About Hidden Country
Hidden Country starts with a row of blank tiles and one visible letter. Every second and a half another letter of the country's name is revealed in random order, and you score more the earlier you type the right answer. A game is eight countries.
How to play
- A game is 8 rounds, each with a country chosen at random from 195.
- Each tile stands for one letter of the name. Spaces, hyphens, apostrophes and accented letters appear as narrow gaps, which shows you how the name is split.
- One random letter is visible at the start, and another is revealed every 1.5 seconds.
- Type the country in the box. It is accepted as soon as it matches; accents, spaces and capitals are ignored.
- A correct answer scores the share of letters still hidden as a percentage, rounded, with a minimum of 1. Guessing a 10-letter name with 3 letters showing is worth 70.
- If every letter is revealed before you answer, the round is missed and scores 0. Press Next to continue, and after round 8 to see your total.
Controls
- Type your guess with a keyboard; the box is focused at the start of each round.
- Click or tap Next after each round.
- Wrong guesses cost nothing, so you can keep typing different names.
Tips and strategy
- Count the tiles and gaps before any letters appear. Length and word breaks alone rule out most of the 195 countries.
- Multi-word patterns are a big clue: a short middle word of three tiles is very often 'and', as in Antigua and Barbuda or Trinidad and Tobago.
- Type guesses early. A wrong guess has no penalty, while every second of waiting costs points.
- Long names score better per second of thinking because each reveal removes a smaller share of the hidden letters.
- Remember the gaps: a name with an odd gap in the middle of a word, such as Turkiye or Cote d'Ivoire, contains an accented letter or apostrophe.
Background
Gradual-reveal guessing games have a long history on television and in puzzle books, from letter-by-letter word games to picture puzzles that uncover one square at a time. Country names give a wide spread of difficulty: in the game's list they range from four letters, such as Chad, Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Mali, Oman, Peru and Togo, to long multi-word names such as Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The two-letter codes behind each flag come from the ISO 3166 standard, first published by the International Organization for Standardization in 1974.
Questions
- Is there a time limit?
- In effect, yes. A round lasts until the final letter is revealed, about 1.5 seconds per letter of the name, so longer names give you more time.
- Do wrong guesses lose points?
- No. Only the number of letters showing when you get it right affects your score.
- Where is my best score saved?
- Your best eight-round total is stored in your browser on this device.