[HN Gopher] Timdle - Place historical events in chronological order
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       Timdle - Place historical events in chronological order
        
       Author : maskinberg
       Score  : 144 points
       Date   : 2025-06-23 06:39 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.timdle.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.timdle.com)
        
       | maskinberg wrote:
       | TIMDLE Jun 23 34/36 1: 1p 5: 5p 2: 0p 6: 6p 3: 3p 7: 7p 4: 4p 8:
       | 8p Play at https://timdle.com
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | 32/36: Are you the author? People is friendlier when the author
         | is around answering questions. How are the events selected?
         | Some are well known and some are very local.
         | 
         | The point system is easier to explain if each unselected spot
         | transform into a star that flies to the point counter.
        
           | maskinberg wrote:
           | Yes, I'm the author and this is a hobby project of mine. The
           | events are both gathered and "verified" with AI every day. I
           | have tried to come up with a large variety of categories,
           | aiming to make it both interesting, challenging and fun for
           | people from all over the world. But the span of categories
           | could definitely be improved. I had a couple of iterations on
           | both the points system and the layout a few months ago, and
           | felt satisfied with it. Thanks for the suggestion, I will
           | definitely take it into consideration for further work on the
           | site.
           | 
           | I saw that it also made its way onto Metafilter - did you by
           | any chance have anything to do with that?
        
             | gus_massa wrote:
             | > _The events are both gathered and "verified" with AI
             | every day._
             | 
             | Interesting. Can you share more technical details? Do you
             | have for example a filter to avoid event of the same year?
             | 
             | > _Metafilter_
             | 
             | No, it was not me.
        
               | maskinberg wrote:
               | Correct, avoiding same year events. Also, excluding
               | events that has been used in the past. Anything specific
               | details you are wondering about?
        
             | bbor wrote:
             | Really great stuff, this is the best wordle-like I've seen
             | since the original, hands down! The UI is great, and the
             | premise flawless -- unlike some other commenters, I think I
             | prefer this gamemode to any similar implementation (all at
             | once, go-until-mistake, etc.).
             | 
             | I have some experience crawling+processing Wikipedia dumps
             | in python, if you ever find the need for a new sourcing
             | system :) Email in bio!
        
           | MarkusQ wrote:
           | 32/36 too.
           | 
           | Having very local/niche events (especially near the end, when
           | there are lots of places to go wrong) makes it feel
           | unballanced. If you wanted to make the game more strategic
           | and less "gotcha," you might want to have all the events
           | available at the same time, or have a "come back to this
           | item" option that would allow the user more control.
           | 
           | On a related note, there are only about 40320 possible choice
           | paths (8!), making it about as rich as tic-tac-toe (though
           | the context certainly makes the player think more), far lower
           | than something like Wordel's (265)5. Adding more decisions
           | might make people take more ownership of their wins.
        
         | qwertox wrote:
         | TIMDLE Jun 24 35/36 1: 1p 5: 5p 2: 2p 6: 6p 3: 3p 7: 6p 4: 4p
         | 8: 8p Play at https://timdle.com
         | 
         | Nice game, thanks!
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | Cool. I like the left to right timeline better than the bottom to
       | top one of the New York Times Flashback:
       | https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/flashback
        
       | bhickey wrote:
       | Fun. Scored 35/36.
       | 
       | Have you considered an endless mode where you keep playing until
       | you make a mistake?
        
       | pmontra wrote:
       | 36/36 with some luck.
       | 
       | The domain has been created on November 2024. Is this game
       | inspired by the Trekking Through History boardgame [1] from 2022?
       | 
       | [1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/353288/trekking-
       | through-...
        
         | timpark wrote:
         | I was thinking of the board game "Timeline". This one is from
         | 2012, but if you search BGG for Timeline, you'll find lots of
         | different versions for different countries and specializations.
         | 
         | https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128664/timeline
        
           | pmontra wrote:
           | I remember that game. Yes, it's a much better fit.
        
       | wavemode wrote:
       | 36/36 though two of the eight were lucky wild guesses.
       | 
       | I would be interested in a game like this where you order all 8
       | events and then get scored (similar to wordle). And then try
       | again to put them in the right order, fewest attempts scores
       | better.
        
       | zdc1 wrote:
       | UI issue: my window was resized to be quite short so I was
       | clicking the dots completely unaware that the event I was placing
       | was hidden in the y-overflow at the bottom of the page. Sometimes
       | visible scroll bars are useful...
        
       | charlieyu1 wrote:
       | 35/36. I don't know if it is too easy
        
       | mrgoldenbrown wrote:
       | This looks like an electronic version of the card game
       | Chronology. Which is a great party game because it's easy to
       | explain and you can play cooperatively if that fits your groups
       | vibe better.
       | 
       | https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/834/chronology
        
       | NoboruWataya wrote:
       | Fun game, though four years after Wordle I think we can move on
       | from naming every browser puzzle game "something-le" :)
       | 
       | Slight spoiler alert: The last event it gave me was Ireland
       | winning the Six Nations grand slam, which has in fact happened
       | multiple times. In the event it didn't matter as the earliest
       | time it happened was later than the next latest event but in
       | another scenario I think it could have resulted in confusion and
       | possibly a false negative. Or is it smart enough to know only to
       | have an event like that where its place is not ambiguous?
        
         | shermantanktop wrote:
         | The -le genre is more specific - they are fixed-round guessing
         | games, with cumulative clues accruing. It's a great genre
         | (which of course already existed) but if adding -le helps make
         | more of them, that's cool with me.
         | 
         | I play Heardle (guess the song from the first seconds) and
         | Chordle (guess the chord spelling). Don't play Wordle anymore,
         | I got tired of it.
        
         | avoutos wrote:
         | The last event states Ireland "returns to rugby glory"
         | suggesting it had won the grand slam before, but also there was
         | a decent amount of time since the last win (return suggests a
         | hiatus). This would exclude the original 1948 win.
        
           | mike-the-mikado wrote:
           | In 1948 it was the 5 Nations, not the 6 Nations (I assume
           | that the question hasn't been rewritten since you saw it)
        
             | avoutos wrote:
             | Ah you're right, my bad. That could be lead to confusion
             | then.
        
         | Aspos wrote:
         | "Ireland Wins Six Nations Grand Slam" is such an obscure,
         | hyper-local event which should be a part of localization I
         | guess. I understood every word, but not the whole sentence.
        
           | pasc1878 wrote:
           | First great to have non US questions. This is how we see many
           | quizzes as too local. Would you have objected to an American
           | Football question?
           | 
           | But Ireland have won the Grand SLam 4 times so could appear
           | in several postions
           | 
           | So not a good question.
        
             | rkuykendall-com wrote:
             | > Would you have objected to an American Football question?
             | 
             | As an American not into sports, the only Football question
             | I think would be of such historical significance to match
             | the rest on this list would be "US Holds First Superbowl"
             | or something.
        
           | leoc wrote:
           | Rugby's not _that_ obscure or local. The Six Nations
           | mentioned include England, France and Italy.
        
             | prerok wrote:
             | Neither is skiing or ski jumping, but it is limited in the
             | sense of exposure. I bet most people would not be able to
             | name the best ski jumper in 1995, but a lot of people in my
             | country would.
        
           | nesk_ wrote:
           | I suppose you are American, this isn't obscur for Europeans
           | at all.
        
             | eej71 wrote:
             | I hear ya. I suppose the equivalent would be - last time
             | the Chicago Cubs won the world series.
        
               | prerok wrote:
               | Griping a bit, I know, but we, Europeans, always see
               | these questions in various trivia games.
        
               | dylan604 wrote:
               | It's not our fault that you don't pay attention to
               | something called the World Series. It's also not our
               | fault you don't have teams good enough to qualify. It's
               | not the called the American Series where you'd be
               | expected to ignore it. /s
               | 
               | I've always laughed at these types of names. The Miss
               | Universe pageant has always made wonder what Miss
               | Andromeda would be like, and if her answers would also
               | talk about whirled peas too.
        
             | olddustytrail wrote:
             | Is it not? Does the average German or Portuguese or Finnish
             | person know about the 6 nations?
             | 
             | I genuinely don't know. It's obviously a thing in Scotland
             | (where I'm from) but is it a thing in other European
             | countries?
        
               | input_sh wrote:
               | Absolutely not. It's a good rule of thumb to guess
               | "rugby" whenever I completely don't understand a sports
               | reference, but I had absolutely no idea such a tournament
               | existed between European nations, let alone when Ireland
               | won it.
               | 
               | That said, I also had no idea who Annie Hall was, but
               | that was way easier to guess correctly than a random
               | rugby tournament.
        
         | carabiner wrote:
         | What, you don't know the classic game of Timd?
        
       | jlv2 wrote:
       | That was fun.
        
       | ravdar wrote:
       | endless mode would be nice - you play until you make a mistake.
       | How many historical events are available?
        
         | ethan_smith wrote:
         | An endless mode could be implemented with a difficulty curve
         | that increases gradually by introducing more obscure events or
         | events with closer dates as the player progresses.
        
       | Artoooooor wrote:
       | "Something went wrong. Please try again later." These two already
       | seem to be in chronological order :D
        
       | nonethewiser wrote:
       | There is a very simple game called "Timeline" that is basically
       | this: https://www.zygomatic-games.com/en/game/timeline-classic/
       | 
       | Extremely simple. No barrier to entry.
        
         | darkvertex wrote:
         | Yeah! They sell many packs by genre (inventions, music, movies,
         | science, etc) but what's neat is you can mix the cards of
         | multiple genres and the game still works all the same. Very
         | elegant concept.
        
         | tiagod wrote:
         | There's also https://wikitrivia.tomjwatson.com/
        
           | CrazyStat wrote:
           | NYTimes also has a very similar game called "Flashback".
        
       | fouronnes3 wrote:
       | Very cool! I wonder if a logarithmic version would be fun [0][1]
       | 
       | [0] https://victorpoughon.github.io/detailed-logarithmic-
       | timelin...
       | 
       | [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
        
       | OptimusCrimee wrote:
       | Very fun game. Going to play again tomorrow.
        
         | kaharvi wrote:
         | Agreed! What was your score?
         | 
         | TIMDLE Jun 24 31/36 1: 1p 5: 5p 2: 2p 6: 6p 3: 3p 7: 3p 4: 3p
         | 8: 8p Play at https://timdle.com
        
       | neuronflux wrote:
       | I enjoyed it.
       | 
       | My girlfriend's first reaction after getting 30/36 and seeing the
       | neutral smiley face emoji was, "Wordle doesn't judge me."
        
       | stuartjohnson12 wrote:
       | Initial prompt confused me. Weimar hyperinflation happened before
       | the cultural revolution in China. Clicked the blob that was
       | labeled before. Wrong answer!
       | 
       | Left page.
       | 
       | Probably a skill issue but that was my experience.
        
       | alkh wrote:
       | TIMDLE Jun 24 30/36 1: 1p 5: 5p 2: 2p 6: 4p 3: 2p 7: 7p 4: 3p 8:
       | 6p Play at https://timdle.com
        
       | etewiah wrote:
       | If a game like this gets super popular can it be monetised?
        
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       (page generated 2025-06-24 23:01 UTC)