Shadow Shapes

Shadow Shapes is a cosy shape puzzle for kids. A dark shadow picture lies on paper on a wooden play table, and the painted wooden shapes that make it wait in a tray, each turned a different way. Pick a shape up, turn it until it matches the shadow, and drop it in its place: it clicks in with a clack. When the last shape is in, the picture comes alive. The fish swims, the boat bobs, the rocket flies off and the train chugs away, and the picture says its name.

There are eight pictures, from a tree made of two shapes to a castle made of seven. The first pictures show the lines between the shapes; later ones hide them, so you have to work out where each piece goes. A candle on the table is the clock: every finished picture lets it grow back a little, and a shape dropped in the wrong place makes it sputter. Turn a shape right before you drop it to earn a turned-fit bonus, and finish a picture with no wrong drops for a clean picture bonus.

Kids learn the names of the shapes (square, triangle, rectangle, circle, half circle), how shapes look when they are turned, and how big pictures are made of small shapes. Calm table mode has no candle and no score, for the youngest players. Everyone gets the same trays each day.

Play with a finger (tap a shape to pick it up, tap it again or the Turn button to turn it, then tap or drag it to its place), a mouse (click or drag), or the keyboard (left and right choose a shape, Space picks it up, R turns it, the arrow keys move it, Space drops it).