I was at dinner in Uzbekistan with my friend Jordan, who’s spent much of the last few years backpacking around Africa, Central Asia, and everywhere in between. He suggested a game: pick a letter, go around the table, and take turns naming countries that start with it.
We weren’t tracking answers, checking how many countries there were for each letter, or keeping score. I started building a version on my phone that could do those things.
I added golf-style scoring: when your timer runs out, each country you missed becomes a point. Lowest score wins. Then a collaborative mode, where everyone works together against the clock, and a version with countries’ capitals for people who find the original too easy.