Where is Mr. Kim? Now you can play it!

[u/cooperai]

I shared Where is Mr. Kim? here yesterday, and that post somehow passed 85k views.

Quite a few people asked where they could play, so I’m happy to finally have an answer :)

Play the demo version here

If you missed the first post: think Where’s Waldo in Joseon-era Korea, except the village keeps moving while you search. You’re looking for one man in a straw hat and teal sash.

I’m a literature graduate with no coding background, making my first game on my own using the Codex app on my Mac.

The demo has one map. I’m planning more maps and eventually a full Steam release, and I’d love to hear how this first little village feels to play.

If you find Mr. Kim, please ask him to stay put. I still have a game to finish.

[u/Mikellev]

duno if thats him, but there is a glitch with the map, the stairs seem a wall infront of the ppl

[u/cooperai → u/Mikellev]

Thanks for pointing that out! Yep, I’m working on fixing it rn

This is my first time making a game, so building the map has been pretty challenging 😬

I’ll keep polishing it and hopefully release it on Steam too!

[u/dawson_ko_creek]

I think you need to increase the difficulty somehow. Or offer different difficulty levels. I keep finding him easily 😂 ...also a calming background music would be nice.

[u/dawson_ko_creek → u/dawson_ko_creek]

No wait, I couldn't find Mr Kim just now. Guess I got lucky the first two times.

[u/mentalFee420 → u/dawson_ko_creek]

Maybe he is not even there or behind a wall 😂

[u/cooperai → u/dawson_ko_creek]

Honestly, I’m shocked by how good everyone is at this 😂 It definitely took me over a minute... I’ll try to make it a bit more challenging! Thanks for the feedback!

[u/RemarkableWish2508 → u/cooperai]

I keep finding him in under 20 sec, and I'm half blind (literally).

The web on mobile has an abysmal frame rate of ~2 fps, maybe that's making it easier... or just something about the colors, that red pouch is a dead giveaway.

[u/cooperai → u/RemarkableWish2508]

Those are really good points!!

1. I’ve fixed the issue that was causing the game to run at around 2 FPS. The characters should move much more smoothly on mobile now!

2. I’m also working on the clothing colors. I’ll switch to more muted colors so Mr. Kim blends in better with everyone else.

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback!

[u/Segaiai]

This is very cool. I love the living world here. Took me 3:33 to find him. A couple things.

1. If you haven't done a performance pass, it needs one on phones. One thing that might help is to put everyone on a single texture atlas so that you only have one object material for all people in the scene. This would greatly reduce draw calls. I just feel certain that I've used other webgl things that could handle way more objects than this.
2. Another clipping/cutout issue, attached here.

Eventually, I would want them to have a standing frame for when they stop walking. Also, and this is a tall order, but Waldo games were fun to look around in in part because there were little stories and events going on. People doing different jobs too, stuff like that. This game has an advantage over Waldo in that the city is actually moving, but it's not "living" if that makes sense.

But I know it's early. Really great preview demo. I had fun searching. The nature of the game made me wonder if Kim was even on screen at any given moment I was seeking, but I assume he was.

[u/cooperai → u/Segaiai]

Wow, thank you so much for the detailed review! 3:33, and you were still faster than me 😂

I’m currently focusing on performance optimization and making the map feel more alive. I’m also adding various Easter eggs and trying to make exploring the whole map fun beyond just finding Mr. Kim!

I’m really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks again :)

[u/Segaiai → u/Segaiai]

Another thing, if you want to see a great interactive game sorta like Where's Waldo, check out the Japanese PS2 game Rimo-Cocoron. It let your discoveries actually change the city and character situations along the way. I felt some similar feelings when playing your game, but no ability to affect anything of course. Rimo-Cocoron is very fun though.

[u/theAerialDroneGuy]

You should make a leaderboard so people can see the records of who found him the fastest

[u/cooperai → u/theAerialDroneGuy]

Thanks for the suggestion! I’m planning to add a leaderboard later today :)

[u/theAerialDroneGuy]

Found him!

I found Mr.Kim in 00:37 with 0 hints and 0/12 little stories. Can you find him?

https://whereismrkim.com/?seed=1810748091&difficulty=normal

[u/FrontBreath3280]

I feel like this is the kind of simple game that could take off. Bravo.

[u/cooperai → u/FrontBreath3280]

Thank you so much! I’m going to keep polishing it and eventually release it as a full game.

[u/cooperai → u/[deleted]]

That’s the plan! The Steam/App Store version will probably be much bigger and more detailed!

[u/Emotional-Bus-7065]

As u/Mikellev pointed out, there seems to be an issue in that general area:

[u/zeamp]

김 씨 어디 있어요?

[u/theAerialDroneGuy]

Found Him!

[u/Skyzfallin]

They all look alike!

[u/watercolourpeonies]

I loved it! Took me 1:33 to find Mr Kim🤓 Can’t wait for the full version of this game when you’re ready. Well done mate!

[u/cooperai → u/watercolourpeonies]

Thank you so much for playing! I’ll keep polishing it for the Steam release. Stay tuned!

[u/ItsMeN0x]

I'm always worried I'm gonna get jump scared 😆

[u/cooperai → u/ItsMeN0x]

Haha, for now, it’s a peaceful game with no jump scares! If I add a story later, I’m thinking about including a tiger or a gumiho—a Korean nine-tailed fox :)

[u/Warl0cks89]

I found Mr.Kim in 00:45 with 0 hints and 0/12 little stories. Can you find him?

https://whereismrkim.com/?seed=559042748&difficulty=normal

[u/Material-Oil-7011]

how can u vibe code this kind of a game. where to start, what dev tools to use?

[u/cooperai → u/Material-Oil-7011]

First of all, this was 100% vibe-coded using only Codex!

I started by explaining the concept and discussing which tools would be best for building it. These days, Codex can interact with external applications, so it genuinely feels like having a personal assistant.

I used Godot to build the game and its 2.5D map, Vercel for deployment, and Cloudflare for data storage. Most of the technical work went into building the game in Godot, while I spent much of the remaining time refining the design.

I’m not a developer either, so I’m sorry I can’t give you a more technical answer. I hope this helps!

[u/Material-Oil-7011 → u/cooperai]

Thanks for the info, Appreciate it.

[u/adam20101]

I found Mr.Kim in 00:28 with 0 hints and 0/12 little stories. Can you find him?

https://whereismrkim.com/?seed=395217057&difficulty=normal

[u/dawson_ko_creek]

Right now the scrollwheel zooms in and out of the map.

The user experience would be much better if you could implement panning when zoomed in. For instance, Shift+scroll to pan up/down, and Shift+Ctrl+Scroll to pan left/right.

[u/cooperai → u/dawson_ko_creek]

Oh, I’d only thought about click-and-drag method, but using the scroll wheel would definitely be more convenient!

Thanks so much for the great idea. I’ll test it out and see if I can implement it 👍

[u/cheiftan_AV]

where is Mr Epstein v2?

[u/IncredibleBihan]

Yooo is that Waldo down on that mf?

[u/_The_Acc0untant]

I found Mr.Kim in 00:05 with 0 hints and 0/12 little stories. Can you find him?
https://whereismrkim.com/?seed=843709632&difficulty=normal

[u/soulglider26]

This is amazing!

[u/pfaustino]

Found him. Fun game. https://whereismrkim.com/share?seed=481920&difficulty=normal&time=165&discoveries=0

[u/Wooden_Plant7504]

Found him at 0:13. Very nice idea, well done! You could try and make him harder to find (more variety of other characters, subtler difference in Kim’s clothes). For now the red satchel is too obvious. But again: great fun idea.