History of Puzzle Hunts

The History of Puzzle Hunting involves many iterations and improvements over the years. This page attempts to summarise Hunts as they have evolved through the decades.

Early Mystery Hunts (1981 - 2000)
MIT Mystery Hunt was started in 1981 by then-graduate student Brad Schaefer. The first Hunt consisted of 12 subclues on a single sheet of paper including a Vigenere cipher, a short runaround, and an integral. The answers to the subclues detailed the location of an Indian Head penny hidden on campus. The individuals who found the coin were allowed to take their pick of a $20 gift certificate to the school bookstore, a $50 donation to the charity of their choice, and a keg of beer. The hunt was organized for the next two years by Brad Schaefer and after he graduated, the winners were given the honor of writing the hunt the next year.

The Game (1985-2000s)
The Game is a class of puzzle hunts, which generally focuses on weekend-long trips where teams drive from location to location solving puzzles. Historically, The Game has been played in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the Seattle area, but has also appeared in other locations such as Boston and Washington DC. Precusors of The Game have been seen as early as 1970s, with the Game running in Florida from 1985-1986, Bay Area from 1987-1994, San Francisco from 1991 to 2010, and Seatlle from 1995 - 2005

Australian Style Hunts (2010-2015)
The 2010s saw the growing prevalence of "Australian Style Hunts". These hunts were characterised by puzzles and pre-written hints releasing at fixed times each day over several days.

Modern Puzzle Hunts (2017-)
Since the Galactic Puzzle Hunt 2017, there has been a consistent rise of yearly online puzzle hunts, often but not always organised by Mystery Hunt Teams. These involve teammate Hunt, Huntinality, QoDE Puzzle Hunt, Silph Puzzle Hunt and more. The COVID-19 Pandemic also forced MIT Mystery Hunt 2021 and MIT Mystery Hunt 2022 to be hosted completely online, leading to even more online teams participating.