Noillirk: guess the answer most people give

Noillirk is a survey-style guessing game that you play in a browser tab. Most quiz games reward the right answer. Noillirk rewards the expected one. When the prompt says “Name a red fruit”, the person who types pomegranate is correct, but the person who types apple climbs faster, because apple is what most people say first.

Each prompt comes with a ranked answer board. The top answer lifts you the furthest, answers near the top still give you a good push, and anything that is not on the board leaves you hanging in the air. Your points turn into altitude: Kril, the small krill under three balloons on the left of the game, rises past the treetops, through the clouds and, on a perfect climb, into the stratosphere.

The name is “krillion” spelled backwards, a nod to the krill that rides the balloons. The original Noillirk was made by Daily; this site is an independent edition with its own bank of 181 prompts, its own scoring and a few things we always wanted from the game, explained below.

• Say the first thing that comes to mind. Your first instinct is usually everyone else’s first instinct too. Second-guessing is how you end up with clever answers that are not on the board.
• Pick the most famous example. For “Name a famous landmark”, the Eiffel Tower beats Angkor Wat every time.
• Go general, not specific. People lose “keys”, not “the spare key to the shed”. A short, plain answer matches more of the board.
• Read the restriction. “Name a green vegetable” is not “Name a vegetable”. Carrot is a fine vegetable and a wasted guess here.
• Use your three guesses. A miss only costs a guess and a few seconds. If your first answer is not on the board, try the next most obvious one.
• Commit to one answer. “Apple or cherry” is a hedge and does not count. Choose one.

We played every Noillirk site we could find before building this one. Most open with a wall of text and a button that takes you somewhere else. Here the game is the first thing on the page, and these are the other choices we made:

• Three guesses per prompt. A typo or a near miss should not end your climb. The first answer that is on the board counts.
• The whole board, every time. After each prompt you see the top nine answers and their points, so you learn what the crowd thinks while you play.
• Real crowd numbers for the Daily. The results screen shows how many of today’s players found each top answer. We store only counts, never what you typed.
• Forgiving matching. Plurals, small typos, accents and common alternatives (chips and crisps, fries and french fries) are all recognised.
• No account, no ads in the game. Your streak lives in your browser, and nothing interrupts a climb.

Curious who builds it? Read the About page, or go straight to the full Noillirk rules.