Space Nerd StudiosInstruction booklet
Find the Nerd title artwork: the Nerd, a cartoon kid with big glasses, beside the game's lettering
A whole twenty-sided world seen from space, buildings and crowds dotting every face

A 3D hidden object gameSpin the world. Read the intel. Find the Nerd before the clock runs out.

Contents

The leaflet comes first. The booklet does not change as often.
NoteFind the Nerd started around 1994 as a BASICA grid guessing game written by a high schooler. In 2026 it came back: Two browser prototypes first (one and two, kept as history), and then the real game, a 3D Godot production built over a period of months by one person with some part time assistants, leveraging the latest technologies.
1

Reading the screen

A mission in progress, from the current build.
A mission on Honeycomb Vault: The target, Zuri Zeta, Signal Analyst, in the panel on the left, time and score at the top, and all four abilities on the bar at the bottom
  1. 1Level and world name.
  2. 2Your target: Portrait, name and title.
  3. 3Time. The clock is already running.
  4. 4Score for this mission.
  5. 5The ability bar: Signal Ping, Time Anchor, Survey Sweep and Prism Sweep, each with how many you hold.
2

The story and the mentors

From the old table on the ship.
The five retired G.E.E.K. mentors in their room on the ship, around the old table, with Fulano standing at the back left

The G.E.E.K. Initiative: Guides, Explorers, Engineers and Keepers.

N.E.R.D. operatives and recruits are vanishing one by one, and no scanner can find them. Something came through the cracks between worlds: Tiny machines, thousands to a swarm, that hide their host from every scanner.

3

The story, continued

The mentors and the holograms.

The retired G.E.E.K. Initiative gathers at their old table on the ship, and you search through a little flying eye. Not one soul past twenty five has ever caught one. In the crowd they appear as mentors: Tap one and the clock pauses for a story tidbit. They are never targets.

About half of every ordinary crowd are N.U.L.L. holograms, decoy projections with a faint static wash. Never the Asset, never a mentor.

4

The four droids

Catch one mid-mission to bank its ability.
B0-T, the Signal Droid: A round white droid with a dish antenna on top, flying on an orange jet

B0-TSignal Droid

Signal Ping. Twelve seconds of a pulse that beats faster as you close in. Where, never who.

B1-T, the Time Droid: A white helmet with a black face and glowing cyan eyes, flying on a cyan jet

B1-TTime Droid

Time Anchor. Freezes the clock and the crowd: 20 seconds on Easy, down to 10 on Hard.

5

The four droids, continued

Catch one mid-mission to bank its ability.
B2-T, the Survey Droid: A white and green droid with a sprouting plant on top and two claw arms, flying on a green jet

B2-TSurvey Droid

Survey Sweep. Paints about half of the empty faces white.

B3-T, the Prism Droid: A white droid with one large blue lens and lens-tipped arms, flying on a purple jet

B3-TPrism Droid

Prism Sweep. Dissolves the N.U.L.L. holograms.

The brief shows the odds that droids are out on that world. None fly on Impossible.

6

The six chapters

Forty levels, played in order, four difficulties.
  1. Chapter 1First LightThe launch base.Ten levels. Shown: First Light, L6: Penta Vault.
  2. Chapter 2The FrontierOutposts.Five levels. Shown: The Frontier, L2: Cube Yard.
7

The six chapters, continued

Chapters three and four.
  1. Chapter 3The BeltAsteroid mining.Six levels. Shown: The Belt, L3: Deca Promenade.
  2. Chapter 4Deep FieldAlien flora.Ten levels. Shown: Deep Field, L4: Honeycomb Vault.
8

The six chapters, continued

Clear the final chapter on Hard to unlock Impossible.
  1. Chapter 5The MirrorCrystal and ice under an orbital lab.Six levels. Shown: The Mirror, L2: Rhombus Garden.
  2. Chapter 6The AnomalyWorlds misbehaving.Three levels. Shown: The Anomaly, L1: Diamond Bloom.

The last sector holds named anomalies, announced in the brief: Twin Echo, Double Signal and Signal Malfunction. The finale runs two of them at once.

9

Game modes and controls

Hold the world like a snow globe.
The Find the Nerd title screen: The game's lettering, the Nerd, and four buttons: Campaign, Daily Mission, N.E.R.D. Labs and World Archives

The title screen, from the current build: Four doors into the game.

Orbit the whole world with touch, zoom in to the crowd, and tap your Asset. Double tap open ground to mark a face white, searched, and again for gold, the Nerd is here.

10

Game modes, continued

Four doors into the game.
CampaignForty levels across six chapters, up to five stars per level.
Daily MissionOne world a day, the same for every player on Earth.
N.E.R.D. LabsMore games on the same worlds, from Infinite Initiative to Panic Ping.
World ArchivesReplay any cleared world. The Field Catalog lives here too.
  • Read the gear intel first. Nearly everyone down there wears glasses: Match what they hold in hand and carry on their back.
  • Bystanders cost nothing but the moment it takes. Tap one and they say something nerdy while the clock keeps running.
  • The lessons come inside real levels, each once. A training run waits in How to Play if you want it again.
11

Game modes, continued

The Daily Mission board.

Field reports: Daily Mission

Checking the boards...

    Live scores from players who chose to post them. Names are whatever they typed.

    12

    Test early releases

    Find the Nerd first, then the next Space Nerd Studios games.

    On Android: Early releases of Space Nerd Studios games, Find the Nerd first, come to testers through Google Play testing. Google only opens the test for accounts on the tester list, so email us the Google account you use on your phone. Once you are added, the link below opens the test on Google Play, and updates arrive through the store like any other app.

    On iPhone and iPad: Testing comes through Apple's TestFlight. Send the email of your Apple ID, and the invite arrives once the TestFlight beta is live.

    14

    Test early releases, continued

    Find the Nerd first, then the next Space Nerd Studios games.

    On the web: Testers get a personal login for the private tester area.

    Either way, send back what broke, what confused you, and what you enjoyed.

    Request tester access Join Android testing on Google Play 15

    About the game

    The small print, kept short.

    Find the Nerd is published on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. A web edition is in beta as well: The same worlds in a browser, trimmed for the format, aiming for a home on a site like CrazyGames. No account is needed to play.

    The game is available in 15 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi.

    16

    Snapshots from the field

    Straight from the latest build. Tap a print to see it up close.