For this critical play I chose to analyze skribbl.io, an online sketching-based multiplayer game developed by Ticedev and hosted online at www.skribbl.io. The game is targeted at groups of 2-20 people who are looking for fun, lighthearted social games to play with each other.
Mechanics of the game include 5 rounds each of which involve all the players in the game taking individual turns drawing a picture based on a prompt which the other players are then expected to guess as quickly as possible to earn points. The game is almost pictionary-esque with some key differences.
The first interesting dynamic the game introduces is playing solo. I think a lot of drawing-based games, including Pictionary, draw their fun from being team games and are usually better suited to be played in person. This one however, really caters to the possibility of not being colocated (due to the pandemic) and allows for a fun, fast-paced social game regardless of what other resources and contexts are involved. Players make their guesses alone and are competing against all the other players to guess quickly. Despite not being a team game, it creates playful competition and intense interactions between people without being too high-stakes. This also makes the game a great option for large groups since the Kahoot!-esque nature of one-on-one competition makes it fun and almost addicting to play. Both these factors constitute challenge and fellowship as the primary types of fun that make the game engaging despite the lack of physical contact.
The second distinguishing dynamic is the ridiculousness of drawing with a mouse. Drawing pictures on a computer screen with (usually) a laptop cursor is notoriously hard for those without experience and coupled with some of the harder prompts in the game like “India” or “Homer Simpson”, the game adds a major element of hilarity. Having to guess what a bunch of pixelated scribbles on a screen mean can be an extremely entertaining experience since people are usually struggling to translate images of obscure objects in their memories to drawing. I think both of these factors make the game fun by incorporating discovery and expression in that players discover the extent of their friends’ and their own abilities through the medium of drawing online and each person makes unique choices as to how to approach each prompt,
