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Pictures of the game
Earth as a globe of curved pieces, the Atlantic between the Americas and Africa, with one piece lifted away carrying the Sahara.
A 1693 star atlas wrapped round a sphere, Argo the ship and the great dog drawn among the stars, and a piece lifted away showing Draco.
The Sun in deep red ultraviolet as a sphere of triangular pieces with gaps, and a loose piece drifting off to one side against the Milky Way.
An 1891 paper globe, Europe and Asia at its centre and a few pieces missing, with a loose five-sided piece showing North America beside it.
The Moon as a small sphere of curved pieces against a starry sky, most of its frame still empty, with a piece drifting off to one side.
A blue and gold star chart from 1800 wrapped round a sphere, Virgo and Boötes on it, with a loose piece drifting off to one side.
The Indian Ocean's currents swirling in white around India and South-East Asia, on a globe of pieces rising from the foot of the picture.

Oblate

A Bit Shepherds game

Oblate is a puzzle game of spherical jigsaws. Piece by piece, explore new worlds, and reveal the hidden secrets of the planet we share.

  • Android: late 2026
  • iOS: 2027

NASA Earth Observatory, Blue Marble Next Generation (July 2004), imagery by Reto Stöckli

Ignace-Gaston Pardies, Globi Coelestis (Paris, 1693) — David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Libraries, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

NASA/SDO and the AIA science team, the Sun at 304 Å, May 2024

Adolf Henze, Erd-Globus (Leipzig, 1891) — David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford University Libraries, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, CGI Moon Kit (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter WAC mosaic)

Johann Elert Bode, Hemisphaerium Coeli Boreale / Australe (Berlin, 1800), public domain

NASA/GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio, Perpetual Ocean 2

Help us test Oblate!

Android user? Help us test Oblate before its release later this year.

iOS Version arrives in 2027

Join the tester group

When the group opens, sign in, then press Ask to join group.

Screenshots

Live action from the game playing on a Pixel 9a.

  • A finished Earth, whole and turning, beside a total of 243 and the next level, eight pieces in an octahedron, with a note on NASA's Blue Marble.
  • A grey sphere half covered by pieces of Colton's 1855 map, South America on its face, and one large piece of the Caribbean lifted beside it.
  • A star atlas in pieces, two placed on a grey sphere and one held up showing Capricorn as a sea-goat, with the score at 482.
  • A finished globe of ocean heat, the Atlantic glowing red and yellow, beside a total of 324 and the next level, six pieces in a cube.
  • A sphere of the Sun's surface in deep red, half assembled, one triangular piece held up and two small ones drifting, at the start of a game.
  • The home screen: Earth turning above the wordmark, and the puzzle list below it, Earth first, then Monte 1587, Arrowsmith 1790 and Colton 1855.
  • Jupiter's page: the banded planet above a line about it, and its levels listed beneath, from a four-piece tetrahedron up to fourteen pieces.
  • Colton's map further along: Africa and the Atlantic covering half the grey sphere, the Sahara on the piece being placed, and loose pieces scattered round it.
  • A dozen map pieces flying out from a grey sphere as a puzzle scatters, with the score at 510.
  • The settings screen with Sound selected, and the music packs beside it: Chip Tune, A Grain of Wheat, Ambient Collection 1 and Oblate, the one in use.