Okay, good to know. I was trying to wrap my head around some random USB drive being hidden in the elements somewhere going on 10+ years and only just now being found. Either way, this entire thing is nifty.

Yeah, it's super cool. The Ak'Gyxoth puzzle I linked to (Tropical Tiki Drinks Demon Name - don't ask) was in the game for 2 years before anyone figured it out, and the only solved it thanks to this ridiculous clue which led people to create this map in which someone figured out that those islands in the lower left spelled a word (I still have trouble seeing it) and then people figured out that you had to use that word in this room within the game to solve the puzzle.

Here you can see the forum thread where the dev who created both the puzzle and the clue dropped said clue and then you can follow the player speculation and group efforts to solve it.

And they do things like this at least once a year.

The article mentions that the game has been around since 2003. There's the possibility that this has been some planned out or expanded upon thing going on for a decade or more? That's pretty intense!

The thing in the game where this specific puzzle was added is quite recent, maybe in the last 3 years or less (I forget when I stopped playing was, exactly, but it's between then and now. Might only be the last year).

I would not be surprised in any way, shape, or form if this is all being done at their request and according to their design. It will likely result in something fun and neat that everyone can enjoy, like a free game or discounts to all of these devs' games or something.

Even if it wasn't designed by Zach Johnson, he is absolutely the perfect vector for doing something like this and whoever came up with the idea is very, very wise to use him for the initial piece of the puzzle (and, by extension, his community of gamers who are used to this sort of meta puzzle and always look out for them).

I've noticed them in several games (well, similar symbols), and it's always bothered me because of how much they resemble Forerunner glyphs from Halo 1. Trying to remember what recent games I've seen them in.

None of those games are on the "official" list, so it's probably just a coincidence...

Like this one in No Man's Sky:

I've seen some similar images in NMS & it really reminded me of the Vex symbols in Destiny... which remind me of the Forerunner glyphs in Halo.

Thanks for posting this. I actually saw the article pop up somewhere, but from the headline I figured it was just going to turn out that a bunch of developers had "borrowed" the same art assets from somewhere. This is clearly something else.

Yeah, I saw the headline and nearly ignored it. But then I saw they byline.

Patrick Klepek posted a story over at Vice Gaming about a set of symbols, first discovered in Crypt of the Necrodancer, and found in 18 other games so far. At one point, a set of coordinates led someone to find a USB drive in LA, which contained another symbol. It's still an unsolved mystery at this point.

I love that stuff like this can happen, and someone was able to get so many developers to hide stuff in their games without even knowing what it was ultimately for.

I've noticed them in several games (well, similar symbols), and it's always bothered me because of how much they resemble Forerunner glyphs from Halo 1. Trying to remember what recent games I've seen them in.

None of those games are on the "official" list, so it's probably just a coincidence...

Like this one in No Man's Sky:

I love that stuff like this can happen, and someone was able to get so many developers to hide stuff in their games without even knowing what it was ultimately for.