If you want to test your geography knowledge or you’re looking for alternative ways to learn, Seterra might be the perfect game for you. It offers 100+ different quizzes that teach you about countries, cities, regions, flags, and much more from around the world. You can play in Danish and English, as well as many other languages. It’s easy to install and get started, and you can dive into exactly what you want—countries, cities, or anything else.
Game structure
Seterra downloads in a flash, and within seconds you’re already on the game’s start screen.
Here you can choose the challenge you want to try. First, pick the continent you want to explore, then decide whether you want to tackle the entire continent or narrow it down to a single country within it. You can also choose the whole world, as shown in the image above. Categories include Continents, World: Major Cities, The 25 Largest Cities, World: Flags, World: Flags (Hard), and World: Mountains and Volcanoes. If you choose, for example, The 25 Largest Cities, a window pops up like the one below.
Here you see a world map with the 25 largest cities marked with a green dot. You’re then asked to identify them one by one as quickly as possible.
The developer behind Seterra
Seterra was developed by Swedish developer Marianne Wartoft. The first edition of the game was released alongside the first version of Windows in 1998. Since then, Marianne Wartoft has continuously improved the game for over 20 years. Because the game originated in Sweden, it was initially designed to help Swedish schoolchildren, so it’s not surprising that there are a few more Sweden-focused categories than, for example, Denmark. That doesn’t mean you have to be Swedish to enjoy it. For instance, you can tackle European capitals or the flags of Eastern Europe.
Availability
Since the game focuses on the world’s countries and aims to build geographic skills for users everywhere, it’s crucial that it’s understandable to as many people as possible. That’s why it’s available in Danish, as well as English, Chinese, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Serbian. While it’s most natural to try the game in Danish, you can also improve your knowledge of world geography in, for example, German or French.
The version of the game you can download here is made for Windows. The game can also be played on mobile, where both Android and iOS-styresystemerne are supported. You can find it in their respective app stores.
Alternative learning
As mentioned earlier, the game was originally intended to improve Swedish students’ geography skills. As interest in the game grew, it was quickly developed to help learners around the world. Its popularity stems in part from its alternative approach to learning: it makes learning fun and entertaining. Where traditional classroom teaching can drain students of energy, this game motivates users to become better and faster at geography.
Your motivation to do well increases when your performance is timed and you can enter your name on the high score leaderboard.
The image above shows the high score for each category and—as you can also see from the size of the scrollbar on the right—there are an incredible number of categories in this game. Some are very basic and can be completed 100% in a few seconds, while others require a lot of brainpower just to get through.
Seterra Online
The game can, as mentioned, be downloaded here on the site. There’s also an online version on Setteras egen hjemmeside, where the categories are updated more often. In addition, the selection of categories about Danish geography is slightly larger on the website than in the version downloaded here. The biggest advantage of the version you can download here on download.dk is that it also works offline. You can therefore take it with you around the world without needing the internet. The game is also great for preparing for a travel destination while you’re sitting on the train or on a plane.
A great free learning game
Seterra is a completely free learning game that challenges and improves your geography skills. It’s very simple in structure, yet incredibly effective for learning and memorizing geography. You can explore continents, countries, cities, provinces, capitals, and flags—and you can do this in Danish as well as English, German, and many more languages. That way, you can also use the game to strengthen your existing geography knowledge in foreign languages. The game pushes you to become better and faster through its high score lists, which is often a stronger motivator for learning than what many encounter in a classroom.
The game is constantly being improved and also has an online version on Seterra’s own website with even more categories than this edition. However, this version can be taken offline, which is a huge plus if you want to play it on your trip through the regions of the world that you also explore in the game. It’s quick and easy to install Seterra and requires no special computer knowledge to get started.
