Recipe

Trailheads & First Clues

Design an intro puzzle that hooks players, teaches your rules, and opens the door to your world.

45-60 minutes Beginner
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What You're Building

Every great ARG has that one moment where reality tilts. A weird image. A broken audio file. A link that definitely shouldn't exist. Most people scroll past. But a few players lean in, poke at it, and suddenly they're inside a world of hidden messages and secret rules.

This recipe is about building that moment: your very first puzzle, the trailhead that tells players "you're not just watching a story anymore, you're inside it."

You're actually creating three things at once: an intro puzzle (a small, solvable challenge), a trailhead (the clear "start here" signal), and a landing zone (where the puzzle sends them with a promise of more). Get these right and you've built a strong Episode One.

"You're not just hiding a message. You're opening a door and saying: Come in. The rules are a little different here."

What You'll Need

One Puzzle Mechanic

Pick exactly one technique for your intro: invisible ink, spectrogram audio, QR codes, metadata, or cipher text. You'll reuse it later, so choose something that fits your world.

Hosting Platform

GitHub Pages, Notion, Google Drive, Discord, Tumblr, or simple HTML

Your World's Tone

Know if it's glitchy horror, investigative, magical, or grounded realistic

Step by Step

1

Set the Tone

Before you build anything, decide: "When players see this for the first time, what feeling do I want to hit them with?"

  • Glitchy/digital horror: corrupted images, flickering text
  • Investigative: metadata, QR scraps, "evidence" files
  • Magical/surreal: runes, symbols, stereograms
  • Grounded/realistic: chat screenshots, school docs, emails

This feeling tells you what your "weird object" should be: an image, sound clip, screenshot, poster, or fake website.

2

Choose One Mechanic

The intro puzzle is your tutorial, hiding inside the story. Pick exactly one mechanic you want players to learn:

Pro tip: Plan to reuse this mechanic later. That's how you teach the rules of your ARG.
3

Make the Weirdness Obvious

New creators often make their first puzzle too subtle. Players never realize it exists. Don't be sneaky. Be loudly strange.

  • A photo with one clearly corrupted corner
  • A file named WHYDIDTHEYSENDTHIS.png
  • A character saying "does this picture look wrong to you?"
  • Audio with a very noticeable tone layered on top

Your job isn't to trick players into missing the puzzle. Your job is to invite them to touch it.

4

Build the Puzzle Chain

Most strong intro puzzles follow this pattern:

  • Invite: Show the weird object with a caption that nudges them ("Something's wrong with this file")
  • Act: One clear action: scan, decode, inspect, listen. Hint the tool in-world ("the truth is in the noise")
  • Reward: A phrase, URL, password, or handle that obviously leads somewhere
Remember: If any piece is missing, players get confused or bored. The reward should scream "this is the next step."
5

Design the Landing Zone

Solving the intro should bring players somewhere: a page, channel, file, or inbox. This landing zone needs to do four things:

  • Confirm they were right: "ACCESS GRANTED" or "You weren't supposed to find this"
  • Give a micro-reward: A bit of lore, a character voice, a symbol that matters later
  • Buy you time: "I'm gathering more evidence. Check back soon." or "Decryption in progress: 24%"
  • Hint the bigger destination: A blurred folder called FINAL PROTOCOL

Keep it simple and easy to update. Notion, a Google Doc, or a basic HTML page all work fine.

Example Structures

Remix these patterns for your own intro puzzle

The Corrupted Selfie

A selfie from a "friend" with one corner obviously glitched. Players inspect it with Lucyra and reveal hidden text: START IN ROOM 204. Landing zone is a simple page titled "Room 204 Log" with one scared entry and a note: "I'm still collecting proof. Check back soon." Teaches: images can hide text.

Invisible Ink

The Audio Whisper

A 10-second voice memo captioned "audio bug?" with words drawn in the spectrogram: CANT TALK HERE. Landing zone looks like a terminal: "Transmission intercepted. Further logs when channel is safe." Teaches: audio is worth analyzing visually.

Spectrogram

The Evidence File

An empty-looking PNG named evidence.png from a panicked character. Liminala reveals metadata: Artist: donttrusttheprincipal. Landing zone is a shared folder with one visible file and a promise of more. Teaches: metadata matters.

Metadata

Scale to Your Needs

Start simple or go deeper

Beginner

Single QR Code

Hide a QR code in plain sight on a poster or image. It links directly to your landing zone with a welcome message. One tool, one solve, instant gratification.

Intermediate

Standard Mechanic Chain

The full Invite → Act → Reward pattern with one puzzle tool. Players identify something weird, apply the right technique, get a clear result that leads to your landing zone.

Advanced

Multi-Layer Intro

Two quick solves chained together: find hidden text that gives a password, use the password on a locked page. Still fast but teaches two mechanics and feels more "real."

Safety & Boundaries

You can make your game spooky, intense, and weird without crossing lines. The point is to feel like the world is bending, not to put anyone at risk.

Avoid: Telling players to trespass or break rules. Using real people without permission. Posting anyone's real personal info. Pushing players toward unsafe stunts.

Good moves: Keep missions digital or clearly safe. Use fictional names and organizations. Add a disclaimer: "This is a fictional game. Stay safe and follow real-world rules while playing."

Ready to Open the Door?

Your intro puzzle is Module 1. While players are solving and theorizing, you quietly build Module 2. You only need to stay one or two steps ahead.