A little context
for a big world.
Our geography games use a small, curated atlas stored on your device. No live map or trivia service is needed during play. Every daily edition uses a versioned record shared by everyone for that UTC date.
What the maps mean
Country shapes come from Natural Earth, a public-domain dataset. The game uses the 1:110 million scale, with coordinates rounded to three decimal places. These small-scale maps are illustrative, not a statement about sovereignty or a navigation tool. Natural Earth may display boundaries differently from other maps.
Pinpoint uses an equirectangular world map and great-circle distance on a mean-radius spherical Earth. City-centre and landmark coordinates are rounded representative locations, not exact street addresses. Scoring forgives up to 100 km for full points. Mapstack uses those same coordinates and excludes close ties.
Landline uses a selected European mainland country network. Only the displayed countries and connections are available. The shortest route means the shortest route in this network. Overseas territories, sea crossings, and disputed-border questions are excluded. France means metropolitan France for this route game.
Borderline has a fixed answer list of 24 countries. Clues that concern a European mainland say so explicitly. An outline and strong final clue make the answer clear. Common aliases are searchable.
Postcards & rivers
The 24 postcard scenes are original SVG illustrations created for Joybox. They are stylized clue illustrations, not photographs or literal street views. Text clues provide the precise geographic detail. Landmark references include the UNESCO World Heritage List, GO TOKYO, Visit Stockholm, and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
River Run uses selected, ordered waypoints. Lines on its maps are schematic connections, not surveyed river channels. Some journeys begin at a named downstream city to avoid ambiguous headwater claims. Rivers with deltas explicitly identify the delta or estuary route.
- Danube: International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River
- Rhine: International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine
- Thames: National Trails
- Mississippi: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
- Mekong: Mekong River Commission
- Loire Valley: UNESCO
- Alto Douro: UNESCO
Your passport, scores & privacy
Results, unfinished games, tutorials and practice sessions save in this browser. Daily results lock when completed. Practice has unlimited attempts and never changes your daily score or win streak. A new UTC date starts a new edition; an unfinished older game remains available from its dated link. Archive play does not earn today’s reward or streak.
Daily wins use Joybox’s existing Spark reward convention: 55 Sparks plus a score bonus of up to 45, once per game per day. These are local play rewards, not paid purchases or a verified competitive leaderboard. A shared Joybox cookie can carry your Spark wallet between supported subdomains. No account is required.
Offline play becomes available when the footer says “Ready for offline play.” Closing a private-browsing session, deleting site data, or browser storage eviction can remove saved progress. Your first visit needs an internet connection to download the atlas.
Found a geographical mistake?
Send feedback with the game name, UTC puzzle date, and the clue or waypoint in question. Include a reliable reference if you can. We correct future editions without silently changing a puzzle that has already started.