Needle in a Haystack
In front of you is a pile of 1.5 million straws of hay, and somewhere inside it are ten needles.
Coder Gautam
About this game
Needle In A Haystack is a first-person 3D game about exactly what it says. In front of you is a pile of 1.5 million straws of hay, and somewhere inside it are ten needles. Find them all as fast as you can. Walk into the pile and the world closes in: the hay surrounds you, the light dies, and the only thing guiding you is a hot-and-cold detector that ticks faster the closer you get. Every needle you find earns coins. Spend them with the merchant on cool powerups!
How to play
- 1WASD / Arrows
- 2Click on the needle to collect them
Controls: Single player · Landscape
Tips and strategy
- Trust the detector's ticking, not your eyes. The hay all looks identical by design, and players who wander visually burn minutes while the tick rate already knows where the needle is.
- Move in straight lines and turn in place to rescan. Sweeping in a clean grid means every change in the tick rate tells you something, instead of being lost in your own turning.
- When the ticking peaks, stop moving and sweep your view in a slow circle. The needle is within arm's reach at that point, and a careful look beats another lap of the pile.
- Spend your coins with the merchant early. A powerup bought after needle one helps for nine more needles; the same purchase at needle eight barely pays for itself.
Game details
- Developer
- Coder Gautam
- Released
- Sep 22, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 22, 2026
- Players
- Single player
Tags
Frequently asked questions
- What is the goal in Needle in a Haystack?
- Somewhere inside a pile of 1.5 million straws of hay there are ten needles, and your job is to find all of them as fast as you can. Each needle you collect earns coins to spend with the merchant on powerups.
- How does the detector work in Needle in a Haystack?
- You carry a hot-and-cold detector that ticks faster the closer you are to a needle. Inside the pile the hay closes around you and the light dies, so that ticking is your main guide to each needle.
- Can I play Needle in a Haystack on my phone?
- It is a first-person 3D game built around WASD movement and mouse-look, so a desktop or laptop with a keyboard is the way to play it. It will load in a mobile browser, but the controls are made for a PC.
You might also like
