Making a video game can be exhausting. Even today, with hundreds of people and millions of dollars behind major releases, teams often work themselves into the ground. In the '90s, it was an even bigger labor of love.

That's evident in the secret message designer Jonty Barnes hid in 1997's Dungeon Keeper, according to Polygon. Despite the 100 people credited as working on the game, Barnes says 95% of it was completed by seven people above a garage. It took everything out of them. So, at 4 a.m. one day, not long before the master of the game was sent off, Barnes added these lines to the executable file:

"I look around the office ... All I see are the tired pale faces of the [Dungeon] Keeper team. After sixteen hours a day, 7 days a week, for nearly 5 months ... this game has been written with a passion I am proud to be a part of. I do not just hope you like it, I also hope you are aware of the huge amount of work we have all done. Sleep is due to me ... And I have a dream to live."

It seems no one found the message for 17 years. Then in 2014, GOG.com uncovered it and Barnes confirmed on Twitter that he remembered writing it but hadn't seen it since. He had gone on to make more games that had also "taken absolutely everything [he had] to give." Hopefully, he also got sleep at some point.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9lHFqcm5fqLKkvsStZKado6iuqLHSZq6eZZSewKS71Z6pnpxdrrKivtJmo5qslad8