Twelve months ago, I shared with the world my small project that I created during my free time just for fun. I called it Sourcing.Games and if you are not familiar with that project, it is a site with small sourcing games for sourcers and recruiters to test their knowledge. The rules are simple. You need to solve one level to get the password that will unlock the next level. Every game has a few levels that you need to solve to get to the end.
I created these games to test the knowledge of friends etc. But I didn’t expect that so many people would start playing these games. My “fun” project quickly turned into a site that recruiters are using to test their knowledge, agencies and companies are using as part of their interview process, and many sourcing teams are using them for their sourcing meetups and hackathons.
For me, these games are still one of the best ways I can learn, discover new methods and refresh my sourcing knowledge.
And because sharing is caring, here is some interesting data collated over the past 12 months.
Sourcing.Games in Data
- More than 17,000+ unique users play these games, and the number is growing.
- I redesign the website four times per year and change the system three times.
- Sourcing.Games has 12 games, 74 levels and more will come.
- I had to replace three levels to keep the games valid.
- You can play the first game in Czech, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and French language.
Users by time of day
People like to play games, and it doesn’t matter where they are.
As you can see, there are still a few blank spaces on the map, and my goal is to fill the map by the end of 2018. And you can help me to achieve that goal.
What percent of people finish each game?
- Game 1 – 31% finished this game
- Game 2 – 29% finished this game
- Game 3 – 17% finished this game
- Game 4 – 23% finished this game
- Game 5 – 17% finished this game
- Game 6 – 11% finished this game
- Game 7 – 8% finished this game
- Game 8 – 3% finished this game
I recently added games 9 and 10, but I don’t have enough data to share just yet.
Questions I am regularly asked:
- I am stuck, can you help or give me hints?
That is the question I get every week, and the answer is always “I am sorry, I can’t.” The reason is simple, it’s a game and if you can’t solve it try something else or learn how to solve it. I am expecting that people will ask their friends, colleagues, people in their community and that will improve their cooperation and knowledge sharing.
Plus, if you gave up after few minutes or hours, then if I give you the answer you won’t enjoy it when you finish the game. I tried to design all games to test you, push you to learn more and cooperate more with your teammates. But they are also going to test your patience because patience is essential for any sourcer.
- Why there is no leaderboard?
If I add that, people will start to cheat, create more accounts so they can find the answers under one, and get a faster time and better result under the second one. The only thing you need to do is beat yourself; you are the biggest competitor you have.
- Which One is the Toughest Level?
For many people, it is the “Russian boss” level. Based on the questions and feedback I have received, this level is the hardest one for many people. The reason is simple; the level is designed to force players to think outside the box, many users can’t solve it that’s why they are stuck there for quite a while. But it’s one of my favorite levels because you need to take a different approach and learn something new if you would like to solve it.
Conclusion
I was overwhelmed with all the positive feedback and support I got from the sourcing community. But most things I am trying to do like Recruitment.Camp or Sourcing.Games are here for the community. So if you would like to help to translate, help me to create a new game or add your game just let me know.
Having an opportunity to see how many people are playing it, that teams have sourcing meetups where they are trying to solve it together etc. is quite amazing. And the good news is that there is no AI (artificial intelligence) on the market (yet) that will be able to solve these levels because AI could not think outside the box, but you can.
If you are playing these games from the beginning of my site or you just discovered them, I want to thank you for playing, because creating something that nobody is using would be a waste of time.
Enjoy the games and remember “there is always a way!”