Artist Statement
What if there was a drawing and guessing game less centered on drawing skill and more focused on strategy? Our goal was to create something lighthearted but somewhat competitive, combining drawing and guessing mechanics with a clever twist. Inspired by games like Charades, Among Us, and Pictionary, we wanted to capture the “impostor vs innocents” dynamic abstracted through visual clues rather than direct conflict. Knowing what we wanted to capture, we made a game where players draw and guess like in Pictionary, but where drawing your word in its most obvious form is not the best strategy. In our game, three drawers must work together to help their teammate, the Explorer, guess a hidden word through their drawings, but they must be careful not to make their drawings so obvious that their opponent, the Thief, is able to guess the word.
Each round, the Explorer guesses from a list of four options, one of which is the hidden word. The Thief must make their guess based solely on the theme shared by the four options. The drawers aim to create an image that’s clear enough to help the Explorer identify the correct option, but subtle enough to keep the Thief from guessing it. What will you draw?
Concept Map
Initial Decisions:
Initially we decided to modify the style of Pictionary, where instead of one person drawing and the rest of the team guessing, there would be a person who you do not want to guess the word, like an “enemy” guesser. We wanted the game to have a big challenge element, but also create a sense of fellowship between the teammates. We also knew that we wanted there to be a list of words where one guesser will have them, while the other “evil” guesser would not, adding to the challenge of the game, while increasing the fun and making people want to keep playing.
Testing and Iteration History:
Throughout the testing period of Glyphs, we conducted a total of three full playtests, each of which significantly shaped the direction of both our game mechanics and aesthetics. These iterations were key to identifying what about our current game version was fun, confusing, or felt “incomplete.” Given that we envisioned Glyphs as a silly, family-friendly game — the kind you would play after dinner.
In the table below, we summarize how Glyphs evolved across iterations—from a loose concept inspired by Pictionary to the refined archeological bluff-and-guess game it is today.
| Initial Game Mechanics + Materials | ||
| Mechanics | Materials | |
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| Iteration | What changed? | Key takeaways |
| 1 | Important Note:
This playtest utilized our default game structure, listed above. |
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| Images from iteration 1
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| 2 |
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| 3 |
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| Images from iteration 3
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| Final | ||
| Mechanics | Changed materials + Additions | |
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These final modifications give Glyphs a playful yet strategic feel—encouraging lighthearted creativity while rewarding clever thinking and subtle communication. The introduction of roles like Explorer, Thief, and Field Researchers adds a narrative layer that makes gameplay more immersive and engaging, helping players feel like they’re part of an archeological adventure.
Link to print n play:
Link to final playtest:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13U0sXXW7aqseUqIf-J4S69GoTI2T8Yqp/view?usp=sharing
