Say Cheese! Choices Guide: Photo Decisions and Consequences

Compare photo subjects, timing, repeat counts and waiting at the documented Say Cheese! branch points, with the outcomes each choice leads toward.

Quick answer

Every documented route below is steered by camera decisions — what you frame, when you click, how many times you shoot, or whether you shoot at all — with the Cricket click on the loading screen as the one choice that isn't a photo. After the hat man shoots, continue with his photo and the armed crowd for Viral, or stop taking photos and wait for Eyes Closed. The Hat route needs an earlier intervention, before he shoots.

Standalone choices that need no photo chain: click the jumping cricket on the loading screen (Cricket), take 5 blank grass photos (Breaking News), or wait for 7 or more people in the frame (Reverse).
Six endings grow out of one shared photo chain: Scared exits earliest, Good and Peace split after the HMPH photo, and Viral, Eyes Closed and Hat diverge in the all-red moment.
Follow the Money leaves the chain right after its first two photos; Say Cheese and TV come from holding the camera on people or on the TV alone.

In 📸 Say Cheese! [STORY] you play a photographer, and every picture you take nudges a tiny town of square and circle people toward a different outcome. The official description frames the overarching choice as destroying this peaceful society for Big Media — or trying to change fate and bring hope to everyone. You pick one photo at a time, across a documented set of 12 endings that ranges from a single click to a long sequence of photos taken in the right order.

This page is a decision map: each decision point in a run, the options you have there, and what each option changes. For the full photo-by-photo completion route of a specific ending, use the endings guide; for how taking a photo works and what happens to it afterwards, see the camera guide.

The four kinds of photo choices

Every documented photo choice in Say Cheese! [STORY] is one of four camera actions — the intro cricket click is the one exception:

Choosing the subject. Who or what is in the frame decides the route. At the scared-face moment, photographing the frightened man together with the square person continues the shared chain, while photographing him alone — keeping the person he fears out of the frame — starts the Scared route instead.
Timing the click. Several photos only count at an exact moment: the "HMPH" photo has to catch the square person saying it at a circle, Follow the Money has to catch the money handoff right as it happens, and the Hat ending's final photo must land before the hat man shoots the madman.
Repeating a photo a set number of times. Count is a real condition: Breaking News triggers on the fifth blank photo, and the Say Cheese route needs three back-to-back "Cheese" photos before the fight begins.
Deliberately not shooting. One documented ending asks you to do nothing: in the all-red moment, waiting without taking a photo produces the Eyes Closed ending on its own.

Choices at a glance

The table maps every documented decision point to its options and to what each option changes. The sections after it expand the fork moments in detail.

Data table

Decision point: Loading or intro screen
Your option: Click the cricket that jumps across the screen right after you press play
What it changes: The Cricket ending unlocks immediately, before you have taken any photo.

Decision point: Standalone route (no chain required)
Your option: Take 5 photos of just the grass, with nobody in the frame
What it changes: The fifth blank shot triggers the Breaking News ending.

Decision point: Standalone route
Your option: Wait until at least 7 people are in the frame, then snap
What it changes: The Reverse ending — the photo needs seven or more people, so don't snap too early.

Decision point: Standalone route
Your option: Photograph only the TV until four TVs appear, shoot the one normal screen, then shoot the TV again
What it changes: The TV ending. Between the last two shots your screen turns to static and the TV moves slightly.

Decision point: Standalone route
Your option: Hold the camera on people until they say 'Cheese', capture it in 3 back-to-back photos, then photograph the last survivor of the fight
What it changes: The Say Cheese ending, after the three shots leave one person standing.

Decision point: After the man-in-the-hat and any-hat-wearer photos
Your option: Photograph the suited man's money handoff on the right, then keep photographing him
What it changes: The Follow the Money ending, leaving the shared chain behind.

Decision point: After the man-in-the-hat and any-hat-wearer photos
Your option: Continue the chain: photograph the madman while he screams at someone
What it changes: The run advances into the chain forks below, which lead to six endings.

Decision point: Chain, scared-face moment
Your option: Photograph him together with the square person the moment the scared face shows
What it changes: The chain continues toward the HMPH photo.

Decision point: Chain, scared-face moment
Your option: Photograph the scared man alone several times as he runs, keeping the person he fears out of the frame
What it changes: Everyone pulls out weapons in a standoff; a photo of that moment gives the Scared ending.

Decision point: Chain, after the HMPH photo
Your option: Follow the red circle, photograph him shouting at a square, then keep photographing red shouters until everyone is red
What it changes: Sets up the all-red moment, where the Viral, Eyes Closed and Hat endings diverge.

Decision point: Chain, after the red-shout photo
Your option: Switch to the couple protesting with a signboard in the top right and keep photographing them as they move
What it changes: Everybody becomes red shirts circling the TV; one last photo of that circle gives the Peace ending.

Decision point: Chain, after the HMPH photo
Your option: Photograph the heart-hat handoff in the top left, then the new heart-hat wearers, then the second madman
What it changes: The Good ending.

Decision point: After the hat man shoots the madman
Your option: Photograph the hat man, then keep photographing people holding weapons
What it changes: The Viral ending triggers.

Decision point: After the hat man shoots the madman
Your option: Take no photo at all and just wait
What it changes: The Eyes Closed ending plays out on its own.

Decision point: Before the hat man shoots the madman
Your option: Rapid-fire the hat man, convert the red crowd with hat-wearer photos, photograph the red heart-hat couple, then quickly photograph the hat man again
What it changes: The Hat ending, if the final photo lands before he shoots the madman.

Data table
Decision point	Your option	What it changes
Loading or intro screen	Click the cricket that jumps across the screen right after you press play	The Cricket ending unlocks immediately, before you have taken any photo.
Standalone route (no chain required)	Take 5 photos of just the grass, with nobody in the frame	The fifth blank shot triggers the Breaking News ending.
Standalone route	Wait until at least 7 people are in the frame, then snap	The Reverse ending — the photo needs seven or more people, so don't snap too early.
Standalone route	Photograph only the TV until four TVs appear, shoot the one normal screen, then shoot the TV again	The TV ending. Between the last two shots your screen turns to static and the TV moves slightly.
Standalone route	Hold the camera on people until they say 'Cheese', capture it in 3 back-to-back photos, then photograph the last survivor of the fight	The Say Cheese ending, after the three shots leave one person standing.
After the man-in-the-hat and any-hat-wearer photos	Photograph the suited man's money handoff on the right, then keep photographing him	The Follow the Money ending, leaving the shared chain behind.
After the man-in-the-hat and any-hat-wearer photos	Continue the chain: photograph the madman while he screams at someone	The run advances into the chain forks below, which lead to six endings.
Chain, scared-face moment	Photograph him together with the square person the moment the scared face shows	The chain continues toward the HMPH photo.
Chain, scared-face moment	Photograph the scared man alone several times as he runs, keeping the person he fears out of the frame	Everyone pulls out weapons in a standoff; a photo of that moment gives the Scared ending.
Chain, after the HMPH photo	Follow the red circle, photograph him shouting at a square, then keep photographing red shouters until everyone is red	Sets up the all-red moment, where the Viral, Eyes Closed and Hat endings diverge.
Chain, after the red-shout photo	Switch to the couple protesting with a signboard in the top right and keep photographing them as they move	Everybody becomes red shirts circling the TV; one last photo of that circle gives the Peace ending.
Chain, after the HMPH photo	Photograph the heart-hat handoff in the top left, then the new heart-hat wearers, then the second madman	The Good ending.
After the hat man shoots the madman	Photograph the hat man, then keep photographing people holding weapons	The Viral ending triggers.
After the hat man shoots the madman	Take no photo at all and just wait	The Eyes Closed ending plays out on its own.
Before the hat man shoots the madman	Rapid-fire the hat man, convert the red crowd with hat-wearer photos, photograph the red heart-hat couple, then quickly photograph the hat man again	The Hat ending, if the final photo lands before he shoots the madman.

Short routes and early exits

These six routes avoid the complete five-photo opening. Follow the Money borrows its first two hat photos before taking a different direction; Cricket uses an intro-screen click.

Cricket: a click before the first photo

Hit play, and while the loading or intro screen is still showing, a cricket jumps across the screen from the left side to the right. Click it, and the Cricket ending is unlocked before you have taken a single photo.

Breaking News: counting to five blank shots

Take a photo of just the grass — nobody in the frame — and do it five times. The fifth blank shot triggers the Breaking News ending. Both conditions matter: the frame has to be empty, and the count has to reach five.

Reverse: waiting is the decision

Position the camera and wait. At least seven people have to walk into the frame before you snap — seven or more is the requirement, so the whole choice is timing. Don't snap too early.

TV: one exclusive subject, held to the end

Photograph the TV and nothing else — nobody else can be in the frame. Keep it up and four TVs eventually appear: three blacked out and one normal. Photograph the normal screen, and your own screen turns to static and becomes hard to see while the TV moves slightly; look closely and you can still make out roughly where it is. One more picture of the TV gives the TV ending.

Say Cheese: holding the camera, three times in a row

Point the camera at people and hold it on them for a moment, and they'll say "Cheese". Capture people saying cheese in three back-to-back photos and they start fighting each other until only one person is left standing. A picture of that last survivor gives the Say Cheese ending.

Follow the Money: the early exit from the chain

This route starts like the shared chain — a picture of the man in the hat, then a picture of any person wearing a hat — and then leaves it. Watch the right side of the screen for a man in a suit handing money to the madman, and click your photo right as the handover happens. Keep taking pictures of the man in the suit until the ending shows up. It's the fork where those first two hat photos lead somewhere other than the chain.

The shared chain: one opening, six endings

Viral, Eyes Closed, Hat, Peace and Good use the complete five-photo opening. Scared branches at the frightened-person encounter, before the HMPH shot; Follow the Money changes direction after the first two hat photos. The opening and its early branches are:

Photograph the man in the hat.
Photograph any person wearing a hat.
Photograph the madman while he is screaming at someone.
Follow the person he screamed at. At the scared-face moment, photograph him alone for Scared; to continue toward the HMPH shot, photograph him together with the square person.
A square person turns mad — follow him and photograph the exact moment he says "HMPH" at a circle.

Follow the Money borrows the first two photos before peeling off, as covered above. The three forks below are where the six chain endings actually separate.

Fork one: the scared face

At the fourth stage, your framing selects between the Scared route and the path toward HMPH. After the madman screams at someone, follow the person he screamed at: when he gets close to a square person he gets scared and runs away.

Photograph him together with the square person at the exact moment the scared face shows, and the chain continues toward its final photo, the "HMPH" shot. Photograph him alone instead — only him, with the person he is scared of kept out of the frame — and repeat that several times while he runs away scared. After a while everyone pulls out weapons and points them at each other; take a photo during that standoff and the Scared ending unlocks. Same scene, different subject: different ending.

Fork two: after the HMPH photo

Past the chain's final photo, the documented routes follow different events on screen.

The red-anger direction starts when a circle turns red with anger. Follow him, and photograph the moment he shouts at a square. More people then spawn, and what you photograph next splits the route again:

Keep shooting the red crowd until every single person has turned red. That all-red state is what sets up fork three.
Switch to the signboard couple. On the Peace route, a couple protesting with a signboard appears in the top right of the screen. Photograph them, then keep clicking their picture again and again as they move, until everybody has turned into red shirts gathered in a circle around the TV. One last picture of that circle gives the Peace ending.

For the Good route, switch attention to the heart-hat exchange. Keep an eye on the top left of the screen, where the madman shouts at a lovely couple, and photograph the exact moment the couple hands their heart hat over to the madman. Other people then get heart-shaped hats — photograph them too. Eventually another madman shows up, and a few pictures of him give the Good ending.

Fork three: the all-red moment

Watch the timing when the hat man arrives in the all-red park. The Hat route starts before the shooting; Viral and Eyes Closed separate after it. The relevant actions are:

Photograph him. After the hat man shoots the madman, take a picture of him, then keep photographing people holding weapons until the Viral ending triggers.
Take no photo at all. Follow the same steps up until the hat man shoots the madman and people start screaming and running around — then do nothing. Just wait, and the Eyes Closed ending plays out on its own.
Rapid-fire the hat man instead of waiting. Quickly take picture after picture of him; that converts red people into white people wearing hats. Photograph those hat wearers until all of the red people have converted, then photograph the couple wearing red heart hats — everyone becomes a heart-hat person except the hat man himself. Quickly take a picture of the hat man before he shoots the madman, and the Hat ending is unlocked. The timing is tight, so be ready.

For Viral and Eyes Closed, the immediate decision after the shot is whether to keep photographing or wait. Hat requires an earlier intervention plus the hat-wearer and heart-hat steps, so its photos must begin before that shooting.

What this decision map covers

The routes above are the documented set: 12 endings, each reached through the decisions shown, from Cricket's single click to the Hat ending's tight final sequence. These photo decisions do pay off in play: in one recorded session, the Viral ending triggered right after the town-wide destruction sequence and the Follow the Money ending landed after the money-handover photos, each counted toward that player's progress through the 12.

The endings guide breaks every chain and standalone route down photo by photo if you want the full completion steps. If you're starting fresh, the how-to-play guide covers opening your first session. To see how a whole run advances scene by scene toward its ending, read the story walkthrough, and for the Big Media premise behind the destroy-or-hope framing, see Say Cheese! story explained.

Route reference: Mobile Gaming Hub's October 31 ending guide.