Show HN: Name That Nation
A browser-based geography game that asks players to identify countries from shaded locator maps is drawing praise for its simplicity and educational potential, especially for kids and geography enthusiasts. Commenters highlight usability issues—keyboard navigation, case-sensitive input, dropdowns obscuring the map, and ambiguous coloring on contested territories—while suggesting enhancements like multiple-choice “easy” modes, spaced repetition of missed countries, capital-city and fact hints, zoom for tiny states, and session persistence. There is also debate over which entities to include (e.g., Palestine, Taiwan, Kosovo) and how map sources like Wikipedia and the CIA Factbook visually represent disputed borders.
App type / technology
- Several comments ask how to classify this kind of app: suggestions include “static site,” “Jamstack,” or simply “website, not web app.”
- Some note that traditional “static” once implied no JavaScript; with JS but no backend, “Jamstack” may be a better term.
- Deployed via CDN, so it’s not “serverless” in the classical database sense.
Gameplay & educational value
- Many find it fun and visually appealing; several say it exposes gaps in their geography knowledge.
- Some prefer the current difficulty as a serious test; others suggest easier modes:
- Multiple-choice options (random, nearby, or regional).
- Hints like capitals or short country facts.
- Multiple people see it as akin to flashcards or spaced repetition; they want repeated exposure to countries they miss.
- Suggestions include revealing neighbors, showing user’s incorrect guess on the map, and re-asking missed countries soon.
Difficulty patterns & learning strategies
- Common weak spots: mainland Africa, Pacific and Caribbean islands, Central America ordering, small European microstates, and Central Asian “-stans.”
- People share mnemonics (e.g., Baltic states in alphabetical order north-to-south, or alphabetical patterns around Kazakhstan).
- Some note media coverage shapes which countries feel familiar.
UX, accessibility & bugs
- Strong demand for full keyboard control: case-insensitive search, Enter to submit, no need to click “Submit/Continue.”
- Issues reported: dropdown closing on Tab, Enter not working as expected, Tab sometimes marking answers correct, keyboard navigation poor in Firefox.
- Dropdown obscures the map; several want it repositioned or smaller.
- Mobile experience suffers from the large dropdown; suggestions for small sets of tappable options instead.
- Other requests: zooming for tiny countries, preloading images to remove 1-second delays, auto-advance after an answer, session persistence via local storage.
- Bugs noted: empty answers counted as correct; score confusion when skipping; missing Mauritius (later said to be added).
Maps, politics & contested states
- Confusion over map colors (dark vs light green) for places like North/South Korea, Crimea, Taiwan, Venezuela’s claims, etc.
- Explanation: maps mostly sourced from Wikipedia and CIA World Factbook; dark green is controlled territory, light green claimed.
- Several find this ambiguous in a quiz context and want a legend or different map sources.
- Debate over including entities with disputed statehood (e.g., Palestine, Taiwan, Kosovo) and the lack of a single “objective” country list.
- One comment notes that the title conflates “nation” with “country/state.”
Feature requests & comparisons
- Desire for stats on which countries are most often correctly identified.
- Ideas for advanced modes: capitals instead of countries, population cutoffs, hard mode that withholds answers until the end.
- Many compare or link to similar geography games (Worldle, Flagle, Travle, Neighborle, various quizzes and Anki decks), with mixed views on difficulty and learning effectiveness.