Say Cheese! Endings Guide: All 12 Endings and Photo Routes

Say Cheese! [STORY] tracks 12 endings. See every ending and the photo route or action that unlocks it: the shared chain, its six branch routes and six standalone endings.

Quick answer

Say Cheese! [STORY] tracks 12 endings: Cricket, Breaking News, Reverse, TV, Say Cheese, Follow the Money, Scared, Good, Viral, Eyes Closed, Hat and Peace. Six of them grow out of one shared photo chain that only splits apart near the end, and the other six each have a short standalone route. The photos to take for every ending are below.

The main menu's ENDINGS counter tracks your total with a reading like '5 / 12 endings found'.
The shared chain, used by six endings: the man in the hat, any person in a hat, the screaming madman, the scared face, then the 'HMPH' moment.
Quickest standalone unlocks: Cricket (click the cricket on the loading screen), Breaking News (five blank grass photos) and Reverse (seven or more people in one frame).

In 📸 Say Cheese! [STORY] by Mechanical Boy LLC the camera drives nearly every ending: most come from photographing the right subject at the right moment, though two of the routes below break the pattern — Cricket is a click on the loading screen, and Eyes Closed ends by waiting without taking a photo. The ENDINGS counter on the main menu counts 12 endings in total, and this guide collects the documented photo routes for all of them.

The twelve split into two groups. Six endings — Viral, Eyes Closed, Hat, Peace, Good and Scared — all begin with the same opening photo chain and separate only afterwards. The other six — Cricket, Breaking News, Reverse, TV, Say Cheese and Follow the Money — are standalone: each needs its own short photo trick, but none of the shared chain.

All 12 endings at a glance

Data table

Ending: Cricket
Photo or action that unlocks it: Click the cricket that jumps across the loading or intro screen right after you press play.

Ending: Breaking News
Photo or action that unlocks it: Take five blank photos — pictures of just the grass with nobody in the frame.

Ending: Reverse
Photo or action that unlocks it: Wait until at least seven people are in the frame, then take one photo.

Ending: TV
Photo or action that unlocks it: Photograph the TV alone until four TVs appear, shoot the one normal screen, then shoot the TV once more through the static.

Ending: Say Cheese
Photo or action that unlocks it: Hold the camera on people until they say 'Cheese' three photos in a row, then photograph the last survivor of the fight that follows.

Ending: Follow the Money
Photo or action that unlocks it: Photograph the man in the hat and any hat wearer, then photograph the suited man's money handoff and keep shooting him.

Ending: Scared
Photo or action that unlocks it: Shared chain up to the scared-face photo, then photograph the scared man alone until everyone draws weapons — and photograph that standoff.

Ending: Good
Photo or action that unlocks it: Full shared chain, then the heart-hat handoff at the top left, the new heart-hat wearers, and the new madman.

Ending: Viral
Photo or action that unlocks it: Full shared chain, then the red crowd until everyone is red, the hat man right after the shooting, and the armed crowd.

Ending: Eyes Closed
Photo or action that unlocks it: The Viral route up to the shooting, then take no photos and just wait.

Ending: Hat
Photo or action that unlocks it: The Viral route to the all-red state, then rapid hat-man photos, heart hats, and one fast final photo of the hat man.

Ending: Peace
Photo or action that unlocks it: Shared chain through the red circle's shout, then the protesting couple until everyone circles the TV in red — one last photo of that circle.

Data table
Ending	Photo or action that unlocks it
Cricket	Click the cricket that jumps across the loading or intro screen right after you press play.
Breaking News	Take five blank photos — pictures of just the grass with nobody in the frame.
Reverse	Wait until at least seven people are in the frame, then take one photo.
TV	Photograph the TV alone until four TVs appear, shoot the one normal screen, then shoot the TV once more through the static.
Say Cheese	Hold the camera on people until they say 'Cheese' three photos in a row, then photograph the last survivor of the fight that follows.
Follow the Money	Photograph the man in the hat and any hat wearer, then photograph the suited man's money handoff and keep shooting him.
Scared	Shared chain up to the scared-face photo, then photograph the scared man alone until everyone draws weapons — and photograph that standoff.
Good	Full shared chain, then the heart-hat handoff at the top left, the new heart-hat wearers, and the new madman.
Viral	Full shared chain, then the red crowd until everyone is red, the hat man right after the shooting, and the armed crowd.
Eyes Closed	The Viral route up to the shooting, then take no photos and just wait.
Hat	The Viral route to the all-red state, then rapid hat-man photos, heart hats, and one fast final photo of the hat man.
Peace	Shared chain through the red circle's shout, then the protesting couple until everyone circles the TV in red — one last photo of that circle.

The chain routes are broken down photo by photo below, followed by the six standalone endings.

The main photo chain shared by six endings

Learn this chain once and six endings open up: Scared, Good, Viral, Eyes Closed, Hat and Peace all start with the same five photos, and the paths only split after the final shot. Follow the Money also borrows the chain's first two photos before going its own way.

The shared opening chain

1
Photograph the man in the hat
The chain opens on the hat man.
2
Photograph any person wearing a hat
The second shot goes to any hat wearer.
3
Photograph the madman mid-scream
Catch the madman at the right moment.
4
Capture the scared face
Follow the person the madman screamed at.
5
Capture the 'HMPH' moment
The chain's final photo.

Which photos you take from here decides which ending you get.

The six endings that branch from the chain

Scared is the earliest split — it leaves the chain right after the scared-face photo. The other five all complete the "HMPH" photo first: Eyes Closed and Hat follow the Viral route partway before diverging, Peace splits off while the red crowd is still forming, and Good goes in its own heart-hat direction.

Scared ending

Follow the chain only up to the part where the screamed-at man runs away scared. From here, photograph him alone, and only him — the person he is scared of must not be in the frame. Repeat that several times while he runs. After a while everyone pulls out weapons and points them at each other; take a photo during that moment and the Scared ending unlocks.

Good ending

Complete the full chain through the "HMPH" photo, then keep an eye on the top left of the screen, where the madman shouts at a lovely couple. When the couple hands their heart hat over to the madman, take a picture right at that moment. Other people will then gain heart-shaped hats — photograph them too. Eventually another madman shows up; take a few pictures of him and you'll get the Good ending.

Viral ending

After the "HMPH" photo a circle turns red with anger. Follow him, and photograph the moment he shouts at a square. More people then spawn, so keep photographing the red people shouting at each other until every single person has turned red. Once everybody is red, the man in the hat shows up and shoots the madman. Take a picture of the hat man, then keep photographing people holding weapons until the Viral ending triggers.

Eyes Closed ending

Follow all of the Viral steps up until the hat man shoots the madman and people start screaming and running around. The finishing move is to do nothing: don't take a photo, just wait, and the Eyes Closed ending plays out on its own.

Hat ending

Follow the Viral steps until every person has turned red and the hat man appears. This time, instead of waiting, quickly take picture after picture of the hat man — doing that converts red people into white people wearing hats. Photograph those hat wearers until all of the red people have turned into hat people and the TV starts saying "old news" when clicked. Now photograph the couple wearing red heart hats, which turns everyone into 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 on that final photo is tight.

Peace ending

Do the chain up to the "HMPH" photo, then follow the red circle until he shouts at a square and photograph that moment. Keep photographing the spawning red people shouting at each other until a couple protesting with a signboard appears in the top right of the screen. Take a picture of them, then another — they begin to move, so keep clicking their picture again and again. Continue until everybody has turned into red shirts gathered in a circle around the TV, then take one last picture of that circle to get the Peace ending.

The six standalone endings

None of these need the shared chain — each is its own short route.

Cricket ending

The easiest ending in the game. Hit play and, while the loading or intro screen is still showing, click the cricket that jumps across the screen from left to right. That click alone unlocks the ending.

Breaking News ending

Take a blank photo five times — a picture of just the grass with nobody else in the frame. The ending triggers at five.

Reverse ending

Position the camera and wait until at least seven people have walked into the frame, then take the photo. Seven or more is the requirement, so don't snap too early.

Say Cheese ending

Point the camera at people and hold it on them for a moment, and they'll say "Cheese". Capture people saying cheese three times back to back and they will fight each other until only one person is left standing. Take a picture of that last survivor and you get the Say Cheese ending.

TV ending

This one takes patience. Keep taking pictures of the TV over and over, making sure nobody else is in the frame, until four TVs appear — three blacked out and one normal. Photograph the normal one. The screen then turns to static, becomes hard to see, and the TV moves slightly, but its rough position stays visible. Take a picture of the TV one more time and the TV ending is yours.

Follow the Money ending

Start like the shared chain: take a picture of the man in the hat, then a picture of any person in a hat. Now watch the right side of the screen for the man in a suit handing money to the madman, and photograph him right as it happens. Keep taking pictures of the man in the suit until the ending shows up.

The ENDINGS counter and replaying for more

Each run ends in an ending — after the "Thank you for playing" screen, you start a new run and can steer it toward an ending you are still missing. That loop is the point of the shared opening chain: it can be replayed into different follow-up photos, which is how one opening keeps producing different endings across repeated runs.

Your total lives on the main menu. Next to the PLAY and SETTINGS buttons sits the ENDINGS button with a tracker in the style of "5 / 12 endings found", so you can always see how many of the 12 you have unlocked and how many are still missing.

The setup behind the endings

The official description casts you as a journalist hired by "Big Media" to spread chaos and panic through the park so every person stays glued to the screen — and asks whether you will destroy the peaceful society or try to change fate and bring hope. The ending set is where that choice lands. The game is based on "We Become What We Behold" by Nicky Case. In the park, photographing is as simple as aiming the camera viewfinder and clicking — the on-screen "POINT & CLICK" prompt. For the two camera moments in a run and what happens to a photo after you take it, see the camera guide.

If you are starting fresh, the how-to-play guide covers opening your first session. For how a whole run advances scene by scene, see the story walkthrough, and for the Big Media premise behind the chaos-versus-hope framing, see Say Cheese! story explained.