🎯 HeliGuessr: everything you can do with it — GeoGuessr, but multiplayer and in your own neighbourhood

HeliGuessr is our brand-new game inside Toponauts. Know GeoGuessr, the game where you have to guess where in the world you are from a street photo? HeliGuessr is that idea — but the Toponauts way: you don't guess with a mouse click on a world map, you fly there with your helicopter. And the best part: you play it together with friends or your whole class — up to 50 players at once — and you can even set up a game in your own neighbourhood. In this post we explain everything, with examples and exactly how the points and the ranking work.

🎯 What exactly is HeliGuessr?

Each round you're shown a real street photo of a place somewhere on Earth (or in your own area). You only see that photo — no place name, no arrow, no hint. Then you may fly around completely freely over the map with your heli. No route, no mission: you decide where you go. Think you know where the photo was taken? Fly there and press the big “Guess here!” button.

It's a lovely kind of detective game: you become a sleuth reading small clues. A typical Dutch meadow with ditches? A mountain road? A desert, a busy city, or a row of facades along a canal? Everything in the photo can help you on.

📸 A round step by step (example)

Let's watch how a round goes:

1. You get a photo of a row of narrow houses along a canal, with a tall church tower in the background.
2. You think: “That looks Dutch — a big city with canals.” You fly your heli towards the Randstad.
3. You waver between Amsterdam and Utrecht, pick Amsterdam and press “Guess here!”.
4. The game reveals the real spot: it was Amsterdam, right by the Jordaan. It shows: “You were 2.4 km from the spot (near the Jordaan)” — and you grab, say, +780 points.
5. On to the next round — until you've had five rounds and see your total score.

🧮 How does the score work exactly?

As soon as you guess, the game works out the distance between your guess and the real spot. You get points for that, by a simple rule: closer = more points.

• A perfect guess earns almost the full 1000 points per round.
• The further off you are, the faster the points drop.
• After the round you see exactly how many metres or kilometres you were off, and often the neighbourhood where the photo was taken too.

Smart detail: the score adapts to the play area. If you play the whole world, you can be a fair way off and still grab points — there hundreds of kilometres count. If you play in your own municipality, you have to be very close: a few hundred metres off can already matter. That way one perfect guess is always worth about 1000 points, whether you play the world or your own village — only the margin differs. Over five rounds you can head towards 5000 points.

🌍 Where can you play? From the whole world to your own street

At the start you choose your play area:

• 🌍 The whole world — street photos from everywhere. How well do you know the Earth?
• 🇳🇱 All of the Netherlands — from Groningen to Zeeland.
• 🏙️ Your own municipality — choose from 342 Dutch municipalities; just type the name.
• ✏️ Draw your own area — drag a rectangle on the map with your finger or mouse and play exactly there.

🏘️ Play it in your own neighbourhood

This may well be the very best part: HeliGuessr in your own neighbourhood. Draw a small area around your house, your school or your village, and you get street photos from right around the corner. Do you recognise the playground, the little square, the street where grandpa lives, the road to the football club?

And note: the smaller the area, the more the photos look alike — so close to home it gets surprisingly tough. That makes you really get to know your own surroundings: which street is where, how the neighbourhoods connect. After all, topography simply starts right on your doorstep.

🤝 Playing together: HeliGuessr is multiplayer!

You can of course enjoy HeliGuessr on your own, but it really comes to life together. Here's how it works:

• Create a game. You're the host: you choose whether you play all of the Netherlands or the whole world, how many rounds (1 to 10) and how much time everyone gets per round. You then get a short, easy code.
• Play with your whole class. A game can handle up to 50 players at once — plenty for the whole group in one go.
• Invite everyone. Share the code with one tap via WhatsApp, or forward the link. Whoever opens the link is straight in your game — no account or hassle needed.
• Everyone gets the same photos. All players see exactly the same places in the same order, so it's fair.
• Play against the clock. Each round runs a timer — nicely exciting, no one can dither forever.

Perfect for a birthday, a sleepover or a topo quarter-hour with the whole class: create a game and see who's the real neighbourhood or world expert.

🏆 How does the ranking work?

During and after a together-game, HeliGuessr tracks exactly who performs best — in two places:

The live scoreboard (while playing). On the side you see a list that updates continuously. Everyone is ranked by total score, high to low. Behind each name you see whether that player has already guessed the current round (✅) or is still flying (✈️), plus their point total. Your own row is highlighted, so you see at a glance whether you're ahead or need to step it up.

The final ranking (when the game is over). Afterwards the result appears. The top three get medals — 🥇 gold, 🥈 silver, 🥉 bronze — and below that everyone lines up at place 4, 5, and so on. Behind each player you see the final score. Is someone not quite done? Then you see “⏳ Waiting for everyone to finish…” until the last one has completed their rounds.

And in a tie? If two players have exactly the same points, the one who is furthest along in the rounds comes top. So there's always a clear order.

A few examples of what such a ranking might look like:

• 🥇 Fedde — 4,120 points
• 🥈 Noud — 3,880 points
• 🥉 Tijn — 3,510 points
• 4. Nienke — 2,990 points

Want to take on others across several games? In Topo Academy there's also a separate leaderboard based on how many places you master in total — but that's separate from a single HeliGuessr game.

💡 Tips to guess better

• Tap the photo to enlarge it. You can open the street photo full-screen to study small details — a street sign, a brand on a facade, a little tower.
• Watch the landscape. Flat meadows with ditches and dead-straight roads? Good chance it's the Netherlands. Mountains, a different soil colour or different houses give away another country.
• Read the road signs and number plates. Sign colours and shapes differ per country — a nice clue for world mode.
• Use your freedom. You may fly anywhere before you guess — zoom in on the map, compare, and only then pick your spot.
• Start easy. Play “all of the Netherlands” or your own municipality first before you dare take on the whole world.

🎓 What do you learn from it?

HeliGuessr is secretly very educational. You train your spatial insight: you connect how a place looks to where it lies. You learn map reading and keeping direction, and — if you play in your own area — you get to know your own neighbourhood, village or city inside out. It's exactly the kind of knowledge you never get from memorising a list: not just the name of a place, but also how it looks and how everything connects. And because you play it together, you practise without it feeling like “learning”.

🚀 Where do you find HeliGuessr?

HeliGuessr is in Topo Arcade: log in, choose the 🚀 Arcade world and you'll find it in the menu. It's completely free and ad-free. Have fun — and we're really curious what you think! Let us know via the “💬 Idea or bug” button in the game. 🚁💛