Download MP3Seekt: A Guide to Hosting Your First Scavenger Hunt
This podcast is intended as a deep dive and overview for anyone new to hosting scavenger hunts with Seekt.
So you have downloaded Seekt and you are ready to host your first scavenger hunt. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know, from creating your first hunt to watching your teams compete. By the end, you will have a game up and running and a solid understanding of how everything works.
What You Will Need
You will need an iPhone running iOS seventeen or later. Everyone can host for free with one player device, which is a great way to test your hunts before an event. When you are ready for larger groups, paid plans are available as one-time purchases that scale based on group size. Your own device as the host does not count toward the limit. Your players do not need to pay anything at all — joining and playing is completely free for them. They just need an iPhone with Seekt installed.
You can see your current plan and upgrade at any time by tapping the plan icon in the top right corner of the home screen. If you start with the free tier and later need more capacity, you can upgrade and the new limit takes effect immediately — even on an active game. Plan details are available on the Seekt website and within the app.
The Big Picture
Here is the basic flow. You create a hunt, which is your list of items for players to find or complete. Then you create a game from that hunt, which generates a join code and QR code. You share that code with your players. They join, pick teams, and wait for you to start. You press start, the clock begins, and teams race to complete items and climb the leaderboard. You watch everything happen live from your dashboard, and when time runs out, you have your winners.
That is the whole thing. Everything else is optional detail that you can add when you are ready.
Step One: Creating a Hunt
Open the app and tap "Create Hunt." Give it a name — something like "Park Scavenger Hunt" or "Birthday Challenge" — and an optional description. This is just for your own reference so you know what the hunt is for.
Now you are on the hunt editor screen. This is where you will add your items.
Step Two: Adding Items
Tap the plus button to add your first item. The most important field is the clue — this is the instruction your players will see. Something like "Find something red and photograph it" or "How many benches are in the park?" Then set a point value. That is the minimum you need. You can save the item right there and move on to the next one.
If you are not sure what items to add, the app has a built-in library of twenty ready-to-use items. Tap the library icon at the top of the add item screen and browse through them. You will find items like "Take a photo with a stranger's pet," "Find something older than fifty years," "Collect a smooth stone," and "Record a team victory dance." Tap any one to load it into your item, adjust it if you like, and save. You can also save your own items to a personal library as you go, so you build up a collection for future hunts.
You will notice there are several item types to choose from. The default is photo or video evidence, where players take a picture or record a short clip to prove they found or did something. But you can also set up text answers, where players type a response, numeric answers for things like counting, and multiple choice questions. For text and numeric answers, you can choose whether the app scores them automatically against an exact answer, or whether you want to review the responses yourself. Multiple choice is always scored automatically.
There is also photo matching, where you upload a reference photo as the clue and players have to find and photograph the same thing. And there are multi-part items, where you require more than one photo for a single item — useful for something like "photograph three different types of flowers." Players see their progress as they go.
There are also collect items — things players need to physically pick up and bring back, not just photograph. The item gets a special indicator so players know the difference.
Barcode scan items are great for product-finding challenges, like in a grocery store or around a home. You scan the target product's barcode when creating the item and write a clue. Players get a limited number of scan attempts to find the right product.
You can also mark any item as a power-up. When completed, it grants the team a score multiplier for their next several items — a strategic element that rewards planning.
For your first hunt, keep it simple. A mix of photo items and maybe a question or two is a great starting point. You can always get more creative next time.
Step Three: Setting Up the Game Zone (Optional)
If your hunt takes place in a defined area — a park, a neighbourhood, a campus — you can draw a game zone on the map. Tap "Game Zone" in the hunt editor and drop pins to outline the boundary. You need at least three points to form a shape.
The game zone does two things. It shows up on the map so players know where the play area is, and it flags any submissions made outside the boundary so you can review them. Players also get a live alert on their phone if they wander out of bounds, and another when they come back in.
This is entirely optional. If you skip it, players can submit from anywhere.
Step Four: Creating a Game
Once your items are ready, tap "Create Game." The app generates a unique six-character join code and a QR code. This is what your players will use to get in.
You can share the QR code in several ways. There is a full-screen display mode, perfect for projecting or holding up your phone for people to scan. You can share it as an image to send in a group chat. Or you can generate a printable PDF if you want to post it on a wall or hand it out.
At this point, your game is in a "waiting" state. Players can join, but the clock has not started yet. This gives everyone time to get set up before you kick things off.
Step Five: Players Joining
Your players open Seekt, tap "Join Game," and either scan the QR code or type the join code. They will be asked to create a team by entering a team name and their name. Once they do, they are in.
If you want multiple people on the same team using their own phones, you can enable multi-member mode before starting the game. With multi-member mode on, one person creates the team and becomes the team captain. Other players can then request to join that team. The team captain sees the requests and approves or rejects them from their phone. Each approved member submits independently from their own device, and all submissions count toward the same team score. This is great for larger groups where you want teams of three or four people each working from their own phones. Every device that joins counts toward your plan's device limit, whether they are on separate teams or the same team.
If you do not enable multi-member mode, each team is tied to a single phone. The team still works together in person, but they share one device for submissions.
If a player tries to join and your game has reached its device limit, they will see a message explaining the game is full. You will be notified on your dashboard at the same time, with an option to upgrade your plan. If you upgrade, the new limit applies to the current game immediately and the player can try joining again.
Step Six: Starting the Game
When everyone has joined, go to your dashboard and tap "Start Game." Before the game begins, you will see a few configuration options.
The most important one is the time limit. Set how long the game should last — say, thirty minutes or an hour. If you leave it blank, the game runs until you end it manually.
You can also set a home base location. This is where you want players to return when the game ends. You can use your current location or pick a spot on the map. When the game ends or a team completes all items, a directional arrow appears on their screen guiding them back to home base.
The other options on this screen are for scoring bonuses and safety check-ins, which are covered in the advanced features section we will discuss later. For your first game, the defaults work fine. Just set your time limit and hit start.
Step Seven: Managing the Game
Now the game is live. Your dashboard is your command centre.
You will see the leaderboard updating in real time as teams submit evidence. You can tap any team on the leaderboard to expand it and see the names of all team members, with the captain clearly marked. You can see how many submissions are pending your review.
Tap into the submissions view to review what teams have sent in. Each submission shows the team name, the item they are responding to, the photo or video they submitted, and where they were when they submitted it. You can accept it, which awards the points, or reject it, which gives the team zero points and lets them try again. You can also adjust the points if you want to give partial credit or a bonus.
If you need to communicate with your players during the game, you can send announcements. These appear as highlighted cards in every player's hunt list. You can broadcast to all teams or send a message to a specific team. This is useful for things like "Lunch is in ten minutes, start heading back" or "The north trail is closed, stay on the south side."
If the game is going well and you want to give teams more time, you can extend the timer by adding bonus minutes. Players are notified immediately that bonus time has been added, and they see the extra time reflected on their countdown.
When the timer runs out, the game ends automatically. You can also end it early from the dashboard if you need to.
After the Game
Once the game ends, the final leaderboard is locked in. You and your players can browse the results, review submissions, and see the final scores. The slideshow feature lets you display all the submitted photos in sequence, which is great for projecting via AirPlay so the whole group can see the highlights together.
Game data stays available for forty-eight hours, giving everyone time to look back at the results. After that, it is automatically cleaned up.
If you want to run the same hunt again with a different group, you do not need to recreate anything. Just go back to your hunt and create a new game from it. Each game is a separate instance with its own teams, scores, and submissions, but the hunt itself — your items, your clues, your settings — stays exactly as you left it. You can also duplicate an entire hunt if you want to make a variation of it.
Advanced Features
Everything already discussed is enough to run a great scavenger hunt. But Seekt has a deeper set of tools available when you are ready for them. Here is a quick tour of what else is possible.
Location triggers let you lock any item behind a GPS location. The item appears in the player's list, but it cannot be submitted until the player physically arrives at the location you set. A directional arrow on their screen guides them there, showing direction and distance. Once they are within range — fifty metres by default, but you can adjust it — the item unlocks. This is perfect for hunts where you want players to visit specific places, not just find things wherever they happen to be.
The hint system lets you attach clues to items. You can add text hints with written guidance, or location hints that place a pin on the player's map. Hints can be free, or you can set a point cost so players have to decide whether the help is worth the deduction. You can attach multiple hints to a single item, and players reveal them one at a time.
Availability windows let you control when items appear. You can set an item to become available a certain number of minutes after the game starts, or to expire after a certain number of minutes. This creates waves of content throughout the game — some items available from the start, new ones appearing midway through, and some disappearing if not completed in time.
Hidden and bonus items do not appear in the player's list at all until they are unlocked. You designate a trigger item, and when a team completes it, the hidden item is revealed. Until then, it shows as a blurred teaser — players can see something is there, but not what it is. This adds a layered discovery element to the game.
Exclusive items can only be claimed by one team. The first team to submit locks it out for everyone else. This creates a race within the race and encourages teams to prioritise high-value targets.
Time-decay scoring makes items lose value over time. You set a rate — say, one percent per minute — and a floor — say, ten percent — so an item never becomes completely worthless. This rewards speed without making late submissions pointless. Players see exactly how many points they lost to decay on each submission.
First-finder bonuses award extra points to the first team that completes each item. Streak bonuses reward teams that complete several items in a row. Both are optional and configured when you start the game.
Safety check-ins prompt teams at a regular interval — say, every fifteen minutes — to confirm they are okay. The team captain gets a dialog asking "Are you OK?" and acknowledges it. On your dashboard, you can see which teams have checked in recently and which are overdue. This is especially useful for hunts in large areas or with younger participants.
Tips for Your First Hunt
Keep your item list short. Eight to twelve items is plenty for a thirty-minute game. You can always add more next time.
Mix up the item types. A few photo items, a question or two, and maybe a collect item keeps things interesting.
Test the QR code before the event. Have someone scan it to make sure it works and the join flow is smooth.
If you are playing outdoors, remember that the app works offline. If players lose signal in a dead zone, their submissions queue up and sync automatically when they reconnect. You do not need to worry about coverage.
Set a clear home base so players know where to return when the game ends. The directional arrow takes care of the rest.
And most importantly, have fun with it. The app handles the logistics — scoring, timing, submissions, leaderboards — so you can focus on the experience.
Seekt was built in Canada but can be used worldwide. Remember that more information is always available on line at seekt.ca.