Grimrock

How do you feel about secret buttons in mods?

Even though secret buttons are an easy way to add special rewards to a mod, I think that secret buttons shouldn't be used at all, because the player will feel compelled to look at every single wall.

Or "grannying", as Felicia Day calls it in her LoG2 videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 72t3C7CoFl

same

Felicia said something? That's cute. I'm not sure why she is a reference for anything but glad she has an opinion

So you start by saying that secret buttons can be used for "special rewards" and then follow up with "look at every single wall." Well, based on your own logic, only a player who wants to find every single special reward should feel compelled to look at every single wall. That seems to make perfect sense because there are those types of gamers. Whereas gamers like you and Felicia do not wish to find every single special reward, so you should avoid looking at every single wall. The good thing is that since they are only ''special rewards" ... you do not need them to successfully complete the game. So what's the problem?

As long as secret buttons are implemented moderately and intuitively, then they can certainly enhance the gaming experience in a very positive way. If the introduction of a single secret button suddenly makes a gamers head spin and they start spending hours upon hours looking at every single wall, then the problem isn't with the game nor the button... but likely with the person, na' mean?

I can understand disliking too many secret buttons, where the game is impossible to advance without constant wall exploration. But no buttons at all? Either extreme creates a poor gaming experience, imo

same!
I tend to use them as optional convenient short cuts, a few good items here and there, nothing game breaking or unique, or more rarely as part of a puzzle, but then with some clue about it in the same zone.

PS: Felicia is funny! She is far from mastering square dancing and dies a lot even in easy mode, something to remember when people here talk about invincible level 1 characters

there are both reasons why secret buttons should be used clever or stupidly. At the end it is just about whole dungeon concept and design in my opinion.

lol, I just discovered that this has been discussed before, and at much greater length:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=8473

I use them absolutely; the places exist for those that know of them. If the player doesn't know about them, then tough, they are not there for everyone to find; only for those that do find.

They are great, so long as the map is completable without them; though in some cases a map can be made to depend upon finding a secret button to progress. Ideally the map maker will make this obvious enough that the player will realize it, and generally where to look.

Realistic construction should reveal where a door can exist, and be deducible by a party with a partially complete map. Randomly checking every wall is usually a waste of time; the walls to check are the ones in private rooms, or near the places you wish to go, but that you cannot see the path.

*Placing secret doors in quantity and in impractical locations just for the hell of it; and irrespective of usability is bad form IMO.
I do think that the players who do find them [but lacking any rhyme or reason for their existence] will see them as arbitrary, and that might lower their opinion of your map, and negatively impact their expectations of what's to come.

I once played a PnP session with a group and the DM's map started out with a 10x10 room with a zombie and a kobold in it.
(And the same for the next room, and the next, and the next...) We all quit and went home; didn't care what the rest of his map was like; and we never found out.