How to Play CCTV Spotter: Find Every Change Fast
CCTV Spotter is a spot-the-difference game set in a police control room: two pictures from the same street camera, one from yesterday and one from today, and a handful of changes hidden between them. Some are obvious once you see them, some are sneaky. This guide explains exactly what can change, how the stars work, and a scanning routine that finds every change without guessing.
What you are looking at
The top picture is yesterday and the bottom picture is today, both taken at the same time by the same camera. Each street has shop fronts with awnings and signs, rows of windows, lamp posts, trees, benches, bins, flower pots, bicycles, the occasional cat and a few parked cars. The Found counter shows how many changes you have found and how many there are: five in the Rookie levels, six in the Watcher levels and seven in the Eagle Eye levels.
The four kinds of change
- Missing: an object is in yesterday's picture but gone today — a traffic cone, a poster, a bird on the skyline, a parked car.
- New: the reverse — something appears today that was not there yesterday.
- Colour: the same object in a different colour. Doors, cars, benches, bins, mailboxes, awnings, shop signs, bicycles and flowers can all change colour, and trees can turn autumn orange.
- On/off: a window lights up or goes dark, a street lamp switches on or off, a shop sign shows a different word, or an awning's bottom edge changes between straight and scalloped.
Tapping and stars
Tap a change in either picture — it does not matter which one. When you find it, a green frame appears around it in both pictures. Tapping somewhere that did not change leaves a short red cross and counts as a wrong tap.
- 3 stars: no hints and no more than two wrong taps.
- 2 stars: at most one hint and no more than five wrong taps.
- 1 star: any other finish.
The Hint button (or H) draws a blue dashed frame around one change you have not found yet. There is no time limit; the time you took is shown at the end just for fun.
A scanning routine that works
The biggest mistake in spot-the-difference games is looking randomly. Your eyes keep returning to the same interesting spots and skip the boring ones — exactly where changes hide. Try this order instead, comparing one strip at a time in both pictures:
- The sky. Count the birds.
- The upper windows. Go building by building and count the lit windows in each.
- The shop fronts. Check each sign's colour and word, each awning's colour and edge, each door's colour, and any posters on the walls.
- The pavement. From left to right: lamps (on or off?), trees, benches, bins, pots, bikes, cats and cones.
- The road. Count the cars and compare their colours.
Counting is especially powerful. "Three lit windows yesterday, four today" tells you a change is in that building before you have even found it.
Changes that players often miss
- Big colour changes. A car or a door changing colour is so large that the eye treats it as background. Check every big object on purpose.
- Awning edges. The stripes may stay the same while the bottom edge switches between straight and scalloped.
- Lamps. A lamp that is on has a soft yellow glow; one that is off has a grey head.
- Missing birds. They are small and high up. Counting them is the only reliable way.
Why a methodical search beats speed
Because wrong taps count against your stars but time does not, the fastest way to three stars is actually the slow one. A player who scans strip by strip and taps only confirmed changes usually finishes with zero wrong taps, while a player who taps every suspicious spot loses a star on almost every level. If you are down to the last one or two changes and can't find them, finish your routine once more from the top before reaching for a hint — the missing change is almost always in a strip you checked too quickly the first time.
Playing on a phone
On a phone the two pictures are stacked, so hold it upright and compare by moving your eyes up and down rather than side to side. If the pictures feel small, use the Fullscreen button, and tap only when you can see the difference in both pictures to keep your wrong taps low.
Keep watching
Once you have three stars on the Rookie streets, the Watcher and Eagle Eye levels add more changes and busier pavements. If you enjoy sharp-eyed games, try Police Lineup, where you compare witness clues with the people in a lineup, and read our memory tips from Evidence Match. Ready for the night shift? Play CCTV Spotter.