Researchers across the behavioral sciences are increasingly using games as a means of data collection. Intrinsically motivating
digital games are especially promising for music cognition, where large, diverse, and engaged samples are needed. In this
article, we focus on a specific class of game paradigms suited to cross-cultural contexts and applicable across the developmental
lifespan: auditory matching-pairs (Memory) games. We present the conception, design, and initial evaluation of TuneTwins,
a solitaire auditory matching-pairs paradigm developed to study musical memory and auditory cognition. Building on self-determination
theory and prior game-based research, TuneTwins employs an 8-pair (4 × 4) board to balance playability with psychometric sensitivity.
Our web-based auditory adaptation introduces clear visual–auditory mappings, a three-click turn structure, and a dual scoring
system that distinguishes memorized matches from lucky guesses and memory errors. Large-scale simulations of chance and optimal
strategies guided the choice of board size, demonstrating that this configuration yields meaningful separation between performance
extremes while avoiding ceiling effects. We further report empirical evidence from four implementations: a proof-of-concept
online study, a cross-cultural field study with Mbendjele BaYaka hunter-gatherers, a study with visitors to a science museum,
and an online global deployment. In the proof-of-concept study, TuneTwins captured systematic performance differences between
stimulus conditions; across all settings, it elicited high voluntary engagement, including repeated play and the completion
of multiple difficulty levels. We argue that matching-pairs games such as TuneTwins provide an engaging, intuitive, and scalable
paradigm for collecting behavioral data using primarily auditory stimuli—and that they can be used to probe the mental representation
of music across cultures, across development, and potentially across species.