Card Swap: free shell game to train visual tracking

What is Card Swap?

Three to six cards, face up for a few seconds. Then they flip face down and swap places two at a time. Keep your eyes on them: "Where is the Star?" Each level adds a swap and speeds up, and every other level adds a card.

Card Swap is a free tracking game in the spirit of the old cups-and-ball trick, with nothing up anyone's sleeve. Three to six cards are shown face up, each with a symbol and a name. Then they flip face down and swap places two at a time. When the swaps stop, one card is named: tap where it ended up.

Every level adds one swap and plays them a little faster, and every other level adds a card, up to six cards and fourteen fast swaps by level 15. With reduced motion turned on in your device settings, each swap is marked before the two cards jump, and screen readers hear every swap in words.

At a glance

Category

Memory

Difficulty

Medium

Play time

2–4 min

Price

Free, in your browser, sign-up optional

How to play

Look

The cards are shown face up with a symbol and a name. Remember who is where.

Follow

They flip face down and swap places in pairs. With reduced motion on, each swap is marked, then the two cards jump; screen readers hear "swap 2 and 4".

Find it

One card is named. Tap where it ended up, or press its number. A wrong pick costs one of 3 lives and deals the level again.

Score

Each right answer scores its level number: 1 on level 1, up to 15 on level 15.

Scoring

Each right answer scores its level number: 1 point on level 1, up to 15 on level 15, added up over the run.

Every level adds a swap and plays them faster; every other level adds a card, up to 6. A wrong pick costs one of 3 lives and deals the level again. Your best score is kept in this browser.

What it trains

Visual tracking

Following cards as they move and swap places.

Attention

Watching the whole row instead of a single card.

Working memory

Updating the order of face-down cards in your head after every swap.

Strategy and tips

Say the order

While the cards are face up, say them left to right: "Star, Moon, Heart". Words are easier to hold than pictures.

Watch the whole row

Look at the middle of the row with soft eyes instead of chasing one card: you'll see every swap.

Update, don't restart

After each swap, update your list in your head: "Moon and Heart swap, so Star, Heart, Moon".

Track the named card last

You don't know which card will be asked, so track positions, not just your favourite card.

Breathe after a miss

A miss deals a fresh row at the same level: reset before it starts.

Why play Card Swap?

Following moving objects trains visual tracking and sustained attention, the skills behind keeping an eye on traffic, a ball in a match or a child in a playground. Because the cards are face down, you also have to keep updating a picture of the row in your head.

Frequently asked questions