For this week’s Critical Play, I played Scribbl.io and some of its variants with my friends over Discord. The game is an independently developed browser-based game and, from what I was able to find, does not have a well-known developer or company associated with it. It has a very casual nature and simple premise, which makes it a game that works for a variety of audiences: from kids to adults. Even though the game theoretically can be played between two people, it seems to work significantly better with 4 or more players. When more players are introduced, more dynamics (such as being the last one to guess a word, or having a greater variety of drawing styles) emerge and make the game more fun.
Scribbl.io consists of two primary actions: First, a player is assigned a word to draw with limited time on a board where all other players are watching. Then, while that player draws, the other ones try to guess the word being drawn as quickly as possible by typing their guesses into a chatbox. The game rotates between who draws and who guesses, rewarding those who can guess the word, or have their word guessed as quickly as possible. And, by having the mechanic where the player who draws the picture gains points if other people guess correctly, Sciribbl incentivises those who draw to make a great effort and creates a cooperative dynamic between the group.
I also noticed a nice mechanic that involved giving players a choice between three words. This reduces the possibility of a player having a word they are uncomfortable in drawing, and adds an element of strategy (because easily recognizable words will gain them more points). Although due to its casual nature, this is not a major focus of the game, players still can express their creativity and imagination through their drawings. I’d say, however, that the main challenge and driver of the competition in Scribble.io comes from trying to quickly and accurately guess/draw the words! While all of these elements lead to a lot of fun, at its core, the Submission to the game as a pastime, or the fact that it is so easy to play, and can be enjoyed in such a casual nature with little time commitment or mastery made scribbl.io very enjoyable.
I would say, however, that it could slightly be improved. Some recommendations that I have came from the fact that my friends and I also decided to
play Gartic Phone (a game available as a Discord Activity). Gartic Phone has no points, and is all about people creating prompts, interpreting them as drawings, then trying to describe these drawings as new prompts over and over against. Both the mechanics of letting other people create prompts in Gartic Phone, and not having points truly doubles down on both Fellowship and the casual nature that the game is trying to portray. The absolute lack of any competition (besides an informal, unspoken one on who made the most people laugh), made it so that we were more purely engaged with each other during Gartic Phone. But, these are different games, and I still loved Scribbl.io and its casual competition aspects. It was also easier to start playing, as it required little to no vulnerability having already been given prompts and seeing how the tools available ultimately make all drawings equally clunky!
