Laminate them, or use a plastic sleeve
An outdoor hunt often ends up in the rain or in wet grass. A clear plastic sleeve is enough: the QR code scans straight through it.
Private events
A treasure hunt for a children's birthday party
Keeping eight over-excited children busy for an hour, without losing your weekend to it.
It is the dreaded moment of every birthday party: the cake is finished, there are two hours left before the parents come back, and nobody knows what to do with them. A treasure hunt is the classic answer — except it usually means writing riddles on paper, hiding them, and then chasing the group around to check every answer.
With QR codes the mechanics look after themselves. You hide the codes, the children scan them with a phone, and the app checks the answers and keeps score. You watch the game from your own screen instead of playing referee.
How to go about it
- 1
One question per hiding place
Eight to twelve questions will fill an hour. Any more and the youngest ones drift off. Scout the hiding places first — under a table, behind a tree, in the letterbox — then write one question for each.
- 2
Match the difficulty to the age
For six to eight year-olds, questions with instant answers: colours, animals, cartoon characters. For nine to twelve, questions that make them look around, or riddles about the house and the family.
- 3
Put them in teams of two or three
One phone per team. It stops a child without a phone being left out, and it forces them to agree before answering — which is where the game gets interesting.
- 4
Put the leaderboard on the TV
Open the leaderboard page on the television or a tablet on the table. Watching their team climb live gets the group going far better than any amount of encouragement from you.
Example questions
Each question offers four possible answers, only one of which is correct. You decide how many points it is worth.
- How old is the family dog?
- How many steps are there on the staircase?
- What colour is the garage door?
- What is Leo's favourite dessert?
Advice from the field
Plan for the black spots
Questions load from the internet. In a cellar or a poorly covered garden, test the signal before hiding a code there.
Keep the same codes for next time
Resetting the hunt clears the players and scores but keeps the questions. Your printed QR codes stay valid for the next birthday.
Frequently asked questions
From what age can children play on their own?+
As soon as they read fluently, around seven or eight. Below that, put them in teams with an older child or an adult: the game works very well across generations.
Does every child need a phone?+
No, and it is better if they don't. One phone per team of two or three is enough, and it pushes the children to agree before confirming an answer.
How long does a birthday treasure hunt last?+
Allow five to ten minutes per question, including the time spent finding the hiding place. Ten questions therefore fill about an hour for a group of eight.
🎯 Ready to play
Ready for your private events?
Create your account, write your questions, print your QR codes. Ten minutes is enough.
No install · No player accounts · Unlimited