QR Codes for Scavenger Hunts and Games
Give each stop or clue in a scavenger hunt its own QR code linking to the next clue, a piece of trivia, or a checkpoint confirmation page — each code is cheap to print and works entirely independently since every one is a separate static code.
Set up is straightforward: write out the clue sequence first, decide what each stop should reveal — the next location's hint, a riddle, a trivia question, a confirmation message — and build a simple page or short text for each one. Generate one URL or plain text QR code per stop and print them separately. Because each code is static and self-contained, there's no shared system that can go down mid-hunt; if one code has an issue, it doesn't affect any of the others.
For a physical hunt, size and placement depend on where the code is hidden or displayed. A code meant to be spotted from a few feet away at an obvious checkpoint can be printed small and unobtrusive; a code meant to be findable as part of the challenge might be printed larger or laminated for outdoor durability. Weatherproofing matters more here than in most indoor use cases if the hunt runs outdoors or over multiple days.
A genuinely useful organizational trick: number or color-code the printed codes for your own reference — Stop 1, Stop 2, and so on, or a color per team route. A static QR code has no built-in analytics, so it can't tell you which one was scanned first or how many times, and there's no dashboard to check mid-event. If you need to track progress or verify a team hit every checkpoint, that has to be handled through the confirmation pages themselves — for example, each stop's page asking the player to note a short code word they'll report at the end.
This same approach works for team-building events, birthday party games, classroom review activities, and promotional in-store hunts. The core mechanic is identical regardless of setting: a sequence of independent, static codes, each one a link or bit of text, printed and placed in order.
For an in-store or retail promotional hunt specifically, pairing each stop with a small prize or discount code adds a concrete incentive beyond the game itself, and since a static code never expires, printed stops can stay up for the full length of a multi-week promotion without needing to reprint or refresh anything partway through — the only ongoing work is making sure the physical placements themselves haven't been moved or damaged.