Contemporaries

Find the biggest group of figures who were all alive in the same year — people who really could have met.

How to play

You are dealt a hand of historical figures with their birth and death years. A group counts only if a single year exists where every member was alive — that is, the latest birth is no later than the earliest death. Build the largest such overlapping group, faster for more points.

• Tap figures to add them to your set
• The overlap readout tells you whether everyone currently selected shares a year
• Use a hint to reveal a member of a largest possible group
• Submit your biggest valid group before the clock adds up

Controls

• Desktop: click figures to select them, click Submit, Clear or Hint
• Phone & tablet: tap figures and the action buttons

Tips & strategy

• Sort the overlap in your head by the latest birth and earliest death — those two dates set the window
• One long-lived figure can bridge two generations that otherwise never overlap
• Easy, Medium and Hard change the hand size and how tightly the lifespans cluster

What you'll learn

Contemporaries is an interval-overlap logic puzzle in history, testing how well you reason about who lived at the same time.

• Skills: chronology, historical figures, interval reasoning, logic
• Best for: roughly grades 6–11 (ages 11–16)
• For parents & teachers: reason about who could have met whom.

About Contemporaries

Contemporaries is an original interval-overlap logic puzzle dressed in history, testing how well you reason about who lived at the same time. Play free in your browser with daily and practice hands.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium — no download, no install. Browse all games →