Skribbl.io is an online multiplayer drawing and guessing game created by ticedev. This game could be played by people of all ages, though the target audience is most likely groups of people that have some pre-existing relationships. Nonetheless, there is still the option to play online with strangers.
Skribbl.io can support up to 12 players per game. Each round of a game, one player is assigned the role of “drawer.” The drawer is given three options on what they can draw, and they must select one to draw. The other players in the game are the “guessers” and must guess what the drawing is and type it in the chat.
Each round consists of a number of turns, such that the number of turns is equal to the number of players in the game. Every round, each player gets one turn as the drawer. The only action available to the drawer is drawing, but they can adjust the color / stroke size of the virtual brush. The guessers can type their guesses in the chat until they answer correctly, as well as “like” or “dislike” a drawing with a thumbs up/down button. Incorrect chat guesses are viewable to everybody in the game, which led to a fairly interesting dynamic. Guessers are rewarded more points the faster they guess what is being drawn, so players are scrambling to type a guess into the chat and hit “enter” as quickly as possible. This mechanic led to several typos being made in the chat, which could serve as clues to the other guessers. For example, in one round of my game the drawing was of a teddy bear. I had guessed brown bear, black bear, and panda bear and was running out of guesses and time. At this point, one of the other guessers entered “tedy bear” in the chat. Because this was not technically correct, it was displayed to all the other players. I was able to quickly type teddy bear into the guess box before anybody else, which elicited a hilarious reaction from the original guesser.
Skribbl.io certainly contains a challenge type of fun. There are two types of challenges in Skribbl.io, and a player’s particular challenge depends on their current role. The drawer is tasked with the challenge of creating a virtual drawing that can be readily identified by the other players. Meanwhile, the guesser’s objective is to speedily determine what the drawing is.
Skribbl.io is able to work so well because of its simplicity. There are no complex elements to this game, which allows for anybody to pick up and play regardless of experience. There is also an interesting social element to the game, as having an in person game leads to very visible celebrations and frustrated, but lighthearted, exclamations when somebody guesses incorrectly. This social element is shared between Skribbl.io and Pictionary, another drawing/guessing game. The main difference between these two games is their platform, as Pictionary is typically played with a physical drawing board. Skribbl.io’s platform allows anybody to play at any time without requiring setup, which could give it a leg up on Pictionary.
Although there is no prior experience needed in order to play Skribbl.io, there is one aspect of the game that benefits experienced players. As soon as the drawer begins crafting, the number of letters in the word(s) to be guessed is displayed at the top of the screen.
For one particular word, the drawer was about to begin drawing a hill, and the number four along with _ _ _ _ was displayed at the top. One of my friends had played their fair share of Skribbl.io in the past, and immediately guessed hill, knowing that there was a limited amount of four-letter words in the game. This friend explained their strategy after some accusatory claims of cheating. Seeing this strategy in action, along with there being no penalty for an incorrect guess, led all the other players to throw out guesses as quickly and frequently as possible as the game continued.
Skribbl.io does require some vulnerability at times, especially as a drawer. As somebody who is not confident in their drawing abilities, I would find myself feeling nervous if I had to draw something that I had never drawn before, and two of my friends that I played with expressed similar feelings. However, being in a game with my close friends, wherein everybody felt comfortable with the other players, it was somewhat easier to be vulnerable.
