About Stakeout

What this is

A free, no-signup geography battle game. Share a link. Your target clicks it. A mystery photo drops. 60 seconds. No hints. No mercy. Closest pin wins. Someone goes quiet and changes the subject.

Play solo, challenge a friend with a private lobby, or get matched against a stranger instantly. No account. No paywall. No premium pin colors.

Who built this

I'm Karthik Subramanian — studying EECS at UC Berkeley and the sole developer behind Stakeout. I built this because I kept losing geography arguments to people who were, frankly, less qualified than me.

Want to talk about the game, geography, or literally anything? Connect with me on LinkedIn.

How scoring works

Every round awards up to 5,000 points: 5000 × e^(−distance / 2000 km). Within 25 km you're pulling ~4,940. Wrong hemisphere? ~25. No speed bonus — skill is accuracy, not luck-clicking.

The content

Photos are curated from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph — CC-licensed, with real GPS coordinates. Hand-picked for quality: visible landmarks, distinct architecture, readable clues. No blurry interiors. No random street noise.

You can submit your own photos for review.

The stack

SvelteKit · Cloudflare Pages · Durable Objects (real-time) · D1 SQLite · KV · Leaflet + OpenStreetMap. Runs on ~$0/month up to tens of thousands of daily matches.

Support the game

Stakeout is free forever. No ads during gameplay. No paywalls. If it's settled at least one argument, consider buying me a coffee. It literally just pays for the domain. Or skip the coffee and share it with someone insufferably confident about geography — that works too.

Contact

Bug? Bad photo? Want to partner? hello@stakeout.world