GeoGuessr

GeoGuessr

Type of site	Browser game
Available in	English
Founded	9 May 2013
Founder(s)	Anton Wallén Daniel Antell Erland Ranvinge
URL	www.geoguessr.com

GeoGuessr is a web-based geographic discovery game designed by Anton Wallén, a Swedish IT consultant, released on 9 May 2013.^[1] The game uses a semi-randomized Google Street View location for paying members and Mapillary for non-members. The game requires players to guess their location in the world using only the clues visible.^[2] The website received hundreds of thousands of unique visitors per day within a week of being released.^[1]

Development[]

The idea for GeoGuessr came from Wallén's love of visiting faraway locations on Google Street View, and how it gave a visitor the sense of actually being there.^[3][4] He decided to add a gaming element to it.^[3][4] The development of the game took a couple of weeks, spread over a period of several months.^[3] It uses the Backbone.js JavaScript library and version 3 of the Google Maps API for games using Google Street View.^[5] For the free map, Mapillary is used for the locations. Wallén posted the completed game to Google Chrome Experiments on 10 May 2013.^[5][6]

Gameplay[]

GeoGuessr places the player on a series of five algorithmically determined semi-random locations around the world.^[1][2] The locations are limited to roads and other paths that have been photographed by Google Street View cameras for paying members, which excludes the majority of Asia and Africa, most of the Amazon basin in South America, most of Central, and Outback Australia and most of the far north in Canada and Russia.^[6][7]

The Street View window of GeoGuessr does not provide any information beyond the Street View images and a compass; things such as road signs, vegetation, businesses, climate, and landmarks have been suggested as some clues that may help the player determine their location. The player may also move about along the roads through the normal directional controls provided by Street View.

Once the player is ready to guess the location, they will place a location marker on a zoomable map. After the placed marker is submitted as a guess, the game reveals the true geographic location and assigns the player a score depending on how far away the player's guess was from the true location.

Scores range between 0 for a guess at an antipode and 5000 points if the guess is within about 150 meters of the correct location.^[8] However, point totals vary between different maps. A new location is then provided to the player, and the process repeats until the player has guessed five locations for a maximum of 25,000 possible points.^[9] Newer features include a variable time limit and grouped challenges, such as "Famous Places" or "Sweden".^[10]

The game also allows paying users to both create maps and play other users' maps, enhancing the experience for members and adding to the competitiveness of the game. After Google increased their API price 14-fold, non-paying members are now restricted to play for 20 minutes a day on Google Street View.

Players can play unlimited games with Mapillary, but the locations have limited methods of movement and zoom compared to Google Street View.^[11] Furthermore, following the August 2019 update, non-paying members could no longer create challenges wherein several players compete on the same map.

Game modes[]

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Standard[]

The traditional method to play the game is for the player to select their preferred "map" from a list. Each map contains a different selection of street view locations. Whether landing in a local area, populated city, or desolated road, players must find clues from their surroundings to figure out where they are. The most popular map is "World," which lands the player in a completely randomized location. Other popular maps include "Famous Places," "An Urban World," "Interesting Photospheres in Obscure Countries," and individualized maps for countries which support Google Street View.

Players may make their own selection of street view locations as personalized maps and submit them for others to play.

Additional settings can be added to the players preferences. These include limitations to allotted time for each round, moving around the map, and panning or zooming the camera.

Explorer[]

In Explorer mode, players attempt to score as many points as they can by correctly guessing their location within a specific country, selected from a world map in the Explorer mode homepage. Their final score is then ranked into a medal system.

To earn a bronze medal ranking the player must score at least 5,000 points. Earning a silver medal requires 15,000 or more, and a gold medal at least 20,000.

When completing a game, the country players have selected to play will change colour on the world map in accordance to the total scores ranking, encouraging players to attempt at completing other countries.

Country Streak[]

Country Streak can be played in single player or challenge mode, where players can compete against each other. The objective in this mode is for players to guess the country they are located in the image rather than guessing the specific location within the country itself. This game mode can be played with our without moving allowed.

The players are challenged to attempt at scoring as many correct guesses as possible in one attempt. The game finishes when the player guesses the wrong country, and their final total is tallied at the end of the round.

There is also a similar States Streak mode in which players attempt to guess which United States state they are in.

Battle Royale[]

Similar to country streak mode, players attempt to guess which country they are randomly located within the local area. Battle Royale challenges players against each other by knockout games.

Players compete against each other within a time limit to qualify for the next round. They are given three chances to use in the form of hearts. They lose one chance if they guess a country incorrectly; all players' incorrect guesses are shown to the other players at the top of the screen.

If a player loses all three of their hearts, or if the time limit expires, they are out of the game. Additionally, one fewer player than the amount in each round is allowed to guess; the player which is the slowest to guess correctly is out automatically. However, if none of the players guessed correctly, the game continues with every player. The last remaining player in each game is the winner.

Battle Royale has features unique to this mode, such as a more selected collection of countries which will be selected for each round and a "50/50" function which narrows down the choices to two countries.

There is a second Battle Royale game mode, named "Distance Battle," in which players must guess the specific location they are placed in. The player who guesses the furthest from the correct location loses the round. Similar to the original Battle Royale, this mode has some unique functions. Players have multiple guesses each round, being allowed to guess again every 5 seconds. The guess which is closest to the correct location is the one which is used for scoring at the end of each round. Players gain additional guesses from one round to the next as rewards for closer guesses. ^{[12][better source needed]}

Duels[]

In Duels mode, two players square off in a distance-based competition. Each player begins the game with 6,000 health points. Every round, the losing player's score is subtracted from the winning player's score, and that difference is subtracted from the losing player's health points. The game ends when one player's health points is lowered to 0.

Round 5 of every Duels match is a "healing round" in which half of the points won by the player are rewarded back as additional health points. In every proceeding round, the amount subtracted from the losing player's health points is an additional factor of the aforementioned difference. For example, in round 6, twice the difference is subtracted, while in round 7, thrice the difference is.

The Daily Challenge[]

In the Daily Challenge, similar to the basic modes, players are given five rounds to guess which country they are in. Points are tallied by how close the player is to the images location.

Daily challenge has a leaderboard of other players' daily challenge final scores where players can see their ranking.^{[12][better source needed]}

Competitive City Streaks[]

In this game mode, payers must find the correct city when a part of its street view is given. The game is multiplayer, and players are given five lives.

Reception[]

GeoGuessr was positively received by the media, with reviewers citing its simplicity of play and addictiveness.^[1][2][4] The game has also been praised as an educational tool and has inspired a number of classroom exercises.^[4][13]

Community[]

The GeoGuessr community is tightly knit and spread across numerous social platforms including Reddit, YouTube and Twitch.tv. The site boasts a community of speed-runners and record holders, along with a growing Esports scene. Players compete to get perfect scores on challenging game presets such as No Moving or NMPZ (No Moving, Panning, or Zooming).

During 2021, several people from the GeoGuessr community contacted unofficial Google Maps contributors, including the Zanzibar Street View project, the GridPacific program and the Bhutan tourism council, with requests to remove poor quality Street View images they had uploaded to the site, stating that they negatively impacted GeoGuessr gameplay.^[14]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website