How to Play Race The Streets
Welcome to Race The Streets, a game of speed, strategy, and exploration. The goal is simple: find locations, recreate photos, and get the highest score. Here's everything you need to know.
The Core Concept
Race The Streets is a race against the clock and other players. You can play competitively to top the leaderboards or enjoy a more relaxed pace to explore the city with friends. It's entirely up to you!
You can join a race solo, or coordinate with friends to play the same race at the same time and compare your results.
The Race, Step-by-Step
First, find a race in a city near you from the home page. Once you join, you'll be taken to the game dashboard. Here you will see the game's duration and the designated Start Location.
You must physically travel to this location to begin the race. The "Start Game" button on your dashboard will become active once our GPS confirms you are within the starting zone.
Important: Each race can only be attempted once per player. Once you start, the timer begins and you cannot restart.
Once you start the game, your dashboard map will reveal a set of random locations across the city. Your goal is to visit them.
At each location, you will be presented with one or more Street View images. Your task is to find the exact spot where the photo was taken and recreate it as closely as possible with your phone's camera. Pay attention to angles, landmarks, and perspective!
To keep the competition fair, there are strict rules about how you can travel between locations:
- Allowed: Walking, running, and any form of official public transport (buses, trains, trams, metros, ferries).
- Not Allowed: Anything else like cars, taxis, ride-sharing (Uber, Lyft), bikes, e-scooters, skateboards, ...
The game is played on the honor system. Please respect the rules to ensure a level playing field for everyone.
You are encouraged to use map tools for navigation, but with some important restrictions to keep the challenge fair:
- Allowed: Using Google Maps (or similar apps) and its Satellite View to plan your route and find locations.
- Not Allowed: Using Google Street View to "preview" a location before you get there. You are also not allowed to click on the map in a way that reveals a Street View preview image. The challenge is to find the spot in person!
Your final score is a combination of your performance and speed:
- Task Points: You get a set number of points for every picture you successfully recreate.
- Completion Bonus: You earn extra bonus points for each location where you complete all available tasks. This rewards thorough exploration!
- Time Bonus: The time remaining on your clock when you finish the race is added to your score. The faster you are, the higher your bonus!
You can end the race at any time by hitting the "Finish Game" button on your dashboard. Your score will be calculated based on your progress at that moment. Once you finish, your final score and rank will be displayed on the leaderboard.
Playing with Friends: Rules & Fair Play
Playing with friends adds a fantastic social layer to the game. You have two main ways to approach it:
Head-to-Head Competition
Each player uses their own account. You start the same race at the same time and compete for the best score on the leaderboard. It's a direct test of speed and strategy.
Cooperative Team Play
You can also work together as a single unit, sharing one device or playing on separate accounts but helping each other. This is a great way to combine your skills.
The Golden Rule of Team Play: Stick Together!
If you choose to cooperate, there is one crucial rule to ensure fair play: your team must stay together at all times.
Splitting up to search different areas simultaneously is not allowed. For example, it's considered cheating if one teammate finds the photo spot and simply calls the others over without them participating in the search. The spirit of the game is about the shared journey and discovery.
The bottom line: Compete individually, or cooperate as a single, unified team. Just play fair and have fun!
Strategy Tip
Sometimes, a picture is incredibly difficult to find. Don't be afraid to give up on a single task and move on to the next location. It can often be better for your final score to sacrifice the points from one picture in order to save valuable time and complete more tasks elsewhere.