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World Guesser — Geography Game with Google Street View

AJ Team 2025 6 min read
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World Guesser is our geography guessing game — you are dropped somewhere on Earth via Google Street View with no context, and you must figure out where you are. Your score is based on how close your guess is to the actual location using the Haversine formula.

Not Publicly Hosted — Google Maps API Costs

Google Maps and Street View APIs charge per panorama load. Without API credit budget, we cannot run a public instance at meaningful traffic. Support us to bring it online.

How It Works

The game picks a random coordinate from a curated pool of interesting global locations and loads a Google Street View panorama at that point. You look around, examining signs, architecture, landscapes, and vegetation for clues, then drop a pin on a world map for your guess. The Haversine formula calculates great-circle distance between your pin and the actual location, converting it to a score out of 5000.

Features

360 Street View

Full panoramic exploration via Google Street View Embed API.

Interactive Guess Map

Drop a pin anywhere on a Google Maps mini-map to submit your answer.

Distance Scoring

Up to 5000 points per round — the closer your guess, the higher your score.

5-Round Games

Cumulative scoring with a full results breakdown per round.

The API Cost Challenge

Google's Street View API charges per panorama load. A low-traffic personal project is manageable, but a public game receiving thousands of plays per day accumulates significant API costs quickly. This is the primary barrier — not code complexity, purely budget.

Help Put the World in Your Browser

World Guesser is complete and playable. API credits are all that stand between you and it going live.

Support the Launch