Easter Eggs. There is really so much more to discover, and it’s always cool to see what developers hide. And of course, there are enough other games that reference Minecraft.
