CHROMEVINYL
An album cover, blurred down to its palette. Identify the artist before the clues sharpen and the score drops. Every reveal is points off.
From palette to portrait.
Palette only
Start with five colors pulled from the cover. Already enough? Guess now and bank max points.
Reveal
Need more? Pop a clue. Each reveal — extreme zoom, blur, full reveal — costs points but sharpens the puzzle.
Guess
Lock in the artist. The earlier you nail it, the higher you score. Streak the day either way.
How Chromevinyl works.
Chromevinyl is a daily artist-identification game. The day's album cover starts blurred down to its dominant palette and silhouette. Each guess sharpens it further. Identify the artist before the cover fully resolves.
The rules
- One album cover per daily round.
- Cover starts blurred to a palette plus rough shape.
- Type the artist's name. Auto-complete suggests the closest matches as you type.
- Wrong guesses sharpen the image and cost points.
- You can keep guessing until you nail it or skip out.
How points work
Each round starts at a maximum (typically around 5,000 points). Each wrong guess and each automatic sharpening tier knocks the maximum down. Solve in one guess for the highest score; let it fully resolve and you score the floor. Skipping is allowed and ends the round at zero.
A worked round
The cover loads as a wash of cream and matte black, vague face-shaped blob centered. You guess "The Beatles" — wrong, the cover sharpens. Now you can see a single horizontal line where eyes would sit. You guess "Joy Division" — close to a similar palette but no. The cover sharpens again, you see a familiar four-bar layout. You type "Unknown Pleasures" — but the input wants the artist, not the album. You guess "Joy Division" — already used. You try "New Order" and lock in correctly: the cover was a Joy Division reissue cover. Two wrong, ~3,000 points scored.
Where the covers come from
Album covers and artist metadata are hand-curated. Compilations, deluxe editions, and re-issued covers are excluded — the goal is to test recognition of canonical releases. Report errors at support@criticscale.com.