Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Mahjong factories bought cattle shinbones for tiles
The global obsession with mahjong required an absurd amount of material to carve the pieces. Factories bought out massive supplies of cattle shinbones just to…
Discover more
Checkers: chess for people in a hurry
When you cannot be bothered to learn what a knight does, jumping simple red and black discs is the perfect alternative. It requires zero setup and ends…
Discover more
Tethering brightly colored paper to a long piece of string
Standing in an open field while holding a thin string attached to a piece of fabric desperately hoping the wind decides to cooperate is a deeply optimistic…
Discover more
Flipping silver spheres away from a dark drain hole
Hitting silver spheres with tiny plastic flippers to prevent them from falling down a dark drain hole is a highly addictive way to waste a ridiculous amount…
Discover more
Concealing your body behind curtains while someone counts
Concealing your entire body behind a living room curtain while someone loudly counts to ten is the pinnacle of childhood stealth operations.
Discover more
Hide-and-seek is older than you think
The simple childhood act of running away and crouching behind a tree was formally documented centuries ago. It proves that attempting to evade detection is a…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
How marbles get their beautiful cracked centers
Those beautiful fractured designs inside the glass spheres are produced by plunging hot glass directly into freezing liquid. The internal shatter adds visual…
Discover more
Tag features universally understood base rules
Every culture on earth independently invented a variation where one person touches another and runs away. It requires zero equipment and naturally exploits…
Discover more
Game designers expect you to reload after every mistake
Constantly reloading your progress the second things go wrong feels like cheating, but developers absolutely factor it into their level architecture. They…
Discover more
Why game guards ignore you in plain sight
If virtual guards possessed realistic peripheral vision and object permanence, tactical espionage titles would be impossible to play. Developers specifically…
Discover more
Why game achievements keep you doing pointless tasks
That satisfying digital ping you get for completing a menial task in a game is pure psychological manipulation. Developers lifted the concept straight from…
Discover more
Pixel art only exists because early screens were terrible
The beloved, incredibly nostalgic blocky art style of retro games was entirely born out of massive hardware restrictions where screens could only display a…
Discover more
Bowling pins were standardly measured to ensure fairness
For decades, people just threw wooden balls at whatever random chunks of timber they found lying around. It took intense legislative meetings to finally…
Discover more
What playground swings teach your body
Pumping your legs back and forth is essentially a crash course in advanced pendulum mechanics. Toddlers master complex kinetic transfers just to launch…
Discover more
Ancient gamblers used loaded dice
Researchers excavating medieval drinking holes routinely dig up weighted bone cubes clearly carved to cheat unsuspecting gamblers. It turns out that scamming…
Discover more
The first jigsaw puzzles were cut-up paintings
The very first interlocking puzzles were created by gluing portraits onto wood and hacking them apart with a sharp saw. They were strictly educational torture…
Discover more
Why legendary warriors cannot survive shallow water
Highly trained legendary warriors instantly drown the millisecond their big toe touches an extremely shallow pond.
Discover more
Why red barrels always explode in video games
A globally recognized visual language dictates that any crimson cylindrical object will forcefully detonate if poked.
Discover more
Why defeated enemies sometimes fly into space
An amusing calculation error occasionally causes fallen enemies to stretch infinitely and catapult directly into the stratosphere.
Discover more
Your video-game backpack can hold an entire arsenal
Your avatar casually sprints across the landscape while carrying forty broadswords, nine armor sets, and countless health potions.
Discover more
Why game heroes can't step over tiny fences
A protagonist capable of slaying mythical dragons is completely incapable of stepping over a slightly elevated garden hedge.
Discover more
The boss fight that comes back with a second health bar
The multi-stage boss fight is a deeply cruel mechanic designed strictly to crush your newly found hope. After you exhaust all your crucial resources securing…
Discover more
Gamepad drift makes virtual walking completely unbearable
A tiny amount of dust trapped under an analog stick forces your on-screen character to endlessly wander entirely off the nearest cliff.
Discover more
The Uno card that starts family feuds
Playing an overpowered colorful card against your own sibling remains the fastest way to ruin an otherwise completely pleasant evening.
Discover more