I was sitting in trigonometry class one day when I looked over to see my friend Adrian doodling in his notebook. I poked him and asked what he was up to, and he told me he was designing a game he would eventually make. Almost two decades later, he’s making games and I’m writing about them.

Adrian Perez joined Bungie at the tail end of Halo’s development (he wrote the loading screen) and continued through Halo 3 (and beyond) before leaving the studio in 2013 to join Sucker Punch. He left a little present for his wife, Lauren, hidden in Halo 3 that has remained hidden until now. A gamer by the name of "Lord Zedd" found it and shared it via YouTube.

The secret only appears on December 25, Lauren’s birthday. If you hold down both thumbsticks on the loading screen, the camera zooms out a bit. If you look closely, you’ll see the words “Happy Birthday, Lauren.”

The easter egg was teased in a Bungie Mail Sack post (as reported by Beyond Entertainment). The first was in response to a question put to members of the team about their proudest moment working on the Halo franchise. “Showing my wife the Easter egg I put in the halo 3 loading screen for her - the one that nobody has found yet,” Adrian wrote.

Well done, Adrian. Well done.