WikiArena
Let Wikipedia articles
battle it out in the arena
and predict the winner!
So here's how it works. Each round pits two random Wikipedia articles against each other by their title, an intro section excerpt and an image (if available).
Your task: Guess which article is longer or gets more views. Oh, and you have to pick the category as well based on what you think is the safer bet.
Game Modes
- Arena: The "roguelike" mode. Try to reach 10 correct predictions before being wrong 3 times!
- Endless: How many predictions can you get right before being wrong 3 times?
- VS WikiBot: Play "last one standing" against a WikiBot that progressively gets better at playing the game the more you win. Can you beat WikiBot MK 25?
- Daily Arena: An arena run that's the same for all players each day. Do you think you can read the internet's collective mind better than your friends? Start the daily run from the settings menu!
- Streamer VS Chat (download version only): Play against your favorite Twitch streamer (or against your chat if you're a streamer yourself)!
- Local 1 VS 1: Challenge a friend to a hotseat duel!
Features
- ♾️ Literally infinite content: Wikipedia grows every day and with it the archive the game's article randomizer can pick from. You'll never play the same run twice!
- 📈 Statistics: Get a neat one-screen overview of your current run anytime!
- 📊 Meta statistics: The game records how many 10-win runs you had, your highest endless score ever, and all your recent results.
- 🐦 Battle tweets: Generate a sharable tweet visualizing the battle's result after every duel via a single click!
- 🌐 Play anywhere: Play the game right in your browser (even on mobile) or download the client. Note that the game requires an internet connection to retrieve the Wikipedia data.
- 💬 Multi-language support: English, German, Spanish and Japanese are fully translated. Wiki content is supported for even more languages. If you'd like to help with UI translations (for any language supported by Wikipedia basically), get in touch!
Who would make this and why?
Fabian Fischer created the game to start exploring the "trivia roguelike" genre. Games such as Wordle or Babble Royale show how much the "free depth" of language itself can be used for game design purposes. WikiArena applies a similar approach, using the "internet's meta" as its core language.
How well do you know the internet?
Enter the WikiArena and find out!
Status | Released |
Platforms | HTML5, Windows, macOS, Linux, Android |
Rating | Rated 4.6 out of 5 stars (39 total ratings) |
Author | Fabian Fischer |
Genre | Puzzle |
Tags | 2D, Brain Training, Internet, mind-bending, Quiz, Roguelike, Singleplayer, Trivia, Turn-based, wikipedia |
Average session | A few minutes |
Languages | German, English, Spanish; Latin America, Japanese |
Inputs | Keyboard, Mouse, Touchscreen |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $1.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- New local 1v1 mode + 5 more languages!Nov 07, 2022
- WikiArena 1.0 is here!Oct 25, 2022
- New update coming October 25th!Sep 30, 2022
- WikiArena is coming to Steam!Jul 20, 2022
- Small update of WikiBot tweaksApr 14, 2022
- New mode: Try to beat the WikiBot!Apr 12, 2022
- New Wiki languages: Dutch, Italian, PortugueseApr 05, 2022
- Tweaks, fixes & support for Spanish & French Wikipedia!Mar 30, 2022
Comments
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Hey Fabian, would you be comfortable if I worked on a spin off of this as a web game? Would be using news articles rather than wikipedia, and I would make some other changes to the formula.
Totally, go for it! That sounds fun! :)
My friend and I loved doing the 1v1's, fun trivia game!
Thank you so much! <3
Very cool concept. Love how you did an Android build also.
If you update Android build you might consider taking the key graphics off the buttons and changing the system back button to quit with a warning maybe.
Nice job!
Hey, so glad you like the game! :)
Great feedback, already had the keys on my list, will look into the back button!
That is such a cool concept, me and my partner just had some good fun guessing together :)
Thank you so much for the kind words! I also noticed this has some "couch coop" potential, haha! :D
This is quite a fun game! I was looking for a Higher/Lower game to test my knowledge and I’m pleased to say that this is the one for me! Thank you!
Thank you very much for playing and the kind words! Super happy to read a comment like this one! :)
Tolles Spiel! Ich würde mir noch einen Multiplayer Modus wünschen. Man könnte ja, wie es bei vielen Roguelike/lite Spielen üblich ist, einen Seed für jeden Run haben, den man dann mit anderen teilen kann, damit jeder die selben Seiten bekommt.
Dankeschön! :)
Nicht ganz so einfach, da die Wiki API mit Seeds nichts anfangen kann. Es gibt aber schon eine (englische) "Daily Arena" im Menü, bei der jeder pro Tag die selben Artikel bekommt. Die werden dann allerdings aus einer großen vorgenerierten Liste von Wiki-IDs gegriffen und nicht von "ganz Wikipedia".
Schade. Hoffe, dass auch ein paar deutsche Streamer das Spiel für sich entdecken. Mit Northernlion gibt es ja schon einen sehr bekannten Englischsprachigen! Über ihn bin ich auch drauf gestoßen :)
Hey Fabian! Great idea . :-D Would love to play it on my Mac as well. However, when I download the zip file and try to start the application it tells me that it cannot be opened. I am on Monterey, could this be an issue?
Best
Eric
Hey! Thank you for bringing this up. Mac is the only system I can't really test myself, but I had a friend look into it just now and I think I found a fix (that at least worked for him). Will upload a new build later today! :)
Thanks! One question the coder in me needs answering: is this game built with either Flutter or Electron? ;-)
No and no! :)
This is an amazing game as is, and has potential for many more variations.
Any plans to include other languages?
Thank you for the kind words! :)
In terms of the Wiki content, other languages are easy to add. I'd just need support to translate the UI (buttons, mode descriptions etc.). Theoretically the game is well prepared to add more languages though, so in case anyone's interested in helping translate, let me know!
I can help translate En <–> Es
EDIT Also, as a longtime Wikipedian I know that they sometimes do care about the use of the Wikipedia logos, you might want to check out their trademark policies
I'd be thrilled to add a Spanish version! Not sure how best to contact you directly but just send me a quick Twitter PM (@Ludokultur) for details! :)
And thank you for the link I'll check it out!
It can work, but it's not a guarantee. The excerpt is taken from the first paragraph only, which might be super short itself but then still be followed by a long article with man subsections.
excellent, love this :)
One of the most fun games if you enjoy knowledge. Love this idea and can't wait to see what you do next.
Thank you so much for playing and the YT content! Enjoying it a ton! :)
Kinda love this idea. As I can see it also tries to get articles from similar cathegories? (I got islands vs castle and some highschool vs university) Or I just got "lucky" haha)
Thank you for playing and the kinds words! The duels are actually completely random for maximum variety, but I sometimes see strange patterns in it too, like "fish vs. sea urchin", what are the odds? :D
Very neat concept! I enjoyed it very much, and I hope to use this as a party game someday.
Thank you so much! A party game version sounds great actually! :D