Scavenger Hunt Creative and Experience Plan

Created: 2026-08-05

Intent

Design the first Deerdost scavenger hunt as a ten-song journey through Bombaypunk. The campaign begins with one online prologue and continues through ten physical checkpoints, with one checkpoint representing each album track.

This is the shared working document for the showrunner and writers. It owns every non-technical part of the hunt: the story frame, emotional progression, physical experience, clue language, digital creative direction, artifacts, map behaviour, accessibility, production workflow, approvals, and relationship to the music-video concepts.

The website and technology plan owns platform architecture, accounts, claim validation, security, analytics, operator tooling, and other implementation mechanics.

Source Relationship

The hunt does not invent a second Deerdost story. It remixes approved symbols, locations, props, characters, moods, and visual systems from the source concepts into a participatory route.

Primary source: Deerdost MV Concept Notes

Source tab	Hunt use
Narrative Thread	The ten songs as vinyls or drives inside one larger post-story simulation
bombaypunk	Future Mumbai, dream blobs, hope, class contrast, city movement, and Aman chasing possibility
Sparks!	Shared spark, attraction meter, game logic, butterflies, dark clouds, and cooperative challenges
Murder em'	Ojas surveillance, Nazarbattus, three Elite types, redacted targets, housekeeping, and erased evidence
Good Time	Hidden rave entrance, trust badge, altered perception, line-art transformation, release, and Tawade capture
Characters	Approved character silhouettes, abilities, threat language, and visual signatures
bombaypunk assets	District atmospheres, map landmarks, transit, markets, canals, exoskeletons, and Ojas systems
Murder em' assets	Ojas Statue, Nazarbattu Hive, mission map, surveillance rooms, underground routes, and mech-cleaner details
Sparks assets	Ojas Statue Park, vinyl void, sunflower field, rope bridge, rainbow waterfall, meter, and props
Good Time assets	Dharavi lane, reused nightclub, vial, trust entry, DJ console, and crowd language

Only four track concepts are currently detailed in the source document. Their hunt expressions below are design directions, not new canon. The remaining six track slots stay deliberately open until their titles, concepts, and approved assets are supplied.

Core Design Premise

The player discovers that Bombay is emitting ten anomalous signals. Each signal is encoded as a song and represented by one physical checkpoint. Collecting all ten reveals that the songs belong to a larger system: the vinyl-and-drive library operated by the silhouetted figure in the shared music-video narrative.

The hunt should feel like the city is leaking pieces of that system into the real world. A QR marker is therefore not presented as a generic campaign code. It is an in-world object: a corrupted Ojas notice, a contraband record label, a dream signal, a redacted case fragment, a Tawade scan plate, or another form approved for that song.

This framing is a creative proposal. The show team must approve how explicitly the silhouetted figure, the spaceship, the altered Earth, and the simulation are revealed.

Experience Promise

Every checkpoint must deliver four things:

1. A recognisable song-world identity.
2. A short physical discovery moment.
3. A digital story artifact worth keeping.
4. A clue that meaningfully advances the ten-part mystery.

The hunt is not ten QR codes pasted around Mumbai. Each checkpoint is a small piece of production design that transforms a real location into a temporary seam between present-day Bombay and the future Mumbai of Deerdost.

Ten-Song Structure

Campaign shape

• One online prologue.
• Ten physical checkpoints.
• One song per checkpoint.
• One artifact per song.
• One collected set.
• One finale after checkpoint ten.

The route follows the approved track order unless the creative team defines a separate hunt order. The Bombay map continues to represent the wider world; it must not imply that a music video takes place at only one location.

Emotional progression

Act	Checkpoints	Player feeling	Design function
Signal	1–3	Curiosity	Teach the visual language, claim loop, and larger mystery
Descent	4–7	Suspicion	Reveal contradictions, Ojas control, hidden systems, and character stakes
Convergence	8–9	Agency	Ask players to connect artifacts rather than merely collect them
Transmission	10	Payoff	Complete the ten-song set and reveal the finale

The approved song order determines which concept occupies each emotional beat. The act structure must adapt to the songs; songs must not be rewritten to fit a preselected puzzle arc.

Online Prologue

The website opens a case file titled around a city-wide signal anomaly. The prologue introduces:

• A distorted Bombay map.
• Ten unavailable signal sockets.
• One playable fragment.
• A vinyl or drive motif.
• A first in-world instruction.
• Hunt rules and safety.
• The first broad Bombay zone.

The player can inspect the premise anonymously. Saving the first physical checkpoint starts account-based progress.

The prologue should not explain the spaceship framing. It should create a visual question: why are ten songs appearing as objects or transmissions across the city?

Checkpoint Composition

Every checkpoint uses the same underlying rhythm while changing its surface design for the song.

Before arrival

• The map shows a broad zone.
• The clue uses the track's visual language.
• A hint schedule reveals progressively clearer information.
• Safety and access information remain separate from the fiction.

At the location

• A recognisable physical marker confirms arrival.
• The marker includes a visual puzzle, observation, or assembly step.
• The QR is integrated into the object rather than floating beside it.
• An accessible code or staff route provides equivalent progress.

After scanning

• The website transitions into the song's design world.
• A short interaction resolves the checkpoint.
• The player receives a story artifact and Song Card.
• The map records the completed signal.
• The next clue appears through the artifact.

In the collection

• The artifact remains replayable.
• The Song Card records source, mood, symbol, and checkpoint status.
• A vinyl or drive socket fills on the campaign console.
• New relationships appear between collected artifacts.

Physical Marker System

All markers share a campaign signature so players can recognise official objects, but each track changes the material, silhouette, motion, and clue behaviour.

Shared signature

• Ten-part numbering system.
• Deerdost verification mark.
• Bombaypunk typography.
• Opaque QR placement.
• Short recovery code.
• Tamper-evident layer.
• Safety contact.
• Accessible scan height.

Variable layers

• Song colour system.
• Song symbol.
• Material treatment.
• Character or faction voice.
• Interaction type.
• Artifact format.
• Map animation.

The official marker should remain legible as campaign material. It must not impersonate municipal, police, transport, emergency, or private-property signage.

Digital Checkpoint Screen

Each checkpoint page uses one reusable composition:

1. Signal lock — song-specific loading state.
2. Verification — clear scan result.
3. World breach — short visual transition.
4. Interaction — one focused action.
5. Artifact reveal — the story reward.
6. Song Card — the collectible.
7. Map update — checkpoint completion.
8. Next clue — the continuing thread.

The song art direction changes the page without changing the player's learned interaction model. Every animation requires a reduced-motion equivalent, and every visual puzzle requires a non-visual path.

Current Concept Kits

These kits translate the four detailed Google Doc concepts into hunt design ingredients. They do not assign final checkpoint numbers or physical venues.

bombaypunk — Dream Signal

Source idea: Aman chases a glowing dream blob through future Mumbai and learns that hope persists across the city's inequality and pressure.

Visual system: saturated dream glow against dense, cluttered city texture; split frames; transport language; modular roads; Ojas branding; moving crowds.

Physical marker direction: a future-Mumbai transit or street object with a contained glowing blob path. Possible forms include a transparent route plate, a split-frame viewfinder, or a layered map fragment.

Interaction direction: follow the blob across three city layers, align mismatched route segments, or identify the one figure moving against the crowd.

Artifact direction: a dream-frequency map showing Dadar, Chor Bazaar, Gateway, Dharavi, Worli, and other approved locations as parts of one living city rather than separate video pins.

Next-clue behaviour: the blob escapes the artifact and settles on the next broad map zone.

Sparks! — Attraction Meter

Source idea: Aman and Ananya enter a shared dream-game where cooperation, touch, and mutual trust fill an attraction meter and break the dark clouds.

Visual system: warm sunset, white void, butterflies, sparks, disco light, sunflower yellow, rainbow water, game counters, and soft surreal landscapes.

Physical marker direction: a paired object that works through two aligned viewpoints or two simultaneous touches without requiring two players. A solo-accessible mode must produce the same result.

Interaction direction: align two halves of a spark, restore a broken bridge pattern, or fill a meter through a short cooperative sequence.

Artifact direction: a butterfly halo, attraction-meter fragment, or animated spark stored as a shared-energy record.

Next-clue behaviour: the completed meter burns a temporary opening through the dark clouds and reveals the next zone.

Murder em' — Housekeeping File

Source idea: Ojas' hidden Nazarbattu force receives targets, executes missions, and erases the evidence while the city wakes under Ojas' public image.

Visual system: surveillance orange, black silhouettes, crimson/lilac/smoke-grey Elite codes, redactions, live maps, cryo chambers, mission status, and sterile cleanup.

Physical marker direction: a damaged case file, surveillance plate, or redacted target brief that looks intercepted rather than officially published.

Interaction direction: reveal a hidden layer, reconstruct a censored target path, or distinguish the three Elite signatures without exposing unapproved plot information.

Artifact direction: an erased mission fragment containing one surviving piece of evidence, with the word “HOUSEKEEPING” used only if approved for public campaign copy.

Next-clue behaviour: cleanup bots visibly erase the screen, but one residue remains and becomes the next clue.

Good Time — Trust Entry

Source idea: Aman follows Jamal through a hidden rave entrance, sheds his inhibitions inside an altered crowd experience, and emerges into Tawade capture.

Visual system: smoky Dharavi lane, multilingual hidden signage, trust badge, vial, distorted close-ups, masked DJ, line-art bodies, white-out release, and police interruption.

Physical marker direction: a concealed club token, trust badge, or multilingual tapri panel. It must not resemble or distribute real drugs.

Interaction direction: find the correct entry symbol, tune a DJ-console pattern, or strip visual noise until Aman's line-art path appears.

Artifact direction: a trust badge, abstract rave-frequency loop, or line-art crowd fragment.

Next-clue behaviour: the celebratory screen is interrupted by a Tawade scan that redirects the player to the next zone.

Flashing and strobing are never required to communicate the concept. The digital and physical experience uses static, low-frequency, and reduced-motion alternatives by default.

Ten-Checkpoint Board

The final song mapping cannot be completed until the approved track order and the remaining six concepts are supplied.

Checkpoint	Song	Source status	Design brief	Venue	Artifact	State
01	Track 01	Awaiting approved mapping	Signal act	TBD	TBD	Open
02	Track 02	Awaiting approved mapping	Signal act	TBD	TBD	Open
03	Track 03	Awaiting approved mapping	Signal act	TBD	TBD	Open
04	Track 04	Awaiting approved mapping	Descent act	TBD	TBD	Open
05	Track 05	Awaiting concept	Descent act	TBD	TBD	Open
06	Track 06	Awaiting concept	Descent act	TBD	TBD	Open
07	Track 07	Awaiting concept	Descent act	TBD	TBD	Open
08	Track 08	Awaiting concept	Convergence act	TBD	TBD	Open
09	Track 09	Awaiting concept	Convergence act	TBD	TBD	Open
10	Track 10	Awaiting concept	Transmission act	TBD	Final signal	Open

The four current kits—bombaypunk, Sparks!, Murder em', and Good Time—must be assigned only after the track order is approved. Their current order in the Google Doc is not treated as album order.

Finale Design

Checkpoint ten completes the physical route and fills the final empty socket on the digital campaign console.

The proposed finale sequence:

1. The ten Song Cards turn over.
2. Their backs form one image or code.
3. The ten artifacts resolve into vinyls or drives.
4. The Bombay map pulls outward.
5. The player sees the larger system framing.
6. A final transmission appears.
7. The digital completion reward unlocks.
8. Reward eligibility is stated separately.

The ending must distinguish story completion from prize status. Every player who completes the hunt receives the full narrative payoff, even when physical rewards are limited, draw-based, or exhausted.

Bombay Map Relationship

The map is the connective tissue, not a music-video location index.

• Before a checkpoint, it shows a broad zone.
• After a clue, it can reveal precise instructions.
• After completion, it records the song signal.
• Collected artifacts add temporary visual layers.
• Character and world locations remain visible beneath hunt mode.
• The completed route forms a pattern only after all ten signals are collected.

Physical venues are selected for safety, access, permission, dwell time, connectivity, and thematic resonance. A location does not need to be the literal setting of its song concept.

Clue Language

Clues should feel authored by changing in-world forces while remaining operationally clear.

Voice	Use	Treatment
Signal system	Neutral route continuity	Coordinates, frequencies, fragments, corrupted labels
Aman or allies	Emotional discovery	Informal, curious, hopeful
Ojas systems	Public authority	Polished, instructional, branded
Nazarbattu residue	Threat and secrecy	Redacted, clipped, procedural
Unknown operator	Larger mystery	Sparse, cosmic, controlled

Every clue separates fictional copy from real venue instructions. Hours, accessibility, safety, support, and legal rules are never hidden inside lore.

Artifact System

The ten artifacts should be individually satisfying and collectively interdependent.

Possible approved formats:

• Character transmission.
• Redacted document.
• Animated symbol.
• Audio fragment.
• Map layer.
• Vinyl label.
• Drive directory.
• Prop scan.
• Simulation residue.

Every artifact is accompanied by its separate Song Card.

Each artifact needs:

• Song owner.
• Source reference.
• Canon status.
• Spoiler level.
• Public copy.
• Visual asset.
• Audio alternative.
• Reduced-motion treatment.
• Next-clue payload.
• Collection relationship.

Design Handoff Template

Each of the ten checkpoints receives one completed design brief.

Checkpoint identity

• Checkpoint number.
• Song title.
• Source tab.
• Campaign act.
• Emotional beat.

Physical experience

• Broad Bombay zone.
• Proposed venue type.
• Marker form.
• Material palette.
• Discovery action.
• QR integration.
• Accessible alternative.
• Weather fallback.

Digital experience

• Entry state.
• Verification transition.
• Interaction.
• Success state.
• Artifact reveal.
• Song Card.
• Map update.
• Next clue.
• Recovery states.

Production needs

• Approved copy.
• Approved canon.
• Illustration.
• Motion.
• Sound.
• Fabrication.
• Venue permission.
• Staffing.
• Support instructions.

Accessibility and Safety

• Every visual clue has a text or audio equivalent.
• Every audio clue has text.
• Every spatial puzzle has a non-spatial path.
• Every paired interaction has a solo mode.
• No checkpoint requires strobing.
• No checkpoint requires drug handling or imitation.
• No checkpoint requires trespassing.
• No checkpoint requires unsafe road crossing.
• Every marker uses reachable placement.
• Every venue has an alternate route.
• Every claim has a staff or support path.
• Fiction never obscures emergency information.

Content Workflow

1. Approve track order.
2. Supply six remaining concepts.
3. Assign one concept per checkpoint.
4. Extract approved design ingredients.
5. Select thematic venue types.
6. Draft ten checkpoint briefs.
7. Review canon and spoilers.
8. Prototype physical markers.
9. Prototype digital transitions.
10. Test the complete route.

The concept notes remain the creative source. This document records how approved source material becomes a hunt. The website CMS stores the final approved copy and assets; it does not become the place where creative canon is invented.

Approval Gates

Before fabrication:

• Ten track titles approved.
• Track order approved.
• Ten concept sources approved.
• Narrative frame approved.
• Public spoiler boundary approved.
• Ten design briefs approved.
• Venue types approved.
• Accessibility paths approved.

Before activation:

• Exact venues approved.
• Permissions confirmed.
• Marker proofs approved.
• Digital flows tested.
• Route safety tested.
• Support rehearsed.
• Finale approved.
• Reward language approved.

Open Creative Decisions

Short list retained for scan. Expanded team questions with context sit in the section below.

• How explicit is the spaceship reveal?
• Who authors the first signal?
• Are players investigators, collectors, or accidental receivers?
• Does Ojas know the hunt exists?
• Which faction controls each clue?
• What do the ten artifact backs form?
• Does the finale reveal canon or tease it?
• What are the six remaining track concepts?
• Is album order also hunt order?
• Which concepts can become physical venues safely?

Open Questions for Team Review

Reply as Proof comments on this document (select the question text → comment). Decisions here unlock checkpoint briefs, fabrication, and finale design.

Story frame

1. Spaceship reveal: how do we show it?
   Direction is yes — reveal or hint the silhouetted figure / vinyl-drive library / spaceship / altered Earth / simulation. Open: how? Options include prologue glitch only, mid-hunt residue that grows, Song Card backs that assemble the frame, checkpoint-ten map pull-out, or a soft tease that never names the spaceship. Prefer one primary path plus reduced-motion equivalent.

2. Who authors the first signal?
   The prologue is a city-wide anomaly case file. Is the opening voice a neutral signal system, Aman or allies, Ojas public systems, Nazarbattu residue, or the unknown operator behind the vinyls?

3. What is the player?
   Investigators opening a case, collectors gathering ten songs, or accidental receivers who stumble into leaking transmissions? This shapes copy tone, UI labels, and how serious or playful the hunt feels.

4. Does Ojas know the hunt exists?
   If yes, markers can feel like counter-surveillance or intercepted leaks. If no, players find something Ojas has not scrubbed. If ambiguous, both tones can coexist by act (Signal curious → Descent watched).

5. Which faction controls each clue?
   Clues can rotate voices (signal system, Aman, Ojas, Nazarbattu, unknown operator). Want a fixed voice map per checkpoint, or a progression (friendly early → darker mid → cosmic late)?

Track mapping

6. Is album order also hunt order?
   Emotional acts are Signal → Descent → Convergence → Transmission. Should checkpoints 1–10 follow album / release order, or a separate hunt sequence that better fits mystery pacing?

7. What are the ten track titles?
   The board still has Track 01–10 placeholders. Need approved titles (even draft) to lock numbering, Song Cards, and artifact naming.

8. What are the remaining six concepts?
   Only bombaypunk, Sparks!, Murder em', and Good Time have kits. Until the other six exist (mood, symbols, characters, locations, spoiler level), half the route cannot be designed.

9. Where do the four known kits sit?
   Once order exists: which checkpoint numbers get those four? Early curiosity, mid suspicion, or late payoff? Google Doc order is not treated as album order.

Finale

10. What do the ten artifact / Song Card backs form?
    Proposed beat: cards flip and backs make one image or code. Options: silhouette figure, vinyl spiral, Bombay outline, broken Ojas seal, spaceship glyph, or a playable unlock code. What should that image mean?

11. Does the finale reveal canon or tease it?
    Full narrative payoff for every completer is required; depth of reveal is open. Hard canon dump vs soft tease that points to the show / album without spoiling later videos?

12. What is the completion reward language?
    Story completion is not prize status. What do finishers get digitally (badge, wallpaper, unreleased audio snippet, credits), and how should limited physical prizes be described so non-winners still feel complete?

Venues

13. Preferred Bombay zones?
    Source material already nods Dadar, Chor Bazaar, Gateway, Dharavi, Worli, and related landmarks. Any must-include or must-avoid neighborhoods? Any partner venues already in mind?

14. Which stops should be staffed?
    Default is shared location QR. Staffed / rotating QR is for high-value, high-abuse, or safety-sensitive stops. Any of the ten (especially finale or prize-linked ones) need people on site?

15. Indoor vs outdoor bias?
    Affects weather fallbacks, permissions, dwell time, lighting, and marker fabrication. Prefer street objects, markets, cafés, galleries, transit-adjacent spots, or a mix?

Tone / spoiler / safety

16. Where is the public spoiler boundary?
    How much Murder-em' / Nazarbattu / Tawade / simulation lore can public hunt copy show before it spoils MVs or the show? Need a clear “safe to print” line.

17. Is “HOUSEKEEPING” allowed in public campaign copy?
    Design kit uses it as Murder-em' flavor, but only if approved. Yes, soft allusion only, or never?

18. Hard ban on drug-adjacent props?
    Good Time has vial / trust-entry language. Plan already says no real or imitation drugs. Confirm: no vial object at all, abstract symbol only, or approved stylized prop with clear fiction framing?

Technology Boundary

The website supplies the prologue, checkpoint pages, QR claims, progress, map overlay, Song Cards, artifact cabinet, recovery states, operator notices, and final completion record. Their technical implementation remains governed by the private website and technology plan.