For this week’s critical play, I played Skribbl.io with two other friends. Skribbl.io is an online pictionary game hosted on Skribbl.io (the website) developed by ticedev. Skribbl.io seems to be first published on Crazy Games, but now also has a stand alone website where people can play Skribbl.io in both public and private lobbies.
In Skribbl.io, judging becomes the role of the guessers (crowd) and helps to strengthen and reinforce preexisting group dynamics by providing an avenue for inside jokes and playful criticism to emerge from timed drawings. Skribbl.io is a fun game which embraces fellowship and challenge as people get to know each other as they judge each other’s timed drawings.
Judging is a major component of Skribbl.io as it is the main way of gaining points. As opposed to other judging games such as Apples to Apples or Cards against Humanity where there is a single judge that the crowd needs to tailor their response for, Skribbl.io flips the player dynamic by having a single artist and many judges. By correctly guessing the drawing, the judges are able to gain points and the artist is able to gain points based on the number of judges who successfully judged their drawing. This dynamic helps to strengthen the group dynamic by giving an avenue for inside jokes and shared experiences to emerge. Judging in Skribbl.io is a combination of fun and desperation as judges try to correctly guess the correct word.
Playing a round of Skribbl.io
Since players are entirely free to choose what word, among three, they want to draw, there is ample opportunity to bring in inside jokes from pre-existing relationships. During play the word “loot” came up when it was my turn to draw. I opted to lean into a popular anime that I knew the three of us had watched, drawing Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End) to be trapped in a mimic (a popular comical scene in the anime). By playing into existing inside jokes, Skribbl.io gives the opportunity for players to engage with each other in unique, playful ways that only they can interact in.
In another round, a player drew a stick figure twice for two different words. I managed to not guess the right word in time for both cases (the words were “stick man” and “person”). In response both of my friends asked me why I couldn’t get the correct word even though the picture was perfect. Even hours later, my friends kept reminding me of this failure. I think even if you fail to guess correctly in Skribbl.io, players attribute it to a rushed drawing or a rushed guess and not as an issue of skill. A failure isn’t hurtful in Skribbl.io. Instead, when there was a funny failure, the three of us laughed together about what went wrong. Additionally, since there’s always a timer (even after a drawing is completed) there’s never enough time to be truly hung up on a subpar drawing or missed guess.
There is a timer for all parts of Skribbl.io, including picking your word
I would argue that a major part of why Skribbl.io seems to promote a positive experience between players is because of minimalist timed drawings (as a result of the timer and drawings done by a mouse) and its “sketchy” aesthetic look. The dynamic of a rushed drawing along with the sketchy background of the site reinforces the idea that the drawings don’t need to be perfect. In fact, the page background has an assortment of simple, sketchy drawings including a frowning face, a sun with a smileyface, and a stick figure. As soon as players arrive on the website of Skribbl.io, we all know that we’re going to be drawing funny, simple stick figures doing funny, simple activities.
The background of Skribbl.io, showcasing simple, fun drawings
Skribbl.io is a fun judging game where the judges are the majority and are tasked with successfully judging and guessing the artist’s drawing. Everyone is under time pressure both to draw an effective picture and to guess the correct corresponding word. Group dynamics and relationships are strengthened since the judging is playful and inside jokes can naturally emerge through drawings. Additionally, any criticism (both for artists and judges) can be taken lightly and the aesthetics of Skribbl.io promote playful criticism through its imagery of simple drawings.
