Hidden name in Civilization 3 forest texture honors artist's daughter for over 20 years

A dedicated Civilization enthusiast has spent the past six months uncovering obscure facts about the legendary 4X strategy series, and post number 161 revealed a remarkably personal Easter egg hidden in Civilization 3 since its 2001 release. One of the game's forest textures contains the name "AMANDA" spelled out by carefully arranged trees, and archival research into fan forums has finally revealed the identity behind this decades-old secret.

François Labrecque first discovered the Easter egg in November 2002, roughly a year after the game launched. The name appears in the tundra forests.pcx file and is duplicated in grassland forests.pcx and plain forests.pcx. Spotting the hidden text proves challenging for most players, as deciduous trees on tundra biomes almost never generate in randomly created worlds.

A 2002 post on the CivFanatics forum provided the answer to the mystery. Amanda is the daughter of Nick, the Firaxis artist responsible for creating terrain textures in Civilization 3. One Reddit user pointed out an intriguing coincidence – a producer named Amanda currently works at Firaxis, though no confirmed connection between the two exists.

Civilization 3 contains over 30 Easter eggs scattered throughout its code and assets. Other hidden surprises include the cities Thunderfalls and Mingapulco, named after administrators of major fan sites, a special Elvis unit that appears on the singer's birthday in the Play The World expansion, and the Turkish city "Not Istanbul" instead of "New Constantinople" – a reference to the They Might Be Giants song.

JordiTK continues posting daily Civilization facts on Reddit, systematically documenting the series' hidden details and development history.