In-house product
A game that turns history into a daily habit
Who Ruled Here? drops one point on the world map every day and asks a single question: who ruled here? We came up with it, designed it and built it ourselves.
- Role
- Concept, design, development and identity
- Year
- 2026
- Stack
- React, Vite, Cloudflare
The challenge
Most people last saw a historical map in a classroom. We wanted to put one back into daily life, without the twenty-question quiz nobody finishes.
The format had to fit inside two minutes, give you a reason to come back tomorrow, and work as well on a phone on the tram as it does on a large screen.
The approach
One round a day, the same one for everybody, resetting at midnight UTC. That is the entire retention mechanic — no notifications, and no streaks that punish you for missing a day.
Two practice modes sit beside the daily challenge: Casual, with four answers to choose from, and Expert, with none. The same content at two entry levels, so the game turns away neither a beginner nor someone who knows what they are doing.
Playing with friends shares the same map and the same mode, but no shared kick-off time — everyone plays when they get to it.
The outcome
The game is live in beta: the daily challenge works, both practice modes work, and you set a player name without signing up for anything.
The interface is a single React bundle served from Cloudflare’s edge — no server to keep alive — and the globe is SVG, so it stays sharp at any resolution.
The beta label is deliberate: the format is settled, and the content grows out of what people actually play.