When I first came up with the concept for The Great NFT Treasure Hunt, I thought that it was a powerful idea which had a lot of potential. But now that my treasure hunt is over, after seeing it all come together and the feedback from the community that participated in it, I am now absolutely convinced that this is going to become a humongous worldwide trend.
To me, there is so much inherent good within a project like this:
- It takes the wondrous realm of NFTs and merges it with the physical realm of a hidden art adventure game.
- It is free to participate and serves as a perfect onboarding platform for muggles who don’t know anything about crypto or NFTs.
- It celebrates and elevates local culture, and particularly underappreciated artists.
- It gets you to utilize your own knowledge, think critically about clues, and explore places you have never been before.
- It is far more fun than any play-to-earn NFT game that currently exists, and is most fun when played with a group of friends
- But most importantly, it provides powerful and lasting experiences for the X Hunters that participate, and even an NFT souvenir of it all.
I am now on a mission to spread this idea, so that as many people as possible can experience the joy of a real-life NFT Treasure Hunt in their own city. But I am just one person, so I can’t do it alone. That is why I have created this document, which outlines the general instructions for how to create such a project and advice from my learnings along the journey.
If you are reading this, then I want to help you create an IRL NFT Treasure Hunt in your home city. Provided below should be everything you need to get started.
Find Your Purpose
Why are you deciding to create an IRL NFT Treasure Hunt?
I created mine to show just some of the amazing possibilities of what could be done with this concept, and to celebrate local Southern California culture. Yours could easily be to celebrate your local culture as well. Or maybe you have thought of an entirely different spin to put on it, and that is fine too. Honestly, there were lots of cool things that I really wanted to do, but just didn’t have the time, money, etc. So figure out what it is that you really want to do with your project first.
Assemble Your Team
Creating a real-life NFT Treasure Hunt is no easy task, so it is easiest when you have a solid team to work with. I had several awesome people helping me behind the scenes, and you should too – but be sure to choose your team well! NDAs will likely be needed to keep your secrets safe too.
I was able to do all of the core work of picking the secret locations and coming up with the clues myself, but in addition to that you will probably need someone to help you create the art, mint it on the blockchain, build a website, generate PR, manage your social media, etc. Getting a good team from the start will really set you up for success later.
Form A Plan
Now that you have a purpose and a team, you are primed for launch. It is time to think through all of the major and minor steps that you will need to execute on to make this thing come to life. So form a project plan and write it all out. Try using project management software, or anything to help you keep organized as you list out all of the tasks that need to get done.
At this point you should also decide how you want to monetize your project, if you wish to do so. I chose to make all of my Invaluable X’s 2:2, so that I could sell the duplicates at auction. However, maybe you are fine with just the royalties of any secondary sales. Or maybe instead of hiding an NFT itself, you hide a whitelist pass for a free mint, and anybody who finds it after that needs to pay a small minting fee. If you get creative, there are lots of possibilities here.
Pick Your Locations Well
This is probably the hardest part of the whole project.
Do some deep googling to find out what your secret locations should be. Make a long list of all possibilities and then narrow it down to only the best locations at the end.
I would say that the best secret locations are adequately obscure, meaning that they are notable, but not too obvious or recognizable. For example, an NFT Hunt in Paris may be tempted to select the Eiffel Tower, but it is also probably the first place anybody would think to look since it is so well-known. However, on the flip side, you wouldn’t want to choose just some random street corner, because that isn’t a cultural landmark that people would even think of. Instead, try to find some of those smaller local gems that are still important and known by the locals, but less acclaimed. (This also plays right into the concept of helping to elevate more obscure artists and cultural landmarks.) Be prepared to spend lots of time searching through tons of websites just to find something cool that most people would rarely ever guess at.
Additionally, while picking your locations, also be conscious of private property. It’s probably not a good idea to go wandering around on someone else’s grounds, much less leave something there and encourage others to snoop around the place too. Hiding clues on public land is your safest best. All of mine were outdoors.
As you are picking a location, think of exactly where at that location you would hide your treasure card. This can be a bit difficult, so try to go there in person or get good pictures of the place until you are rather certain. I have found that generally there are two types of locations: Schelling and Non-Schelling.
Schelling, of course, refers to a solution that people tend to choose by default in the absence of communication. So when I hid X-18 at The Oak Of The Golden Dream, luckily the plaque for that landmark was perfectly suited for me to hide the treasure card on the back side of it. A natural Schelling point, for that location that no regular person at that location would look, but any X Hunter would check immediately. But other locations are non-Schelling in that just because you know the location, that doesn’t mean you will be able to easily find the treasure card there. For example, X-6 was the San Onofre Power Plant, which although being a significant landmark, is actually off-limits to the public and covers a large amount of ground. So it took my X Hunters a while to find it just because they needed more clues as to exactly where it was placed around the border of the facility. Both kinds of locations are fine, but try to lean towards ones with natural Schelling points for hiding treasure cards, if you can.
And lastly, do your best to select a whole range of locations in various aspects to keep your hunt more exciting. So some can certainly be more well known, but others should be more obscure. Try to get all types of locations, like monuments, parks, roads, buildings, etc. And try to have them be geographically dispersed, so that not only will people have to actually go exploring someplace new to find them, but also so that some people who may live closer to one or the other may actually have local knowledge of it.
Come Up With Clever Clues
Now that you have a set of locations, start coming up with possible clues for them. This is also a challenging task, but quite fun too!
Really, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do here for clues. You can come up with clues that are riddles, ones that rhyme, use strange pictures, give coordinates, make them do math, play music or audio, use emojis, and lots more. Go wild! With X-27 for Neptune’s Portal, I had the secret location actually lead to a clue for another nearby location where the treasure card was actually hidden. I only did this in this one case, but you could easily come up with a string of clues that lead to even more clues.
However, there is one thing that you shouldn’t do for clues. The number one rule is that it shouldn’t be easily googleable. Because if people can simply copy and paste your clue into google to find the location, then that wouldn’t be as fun. So instead, get creative with your clues and make sure that the location isn’t anywhere within the top search results before you share it.
Make Some Marvelous Art
For my treasure hunt, I specifically had my artist design the work such that each piece served as not only the treasure itself, but also a treasure map. The pieces were wholly representative of each secret location, yet also abstracted such that one may not know exactly what it is referring to just by looking at it. There may be subtle clues in the color, or style, or content of the art itself. The best works of art are the ones where you have no idea what they are at first, but as soon as you solve the clues it instantly becomes obvious in retrospect. Each piece is uniquely distinct, yet they all hang together well as a collection.
But truthfully, there is so much more possibility here than I had the chance to explore. You could get really creative with hiding clues in the artwork, if you put in the effort. Or perhaps you may not want your art to be a clue at all, and instead just be a beautiful prize, and that is perfectly fine too.
Build A Website
This part is pretty straight forward. For my website, the homepage was primarily designed to inform the general idea that it is a real-life NFT treasure hunt, and what that means – since it is such a unique concept. ‘The Hunt’ page detailed the rules of how the game was played, as well as giving a status of which of the Invaluable X NFTs have been found (so that people don’t go searching for ones that are already taken). Make sure to be very clear on the rules of your hunt, so people don’t go searching in the wrong places. There was also a page specifically designed to help walk people through the process of claiming their NFTs (since NFT Treasure Hunts are uniquely suited for attracting muggles, it is a great onboarding point to teach them about how crypto works). And lastly my site had a gallery to showcase the beautiful art and links to Opensea for purchase.
Design Your Treasure Card
Designing the treasure card is actually quite easy. I started off by creating a front that congratulates the X Hunter and clearly announces what this is – a hidden art prize that is uncovered.
On the back is where all the necessary info lives. It contains the name of the artwork that is found, the seed phrase for recovering the wallet, a QR code to the claim instructions page, and a statement urging the X Hunter to inform the organizer (me) that this NFT has been found.
Be sure to mention on the card for them not to share their seed phrase with anyone. I believe that you may also create a QR code instead of the seed phrase, but I personally like the seed phrase because it enforces the idea of teaching muggles the basics of how crypto works. I even used a label maker to attach all of the seed phrases to these cards, that way I would only ever be entering it on a device not connected to the internet and would not have to worry about others seeing my seed phrase at the print shop.
These treasure cards should ideally be very small (good for hiding) and on thick, glossy card stock that won’t get destroyed in bad weather. Putting them in a study envelope will also help.
Mint Your Invaluable X’s
Ideally, this would be a very straightforward step if you know what you are doing. Unfortunately, I didn’t, so I had a rather rough time with it, but I eventually got it done. Due to the nature of the project, I would highly recommend that you get your own smart contract for this, instead of some sort of lazy minting process. If you are not a coder yourself, platforms like Manifold have popped up which help you to do this using a simple interface. Also, be certain to use a hardware wallet, as that is the safest way to manage your NFTs.
I minted mine as ERC-1155 so that all of my NFTs could be 2:2, but perhaps you would prefer yours to be 1:1 and go with ERC-721 instead. It is really up to you, just remember that not all platforms (as of this writing) support ERC-1155 to a full extent (which I found out the hard way).
I also chose to mint mine on Ethereum because I wanted to go with the industry standard, but it honestly did cost me a pretty penny. Perhaps you may want to mint yours on Polygon or some other network instead, and that is fine. Just remember that you will need detailed instructions to help walk your X Hunters though the process of claiming their NFTs if it is different at all from the Ethereum standard.
Road Trip!
This is the point where all the prices start coming together. Create a bunch of new MetaMask accounts, affix their seed phrases to the treasure cards, transfer their respective NFTs to them, and seal them up. Also transfer a small amount of ETH to each wallet so that people can easily send it out once they claim it (if you don’t, people may think it is some kind of scam).
Then make a road trip plan to minimize driving time, as it may take you a while to hide them all. Find a friend to go with you. Trust me, it will make it way more fun. And if your locations are really spread out, maybe some of your friends could do some of the hiding for you (just make sure you are very clear on exactly where it should be hidden).
Try to leave extra early in the morning. Some of these landmarks get popular during the day, and it can be difficult to inconspicuously hide a treasure card while so many people are there, so getting there early before anybody else really helps. I used duct tape to hide all of my treasure cards and that seemed to work out just fine, just make sure you have good tape and secure it well (just be sure not to damage the actual landmark). Again, try to hide it in those Schelling points that people will likely look at. Placing them under benches and near planters seems to work well. Take some personal pictures of where you actually hide the treasure card, just in case you forget and need to come back later to make sure it is still there.
This step is best to do literally a day or two before you actually launch, just so there is less chance of somebody randomly finding the treasure card accidentally, and it also minimizes the chance of it getting destroyed by the elements.
Launch!
Now the day has finally come, you can officially release your project on the world along with your first clue.
There are already a bunch of other people out there who can give you good advice on how to launch an NFT project, so I’m not going to dive deep into that here. I’ll just overview that you probably want to try and get some PR, lots of social activity, and even advertise if you can (I couldn’t, lol). In general, try targeting college students or young adults who have time on their hands and like going on unique adventures like this. Going after people who enjoy escape rooms, geocachers, and people who play Pokemon Go is a good strategy too. Encourage people to do it in groups, as the adventure is most fun with friends! As for media coverage, crypto outlets should be interested, as well as local media.
Some hashtags that I used specifically for my project include: #TGNTH #InvaluableX #XHunters #INVX. Other more generic hashtags I used include: #NFTtreasureHunt #NFThunt #NFTtreasure #NFTadventure #IRLNFTtreasureHunt #AdventurousNFT.
Slowly Release Clues
One important thing that I learned throughout this process is that it is best to play it by ear as you release clues on your Twitter. Obviously, you want people to start finding your INVX NFTs right away, but you also don’t want them all to be discovered too fast.
So here is what I would recommend: Start with the vaguest clues you have. Yes, this will make it extra difficult at first, but you can always offer more specific clues later. Whereas, it is kinda pointless to give a vague clue after giving a really specific one. And personally, I was really surprised at some clues that I thought would be really difficult, but ended up getting solved really quickly. There are some pretty smart people out there, so don’t underestimate them!
If none of your Invaluable X’s are being found, release clues more often. If plenty are getting found, slow down the pace at which you are releasing them. And as you release the clues, slowly start giving more specific clues for the specific Invaluable X’s that you feel like are taking too long. And again, if one of your secret locations is a non-Schelling point, you may need to release more specific clues about where exactly at the location they can find the treasure card.
Use Me
I see my role as a guide to help others create their own IRL NFT Treasure Hunts. So if you need any help or advice on how to start your own, I am here for you.
To be clear, I am not offering any money nor will I complete all the grueling leg work for you, but I will provide consultation for free and guidance on how to make your project a success. I learned a lot from my own project and tried to consolidate all of those learnings in this document, but each case is unique.
You are also welcome to use my brand in your project, so that it will be directly tied to mine – The First Real-Life NFT Treasure Hunt. The Great NFT Treasure Hunt, Invaluable X’s, and X Hunters are all terms that you are free to use. Giving it a spin of your own will help to differentiate though, so perhaps yours would be: ‘The Great NFT Treasure Hunt – Paris’ or ‘The Sydney NFT Treasure Hunt’. And hopefully eventually, there will be extensions of The Great NFT Treasure Hunt in every major city in the world!
So feel free to reach out to me if you could use any help. I am available via DM on Twitter, as well Blockscan Chat at Cryptographerx.eth, or via email at TheGreatNFTtreasureHunt@protonmail.com. I may not respond right away, but I’ll get to you eventually.
I hope that you have as much fun on your project as I did on mine. And I know that your X Hunters will have a blast as well!
Kindly,
X
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