# How to make a jigsaw puzzle with a friend hidden in it URL: https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/how-to/make-a-custom-jigsaw-puzzle/ Updated: 2026-10-23 A regular photo puzzle shows you the answer on the box. This one hides your friend in a crowd, so the table has something to hunt for. **Short answer:** Cut a friend's head out of a photo, put it on one drawn body in a crowd of hundreds, dress a handful of strangers in the same outfit, and print the scene as a jigsaw. On Find Dave you can hide one to three people or pets, from 252 pieces up to a 1,000-piece tin. ## How it works On [Find Dave](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/puzzle/) you pick one to three photos. Your phone cuts out each head (nothing is uploaded at this point), and the site builds a crowd of doodle people in one of five scenes: the beach, a ski lodge, a wedding, a concert or the office. Each friend's real photo head goes on one of the doodle bodies. Every scene has landmarks you can hide someone near, like the shrimp tower at the wedding, the lifeguard tower at the beach or the printer that is on fire at the office. A case card in the corner holds the title, a mugshot of each person and three clues, so whoever is building it knows who they're looking for. ## Pick a difficulty Look-alikes are the real trick. They wear exactly the same outfit and hat as your friend, so spotting the flannel shirt isn't enough; you have to find the face. - **Easy**: bigger heads, a looser crowd and only a few look-alikes. - **Tricky**: smaller heads, a denser crowd, more look-alikes. - **Fiendish**: the smallest heads, a packed crowd, lots of look-alikes, and the photo faded slightly toward the crowd's colours so it doesn't pop. The 1,000-piece tin on fiendish has around 850 people in it. ## The rules that keep it fair A hidden-person puzzle stops being fun the moment the person turns out to be half under the case card. So the crowd follows a few rules. A friend is never right at the edge, never under the card, and nothing stands in front of their face: no raised arm, balloon or prop. They always stand close to the landmark they're hidden near, and no clue mentions a landmark that isn't in the picture. The clues are written by AI from what you pick (outfit, hat, landmark), but your friends' names are never sent to it. It writes about person 1 and person 2, and the names go back in afterward. ## Sizes Small puzzles fit fewer people. Three friends all in top hats on a 252-piece easy puzzle sometimes can't be placed fairly; the site will tell you to pick a bigger puzzle or hide fewer people. - **252 pieces**, 10.62 x 13.62 in. - **520 pieces**, 15.74 x 19.74 in. - **500 pieces in a tin**, 21 x 15.5 in. - **1,000 pieces in a tin**, 30 x 20 in. ## Questions people ask ### Can I hide my dog in the puzzle? Yes. Each hidden face can be a person or a pet, and pets get the same doodle body treatment. ### How many people can I hide? Up to three. Each one gets their own outfit, hat, landmark and set of look-alikes. ### Will the printed puzzle match the preview? Yes. The crowd is built from a number called a seed, and the same seed draws the same crowd on your phone and at the printer. ### Do I have to print the case card? No, it's optional. Leave it off if you'd rather nobody gets a hint about who's hidden. ## Or just make one - [Find Dave](https://madeupmerch.jackmccarthy020.workers.dev/puzzle/): Hide your friend in a crowd and make the family find them.