How to play
One quest a day
A new quest opens every day: a year, and a short scene told from the ground by the people who were there. It never names the place — it is a puzzle, not a caption. The year is the spine of it, on screen from the first second to the last, and it is what turns the whole of Great Britain into a shortlist.
Drop a pin
Work out where the scene is happening, click the map, and confirm the spot. Guessing costs you nothing — if you have no idea where to start, put the marker down anywhere and confirm. The story moves on either way.
Four confirms, three parts of the story
Every player sees all three parts of the story whatever they guess. Nothing is bought and nothing is held back: confirming your marker is what turns the page. Your first confirm turns to part one, your second to part two, your third to part three.
That leaves a fourth confirm, and it is the one that counts. It reveals nothing new — you have already read everything the quest has to say — so it is the only confirm you make knowing the whole story. Wherever the marker is standing when you make it is your answer. If you are already sure, leave it where it is.
At the first three confirms the game tells you whether you are onto something, not how far away you are, and below the top tier roughly which way to go. It never tells you a distance: with two distances you could work the answer out with a compass and no history at all. Being exactly right and being merely close look the same until the end, on purpose.
Scoring
- Your score comes from where your final marker lands: 1000 on the place itself, 700 close to it, 400 in the right part of the country, and 100 beyond that.
- First Sight adds 300 if your very first confirm was already on the place, and 100 if it was close. It is recorded at the time and is worth the same whatever happens afterwards, so playing every confirm out never costs you anything.
- Asking to see the answer ends the quest and scores nothing.
Streaks
Solving the day's quest extends your streak. That is the number worth caring about.
The archive
Every past quest stays playable forever. Archive quests count towards your own totals but never towards your streak — so there is no rush, and nothing is spoiled by playing them late.
Do I need an account?
No. You can play straight away. An account is only needed to keep your results and build a streak — and if you make one after solving something, that solve comes with you.