About Boreen

How it plays

Every day everyone gets the same seven questions, one each from English life, Geography, Music & entertainment, History, Sport, Words & culture and General knowledge. Each question has lots of right answers: a town or village in Devon, a character from Gavin & Stacey, a slang word for money. You have 25 seconds for each, and wrong answers cost nothing, so keep trying until one counts.

The trick is to give a right answer few other people would think of. Each one spots an animal of the English countryside, and the rarer the answer, the rarer the animal and the further you travel:

• Robin. One of the most common answers.10 miles
• Hedgehog. A popular answer.25 miles
• Red Fox. A fair few people say this one.40 miles
• Brown Hare. Not many people think of this.55 miles
• Red Squirrel. A rare answer.75 miles
• White-tailed Eagle. Hardly anyone gives this answer.100 miles

Seven questions can take you up to 700 miles. Each answer’s rarity is set when the question is written, from an estimate of how many players in a thousand would give it, so the scoring is the same for the first player of the day and the last.

The road

Every journey follows a road past five landmarks. There are seven routes, one for each day of the week: End to End, from Land’s End to Bamburgh Castle, on Mondays, then the South Coast, the Thames, Coast to Coast, the West Country and the East, and Heart of England, from Liverpool’s Royal Albert Dock to Blenheim Palace, on Sundays.

After you finish

You can see every answer that counted for each question, and how many other players gave yours. Today’s answers open only once you’ve finished today’s journey, so nobody spoils the day. Every past journey has its answers on a page of their own, and you can play any journey you missed from the archive.

Leagues are for playing against family and friends. Start one with a nickname and share the link, and the table shows how you each got on today and across the week.

Free, with no accounts

Boreen is free to play, and there’s nothing to sign up for. Your games, streak and leagues are saved in your browser, and Settings can move them to another phone with a one-time code. Settings also has larger text. The privacy page says exactly what is kept.

How the questions are made

Each question is researched against reliable lists before it’s scheduled, and every answer on the list is given its rarity. The aim is questions anyone can have a go at in 25 seconds: each day opens with the friendliest, similar questions are kept at least a week apart, and every day is looked over before it goes live.

Some of the questions come from players. If you know one with loads of answers, suggest it. If it’s used, it carries your first name and county, if you gave them.

Nobody thinks of every right answer. If one of yours is turned away and you think it should count, press “That should count”. Those are checked every morning, and when an answer is added, Boreen tells you the next time you open it. Players who gave it on the day can get its miles too, for up to a week after the journey. The rarities are checked against what players actually say as well.

Who makes it

Boreen is made by one person in Ireland.

To get in touch, write to hello@boreen.co.uk, or see the contact page.