How the Sync Rate Is Decided — the Five Dimensions, and How to Score High

Turning “two people drew the same prompt — how similar are they?” into a number is harder than it looks. Different sizes: not similar? Different positions? One stroke versus three? MindMatch's engine answers with “similar means five different things” and scores each separately.

This article explains what each of the five dimensions looks at, why it's designed that way, and how to score high once you know. The exact formulas and weights aren't published, but you'll know which drawings earn points in which dimension.

The starting point: overlap, not skill

Scoring against a model drawing would let the better artist win — not a compatibility game. MindMatch has no model. It only ever compares Player 1's drawing with Player 2's. Two bad drawers score high; one good drawer lowers the score. Practicing your drawing is useless here by design.

The second principle: be able to say what differed. Not just “78” but “the shapes matched, the sizes didn't.” The five bars on the results screen are the breakdown itself.

What each dimension looks at

Shape (45) — do the lines overlap once size and position are equalized?

Both drawings are brought to the same size and position first, then line overlap is measured — so a big heart and a small heart score the same Shape. Prompt-specific character is compared too: for a circle, how round, whether it closes, clockwise or not; for a star, the number of points; for a heart, symmetry; for composite prompts like a house, stroke count and symmetry. “Roughly round” and “actually round” are told apart.

Placement (15) — where on the canvas, and how big

Scored separately from Shape. The same heart, one filling the screen and one tiny in a corner, keeps its Shape score and loses here. Spatial habits — couples who've lived together longest tend to match.

Orientation (10) — the tilt of the whole drawing

Fish facing left or right, which way the umbrella handle leans. For drawings where orientation is meaningless, like circles, the engine switches to a different view so nobody is penalized unfairly.

Stroke (15) — count, start point, first direction, order

The manufacturing process rather than the product: how many strokes, where you started, which way the first line went, and the order. Roof-first versus walls-first. Nobody chooses it consciously; it matches or it doesn't — the dimension that feels most like telepathy.

Rhythm (15) — closeness of pacing, not speed

Not faster-is-better. It compares whether your drawing times are close, whether your pacing profile (outline first, details last) is similar, and whether you paused a similar share of the time. Two slow drawers score full marks together.

Why matching scribbles can't score 100

Two identical meaningless lines would match on every dimension. A check for whether the drawing qualifies as the prompt prevents that: too few points, too small, a circle that doesn't close, a star without enough points, a composite prompt drawn as one short stroke — all cap the Shape score. A blank makes the round incomparable, and the results say so honestly rather than showing a low score.

Same input, same result

Scoring runs entirely on-device with no AI service or server, deterministically: the same drawings always give the same score. In two-device play one phone scores and the other receives the same result and verdict. Drawings never leave the device.

From scores to a verdict

From five rounds the engine builds a profile — overall mean, balance across dimensions, strongest and weakest, round-to-round variation, late-game improvement, time closeness — and picks one of 69 verdicts. Same total, different breakdown, different verdict: high Shape with low Rhythm means “same picture in your heads, different speed,” a late surge means Second-Half Protagonists. See the report-type catalog.

Scoring high

• Draw the instant you see the prompt.
• Agree on size and position — “centered, about 60% of the canvas.”
• Draw in the natural order — square, triangle, door for a house.
• Match pace — “about ten seconds” is enough.
• Qualify as the prompt — close the circle, give the star its points.

Limits, on purpose

• Skill isn't measured.
• Meaning isn't understood — geometry only, hence the qualifies-as-prompt check.
• No image-recognition AI.
• No color or pressure — coordinates and time only.

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