Backwards Pen

A mirror-drawing test with ten difficulty steps: trace five shapes with a pen that moves the opposite way to your finger. The shapes change every day.

Controls

Touch and drag, or click and drag with a mouse

Time limit

55 seconds

Score

Off track, lower is better

Type

Skill

How to play Backwards Pen

1. Press anywhere and drag. The pen moves as far as your finger, but mirrored.
2. On the first three shapes, left and right are swapped. On the last two, up and down are.
3. Trace each shape from the white start dot to the yellow ring at the end.
4. Time off the track adds up over the whole level, shown by the bar at the top. On difficulty 5, use up 1.2 seconds and the run ends.
5. You start on difficulty 3 of 10. Clear a difficulty to unlock the next: narrower tracks and less time allowed off them. Pick any unlocked difficulty with the arrows on the start card.
6. Five shapes: a step, a zigzag, a star, a wave and a square spiral, in the day’s order and turned the day’s way, each track a little narrower. 55 seconds.

Tips

• Go slowly. Off-track time only counts while you’re off, and there is plenty of time on the clock.
• Straight runs along the unmirrored direction behave normally. Diagonals are where your hand gets confused.
• You can lift your finger and press again anywhere: the pen stays put, so you never run out of screen.
• Before each corner, work out which way to move, then move.
• Everyone gets the same shapes all day, and a new order and turn at midnight UTC. “Practice a new layout” deals a fresh one any time, off the leaderboard.