For universities and colleges
Four hundred new students, and a campus none of them know
Build an orientation hunt your intake plays from a single link, in the browser, with nothing to install and no accounts to set up. Send groups off at different stops so they never bunch up, guide them between buildings, and see afterwards which parts of campus nobody could find.
How an orientation hunt comes together
Describe the campus and the day
Say which buildings new students have to find and what you want them to remember. AI drafts the stops, the questions and the missions for you to correct.
Fix the details only you know
Move a stop to the right entrance, rewrite a question in your own voice, and add the things a new student always asks about. Prefer full control? Build every stop by hand.
Send groups off at different stops
Staggered starts spread the groups across different starting stops of the same route, so they do not all queue at the same one. Hand out one link or QR code days early: until the opening time, it shows a countdown instead of the start.
Ways campuses use it
One route, rebuilt once and run every intake. A few places to start:
Welcome week campus tour
The library, the registry, the health centre and the union bar, found by the students themselves instead of followed in a line behind a flag.
Halls and accommodation icebreaker
A short hunt for one building, so people who will live together for a year meet on the first evening rather than the first exam.
Faculty and department introduction
Stops at the labs, the workshops and the offices students will actually need, with a question at each that makes them read the door.
January intake
Release the same hunt again for the second cohort. Nothing to rebuild, and last term is still there if you want to compare.
Open day for applicants
Give visiting families something to do between talks that shows the campus off better than a map does.
Student ambassador training
Run the hunt with your ambassadors first, so they learn the route and you find the confusing stops before the intake arrives.
Why it works for an intake
- No app to install and no student accounts, so nothing has to clear IT first.
- Groups start at different stops, so they spread out along the route. Free.
- Players are guided between stops with live map navigation.
- Photo and QR missions work indoors, where GPS is usually worst.
- Invite colleagues as collaborators so the hunt is not stuck in one person's login.
- Release once, then run the same route again every intake.
Not quite your situation?
Guides for this
Longer reads, with clues and steps you can copy.
How to run a campus scavenger hunt for orientation
A working plan for a college or university orientation scavenger hunt: group size, how many stops, how to keep 400 students from crowding one building, QR codes indoors, an opening time, a test walk, and what to report afterwards.
40 college scavenger hunt clues for the buildings most campuses have
Original campus scavenger hunt clues for orientation, grouped by ten places most campuses have some version of, with the answer or the task for each, and how to turn the list into a hunt.
Questions people ask
Do students need to install anything or make an account?
No. They open one link, or scan one QR code, and play in the phone browser they already have. There is no student sign-up, so there is no student account and no student email to look after.
How do we stop four hundred people arriving at the same stop together?
Staggered starts. Each group begins at a different point of the same route and works its way around, so the groups are spread out from the first minute. It is free.
Does it work inside buildings where GPS is unreliable?
Yes. A stop can be a QR code on a door, a photo mission, or a question, none of which need location at all. Use GPS only outdoors, where it works.
What can I show a director afterwards?
You see which stops were hardest, how each group did, and the answers and photos students sent. That is the evidence that the day did something.
Can several of us work on the same hunt?
Invite as many colleagues as you like, free, and choose whether each one can change the hunt or only look at it.
Can we run the same hunt again in January?
Yes. A released hunt stays yours. Run it again for the next intake, or edit it first: students already playing finish the version they started, so nothing breaks mid-hunt.
Is it free?
Building is free. Up to 5 phones can play each hunt every month. If more than 5 phones play in a month, you buy a phone pack. Prices are on the pricing page.
Want the full picture? See everything you can build or see pricing.
Get the intake around campus on their own
Describe your campus and have an orientation hunt ready to hand out. No app to install, free to start.
Create your hunt, free