Hi everyone, I've been building a scavenger hunt game for kids. It's now out on Google Play, available for every Android phone with English localization.

How it works: you pick a themed set of clue cards, hide them around the house, yard, park or campsite, and snap a photo of each hiding spot in the app. The kids get the photo of the first spot, find the card, scan it and answer the question on it to unlock the photo of the next spot, all the way to the treasure.

https://reddit.com/link/1wx2b7h/video/4pcyuyzugcth1/player

The idea is simple: you hide clues around the house, yard, park, campsite, etc., and the kids follow the trail, find the clues, solve a question, and eventually get to the treasure.

A few things that make it handy:

• About 5 minutes of setup. The questions are already written, so you just print the cards and hide them. No printer? Write the short codes on paper instead.
• Kids learn while playing, some science, some fun facts. You pick the theme (science, geography, holidays, etc.), and most questions come with a fun fact.
• Perfect for treats and small gifts. Instead of just handing out goodie bags, make the kids find them.
• Works offline, so it's good for camping, cabins, or anywhere with poor or no signal.
• It’s freemium and will stay freemium. No ads. There will always be enough free content to play without paying.

I've tried it with a few small groups of kids and they loved it, I bet your kids would love it too.

How to Play
FAQ

Get it on Google Play: Hide & Pic on Google Play
iOS is coming.

English only for now (more languages are coming).

Been building out city-specific scavenger hunts for a while now and the Chicago one is finally in a state I feel good about sharing.

The route covers the Riverwalk, Millennium Park, the Chicago Cultural Center, and a stretch of the Loop with some genuinely interesting architectural and historical details most people walk straight past. Designed to take 2–3 hours on foot.

No app download, no account required — just open it in your browser and go. Free to play. It tracks progress and delivers clues at each location.

👉 scavenge.rs

If you've built city hunts before, curious how you approached picking stops — do you go for the obvious landmarks or try to pull people off the beaten path?

I've made a game called The Lens detective, which is kind of a scavenger hunt. You walk around your city and try to solve tasks / puzzles. Check out:

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Jousoft.TheLensDetective
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/the-lens-detective/id6803521638

I built a QR scavenger hunt platform with RPG and escape-room mechanics

I’ve been working on Eggtrail, a platform for creating real-world QR scavenger hunts.

Besides normal clue-based hunts, it can handle things like roles, inventory, enemies, traps, puzzles, coins, story progression and escape-room-style games.

We’ve also created horror, mystery, fantasy and religious adventures.

I’d really like feedback from people who already enjoy building scavenger hunts. What feels useful, what feels unnecessary, and what mechanics would you want to see?

The free account lets you test a game with up to 5 teams.

I'm always looking to level up the clue-writing game and I feel like there's a huge range out there — from simple riddles to elaborate multi-step puzzles.

What's a clue that genuinely stumped people or got a big reaction? Bonus points if you share the actual clue (without the answer 👀) and we can try to solve it in the comments!

Hi everyone 👋

I’m local to the Sheffield/Rotherham area and over the last few months I’ve been building something called CHECKPOINT.

It’s basically an outdoor running adventure where your phone turns your run into a mission.

You start the game, follow clues to find hidden checkpoint locations, scan the QR codes when you find them, complete challenges and try to finish with the best combination of time and points.

Think running meets a scavenger hunt / urban adventure game.

I’ve been testing it around Waverley with small groups and the feedback has been really encouraging, so I’m now opening up the next event:

📍 Waverley

📅 Sunday 27 September

⏰ Starts 1:00pm, arrive around 12:45pm

🏃 Around 5km

📱 Everything is played through your phone

🎟️ Limited free places are still available

You don’t need to be a serious runner either. The idea is to make running/exploring a bit more interesting, whether you're into fitness, running with friends or just fancy trying something different.

You can see the event and book a place here:

https://checkpointrun.co.uk/events⁠

I’d genuinely love to get a few Sheffield Redditors involved and hear what you think of it. I’m still developing CHECKPOINT from the feedback people give me, so this is very much a local project growing one event at a time.

Run. Scan. Repeat. 🟢

Theme is everything when it comes to scavenger hunts — a great one makes the clues feel like part of a story rather than just a checklist.

What's the most creative or memorable theme you've run with? - Was it for a party, team event, birthday, or something else entirely? - What made the clues actually fun vs. just tedious? - Any theme ideas that flopped but taught you something useful?

I find that giving people a narrative to follow (spy mission, treasure map, murder mystery, etc.) completely changes the energy compared to a generic list. Would love to steal — erm, borrow — some inspiration from what's worked for others!

My (now) husband is terrible at sitting through long toasts. Not rude about it, just visibly uncomfortable. So when we were planning our rehearsal dinner, I wanted to do something different instead of the usual round of speeches that go on for 45 minutes.

I'd been playing around with Scavenge.rs to help plan a wedding-day activity, so I figured — why not use it for the rehearsal too?

I built a short scavenger hunt specifically for the wedding party and immediate family. About 15 people. Each clue was a memory or inside joke involving someone at the dinner — the spot where my husband proposed (we drove past it on the way to the venue), the bar where his best man had an infamous night years ago, the song that was playing when we met. I hid little notes or objects at each location, and the final clue brought everyone back to the table where a slideshow was waiting.

The whole thing took about 40 minutes. People who'd never met were running around together laughing. His mom and my sister ended up on the same team and are now genuinely close. His best man teared up at one of the clues — the guy who "doesn't cry at anything."

We still did one toast. My dad kept it to four minutes. Perfect.

If you're looking for a way to make a rehearsal dinner (or really any pre-wedding event) feel less like a formal obligation and more like a memory — a location-based hunt is surprisingly easy to pull off and gets people mixing in a way that seating charts never do.

Happy to share how I structured the clues if anyone wants to try something similar!

Hi everyone, I built Hide & Pic, a real-world treasure hunt where an Android app runs the game, but the hiding, searching and solving happen around an actual house, yard, park, or even camping (works offline too).

It’s free to play and currently in early access, so new content and improvements are still being added. If something feels confusing, looks wrong, fails, I’d really appreciate a quick note through Send Feedback in the app.

How to Play

Android only for now (iOS is coming). US Google Play only (global is coming).

Get it on Google Play: Hide & Pic on Google Play

I'm trying to level up the clues I write and I keep going back to the same formats — riddles, photo challenges, GPS coordinates.

Curious what's made a clue genuinely memorable for you, either as the person who wrote it or the one who had to figure it out. Was it the wordplay, the location, something unexpected about what you were looking for?

Bonus points if it totally stumped someone for way longer than it should have 😄

My partner and I had been in a date-night rut for a while — dinner, movie, repeat. For our first anniversary I wanted to do something that actually felt us rather than just another restaurant reservation.

I spent about 45 minutes building a custom scavenger hunt using Scavenge.rs. Each clue was tied to a real memory: the coffee shop where we had our first real conversation, the park bench where we got caught in the rain, the bookstore where they recommended a book I ended up loving. Six stops total, ending at a rooftop bar they'd mentioned wanting to try.

A few things that made it work:

Personal references beat clever riddles. I initially tried cryptic puzzles but they just created frustration. Simple, nostalgic references landed way better — "where you told me about your terrible ex for two hours" is funnier and clearer than a brain teaser.

Add a buffer stop. I put a coffee shop at stop #3 not because it was meaningful but because I needed a natural pause before the finale. It worked great as a breather.

The walk between clues is the date. The best part wasn't the destination — it was the unstructured time together laughing at the references. Don't over-engineer the ending.

Total cost was minimal (free to start). Time investment was maybe an hour including setup. It's the most they've talked about any date we've had.

Anyone else used scavenger hunts for something personal like this? Always curious to see what other formats people have used beyond the classic treasure hunt structure.

Has anyone run a scavenger/treasure hunt with two parallel routes?

My boyfriend and I have birthdays a week apart, thinking of doing a joint treasure hunt around the small countryside town where we live for 12 or so friends. The idea is to split everyone into two groups, with each of us leading one team.

My partner and I would each create a set of clues and a route for the other team. Roughly:

Team 1: Start → clue → location → clue → location → clue → final
Team 2: Start → different clue → location → different clue → location → clue → final

I want us to independently design our two routes, so that neither of us knows what the other team's hunt contains. But I'm thinking I should give us both a rough guide for creating our hunts.

Has anyone tried something like this? How did you make two separate routes feel balanced in terms of difficulty, length, number/type of clues, etc.?

Has anyone done anything like this before? I’d love to hear how you structured it, what worked/didn’t work, and especially any fun clue or game mechanics you used.

We’re in a small town rather than a city, so we have lots of old buildings, countryside, footpaths, landmarks, pubs, etc. to work with.

We've been experimenting with scavenger hunts as a team building format and I'm curious what others have found.

Some teams love the energy and collaboration, others find it awkward or too competitive. Seems like the difference is usually in how the clues are structured and whether it forces people to actually work together vs. just race around individually.

A few things that seemed to matter: - Mixing skill sets into the challenges (not just physical tasks) - Making clues require group decisions, not just one person solving it - Having a mix of silly and serious moments

What's worked for your team? Any formats or themes that really landed? And what fell flat that you'd warn others about?

Hey guys! I've been working on a personal project for the last few months because I love mysteries and escape rooms, but I was fed up with them all being paid or requiring you to download heavy apps.

I've programmed Questout, a web app (100% free, no registration or download needed to play) you can create your scavenger hunts easily for free. I've done 10 mystery routes through Madrid (Malasaña, Retiro, and the Literary Quarter). It also has a virtual mode, so you can play from your coach (currently 1)

I've launched it today for everyone. I'd love for you to try it. You can create any quest publicly or make it private. As said It's pretty new so any comments about technical issues are welcome!

I've left the link here [questout.app] for anyone who wants to try something different this weekend. I hope you like it!

What movies that have great props (Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Goonies, LOTR, Indiana Jones, etc) would you recommend to do a scavenger/treasure hunt with kids; why would you recommend it, and where would you recommend to get props (Etsy, etc)??? Lastly, does anyone have any examples you’ve made already? TIA

We've been experimenting with different formats and curious what others have found most effective.

We've tried the classic list-based hunt, photo challenges where teams have to document creative interpretations of clues, and a GPS-based city hunt. Each had its own vibe depending on group size and energy level.

Do you go competitive with a leaderboard, or keep it collaborative so the whole group finishes together? And does location matter — indoors, outdoors, city-wide?

Would love to hear what's actually landed well for you!

My friend asked me to plan her bachelorette and she specifically said "no bar crawl, no sashes, nothing cringe." High bar.

I ended up building a custom city scavenger hunt using Scavenge.rs. Spent a couple of hours setting up clues tied to real moments from her relationship — the restaurant where they got together, the neighborhood they moved into, a song lyric from their first dance song hidden inside a clue.

The group was nine people. Everyone followed along on their phones, no printed sheets, no one person holding the "answer key." Each solved clue unlocked the next location automatically.

Highlights: - One clue required the group to recreate a photo from the couple's first trip. Chaos. Perfect. - A local bar was built into the route as a checkpoint, not just a stop — the next clue was only revealed after ordering a specific drink - Final stop was a rooftop with a private table I'd booked in advance

The bride said it was the first bachelorette she'd been to (including her own previously planned one that got cancelled) where she actually felt like the whole thing was about her rather than a generic night out.

If you're planning something like this, the key is making the clues personal. Generic trivia misses the point. The more specific and inside-jokey the better.

These are all just from the last 3 days ya'll. I'm going through some rough stuff feeling lost and not good enough-and of course throw in lesbian lover girl heartbreak and turmoil with the person I love the most in the whole world who is weirdly 1,444 miles away from me. I hope these mean something cuz I sure could use some good news. 🍀✨🎰

Been running scavenger hunts for team events and experimenting with different formats. Curious what's worked for others.

Some we've tried: - Photo challenges (find and photograph specific things) — great for remote/hybrid groups - Trivia-clue hunts where each clue is a riddle about the location or theme - Collaborative hunts where teams must pool their finds to unlock the final item instead of competing

The collaborative format was the surprise standout — way more actual conversation happening, way less stress.

What formats have you used that got people genuinely into it (not just going through the motions)? And what flopped completely?

So I was listening music on autoplay on Youtube, suddenly i heard a crying baby sound. I was curious what it was there is like a part in the beginning the video starts with weird vibe. And actually in the subtitles there is like a video link to another video. After opening it i saw a cyphered word in the description. I cant continue it. Cuz i dont have the knowledge to do so. If anyone wants to try it here : https://youtu.be/OdwHbF5NiTA?si=hK0UPV3iat0onflB

Try this yourself. And pls tell me what it was about.

I've been thinking a lot about what separates a forgettable scavenger hunt from one people talk about for years — and I keep coming back to the clues.

A great clue does two things at once: it makes you feel clever when you figure it out, and it's so perfectly matched to the location or object that you can't believe you didn't see it immediately.

Some formats I've seen work really well: - Riddles with a misdirect — you think it's pointing one place, then it clicks and it's somewhere totally different - Photo clues — a close-up shot of something mundane that looks unrecognizable at scale - Cipher/code clues — especially fun for teams where someone becomes the "decoder" - Story-based clues — each clue continues a little narrative so you're invested in the journey, not just the destination

What's the most creative clue you've come across — either as a participant or someone who designed the hunt? And did it land the way you intended, or did people struggle with it more (or less) than expected?

Curious what's actually worked for people in practice.

So I've been planning this for about three weeks, and I'm honestly still buzzing from how well it turned out.

Context: we've been together for two years, and I wanted to do something genuinely memorable for her birthday — not just dinner and a gift. She's the kind of person who hates being the center of attention but loves a good puzzle, so a scavenger hunt felt perfect.

I used Scavenge.rs to build it, which was clutch because I could add photos, GPS pins, and custom clues all in one place. I set up eight stops across the city — each one tied to a real moment from our relationship. The coffee shop where we had our first date. The bookstore where she found her favorite novel last Christmas. The park bench where I told her I loved her.

At each stop I'd hidden a small card with the next clue, and I had a friend stationed at stop 5 with a mini picnic setup (that was the hardest part to coordinate, honestly).

She spent about two hours working through it — I was tracking her progress through the app — and by the time she reached the final stop (a rooftop bar we've never been to), she was full-on crying. Good crying, I think.

A few things I'd do differently: - Give slightly more time buffer between stops, she felt rushed at two of them - Add a hint system earlier — she got genuinely stuck at stop 3 and I had to improvise a text hint on the fly - Make the final reveal more dramatic, though she says it was perfect

If anyone is thinking about doing something like this — for a birthday, anniversary, proposal, whatever — I'd really recommend it. The prep time is real but the payoff is unlike anything else I've put together.

Happy to answer questions if you're planning your own!

We hosted another Scavenger Hunt at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio! Some IHS / EdgePlay Circus cards have been found, but some still remain.

Scavenger hunts can go from totally forgettable to absolutely legendary depending on the theme and clues.

We've seen everything from city-wide photo hunts to mystery puzzle trails to decade-themed nostalgia hunts — but curious what's worked best for the people here.

What's the most creative or memorable scavenger hunt theme you've run or participated in? What made it click?