WhenTaken

What is whentaken?

WhenTaken drops you in front of a photograph with two questions and almost no mercy: Where was this taken, and when? There is no caption to rescue you. A tram, hairstyle, storefront, license plate, road marking, film grain, or distant landmark might be the clue that separates a near-perfect answer from a guess on the wrong continent.

The challenge combines visual history with geography. Each daily game contains five photo rounds, and every round asks you to estimate both a location and a year. That makes WhenTaken especially satisfying when several weak clues suddenly connect: the cars suggest the 1970s, the architecture feels Eastern European, and one tiny sign finally tells you where to drop the pin.

whentaken Game Rules (The Catch / The Trap)

Each photo asks for two answers:

📷 PHOTO → 📍 LOCATION + 🗓️ YEAR → GUESS → SCORE

• Five rounds: A standard daily game contains 5 photographs.
• Pick the location: Place a pin on the world map where you believe the photograph was taken.
• Pick the year: Move the year slider or type your estimated year directly.
• Both answers matter: Each round is worth up to 200 points — up to 100 for the location and up to 100 for the year.
• Maximum score: Five perfect rounds produce a total of 1000 points.
• Close counts: You do not need an exact location or year to earn points. Being geographically and historically close still matters.
• Distance hurts your location score: The farther your pin is from the real location, the fewer location points you receive.
• Time errors hurt your year score: Missing the correct year by only a few years is relatively forgiving, while large errors become increasingly expensive.
• Hints CAN help: A round can offer a location hint and a year hint. Using a hint does not directly reduce the points available for the round, although hint use is reflected when sharing results.

The trap is that obvious-looking clues can be deceptive. An old-looking street does not automatically mean an old photograph, while a modern-looking city scene might have been captured decades earlier than expected.

How To Play whentaken?

Step 1 — Inspect the photograph

Photo: 📷 Busy city street, red bus, older cars, pedestrians in heavy coats

Player Action: Scan the entire image before touching the map.

What You Notice: Left-side traffic, recognizable transit colors, clothing styles, vehicle shapes, storefront lettering, and the photographic quality itself.

Step 2 — Build a location theory

Player Thinks: Red double-decker + left-side traffic → London?

Player Action: Open the map and place a pin around London.

Current Guess: 📍 London, United Kingdom

The goal is not simply to identify the country. Moving the pin closer to the actual city or neighborhood can protect valuable location points.

Step 3 — Estimate the year

Clues: 🚗 car design + 👔 clothing + 🎞️ film appearance

Player Thinks: Probably late 1970s or early 1980s.

Player Action: Move the timeline slider to 1981.

Locked Guess: 📍 London | 🗓️ 1981

Step 4 — Submit and reveal

Player Action: Press GUESS.

Game Response: The real location and year are revealed and your location and date accuracy are converted into points.

Example Result:

📍 Location: very close → strong score

🗓️ Year: 6 years away → partial deduction

What This Means: A brilliant location guess can rescue an imperfect year, while a strong date estimate can soften the damage from a misplaced map pin.

Step 5 — Survive all five photos

Repeat the process across five completely different images. Your scores accumulate toward a maximum of 1000, so one disastrous round does not necessarily destroy the entire game.

whentaken Strategy & Tips

Date the technology first. Cars, buses, streetlights, phones, advertising styles, military equipment, and camera quality often narrow the possible period faster than clothing alone.

Separate construction date from photo date. A medieval church can appear in a photograph taken in 2015. Ask when the image was captured, not when the objects in it were built.

Read the road. Driving side, lane markings, signs, bollards, traffic lights, license plates, and road surfaces can eliminate huge parts of the world before you recognize a landmark.

Zoom your attention, not just the image. Tiny clues are often decisive: a flag in a window, partial business name, transit logo, mountain profile, language fragment, or distinctive street sign.

Think in ranges before choosing a year. Instead of instantly committing to 1974, first decide whether the photo feels like 1965–1980. Then use smaller clues to tighten the estimate.

Protect both halves of the score. WhenTaken rewards balanced detective work. Knowing the exact city but missing the date by decades — or perfectly dating an image while choosing the wrong continent — leaves a large number of points behind.