Modern scintillator detectors act as an efficient tool for detection and measurement of ionizing radiations. ZnSe based materials have been found to be a promising candidate for scintillation applications. These scintillators show much-needed scintillation efficiency along with advantages such as high thermal and radiation stability, less-toxicity, non-hygroscopicity, emissions in the visible range and small decay time etc. Further, in quantum confinement regime, they show improvement in luminescent properties and size dependent emissions. In this review article, the attempt has been made to trace the progress of ZnSe based materials towards highly efficient quantum dot scintillators. Here, the fundamental process of scintillation has been explained. Factors such as doping, annealing, heavy ion irradiation which affects the scintillation response of ZnSe based scintillators have also been discussed. Method of synthesis plays a key role in optimization of quantum dot properties. Hence, it has been tried to trace the development in methods of synthesis of quantum dots. With optimized synthesis, we can extend applications of these highly efficient quantum dot scintillators for various scientific and industrial applications.