Office Scavenger Hunt Ideas: A Ready-Made Hunt for Teams

Most office scavenger hunt ideas come as a list: find a stapler, take a team photo, ask someone a question. A list is a good start, but you still have to choose the items, write the clues, check every photo and keep the score. This page is one finished hunt built from those ideas. The events appear one at a time on each team’s phone, the phone checks each answer, photo and recording, and the points add up on their own. Your job is to form the teams, show the play link and hand out the prize.

How the Office Games work

Each team picks one phone holder. Only that person scans the code and types the team name, because every phone that joins counts as one phone. The phone holder takes the photos and can stay out of the shot.

There are seven events between an opening and a finish. Teams get the middle events in one of four orders, handed out in turn, so teams that start together are rarely on the same event. Puzzles sit between the photo and recording events, so it is not all walking around. A short podium puzzle comes second to last, and the last step is simply “come back to the host”.

The creative portrait and commentary are worth the most points, and a team that completes every event has 150 points. The first team to reach you with 150 points on its final screen wins gold. Silver and bronze go to the next teams to arrive with 150 points. The phones also show a leaderboard, but you pick the winners by who reaches you first, not by the leaderboard.

Office scavenger hunt clues, with the answers

This is the order you see in the builder and in your test run. Steps 1, 2, 8 and 9 are the same for every team. Steps 3 to 7 come in a different order for different teams.

1. Opening Ceremony. Share one phone, take turns leading events, photograph and record only willing teammates, keep work information out of the shot and walk. The first team back with all 150 points wins gold.
2. Warm-up riddle (10 points). What gets wetter the more it dries? Choose a towel, an umbrella or a coat. The answer is a towel.
3. Make a medal (20 points). Find a gold or yellow object, such as a sticky note, lid or highlighter. Photograph it close up and put it back.
4. A tip from a rival (20 points). Ask another team, or the host, what gets them through a Monday. Type their tip. A joke or a few words count, and no name is needed.
5. Live Commentary (30 points). One teammate slides a pen across a desk or tosses a paper ball into an empty bin. Another commentates like a sporting final at normal volume. Record about 10 seconds in a clear space where you will not disturb people working. Sitting down is fine.
6. Overtaking Round (20 points). Overtake the runner in second place. What place are you in? The answer is second, chosen from four options.
7. Champions’ Portrait (30 points). Invent a team victory pose using mugs, pens or other safe objects as pretend trophies. At least one willing teammate poses with a prop. Others help choose the pose or take the picture; a hands-only trophy pose also counts.
8. Who gets silver? (20 points). Blue finished after Red, but before Green. Which team gets silver for second place? The answer is Blue, chosen from three options. A hint helps put the teams in order.
9. Medal Ceremony. Tap Finish Hunt, walk to the host and show the final screen. The first team back with 150 points gets gold, followed by silver and bronze. Stay and cheer the other teams.

Every puzzle has a hint button for teams that get stuck.

Photo scavenger hunt for work: who goes in the pictures

Only the team’s own members go in photos and recordings. The hunt says this in its opening rules and photo instructions. Screens, papers, whiteboards and people who are not playing stay out of the shot, and the photo check may ask for a retake if a readable screen or whiteboard is in the picture. The phone holder can stay out of every photo, and only one person needs to be in the portrait, so shy colleagues can stay behind the camera.

The conversation event, A tip from a rival, is written, never a photo. So nobody who is not playing is photographed or recorded.

Each team sees its photos and recordings on its final screen. You can see them in your hunt’s results in the builder, and so can anyone you share the hunt with.

What you prepare (about 20 minutes)

1. Copy the template with the button on this page, then release it. Make a new copy for each event, so old teams do not appear in your results.
2. Try it yourself with the test run button in the builder, on your own phone. A test run does not use any of your free phones. It plays the order shown above.
3. Count the phones. One phone per team. Each hunt can be played on 5 phones a month for free, so 5 teams play free. For a bigger group, make bigger teams or add a phone pack before the day.
4. Plan the teams. Teams of 3 to 5, mixed across departments. Each team needs one phone holder whose camera and microphone work and whose phone is charged. A team cannot move its game to another phone once it has started.
5. Check the connection. Every phone needs office Wi-Fi or mobile data, because answers are checked online.
6. Get a prize. Coffee for the winning team, a chocolate medal, or a silly trophy that passes to next year’s winners.
7. Choose a clear space for commentary, away from colleagues who are working. The conversation event uses another team or the host.
8. Have the play link or QR code ready to show on a screen or send in your team chat, but only after the teams are formed.

On the day

Say: “Get into your teams of 3 to 5 and pick one phone holder.” When the teams are formed, show the code: “Phone holders only, scan the code and type your team name.”

Then give the rules in a few sentences. Teams get the events in different orders, so do not follow anyone. Stay inside the building, do not run, and keep the noise down near people working. Only your own team in photos, with screens, papers and whiteboards out of the shot. If you are stuck, use a hint. When you finish, tap Finish Hunt and come and show me your screen. The first team to reach me with 150 points wins gold.

Watch who arrives first and check that each screen shows 150 points. At about 35 minutes, call time. Teams still playing can finish and show their screen. Then hand over the prize.

For a portrait show at the end, open the hunt in the builder, tap Stats, then the Sessions tab, and open a team to see its photos.

Make it yours

Everything in the template can be changed in the builder before you release it, by hand or by asking the AI assistant in plain words. The hunt is written in English, and you can rewrite any step in your own words.

A good first change is a question about your company. Replace the Overtaking Round with a multiple-choice question, such as the year the company started or what it makes. Keep company facts in quiz questions, not in photo, recording or written events, because the automatic check cannot know facts about your company.

If you change the points on any event, also change the number 150 in the first and last steps, because both tell teams the total they need.

Questions organisers ask

How long should an office scavenger hunt be? This one takes about 20 to 35 minutes, which fits into a lunch break. Call time at about 35 minutes, and let teams that are still playing finish.

How many challenges should an office scavenger hunt have? For half an hour, seven events is enough. This hunt has nine steps: an opening, seven events and a finish. It mixes three puzzles, two photos, one recording and one conversation with a colleague.

How do you score an office scavenger hunt? Give harder events more points. Here the warm-up is worth 10 points, the portrait and commentary 30 each, and the other events 20 each, for 150 in total. The phones add up the points. The winner is the first team to reach you with all 150 points, and silver and bronze follow in the order teams arrive.

Is there a free app for an office scavenger hunt? There is nothing to install. The hunt opens in the phone’s web browser from a link or a QR code, and only the person who copies the template needs an account. Each hunt can be played on 5 phones a month for free, and one phone per team means 5 teams.

Does it work as a scavenger hunt for new hires? Yes. Put new starters in teams with colleagues who have been there longer. The portrait and the commentary get each team working together, and A tip from a rival sends every team to talk to someone outside it.

How many teams can play? Five teams play free. For more teams, add a phone pack before the day. The first four teams each get a different order, and a fifth team repeats the first order. With more than 7 teams, start half of them one minute later, so the first photo checks do not all arrive at once. Note when each group started, and take that minute off the late group’s arrival time when you pick the winner.