How a hunt plays

You get a list for the place you’re standing. You do it together. You prove each line with a picture. The day ends with a score, a recap, and the feeling that it was better than a walk through a store.

The player itself opens after private tests. This page is how the game is built, not a button that starts one today. The first 1,000 people on the list get a free Custom hunt.

1. 1.A quest, a challenge, a place

   The whole list is a quest. One line is a challenge. The location is a place. A private game with a join code is an event. A story laid over a list, if you want one, is a theme. Food, nature, shopping, and the rest are interests. You don’t need the vocabulary. The list is still a list.

2. 2.One phone, any size

   Count phones, not people. Extra people around a phone cost nothing. The team cap on a plan is the moment to move up, and it isn’t policed. At an event, each team joins with a code in the browser. There is no app store.

3. 3.Three levels, one list

   Easy, Playful, Daring. Easy is the 1-point line. Playful adds the 2-point option. Daring adds the 3-point rung, which needs a stranger, a public pose, or a purchase. You can reshoot a line higher before the game ends. The board shows a line is done, not which rung you took.

4. 4.Proof is a picture

   Photos are taken inside the site so they land on the right line. Free play uses the camera too. Judging is paid. Free is checkboxes. Anyone can play. Uploading pictures follows the law: 13 and up, or a parent or guardian. Photos are kept 90 days.

5. 5.Hidden scores, then the reveal

   Players see their own progress, never the ranking, until the host ends the hunt. Then every phone and the big screen play the same reveal: a drumroll, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, then the photos and the standings. A phone that reloads, or opens the link late, catches the moment it is in — or the results if that moment has passed. A remote game with no shared screen still gets the full reveal on each phone. When a team is close to finishing the list, a final stretch hits every phone. Long lists use the last 10 lines. Short lists use fewer, so a six-line hunt does not double the whole thing. Lines finished in that window score double.

6. 6.About a minute a line

   20 items is roughly 20 to 30 minutes. 50 is about an hour, and an hour is the ceiling. Every line should make somebody react, remember, or decide. If you can finish it without saying a word, it’s filler. Act-outs are poses, not motion. The list is PG. There is never a map.

What each plan includes