cat side-project-timequest-fun.md
Side project: TimeQuest.fun
A daily history quiz where every answer is a date. Five questions a day, one try, and you answer by dropping a flag on a timeline.
Two weeks ago I launched TimeQuest, a daily history quiz where every answer is a date. There are five questions a day and you get one try. You answer by dragging and zooming along a timeline that runs from 1600 to today, then planting a flag where you think it happened.
- registered players
- 500+
- games played
- 24,000+
- questions a day
- 5
- on one timeline
- 1600–today
Where the idea came from
I was listening to an interview with Frank Michael Smith, the guy behind geosports.app, and it got me thinking about the daily game format that Wordle made popular. One puzzle a day, everyone gets the same one, you share your result and come back tomorrow.
I wanted to try making one, but I didn’t want another word game or multiple-choice quiz. I wanted the way you answer to be the fun part, and that became the timeline. I’m not claiming nobody has ever made a timeline game, but I haven’t seen another daily game where you scroll through time, zoom in and drop a flag on a date.
The first version was actually TimePop, a pop culture quiz on the same timeline. I thought pop culture would be the fun one. TimePop is still running and growing slowly, but it quickly became obvious that a history quiz had more legs, so TimeQuest got its own rules, design and questions. It’s now the more popular of the two.
How it plays
Each day’s five questions cover everything from politics and war to science, exploration, the arts and sport. Zoomed out, your flag lands on a year; zoom in and you can pick the exact day. The closer you get, the more points you score, up to 200 a question and 1,000 a day. When you’re done you can share your score and five emoji without giving the answers away.
Signing in saves your history and puts you on the daily leaderboard. Equal scores share a rank, because TimeQuest isn’t meant to be a speed game.
Getting the answers right
The hardest part isn’t the game, it’s the questions. Five a day is 1,825 a year, and every one has to be right to the day. AI helps with the research, but every question is checked against sources and I approve each one before it goes live.
The calendar problem
One thing I didn’t see coming was the calendar itself. Britain used the old Julian calendar until 1752 and Russia until 1918, so a lot of famous dates are “Old Style”. Charles I was executed on 30 January 1649 by England’s calendar at the time, but by the modern calendar that’s 9 February. TimeQuest uses the modern calendar for every answer.
Even so, the odd answer will turn out to be wrong. When that happens I void the question: everyone who played gets the full 200 points for it and the leaderboard is recalculated. Nobody loses points because of my mistake.
Tell me what to fix
I’d like to hear what you think. Is the timeline easy to use on your phone? Are the questions too hard, too easy or about right? Which periods would you like to see more of? Did an answer ever look wrong? Play today’s game, then let me know on LinkedIn or X.
Play today’s quest