---
name: "S-Bahn Seat Picker"
subtitle: "A browser game about the unwritten rules of train seating"
date: 2026-08-08
link: "https://welidev.github.io/sbahn-picker/"
linkText: "welidev.github.io"
source: "Hacker News — Show HN"
topics: [web-tools, words-and-humor]
tags: [browser-game, commuting, berlin, satire]
description: "A timed browser game where you race a shrinking window to claim the best free seat as a train car scrolls past, scored on exactly who you'd end up sitting next to."
---

Each of the 90-plus rounds gives you a shrinking window — 12 seconds at the start, down to 2.5 by the end — to click a seat before the train car finishes scrolling past. Scoring runs -5 to +5 per pick: an empty window bay is the top prize, sitting near a "red" passenger costs a flat -4, an orange manspreader wedged in next door is -2, and a purple passenger blasting music docks the whole half of the car. A very specific, very German anxiety, gamified.