How to Play

WTV is a daily guessing game built around music videos from the 1980s. A video plays behind a wall of television static. Your job is to name it before the picture clears.

The basic idea

Every day at midnight a new video is chosen. Everybody in the world gets the same one, so you and a friend on the other side of the planet are working on exactly the same puzzle.

When you press play, the video starts running behind heavy analogue static, the kind you used to get on an untuned television set. You can hear the audio clearly from the very first moment. What you cannot do is see the picture properly. That is the whole puzzle: your ears get everything immediately, your eyes have to wait.

The six rounds

You get six attempts. After each incorrect guess, or each skip, the static thins out a little and more of the picture comes through. By round six you are looking at an almost clear image, which means almost anybody can get it eventually. The skill is in getting it early.

1. Round 1. Very heavy static. You are essentially guessing from audio alone, plus whatever vague shapes and colours push through the noise.
2. Round 2. The picture starts to resolve. Bold colours and large movements become readable.
3. Round 3. Faces and locations start to become distinguishable if you know what you are looking for.
4. Round 4. Most of the visual information is there. Costumes, sets and choreography are readable.
5. Round 5. The picture is close to clear.
6. Round 6. Your last chance, with an almost fully clear image.

Making a guess

Start typing an artist or a song title into the guess box and a list of suggestions appears, drawn from the videos in the game. You have to pick one of those suggestions. This is deliberate. It means you never lose because you spelled something wrong, and it means a guess is always a real, specific answer rather than a vague stab.

If you have no idea, use the skip button. Skipping costs you a round but reveals more of the picture, exactly as a wrong guess would. There is no penalty for skipping over guessing, so if nothing comes to mind there is no reason to burn a guess on something you do not believe.

What happens when the round ends

Whether you win or lose, you see the answer, the artist, the song and the year it was released. You also get a link to watch the full video on YouTube, which is worth taking. A lot of people play WTV, get the answer, and then end up watching four more videos they had not thought about in twenty years. That is rather the point.

Streaks and statistics

WTV keeps track of how you are doing. It records how many games you have played, how many you have won, your current streak, your best ever streak, and a breakdown of which round you tend to win on. You can view these by week, by month, or across all time.

Your statistics are stored in your own browser and never leave your device. That has one consequence worth knowing about: if you clear your browser data, or switch to a different device or browser, your streak does not follow you. There is no account to sign into, which means nothing to sign up for and nothing to lose track of, but it also means your history is tied to the browser you play in.

The calendar

Missed a day? The calendar shows every previous puzzle since launch. Days you won are marked green and days you lost are marked red, and tapping any past day brings back the full result including the video and your guesses. You cannot go back and play a day you missed for streak purposes, but you can see what it was.

What is actually in the game

The catalogue currently holds 301 videos from 188 different artists, spanning 1979 to 1998.

Most of what is in there at the moment comes from the 1980s. That is where the game started, because it is the decade where the music video really became an art form, but it is not where the game stops. Other decades are being added, and the catalogue grows steadily in both directions.

Tips for a better streak

• Listen before you look. In round one the audio is worth far more than the picture. Close your eyes if it helps.
• Watch the colour palette. Even through heavy static, a video's dominant colours come through. Washed out greys and browns suggest an early 80s performance video. Saturated primaries suggest something later and more expensively made.
• Look for movement patterns. A static wide shot of a band playing reads very differently through noise than a fast-cut narrative video.
• Do not waste a round on a guess you do not believe. Skipping costs exactly the same and keeps your options open.
• Think about the era, not just the song. If you can place the video in a year, you have narrowed things down enormously.

Sound and accessibility

The static has its own audio layer on top of the video, and you can mute that separately using the speaker button. Your preference is remembered, so if you prefer to play with clean audio you only have to set it once. There are also five colour themes available in the menu if the default dark navy and magenta is not comfortable for you.

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