If you've scrolled through short videos lately, you've probably seen them: two pictures, a clock ticking down, "Can you find all 5?". And then you stop scrolling and start looking, even though you really meant to go to bed.
Spot-the-difference works weirdly well in that format. We kept seeing these clips and kept thinking that people should be able to make them straight from the game, without a video editor and without making up numbers. So we built it.
Where it is
Finish a level. On the results screen there's a share icon, and it also stays in the top bar after you close that screen. You can share a link to the puzzle, save a puzzle image and a solution image, or create a video.
The video is rendered on your own device, in the browser or in the app. When it's done, you can share it directly or download it.
What you get
The video is vertical, 1080 by 1920 pixels, so it fits TikTok, Reels, and Shorts without cropping. It starts with a headline and, if you want, a 3-2-1 countdown. Then both pictures are shown for a few seconds while viewers search. This is the part where people pause the video. After that the differences are revealed one at a time, and for small ones the camera zooms in, so you can actually see them on a phone. At the end there's an overview of all differences and a short outro.
Racing the average player
This is the part we're most happy with. The game knows how long players needed for each difference in a level, and the video can use that.
In race mode, a timer during the search phase shows how the typical player is doing. You see when they found the first difference, the second, and so on, and you can compare yourself directly. The texts can include real stats, like "Players need 42 seconds. Can you beat it?". And because the game knows which difference was found fastest and which one took longest, the reveal can call those out.
None of these numbers are made up. If a level is new and there isn't enough data yet, those parts are simply left out.
Settings
Under Video options you can change quite a lot before the video gets created. This got a big update at the end of September, so if you tried it earlier, have another look.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pause phase | How long viewers can search before the reveal (3 to 10 seconds) |
| Zoom hold per difference | How long the camera stays on each difference |
| Maximum zoom | How close it zooms in on small differences |
| Final overview | How long all differences are shown at the end |
| Outro | Length of the closing part |
| Countdown 3-2-1 | Countdown at the start, on or off |
| Race against the average player | Shows the typical player's progress during the search |
| Show player stats | Real player times in the texts |
The editor shows you how long the video will end up. On short-video platforms, somewhere between 20 and 40 seconds seems to work well.
For music, you can use the track that's currently playing in the game, pick your own file, or go without. The track starts from the beginning and fades out at the end. If you post somewhere that has its own music library, it's often easier to export without music and add a sound there.
Every text in the video, from the headline to the outro, has a bunch of different phrasings behind it. Leave a field empty and you get a random one each time, which is nice if you post several videos and don't want them all to sound the same. You can also write your own text for any slot. Placeholders for things like the number of differences or the average time get filled in automatically. Your texts only apply to the level you're editing. The video texts are always in English, since these platforms are pretty international.
What we've learned so far
The best videos come from levels with a good mix. A few easy differences and one or two hard ones. Viewers want to find something, but not everything. Levels that have been played a lot are better too, because race mode needs data to be interesting.
Five seconds of search time is about right. Longer and people swipe away. Shorter and nobody stands a chance.
Rendering works on phones, but it's smoother on a laptop. Either way, keep the window or app open until it's done.
And if you've made your own pack, a video is probably the easiest way to show it to people. If you haven't made one yet, here's how that works.