Lamp Hunt: a cosy night photo hunt in the scrapyard

When the matches are over and the stadium lights go out, the scrapyard wakes up. Small eyes blink between the tyres. Something croaks in a pipe. Lamp Hunt hands you Nana Glim's brass lamp and a camera: find the night critters and snap their photo. It's a calm hidden-object game, free to play online with no download.

How to play

Press and drag anywhere to switch the lamp on. The beam sits a little above your finger, so your thumb never covers what you're looking at. Rest the beam on a critter and a focus ring closes. When it closes, the camera snaps by itself. Lift your finger and the lamp goes off.

Each night, you need a photo of every critter shown at the top of the screen. The lamp runs on a battery, and it only drains while the light is on. If it goes flat, Nana switches on the floodlight and shows you where the rest were hiding. You keep every photo and marble you earned, and you can retry the same yard. The first night can't be lost.

Who's hiding

• Hubcap Hedgehog sits tight under hubcaps and in tyres.
• Pipe Frog hides in pipes. Its throat glows every few seconds.
• Fennec Fox hides behind oil drums, ears sticking up.
• Bottle Bunny is shy. Sweep past too fast and it ducks.
• Spanner Gecko scuttles between spots, but freezes while you focus on it.
• Barrel Possum hangs from the crane hook and swings.
• Big Bess, a huge wombat, turns up every tenth night. She needs three photos and digs to a new burrow after each one.

Every critter is happy to have its picture taken. Nobody is ever scared. Sometimes one strikes a rare pose, like a yawn, a sneeze or a jam-jar lid worn as a hat. Rare photos get a gold frame and pay three times as much.

Tips for sharp shots

1. Lights off while you think. The battery only drains when the lamp is on.
2. Go slow on bunnies and Bess. A fast beam makes them duck.
3. Hold still for SHARP. Keep the critter near the middle of the beam and barely move. Sharp photos pay more and help with stars.
4. Read the clues. Eyes glint at the edge of the beam. Frogs glow. Fox ears poke up.
5. Follow the fireflies. On some nights, hold the lamp still for two seconds and a firefly drifts toward a critter you haven't found.
6. Sweep past the props. Lost marbles hide near the junk, and battery left at the end pays a bonus too.

Nana's Shed

Marbles buy upgrades in Nana's Shed. Battery gives you more light. Lamp widens the beam. Shutter snaps faster and keeps bunnies calmer. Flash gives you bulbs that light the whole yard for a moment, so every hidden critter's eyes glint. Save those for the last stragglers.

Slow is fast. The critters aren't going anywhere, and neither is the moon.

More from the yard

Prefer your scrapyard loud? Try Junk Maw or Shaft Dig, or browse the Arcade shelf.