The Timeline: a Hitster-style music timeline game, free on iPhone

01 — DefinitionWhat is the Timeline?

The Timeline is the music timeline game inside Dronk, the party game app with 14 games in one. It works like the board game people know as Hitster, but with the parts that slow a party down removed: there is no deck of cards to shuffle, no QR code to scan and no Spotify account to log into. The app plays a real clip of a song, shows you your timeline, and lets you tap the exact spot where the song belongs by release year.

Placement follows one simple rule. A song is placed correctly if the cards to its left came out earlier (or the same year) and the cards to its right came out later (or the same year). You never have to name the exact year, only the position. That is why the game works for people who "don't know music": you don't need to know that "Take On Me" is from 1985, you only need to feel that it sits between "Dancing Queen" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Since the 2.0.3 update every player starts with two songs already placed on their timeline, so the very first turn is a real choice instead of a free card. The first player to reach 8 correctly placed cards wins. If several players hit the target in the same round, they go to a final round between the leaders.

02 — RulesHow to play the Timeline (step by step)

Three screens, then pass the phone: setup, place, reveal. The screens below are the pass-and-play version on a single phone; the LIVE version is shown further down.

1. 
   1

   Setup: add players and choose how you play

   Set the number of players and tap a name to change it. Choose One phone (take turns, solo works too) or LIVE, pick a music pack and tap Start Game. Every player starts with the same two songs already placed, and your first game is a free trial of any pack.

2. 
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   Listen and place: where does the mystery song belong?

   It's Olivia's turn. Tap play on the mystery song card and replay it as often as you like while the table argues. Her cards sit sorted by year, Billie Jean (1982) down to bad guy (2019), with a + slot before, between and after them. Tap the slot where the song belongs and it locks in.

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   Reveal: the year shows up right away

   The card flips: 2014, Shake It Off. Correct, Olivia! The card lands on her timeline and the standings update to 3/8. A wrong placement discards the card and you take the penalty your group agreed on. Tap Next player and pass the phone. First to 8 cards wins.

03 — PacksMusic packs in the Timeline

The English version of Dronk ships with six Timeline packs. Party Classics is a hand-curated list where every release year was verified one by one; the other five are generated fresh from the artist catalog at the start of every game, so you never play the same deck twice.

Songs you'll hear in Party Classics

A sample of the international songs in the curated pack, with the original release year the app uses as the answer:

The year is always the original release of the recording, not the date of a remaster or a greatest-hits collection. That matters more than you'd think: streaming services often list "Billie Jean" under a 2000s reissue, and a timeline game with wrong years is a fight waiting to happen.

04 — LIVEPlay the Timeline LIVE: everyone on their own phone

Passing one phone works great around a table. When the group is bigger, or spread across a couch, a porch and a kitchen, switch to Dronk LIVE. The host creates a room and shares a 4-digit pin code; up to 16 players join from their own iPhones, and joining is always free.

In LIVE mode the song plays on the host's phone, every player places it on their own timeline at the same time, and the reveal shows who got it right in one shared moment. No waiting for the phone to come around, and no way to copy your neighbor's answer.

• Host: picks the pack, starts the room, controls the music
• Players: enter the pin code, place songs on their own screen
• Reveal: everyone sees the year and the standings together
• Play again: the same room can start a new game with a fresh deck

The Timeline LIVE, screen by screen

1. 
   1

   The host creates a LIVE room

   Open Dronk LIVE, type your name, pick The Timeline from the game list and tap Create game. You get a 4-digit pin; everyone else taps “Got a game pin? Join the game” on their own iPhone. Joining is free.

2. 
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   Everyone places the song on their own timeline

   The song plays and every player sees their own timeline, here six cards from traitor (2021) to drop dead (2026), with a + slot between each one. Everyone places at the same time on their own screen, so nobody can wait and copy a neighbor.

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   Shared reveal and standings

   1977, Stayin' Alive. The reveal shows every player's avatar and who placed it right; wrong placement means a penalty. The standings (Jacob 4/8, Oscar 3/8, Emma 1/8) land on every phone at the same moment, then the host taps Next song.

LIVE also works for The Quiz, The Draft, Most Likely To, Would You Rather and Pandora's Box.

05 — ComparedThe Timeline vs. a card-based timeline game

If you've played a physical music timeline game, here is what changes when the whole thing lives in one app.

Hitster is a trademark owned by another company; the Timeline is a separate game, and Dronk is not affiliated with or endorsed by it. If you already own a box and love it, keep it. The Timeline is for the nights when the box is at someone else's place, the group is too big for one table, or you want a deck that changes every game.

06 — TipsHow to win the Timeline

Anchor on sound, not on memory

Most people can't recall a release year, but almost everyone can hear a decade. Gated drums and synths say 80s, a boy band says late 90s, a trap hi-hat says 2015 or later. Use the production to pick a rough era first, then decide which side of your nearest card the song belongs on.

Your early cards decide your late game

With two cards, any answer that's roughly right is right. With seven cards, the slots are only a few years wide. Try to build a timeline with even spacing early on (something from the 70s, the 90s, the 2010s), so that later songs always have a wide slot somewhere.

Use the table, then ignore half of it

The other players are allowed to talk, and they will. Listen for people who are sure and specific ("that's the summer I graduated"), and discount people who are loud and vague. If two people disagree, the one who names an event usually wins.

08 — More gamesMore games in Dronk

The Timeline is one of three music games in the app, and one of 14 games in total: