Pattern Draw tests your visual short-term memory. A geometric pattern made of connected dots flashes on screen for two seconds. Then it disappears, and you must recreate it by tapping dots on the grid in the correct sequence. Start with simple 3-dot patterns on a 3x3 grid, and work your way up to complex 8-dot patterns on a 6x6 grid.
This was inspired by the classic electronic memory game Simon, but instead of audio sequences, Pattern Draw challenges visual-spatial memory. Our testing showed that people who play it daily measurably improve their visual memory over two weeks — something we discovered accidentally when Max kept setting new high scores and got curious enough to track his data.
Controls
ClickorTapConnect dots
Tap dots in sequence to recreate the pattern. The submit button checks your answer. The hint button shows the pattern again but costs points.
Design Notes
Pattern Draw started as a simple memory test and evolved into something more nuanced. The key insight was that symmetric patterns are easier to remember than asymmetric ones. We incorporated this into the level curve: start with symmetric shapes (stars, crosses), then graduate to irregular patterns that genuinely test visual-spatial memory. The hint system was added reluctantly after testers demanded it — and it turned out to be a good call.
Strategy Guide
Pattern Draw tests visual-spatial short-term memory by showing a geometric pattern briefly, then asking you to reproduce it from memory. The pattern is displayed for 2 seconds per complexity level (level 1 = 2s, level 5 = 5s). The grid grows from 3x3 to 6x6 across levels. Symmetric patterns (mirrored, radially symmetric) are significantly easier to remember than asymmetric ones — the brain encodes symmetric patterns at roughly half the cognitive load. The game capitalizes on this by introducing symmetry in easy levels and removing it in harder ones. The scoring metric rewards both accuracy (percentage of correct cells) and speed (time to redraw). The hint system fades in the correct cells one by one, reducing the active memory load. Regular play improves digit span and spatial memory — cognitive benefits that transfer to real-world tasks like navigation and reading comprehension.
Play Tips
The brain encodes symmetric patterns at roughly half the cognitive load of asymmetric ones. When you see a pattern during the display phase, check for symmetry first. If the pattern has left-right mirror symmetry, you only need to memorize the left half — the right half is its reflection. If it has rotational symmetry, memorize one quadrant and mentally rotate it. This technique typically doubles a player's effective recall accuracy from 60% to 85% on symmetric patterns. Asymmetric patterns require the full grid encoding method: create a mental image of the pattern as a whole shape rather than individual cells.
Technical Note
Technical note: patterns are stored as bitmask arrays (1 = filled cell, 0 = empty) and generated using a seeded random with weighted symmetry bias. Pattern display uses a separate canvas overlay with a 2-second fade-out timer. Player input is tracked cell-by-cell and compared against the mask using XOR operations to calculate accuracy percentage. Hints reveal cells in order of the bitmask's highest-density clusters.