History Main / PatternCodedEggs

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'''s Creative mode-exclusive [[https://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Spawn_Egg spawn eggs]] are brightly colored and decorated with speckled spots, which share their colors with the creature within. For example, creepers' eggs are forest green with black spots, zombies' eggs are teal with moss-green spots, and spider eggs are slate-grey with maroon spots.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonChannel'': Various eggs appear on the ''Eggzamination: Hatch Up!'' channel. Based on their designs, the player can guess what Pokémon is in them and win money if they're right when the egg hatches. Some of the eggs are just plain white to make guessing more difficult.

* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'': The shells of Pokémon eggs look like the Pokémon they will eventually hatch into; for example, Brock's pink and white Happiny hatched from a pink egg with a white stripe around its midsection. But starting from ''Anime/PokemonJourneys'', this trope is averted when Ash receives an egg that resembles the 10-km egg from ''Videogame/PokemonGo'', being plain white with light blue spots and bearing no resemblance to the Riolu that hatches from it. A good thing too, because patterning the eggs after the Pokémon in them made the characters [[FailedASpotCheck seem oblivious]] for acting like what would hatch is a mystery.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Played with -- in the main series games, Pokémon eggs uniformly have a plain white design with green spots due to graphical limitations, similar to Yoshi eggs. The only exception is the event-only Manaphy egg from Generation IV, which has a unique sprite showing it to be translucent blue with a ring of yellow dots and a red center, similar to Manaphy itself, an aquatic Pokémon with a blue body, yellow dots for eyebrows, and a red gem over its heart. However, some spin-off games (as well as the anime) have unique egg designs for individual Pokémon.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Played with -- in the main series, Pokémon eggs uniformly have a plain white design with green spots due to graphical limitations, similar to Yoshi eggs. The only exception is the event-only Manaphy egg from Generation IV, which has a unique sprite showing it to be translucent blue with a ring of yellow dots and a red center, similar to Manaphy itself, an aquatic Pokémon with a blue body, yellow dots for eyebrows, and a red gem over its heart. However, some spin-off games (as well as the anime) have unique egg designs for individual Pokémon.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonChannel'': Various eggs appear on the ''Eggzamination: Hatch Up!'' channel. Based on their designs, the player can guess what Pokémon is in them and win money if they're right when the egg hatches. Some of the eggs are just plain white, though.

Fictional creatures have no such need to hide, and often lay eggs with shells that are not only brightly colored, but match the color and pattern of the creature inside, sometimes down to fur and scales. In a visual medium, this helps the audience guess what might be inside the egg, if it hasn't been established already.

* ''VideoGame/DragonCave'': Dragon and drake eggs are almost always the same colors as their eggs, e.g. Deep Seas are dark blue with raised patches of scales, as are their eggs; Rift Wyrms are purple yellow and have purple and yellow eggs to match; etc. Much of the game revolves around raising them from eggs to adulthood, so it's important that they have distinct appearances for easy recognition.

* ''VideoGame/{{Temtem}}'': Eggs can be obtained by breeding two compatible Temtem. The egg design is not specific to the individual Temtem, but is based on its elemental type (water eggs are blue with a wave design, fire eggs are pale orange with a flame design, etc.)

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': Played with - in the main series, Pokémon eggs uniformly have a plain white design with green spots due to graphical limitations, similar to Yoshi eggs. The only exception is the event-only Manaphy egg from Generation IV, which has a unique sprite showing it to be translucent blue with a ring of yellow dots and a red center, similar to Manaphy itself, an aquatic Pokémon with a blue body, yellow dots for eyebrows, and a red gem over its heart. However, some spin-off games (as well as the anime) have unique egg designs for individual Pokémon.

** ''VideoGame/PokemonSnap'': The three legendary birds' eggs appear and can be hatched by the player - a crystalline silver egg for Articuno, a yellow egg with lightning designs for Zapdos, and a white egg with a flame design for Moltres. (This was before the games introduced the breeding mechanic, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness as well as the idea that legendary Pokémon are unable to breed, with a few exceptions.]])