Scavenger Hunt Tip: Three Keys to Good Clues

When creating clues for a scavenger hunt there are three questions you should ask yourself. Is the Clue Personalized for the hunter? Will the clue be fun for the hunter? Is the Clue entertaining? You don’t need and answer yes to all three questions for a clue to be great. However, if the answer is no for all three you might want to rethink your clue.

Is the Clue Personalized for the Hunter?

It’s great to add some clues to your hunt that are personalized to the hunter. It might involve an inside joke you both share, a memory you have together or trivia that they would find interesting. You might ask about the place where you first met or what animal you saw when camping together. Personalized trivia is another great clue to add to any hunt. If they are into art you can ask them a question regarding their favourite artist. For example “How many self-portraits did Vincent Van Gough perform between 1886 and 1889?”. Making this type of trivia is easier than it seems. Just take a few minutes to read about the subject on the internet and once you find an interesting fact make it into a question. Personalized clues are certainly one of the most impressive for the person receiving the hunt and they will be taken back by how much thought you put into the hunt.

Is the Clue Fun for the Hunter?

It sounds simple but it’s important to consider whether the clue will be fun for the hunter. This is similar to creating personalized clues but instead we are focused on general things they like. If the hunter really likes math then by all means add some math questions into your scavenger hunt. On the other hand if they hate dealing with numbers avoid that type of clue at all costs! This is also where you want to consider the difficulty of your clue. You want to make it difficult enough so that it’s not extremely easy but you also want to make sure that it’s not impossible for them to get. The right difficulty will get them scratching their head and then jumping in the air when they figure it out. If you’re not sure about the difficulty try it out on someone else and see what happens.

Is the Clue Entertaining?

Whether the clue is entertaining or not comes down to the wording of your clues. There are a ton of ways you can make a scavenger hunt more entertaining. You can make a fictional storyline for the hunt, maybe they need to find the deactivation code for a nuclear missile or find the toupee of their ungrateful boss. You can add some humour to the hunt with joke or sarcasm based clues and riddles. You can even add rhyming to your clues which is always fun.

These are just a few examples of how to make clues that are personal, fun and entertaining. The blog also has other ideas that will help you make hunt worthy clues. You’ll also come up with great ideas that haven’t been featured here. If you’d like to share your scavenger hunt ideas let us know at support@textclues.com and maybe we’ll write an article about them!