The Shadow Matching Game is a deterministic browser puzzle where you compare five original colored object specimens — the Orbit lamp, Fin vase, Arch chair, Kite clock, and Leaf kettle — against three solid silhouettes each and pick the outline that traces the specimen's outer shape. Every correct card awards exactly 200 points, and five correct matches produce exactly 1,000 points. The catalog is fully original and built from local SVG paths: no photographs, no downloaded images, no emoji characters, no licensed figures, and no network requests. Each of the five cards uses a fixed three-option order that can be audited, the correct silhouette position is disclosed in advance, and the game never becomes easier or harder based on a random draw, browser seed, previous score, or stored profile. Terminal states are atomic — once the catalog is complete or closed by a second distinct mismatch, the score freezes and no further input changes it. Every card presents one colored specimen on the left and three solid silhouettes on the right; your only job is to compare the specimen's outer boundary against the three solid silhouettes and select the one that was drawn from the same object.
An Original Five-Card Catalog
The Shadow Matching Game is a five-card visual catalog built entirely from original local SVG paths. Every card presents one colored specimen on the left and three solid silhouettes on the right. Your task is to identify the silhouette whose outline was drawn by the same object — not the silhouette that shares only decoration, color, or interior pattern with the specimen. The specimen names and every shape were authored specifically for this game, so nothing is borrowed from a stock library or pulled from the web.
Because the goal is shape recognition at the boundary, the five objects were designed with genuinely different outer contours rather than relying on internal decoration alone. A lamp with a circular shade on a stem with a wide base reads as a circle on a vertical bar. A vase with side fins on a rounded body reads as a lobed silhouette. A chair with an arched back, seat, and legs reads as a back-and-leg outline. A clock with a diamond case and hanging stem reads as a tilted diamond. A kettle with a body, handle, spout, and leaf-shaped lid reads as a multi-bulge outline. Each specimen therefore has a distinct silhouette rather than a near-duplicate that would force you to rely on color hints, which is exactly why the boundary check works so well as the deciding signal.
The Five Original Specimens
The catalog is small and fixed. The five specimens, in the order they appear across the run, are described in the table below along with the contour cue each one relies on and the reason it does not collide with its neighbors.
| Specimen | Key outer-shape feature | Distinct from neighbors because |
|---|---|---|
| Orbit lamp | Circular shade on a stem with a wide base | Single round head plus vertical bar plus flat foot |
| Fin vase | Rounded body with two side fins | Symmetric lobes project sideways from the body |
| Arch chair | Arched back, seat, and legs | Curved back rises above a low seat with supports underneath |
| Kite clock | Diamond case with a hanging stem | Tilted four-sided shape with a top fixture |
| Leaf kettle | Body with handle, spout, and leaf-shaped lid detail | Multi-bulge outline with a stem and an off-center spout |
These five outlines were designed so that the only reliable way to tell the silhouettes apart is to read the boundary carefully. There is no interior pattern that survives the conversion to a solid black silhouette, so the decision always comes back to the contour you can see. Each specimen, each SVG path, and each name was authored for this catalog and audited by independent tests that restate every object label, card identifier, option order, and correct answer position as literal fixtures.
How to Play the Shadow Matching Game
The catalog is short, deterministic, and easy to audit. Follow these steps to reach the 1,000-point terminal state without losing the run to a deadlock.
- Open the Shadow Matching Game in your browser and look at the colored specimen on the left of the card.
- Compare only its outside shape with the three solid silhouettes on the right. Ignore interior detail, color, and decorative cues — the conversion to silhouette strips all of them away.
- Move your selection onto the silhouette you think matches the specimen's outer contour. With a pointer or touch screen, tap directly. With a keyboard, press any Arrow key to step between the three choices.
- Submit the current choice. Pointer and touch users tap their selection. Keyboard users press Enter or Space to confirm the currently focused silhouette.
- Read the visible feedback. A correct match awards 200 points and immediately opens the next fixed specimen. A first mismatch on a card is recoverable, and a repeated mismatch on the same silhouette is deduplicated so it does not cost you another error.
- Repeat the study-compare-select pattern for the Fin vase, the Arch chair, the Kite clock, and the Leaf kettle. Five correct matches produce exactly 1,000 points and the terminal state freezes.
- If you ever reach a deadlock because you made a second different mismatch anywhere in the run, the catalog closes and the terminal score holds steady until you press Restart.
If you would rather play without a mouse, full keyboard play is supported end to end — the same arrow-then-Enter-or-Space flow described in guides like how to play a memory match game entirely with a keyboard applies here. The current choice always carries a visible focus treatment, every button meets the 44-pixel touch target size, and a progress strip marks completed catalog cards so you can tell at a glance which specimen is next.
Scoring, Errors, and the Deadlock Rule
The scoring formula is the simplest part of the catalog. Each correct card adds 200 points, and there are exactly five cards in the run. Five correct matches therefore always end on 1,000 points. Completion freezes matching and navigation, so the terminal score cannot change after the result is shown, and unknown silhouette identifiers or invalid cursor movement are strict atomic no-ops that have no effect on the score.
The error model is just as explicit and worth reading carefully before you start:
- One distinct wrong silhouette on a card is recoverable — you can keep trying the remaining two options without ending the run.
- Selecting the same wrong silhouette again on the same card is deduplicated. It is a strict atomic no-op and does not spend another error.
- A second different mismatch anywhere in the run closes the catalog until you Restart. After that, no further input changes the score.
Because the option order is fixed, the correct answer position is also fixed and disclosed in advance: the Orbit lamp's correct silhouette is option 2, the Fin vase's is option 3, the Arch chair's is option 1, the Kite clock's is option 2, and the Leaf kettle's is option 3. Restart rebuilds the original first card, the fixed option orders, a zero score, zero mismatches, and the first-choice cursor — so every restart is identical and the game never drifts.
Controls: Pointer, Touch, and Keyboard
The game accepts pointer, touch, and keyboard input interchangeably, with no hidden mode switching. Pointer and touch users tap the silhouette they want. Keyboard users press any Arrow key to cycle through the three choices — left or right both wrap cleanly between the first and last option — and press Enter or Space to submit the currently focused choice. The focused choice always carries a visible treatment, so there is no ambiguity about which silhouette is armed for submission at any moment.
Two helper controls live in the shared game shell. Restart resets the entire catalog to its first card, fixed option orders, zero score, zero mismatches, and first-choice cursor. A double-Escape Boss Key hides the playfield when you need to step away. Your best score is stored locally in the browser only, and no personal gameplay history is transmitted or stored on a remote service, so the run stays private even after a deadlock or completion.
What This Game Does Not Measure
It is worth being explicit about scope. The result measures completion of these five disclosed fictional specimens only. It is entertainment, not a vision examination, developmental screen, accessibility diagnosis, educational placement test, or claim about a player's real-world recognition ability. All processing remains in the browser, no network calls are made, and no personal gameplay history is transmitted or stored on a remote service. The visible feedback distinguishes a correct match, first mismatch, repeated mismatch, completion, and deadlock so you can always read exactly what just happened.
If you want to challenge the catalog's determinism, the fixtures are auditable: every specimen label, card identifier, option order, and correct answer position is fixed and can be checked against the game state. Independent tests restate all five object labels and verify unique choices within every card, deterministic restart, five 200-point approvals, repeat-error deduplication, two-distinct-error deadlock, illegal-input rejection, cursor wrapping, and terminal freezing. Expected answers are not generated by the runtime under test, so the catalog cannot drift between sessions and every restart returns the same first card.
If you would like to try the puzzle yourself, you can play the Shadow Matching Game directly in your browser and walk through the five original specimens on your own time.
For a deeper look, see Matching Shapes Online: Five SVG Pairs to 1,000 Points.