Your Puzzle-Solving Skills Can Save the Galaxy in ‘Hidden Pictures: Agent Q,’ Launching Today on Meta Quest

The universe is a big place—and in Hidden Pictures: Agent Q, it’s also full of really small places. When space pirates start trying to pillage tiny worlds full of cute characters, it’s up to you, Agent Q, to put a stop to it.

Each level of Hidden Pictures: Agent Q brings a small, diorama-size world into your room through mixed reality, and each is populated by little folks called Muddles. Helping the Muddles solve their problems and puzzles helps you work toward your ultimate goal of putting an end to the space pirates’ ultimate ambition: to destroy the all-important Galaxy Orb.

But the space pirates aren’t just working on their heist in the background. In addition to exploring each of the small worlds, you also need to thwart the pirates’ plans by saving the captured Agent R and even taking on boss fights. Defuse traps before time runs out when your comrades are in peril, and fight back against the pirates directly as you keep the beat in rhythm-based levels.

Hidden Pictures: Agent Q combines its hidden objects, timed puzzles, and rhythm mechanics to create a game that runs the gamut of puzzler experiences. With mixed reality, it also brings its fun and fantastical world into your physical space. As you advance through the game, you can acquire a digital collection of space pirates, known as Tumai, that you can display all around your actual room thanks to Meta Quest’s Spatial Anchors.

We sat down with developer Newmatic Co. Ltd. CEO Oh Sung, Lead Programmer Wooyeon Cho, and Game Designers Ganghee Jho and Teakeun Oh to discuss Hidden Pictures: Agent Q’s approach to puzzle-solving, how its team worked to create cute, tiny worlds for players to investigate, and the challenges of mixing different gameplay types to create a varied puzzle experience.

Oh Sung: Hidden Pictures: Agent Q offers a fresh take on the hidden object genre, reimagined within a mixed reality environment. Players explore a miniature world and solve various puzzles to stop the space pirate "Tumai" from invading. Unlike traditional 2D hidden object games, players navigate three-dimensional spaces to search for clues and interact with objects in ways never before experienced.

The game goes beyond simply finding objects—it adds puzzle and rhythm-based gameplay to the hidden object elements, creating a more active and immersive experience. These unique interactions and engaging exploration are what set Hidden Pictures: Agent Q apart.

OS: The story takes place in the miniature world of "Monia." Tumai invades to destroy the artifact "Galaxy Orb," which protects Monia. Players take on the role of Agent Q, a special operative tasked with thwarting Tumai's plans.

The story unfolds naturally as players explore. While collecting Orb Shards to prepare for the confrontation with Tumai, players must help the Muddles, who have fallen into trouble. Despite being set in a miniature world, the emotions and events tied to the characters provide players with an immersive experience.

Hidden Pictures: Agent Q was inspired by the classic puzzle book Where's Waldo. Watching visitors leisurely observe and enjoy miniature dioramas in theme parks sparked the idea of expanding that experience into a game. With the addition of the secret agent concept and an alien confrontation element inspired by the movie Men in Black, we creatively reinterpreted these ideas. This combination has led to the creation of a mixed-reality puzzle game that goes beyond just hidden object hunting, encouraging players to actively explore, interact, and immerse themselves in the game world.

Ganghee Jho and Teakeun Oh: Combining three distinct genres into a single game was no easy task. Each genre emphasizes different skills—hidden object games rely on observation, puzzles require logical thinking, and rhythm games test reflexes—so balancing the gameplay flow and making them feel cohesive was a major challenge.

Rather than merging all three genres into a single system, we structured the game in an omnibus format with separate sequences, allowing each genre to retain its core appeal. For example, the hidden object sections focus on capturing space pirates, the puzzle segments involve stopping an invading UFO, and the rhythm-based gameplay serves as the climactic showdown against the pirate boss. By integrating these distinct gameplay styles into the world of Hidden Pictures: Agent Q—alongside its unique art direction and storytelling—we were able to create a seamless experience despite the genre differences.

Another challenge was the varying skill sets required for each genre. Players excel in different areas—some may be better at observation, while others at logic or reflex-based gameplay. To address this, we carefully balanced the difficulty curve. The hidden object and puzzle sections start with a gentle learning curve, allowing new players to gradually adapt. Meanwhile, the rhythm-based boss battles are intentionally more challenging to provide a sense of excitement and achievement.

GJ and TO: The XR environment, where players can freely move their viewpoint and observe the diorama from various angles, is a double-edged sword from a designer's perspective. While it enhances player immersion and engagement, it also demands meticulous design and layout expertise.

In XR, we must account for the player's full 360-degree field of view. To guide them along the intended path, we carefully design and position visual cues, such as decorations and lighting. Additionally, the traditional concept of a "background" disappears in XR—every element on the stage becomes part of the interactive experience. Since players can pick up or rotate objects, each asset must be seamlessly designed from every angle. Even spaces unrelated to the quest should feel thoughtfully crafted.

Despite these challenges, the XR environment presents unique advantages. It allows us to design areas that players can explore from multiple perspectives, something not possible in traditional games. Players can interact with objects by picking them up, closely examining them, or even throwing them, which adds another layer of engagement. Moreover, the quest structure naturally encourages players to explore every corner of the diorama, making observation itself an enjoyable aspect of gameplay. As a result, the entire stage transforms into an interactive playground, offering a dynamic and immersive experience.

OS: Before Hidden Pictures: Agent Q, our team had already been exploring miniature-style games, not only through Poly Star VR, which featured a beautiful picture puzzle based on The Little Prince set in a virtual space, but also through Ellie’s Travel Diary VR, where we recreated famous tourist destinations in Korea as dioramas for virtual experiences via PC VR. Drawing from these experiences, we refined the mechanics of interacting with characters as small as a finger, ensuring smooth eye contact and interactions. This expertise has been deeply integrated into the development of Hidden Pictures: Agent Q.

OS: I believe that many people find joy in simply imagining their own figurines or dolls coming to life. In Hidden Pictures: Agent Q, I wanted to inspire that kind of imagination. I hoped that the characters, including the Muddles and even the villainous space pirate Tumai, would become characters that players would want to have and collect. To achieve this, we focused not only on character design but also on the design of the background and props. We maximized the details to give players the sensation that everything in the miniature world is alive, and we added various interactive elements to help players connect more deeply with the characters. By combining these elements, our goal was to offer an experience that goes beyond a simple puzzle game, providing an emotional and immersive experience.

Wooyeon Cho: Hidden Pictures: Agent Q was originally designed as a VR game for Meta Quest 2. However, during development, Meta introduced mixed reality features, and with the launch of Meta Quest 3 and further advancements in MR technology, we rethought the direction of the game.

In particular, the passthrough feature, which was previously limited to black-and-white, was upgraded to color. After conducting tests, we saw how the miniature characters and 3D dioramas blended seamlessly with the real world. It became clear that the game looked visually richer and had great potential for functionality, which led us to incorporate an MR mode.

A prime example of this is the “Muddle Collection.” Players can collect “Muddle Land” using hidden coins they find in stages. In VR, interaction was limited to simply holding and examining the collection. But with the switch to MR, we were able to extend this feature using the Spatial Anchor API, allowing players to place their collectibles directly into their real-world spaces. As a result, players can now display their collections in their own rooms, offering an even more immersive experience.

WC: Applying MR to a game initially designed for VR was no easy task. One of the biggest challenges we faced was adjusting the scale of the dioramas. While VR offered flexibility in sizing, MR, which blends virtual and real-world elements, introduced new constraints that required significant adjustments.

For example, some of the original dioramas were as large as eight meters, but given the average size of a user’s room, they felt too big. The diorama designs were already completed, but to provide a seamless experience in both VR and MR, we had to resize approximately 60 stages to a more appropriate scale.

With the smaller maps, the available elements became more limited, which made it harder to balance the difficulty while keeping the gameplay fun. As a result, we had to rethink puzzle placements and the relationships between objects. It was essentially a process of rebuilding the game from the ground up, but I believe it was a crucial step to ensure a smoother and more enjoyable experience for players.

OS: I think our team has shared quite a lot. There have been some complex and technical explanations, but… I'd like to leave the readers with one final message.

"Are you ready to become AGENT Q? Then let’s set off to catch the space pirate, Tumai! Let’s go~"

You can start matching your puzzle-solving skills against interstellar space pirates today—Hidden Pictures: Agent Q is now available on the Meta Horizon Store for $19.99 USD.