Show HN: A simple game I made where you guess country populations (opens in new tab)

(countries.joncordeiro.com)

7 pointsJCordeiro12y ago8 comments

8 comments

Cool game. I also had a string of very easy questions early on that almost made me leave the page, so I think calibrating the difficulty is important. Maybe even start presenting harder or easier questions based on how the user has been performing.

JCordeiroOP12y ago

Thanks for the feedback. I have to plans to make the match ups closer (explained in my other comment to rollo_tommasi), but I like the idea of scaling the difficulty based on the score.

rollo_tommasi12y ago

One suggestion: Adjust the game so that the player is only presented with countries that have populations within a certain distance of each other. Right now I'm getting a lot of "Marshall Islands vs Pakistan" type questions.

JCordeiroOP12y ago

I plan to implement this soon. Right now each country is chosen randomly. What I have in mind is to sort the countries by population and choose the first one randomly. Then, choose a second country that is random, but within a certain distance from the first one. i.e. within 10 or 20 spots on the list. Hopefully this will ensure closer match ups.

11thEarlOfMar12y ago

Might be fun to have a ranking for players as well to see how they did vs. everyone else. Like the old arcade video games did.

JCordeiroOP12y ago

I agree! I'll look into adding this in eventually. Thanks for the feedback!

rbosinger12y ago

I am awful at this. I have always been surprised and excited by population numbers though so I had fun. Thanks!

JCordeiroOP12y ago

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for giving it a try!

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8 comments

hyperpape12y ago

JCordeiroOP12y ago

Thanks for the feedback. I have to plans to make the match ups closer (explained in my other comment to rollo_tommasi), but I like the idea of scaling the difficulty based on the score.

rollo_tommasi12y ago

JCordeiroOP12y ago

11thEarlOfMar12y ago

Might be fun to have a ranking for players as well to see how they did vs. everyone else. Like the old arcade video games did.

JCordeiroOP12y ago

I agree! I'll look into adding this in eventually. Thanks for the feedback!

rbosinger12y ago

I am awful at this. I have always been surprised and excited by population numbers though so I had fun. Thanks!

JCordeiroOP12y ago

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for giving it a try!

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse