The History of Spot the Difference and Hidden Pictures, Plus Tips
From kids' magazine hidden pictures, Where's Wally?, and bar touchscreens to mobile apps: the history of seek puzzles, why we miss differences, and tips.
Many people remember flipping their eyes back and forth between two pictures in a corner of the newspaper and circling the differences, or hunting for a hidden spoon and umbrella in a busy illustration in a magazine. Spot the difference and hidden pictures puzzles have simple rules that anyone can pick up right away, and the satisfaction of finding everything is so great that they've been loved for a long time.
In this post, we look at how these two "seek puzzles" moved from paper magazines and picture books to video games and mobile apps, and we cover why the human eye misses differences so easily and how to find them faster. We've only covered what can be verified from the record, so where it's unclear who made something first, we say so.
How Are the Two Puzzles Different?
They look similar, but the two puzzles have you looking for different things.
| Category | Spot the difference | Hidden pictures |
|---|---|---|
| English name | Spot the difference | Hidden pictures / Hidden object |
| Screen | Two nearly identical pictures | One busy picture |
| Goal | Find a set number of differences | Find the items on a list |
| Key skill | Comparison and memory | Shape recognition and focus |
| Typical media | Newspapers and puzzle magazines, touchscreen games | Children's magazines, picture books, adventure games |
Spot the difference is a puzzle in which two slightly altered versions of a drawing or photo are placed side by side and you find the differences. In Korea it's also called "find the different picture." Hidden pictures is a puzzle in which the outlines of objects are cleverly blended into a single picture for you to find, and it often ran alongside crossword puzzles in newspapers and magazines.
Beginnings on Paper: Children's Magazines and Puzzle Books
There's no clear record of exactly when spot the difference first appeared. All that can be confirmed is that it has long been common in many media, such as children's activity books and newspaper puzzle sections.
Hidden pictures has a comparatively clear record. A prime example is the American children's magazine Highlights for Children.
- It was founded in June 1946 by educators Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Clark Myers, a married couple.
- Every issue, from the first to the present, has included a "Hidden Pictures" feature.
- Small objects are hidden in a large picture for children to find.
In the 1990s came I Spy, a picture book series that uses photographs. Jean Marzollo wrote the text and Walter Wick took the photos, presenting the objects in the photos as rhyming riddles to find. These books were later turned into games for PC and handheld consoles as well.
Where's Wally?: A Picture Book About Finding a Person
What turned seek puzzles into a global phenomenon was Where's Wally? by British illustrator Martin Handford.
In 1986, David Bennett, art director at Walker Books in London, commissioned Handford to do a book of crowded scenes, and during preparation the idea came up of hiding one distinctive character in the crowds. That's how "Wally," a traveler in a red-striped shirt, bobble hat, and round glasses, was born.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| First published | June 25, 1987, Walker Books (UK) |
| North American name | Where's Waldo? |
| Names in other countries | "Walter" in Germany, "Charlie" in France, "Ubaldo" in Italy, and more |
| Sales | More than 73 million copies worldwide by 2007 |
| Translations | Published in 26 languages and more than 50 countries |
Handford deliberately placed other red-striped objects throughout the pictures to confuse readers. As the series continued, the number of targets to find grew too, including Wally's friends and his rival "Odlaw," who wears yellow stripes. It was made into an animated series in 1991 and later into video games.
Seek Puzzles Move to the Screen
As computers and touchscreens spread, seek puzzles became a game genre.
- 1991: "Mother Goose: Hidden Pictures" was released for CD-i. It's considered one of the early hidden object games.
- From 1997: Scholastic brought the I Spy books to games.
- Photo Hunt: A spot the difference game included on Merit Entertainment's "Megatouch" touchscreen machines in American bars and restaurants. You tap with your finger to find five differences between two nearly identical photos within a time limit; it was later released for iPhone too.
- 2005: Big Fish Games released "Mystery Case Files: Huntsville," which, along with the casual game boom, established the template for hidden object games. "Hidden object puzzle adventures" (HOPA), which add a story and a detective premise, grew significantly from this point on.
- 2017: "Hidden Folks," made by Dutch developers Adriaan de Jongh and Sylvain Tegroeg, is a game about finding moving people and objects in black-and-white hand-drawn illustrations, an example of bringing "seek" picture books like Where's Wally? to games.
Some things changed with the move to screens. Zoom functions made it possible to look at small details, helper features like a magnifying glass, hints, and time extensions were added, and correct answers are marked immediately when you tap them, so there's no need to flip to an answer page.
Why Does the Human Eye Miss Differences?
Sometimes, when you look back and forth between two pictures, a difference that's clearly there stays invisible for a long time. In psychology, this is called change blindness.
Change blindness is the phenomenon of failing to notice when a scene in front of you changes. For example, if a picture briefly flickers and reappears, people often miss quite large differences. In the mid-1990s, the research team of Rensink, O'Regan, and Clark systematically demonstrated this phenomenon with experiments that alternated between a picture, a blank screen, and a slightly changed picture.
The main reasons change blindness occurs are as follows.
- Changes in places your attention didn't reach are poorly remembered.
- Changes that happen while your eyes are moving act like a flicker and are easy to miss.
- Changes in parts that don't seem important and have low contrast are missed more often.
Spot the difference is a puzzle that exploits exactly this weakness. Because the moment your gaze shifts between the two pictures acts as the "blank screen," your brain dismisses them as "the same" even when there's a difference.
How to Get Good at Spot the Difference
- Divide it into sections: Mentally divide the picture into 4 to 9 cells and compare one cell at a time. Looking at the whole thing at once makes you prone to change blindness.
- Check the edges and background carefully: Your gaze goes to the main subject in the center first, so differences at the borders and in the background are relatively easy to miss.
- Check things that are easy to change: Go through color, number (buttons, windows, stripes), direction (clock hands, arrows), and presence or absence (shadows, letters) like a checklist.
- Overlap them: There's a known method of placing the two pictures side by side and deliberately unfocusing your eyes so the two merge into one, making the different parts appear to flicker. It's similar to how you view a Magic Eye (stereogram) picture.
- Take a short break: If you look for too long, your brain gets used to the picture and you see even less. Looking away for a few seconds and then looking back often reveals something new.
How to Get Good at Hidden Pictures
- Memorize the list first: If you picture the shapes of the items you're looking for, they'll catch your eye right away as you scan the picture.
- Think in different sizes: Hidden objects are fitted to the size of other things in the picture regardless of their real size. A toothbrush might be as big as a tree.
- Flip the orientation: Hidden objects are often lying sideways or hidden upside down. Rotate the screen or tilt your head.
- Follow the outlines: Look at lines rather than color. Object outlines are often blended into leaf veins, clothing folds, and cloud shapes.
- Rule out where you've already looked: Narrow the search by mentally crossing off areas you've already checked.
Closing Thoughts
From a feature in a children's magazine in 1946 to picture books, bar touchscreens, and mobile apps, seek puzzles have been steadily loved as they changed media. The secret is probably that they're a pastime that turns a weakness of the human eye into a fun challenge.
If you want to try something light in a short amount of time, you can put the tips above to the test yourself in Keke Studio's JIGGLEBELL Spot Difference and JIGGLEBELL Hidden Hunt.
