Kraken Bingo

Kraken Bingo · Scavenger hunt

A campus orientation scavenger hunt that shows freshers where things really are

Put new students into groups and send them from the library to the canteen to the sports hall, with a code to scan and a question at every stop. By lunchtime they know the campus, and each other.

Create a hunt

Why this works as a scavenger hunt

A campus tour behind a guide with a flag is forgotten by the afternoon. Students remember the places they had to find themselves: the side door of the library, the office that stamps the forms, the canteen that stays open late. A scavenger hunt makes them do the finding, in a group of people they met an hour ago, which is the other half of what orientation is for.

A trail in a fixed order lets you design the route like a story: start where they'll study and end where they'll celebrate. Each stop can carry a question about the place — when the library closes on Saturdays, where to print, which building the help desk is in — and a photo task that turns a group of strangers into something like a team. The mentors watch the Live tab and see which group is lost long before anyone has to phone them.

Set it up in an evening

  1. 1

    Create a team

    One team for the faculty, the student union or the mentoring programme. The organisers are its admins.

  2. 2

    Add a hunt and choose who plays together

    Create a game, choose Scavenger hunt and In groups, and set the common start for the end of the welcome talk.

  3. 3

    Write the steps

    Add the stops below in order and adapt them to your campus: what to look for, a QR code or GPS, and a question about each place.

  4. 4

    Put out the codes

    Print the QR codes from the step list and put them up at each stop. Indoors, codes work where GPS doesn't.

  5. 5

    Set off

    Share the team's link with the new students: everyone who joins is added to the running hunt. Split them into groups at random, give each group a mentor or a captain with a phone, and let the groups set off a few minutes apart.

A 10-step trail to start from

Players see one step at a time, in this order, and each hint arrives only when the step before it is done. Add these 10 as your steps, then swap in your own places and answers.

  1. 1The welcome hall — a group photo under the faculty sign, so the album starts with every face
  2. 2The library — scan the code at the front desk and pick when it closes on Saturdays
  3. 3The study office — find the code on the notice board and pick which forms are handed in there
  4. 4The print room — scan the code and type how many free pages a student gets each term
  5. 5The canteen — a photo of the group's best-value lunch
  6. 6The IT help desk — find out how to reset a password and type the desk's room number
  7. 7The sports hall — film the group doing ten star jumps by the entrance
  8. 8The student union — check in by GPS and answer which club meets on Thursday evenings
  9. 9The best hidden study spot — the hint is only a photo; find the place and take the same picture
  10. 10The finish, the campus café — scan the last code to stop the group's clock

Recommended setup

Length
10 stops on one campus: the buildings a first-year needs in the first week.
How long it takes
60 to 90 minutes, on the first or second day of term.
Worth turning on
A photo as the hint. A step's hint can carry photos or a video, so a stop can be “find this door” instead of an address, which is how students will look for it later anyway.

What makes it work

Proof at every step

Each stop checks that the group got there: a printed QR code on the wall, GPS for the stops outside, or both. In basements and big buildings, codes are the reliable choice.

Questions that open the next step

Questions are multiple choice or typed, and typed answers ignore capitals, accents and spaces. Groups can retry, but only a right first answer scores — and what they had to look up is what they'll remember.

A live view and a ranking

Mentors see every group on the Live tab: the stop it's at, how long it took, the photos so far. When a group finishes, the others hear about it in the activity feed and the apps' notifications, and the ranking can go up on a projector for the prize-giving.

Frequently asked questions

How many students can take part?

As many as join the team. In group mode one phone per group is enough; the others walk along. With a big intake, send groups off a few minutes apart: each group's clock starts when it sets off, so a later start costs nothing.

Do students need to install an app?

No. The trail runs in a phone's browser with a built-in code scanner, and the phone's own camera opens the codes too. The iPhone and Android apps add notifications and keep playing where the signal drops, such as basements.

Can we reuse the trail next year?

Yes. Players never see the right answers, so the questions still work next year. Keep the steps, delete last year's groups, and give the hunt new dates for the new intake.

What if a code goes missing?

Mark the group's current stop as done on the Live tab and it carries on. The group keeps the points for getting there and loses only the answer points.

Can we show the ranking at the end?

Yes. On the website you can put the race on a projector: groups by points, then by their own time from setting off to the finish.

What does it cost?

Creating the team and the hunt is free. Organisers sign up; students join with the invite link or QR code.

Plan your first hunt

Free to create, no card needed, and players join your team with one link.

Create a hunt

Other ways people play

A new hire scavenger hunt that gives the office tour for you

Instead of a hurried tour between two meetings, give every new starter a trail through the building: a code to scan at each place that matters, a question about it, and a few colleagues to meet on the way.

Human bingo for new hires — without printing a single card

Sixteen small missions that get a new starter talking to people, spread across their first month instead of their first meeting.