Spatial Mosaic
What is Spatial Mosaic?
Spatial Mosaic is a geometric dissection puzzle: a single silhouette is cut into a handful of irregular, jagged pieces, then scattered and rotated at random. The goal is to reassemble the outline exactly as it was, using rotation and position alone — there's no color or picture to match, just shape. It belongs to the same family as tangrams and jigsaw dissections, puzzles long used to train spatial reasoning: the mental skill of judging how shapes fit together, rotate, and relate in space.
How to play Spatial Mosaic
Fit every irregular piece into the outline until none are left over — position and rotation both have to be exactly right before a piece locks in. Each puzzle is randomly generated fresh in your browser, with three difficulty levels based on how many pieces you're working with.
The rules
Every piece starts loose and rotated at a random angle outside the outline. A piece only locks into place once both its position and its rotation match exactly — close is not enough, and there's no partial credit for getting one right without the other. The puzzle is solved the moment every piece is locked in and none are left in the loose area.
Moving and rotating a piece
- Click or tap a loose piece to select it, then drag it toward the outline — dropping it near the right spot with the right rotation locks it in.
- With a piece selected, the arrow keys move it; hold Shift to move in larger steps.
- Press Q or E to rotate the selected piece, or use the on-screen rotate-left/rotate-right buttons — each press turns it 45 degrees.
- Press Enter to attempt a fit from the keyboard, or Escape to send the selected piece back to the loose area.
Reading the feedback
Dropping a piece gives you one of three outcomes: a perfect fit locks it into the outline for good, a wrong position tells you to recheck both where it is and how it's rotated, and a close-but-not-quite position tells you the spot is right and only the rotation still needs work. That second signal is worth trusting — it means you've found the right gap and just need to keep turning the piece.
Choosing a difficulty
- Hard — 8 pieces, the fastest puzzle to finish end to end.
- Expert — 10 pieces, more shapes to track and compare against the outline.
- Master — 12 pieces, the most pieces and the most rotating before everything clicks.
Tips for solving faster
- Start with the most distinctive pieces — the sharpest points or longest edges are the easiest to match to one specific spot in the outline.
- Work outward from a piece that's already locked in; its neighbors are the easiest to test next since part of their edge is already fixed.
- Rotate a piece to roughly the right angle before dragging it — lining up the rotation first makes the final drop far more likely to land.
- If the loose area feels crowded, park a piece near its likely spot without dropping it, so you can compare its edges to the gap before committing.
How this puzzle works
Every puzzle is generated and solved entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded. Your seed, difficulty, piece placements, attempts, and timer are saved locally, so closing the tab and coming back picks up exactly where you left off.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my progress saved if I close the tab?
Yes. Your piece placements, attempts, timer, and difficulty are saved in your browser and restored automatically the next time you open the game.
Why won't my piece lock in even though it looks right?
Check the feedback message: if it says the position is right and only the rotation is off, keep rotating in place — dragging it elsewhere would lose the position you already found.
What's the difference between Hard, Expert, and Master?
Only the number of pieces — 8, 10, and 12 — which changes how many shapes you're tracking and comparing at once, not how sharply any single piece is cut.
Can I play entirely with the keyboard?
Yes. Arrow keys move the selected piece, Shift moves it farther, Q and E rotate it, Enter attempts a fit, and Escape returns it to the loose area.
Is there a daily challenge or a way to share a puzzle?
No — unlike Crossnumbers, Spatial Mosaic doesn't have a fixed daily puzzle or a shareable seed link. New puzzle always generates a fresh random layout at your current difficulty.
What's the difference between Restart and New puzzle?
Restart resets the same puzzle back to its starting layout, with your timer and attempts back at zero. New puzzle keeps your difficulty but generates a completely different layout.
What happens when I finish a puzzle?
A completion screen shows your total time and number of attempts, with the option to repeat the exact same mosaic or jump straight into another one.