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How to play Shadowbox.

Everything you need to know — setup, the round structure, how sequences build, and what it takes to win.

8 sections·~3 min read
01

Setup

  • Two players connect over the web — both webcams stream side-by-side.
  • Roles are assigned randomly: one Pointer, one Looker.
  • The chain — the running list of matched directions — starts empty.
02

Goal

  • The Pointer wants the Looker's head to land on the same direction they picked.
  • The Looker wants to pick a direction different from the Pointer.
  • Neither player sees the other's choice until after both have committed.
03

A round, step by step

  1. 01
    The Pointer taps a direction (Up, Down, Left, Right) — but only ones not yet in the chain.
  2. 02
    Without knowing the Pointer's pick, the Looker turns their head to one of the directions.
  3. 03
    Computer vision reads the Looker's head movement.
  4. 04
    The two choices are compared:
    • MATCH — the direction is added to the chain and the round continues with the same roles.
    • MISMATCH — roles swap, the chain resets, and the new Pointer picks first.
04

Chain rules

  • The chain only ever grows when both players land on the same direction.
  • The Pointer cannot reuse a direction already in the chain — those buttons are crossed out.
  • If the Looker turns their head to a direction that's already in the chain, it counts as nothing — no penalty, but the timer keeps ticking. They have to commit a fresh direction before time runs out.
  • Maximum chain length is 3. Hit that and the Pointer wins.
05

Example

  1. 01Chain: []. Pointer picks Right; Looker turns Right → match. Chain becomes [Right].
  2. 02Chain: [Right]. Pointer can no longer pick Right. They pick Left; Looker turns Left → match. Chain becomes [Right, Left].
  3. 03Chain: [Right, Left]. Pointer picks Up; Looker turns Down → mismatch. Roles swap, chain resets to [].
  4. 04Mid-round, Looker accidentally turns Right (already in chain): nothing happens — they re-center and pick a fresh direction before the timer expires.
06

Switching roles

  • A mismatch swaps the roles: Looker becomes Pointer, Pointer becomes Looker.
  • The chain resets to empty when roles swap. Both players start with all four directions available again.
07

Winning · losing

  • The Pointer wins when the chain reaches length 3 — three matches in a row.
  • Either player loses immediately if they run out of time on their turn.
  • Forfeiting or disconnecting hands the win to the other player.
08

Strategy notes

  • As the chain grows, fewer directions are available — the Pointer's pool shrinks from 4 → 3 → 2.
  • Late in a chain the Pointer has fewer hiding places, but the Looker has fewer escapes too. Pressure builds on both sides.
  • The in-chain no-op is forgiveness, not information: the Looker still hasn't seen the Pointer's pick when it triggers, so it just buys a chance to recover from a misread head movement.

Now you know the rules. Time to break someone's read.

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