Selfie FukuwaraiHow to play & tips

What kind of game is it?

Fukuwarai is a Japanese New Year game, played here in a tatami room. Six parts are cut out of your selfie—left and right eyebrows, left and right eyes, nose and mouth—and you put them back onto the now blank face over a blindfold cloth. The closer to where they were, the higher your score. You can also play with a drawn face, without the camera.

How to play

Press “Play with a selfie” and the front camera opens. Line your face up with the dotted frame and take the photo, and the parts are cut out of your face to make a blank face. If no face is found, you can retake the photo or play with the drawn face. If the camera isn’t available, choose “Play with a drawn face”.

First the original face appears for just 3 seconds, so memorize where the parts are. Then a blindfold cloth covers the face. Drag the parts from the wooden tray below onto the face, in any order. You can also tap a part to pick it and then tap the face to place it. Placed parts are hidden under the cloth. If you let go far outside the face, the part goes back to the tray.

Once all 6 are placed, tap “Reveal!” to lift the cloth and see your fukuwarai face and score. “See the original” lets you compare. “Again with this face” starts the next try right away, and with a selfie there is also “Retake selfie”.

There are 3 difficulty levels—Easy, Normal and Hard—all available from the start. On Easy the face doesn’t spin, and you place the parts on an upright face. On Normal the face spins after the blindfold and stops, and you place the parts at that angle. On Hard the face keeps spinning while you place them.

Ratings

Each part is scored by how far it lands from where it was. Exactly right is full marks, and a quarter of the face’s width away is 0. The average of the 6 parts is your score out of 100; which way a part faces doesn’t count. 90 or more is “Hands of a god”, 75 or more “Basically you”, 55 or more “A relative”, 35 or more “A total stranger”, 15 or more “A work of art”, and anything lower “An alien”.

Best and sharing

Your highest score is saved on this device for each difficulty, and the ema plaque on the home screen shows the best for the difficulty you’ve chosen.

Tap Share on the result screen to share your difficulty, score and rating. With a selfie, the attached image leaves out your face by default; your fukuwarai face goes in only when you choose “Include my face in the share image”. With the drawn face, the fukuwarai face is included.

Tips to get better

• You see the original face for only 3 seconds. Remember how high up the face outline the eyes, nose and mouth sit.
• The center of the square cloth is the center of the face. Use the edges of the cloth as a guide to place the parts where you remember them.
• Take your selfie somewhere bright, with your face lined up in the frame. If no face is found, you’ll have to retake it.

Notes from the creator

I made the New Year game of fukuwarai playable with your own face. Face detection runs on your device, and photos and video are never saved or sent. The camera stops once the photo is taken. Your face goes into the share image only when you choose it. Your records are saved only in this browser too. Available in 9 languages: Japanese, English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese.