Shape Rotation is a spatial-matching game about preserving relationships. A figure may turn by a quarter-turn, half-turn or three-quarter-turn, but its blocks must remain connected in exactly the same arrangement.
How Shape Rotation works
Each question presents one reference figure assembled from connected square blocks. Four answer figures appear beside it. One is the same figure after rotation; one is a mirror image; and two have had a block moved to change the outline.
Select an option before the question timer expires. The game highlights the valid rotation and explains whether a wrong choice was reflected or structurally altered. Standard mode contains six seven-block figures, with a new independently generated outline in every question.
Every generated question is checked by comparing all four possible quarter-turns. A question is accepted only when one option—and only one—is rotation-equivalent to the reference.
Rotation and reflection are not the same
Rotation turns an entire figure around a point. If a short arm sits clockwise from a long arm before the turn, it remains clockwise from that arm afterwards. The directions on the page change, but the order of the figure’s features does not.
Reflection reverses that order. Imagine pressing the shape onto wet ink and printing it onto another sheet: features that wound around the original clockwise now wind around the copy counter-clockwise. No amount of turning on a flat page repairs that reversal.
The generated reference figures are deliberately chiral in this practical sense: their mirror images cannot be made identical by any 90-degree rotation. Symmetric shapes that would make “rotated or reflected?” ambiguous are rejected before play.
A reliable mental-rotation method
- Choose one distinctive corner. Find a bend where a short branch and longer edge meet. It is easier to carry one memorable junction through a turn than to rotate every block separately.
- Trace the outline in one direction. Move clockwise around the reference and note the sequence of short and long edges. A true rotation keeps that sequence; a reflection reverses it.
- Turn the anchor, then rebuild around it. Imagine where your chosen corner points after a quarter-turn or half-turn. Place the neighbouring branches relative to that new direction.
- Count only when two options remain. Block counting quickly eliminates altered figures, but every option has the same total number of blocks. Compare branch length and placement rather than relying on the total alone.
You do not need to animate a perfectly smooth turn. A sequence of discrete checks—anchor, edge order, branch lengths—often uses less working memory than attempting to hold the whole silhouette as a moving image.
What the difficulty levels change
Easy figures use six blocks and five questions. Standard adds a seventh block and a sixth question. Hard uses eight blocks, creating more corners and more opportunities for a moved block to preserve the broad silhouette while changing a small local relationship.
Hard mode receives slightly more time per question because its outlines contain more information. Difficulty-specific results are stored separately, and the normalised score includes a small adjustment rather than pretending that six- and eight-block figures create identical demands.
| Level | Questions | Blocks | Time each |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 5 | 6 per shape | 15 seconds |
| Standard | 6 | 7 per shape | 14 seconds |
| Hard | 6 | 8 per shape | 15 seconds |
How the Shape Rotation score is calculated
Correct matches provide 87% of the base score and response speed provides 13%. An unanswered shape counts as an error. The pace component is suppressed at the 25% accuracy expected from random four-choice selection, making deliberate comparison much more valuable than rapid guessing.
The result screen also reports mirror choices separately. That count is diagnostic game feedback rather than an extra penalty: it can show that you are preserving the general silhouette but reversing its handedness. The Workout Score remains a recreational progress measure, not an intelligence score or medical assessment.
How the shapes are generated fairly
The generator grows each figure one adjacent block at a time and checks that the result stays connected. It rejects repeated reference shapes, excessively ambiguous symmetry and any figure whose reflection is rotation-equivalent to the original.
The correct option is produced by a genuine quarter-turn transformation. The mirror distractor is produced by a genuine reflection followed by an optional rotation. Altered distractors remove a block that can be moved without breaking the remaining figure, then attach it at a different edge. All options retain the same block count, so the intended comparison is arrangement rather than simple quantity.
Common Shape Rotation mistakes
Matching the overall footprint
Two figures can occupy a similar rectangle while placing one branch on the opposite side. Trace the internal joins and short projections, not only the outside width and height.
Turning one branch without the rest
A rotation moves every feature through the same angle. If the top branch moves to the right, a left-facing notch must move consistently as well.
Treating a mirror as a three-quarter-turn
This usually happens when the eye follows one convincing corner and ignores the order of the remaining arms. Check a second feature clockwise from your anchor before committing.
Shape Rotation questions
Are the puzzles unlimited?
Shapes, reference orientation, correct rotation, reflected orientation, altered blocks, question order and answer positions are all derived from a seed. Connectedness and equivalence checks keep the large set of variations valid rather than arbitrary.
Can more than one option look rotated?
Several options may have a similar silhouette, but the validator requires exactly one complete rotation match. Reflected and altered figures cannot pass the rotation-equivalence check.
Can I play using a keyboard?
Yes. Press 1–4 to select an option directly, or use arrow keys to move between the four shape cards before pressing Enter or Space.
Which difficulty is in the Daily Brain Workout?
The Daily Workout uses Standard difficulty: six independently generated seven-block figures with 14 seconds available for each comparison.