Station-Name Browser Puzzle 'Nesgoshi' Released Free With 600 Lines Mapped
A solo developer using public railway data has built a daily-ritual puzzle around Japanese transit literacy itself, and the map only makes sense to people who already know how the network is shaped.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Developer Pocke released 'Nesgoshi' on September 4, a free browser game where players guess a station's name from a route map with station and line names hidden. It ships with three modes: a daily shared puzzle, a free-play mode with Easy, Normal, and Hard settings plus custom hints, and a roam mode that reveals names. The developer says the data spans roughly 600 lines and 8,800 stations.
The game opens on an unfamiliar station after you oversleep. Only your current position, the tracks running out from it, and the next stations are drawn; names arrive as dotted hints or not at all on Hard, and picking a station off the visible map pulls the tracks further out until you hit a transfer or a terminus.
Wrong guesses cost nothing beyond an 'overtouch,' and answering a station near where you started counts toward the score alongside solving in few turns. Custom settings let you decide which hints, such as a station's first letter or a direction, are shown before you begin.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.