Doodle Party

About Doodle Party

Play Doodle Party with up to ten people: Play now joins a public room in your language, and Make a room gives you a private room with an invite link and a six-character code for friends. One person draws, everyone else guesses, and the turn passes on.

Doodle Party is a free draw and guess game for 2 to 10 players. Each turn one player draws a secret word on the sketchbook page while everyone else races to guess it in the chat: the sooner you get it, the more points you score, and the drawer scores for every right guess. Jump into a quick play room with people playing in your language, or make a private room, choose the rules and send your friends the link. It plays in the browser on a computer, tablet or phone, with nothing to install.

Also called: draw and guess, drawing game online, guess the drawing, drawing and guessing game.

How to play Doodle Party

1. Type a name, then press Play now for a public room, or Make a room for a private one. A friend's link takes you straight into their room; or type the six-character code under Have a code?.
2. When it's your turn to draw, pick one of three words. You have 15 seconds to choose, then one is picked for you. The clock starts as soon as you pick.
3. Draw it with the mouse, a finger or a pen. The tools are a pen, an eraser and a fill bucket, with 16 colours and four brush sizes, plus Undo (or Ctrl+Z) and Clear. Everyone sees your drawing as you make it.
4. When someone else is drawing, type your guesses in the chat and press Enter. Above the page you see a blank for each letter of the word, with the number of letters in each word.
5. A right guess is hidden from everyone else: they just see that you got it. If you're nearly there, only you see a "close!" message, so keep trying.
6. Once you've guessed the word, you can chat with the drawer and the others who got it, out of sight of those still guessing.
7. Everyone draws once each round. After the last round the podium shows the final scores, and the highest score wins.

Rules

• Players: a room holds 2 to 10 players and needs at least two to start. Players draw in the order they joined; someone who joins mid-game is added to the end of the current round and draws too.
• Word choice: with Mix (the standard setting) the three words are one easy, one medium and one hard. Medium words score ×1.2 and hard words ×1.5. A private room can choose easy, medium or hard words only instead.
• Guessing: capital letters, accents, spaces, hyphens and apostrophes don't matter. In a word of six letters or more, one slip (a wrong, missing, extra or swapped letter) still counts. A guess that is off by a little more is "close!", and a chat line that contains the word is shown only to you, so nobody can give it away.
• Points for guessing: a right guess scores 300 the moment the drawing starts, falling to 50 as time runs out. The first to guess gets 50 more and the second 25 more. All of it is multiplied for medium and hard words.
• Points for drawing: the drawer gets 50 for every player who guesses the word (60 for a medium word, 75 for a hard one), and the same again if everyone gets it.
• Hints: letters of the word are revealed one at a time as the clock runs down: at 40%, 60% and 78% of the draw time. A long word shows up to three letters, a short one fewer, and a word of one or two letters none.
• The end of a turn: a turn ends when the time is up, when everyone who is there has guessed the word, or when the drawer has been gone for 12 seconds. Then the word is shown along with everyone's points for the turn.
• Rounds: quick play rooms play 3 rounds with 80 seconds to draw. In a private room the host chooses 2 to 6 rounds and 40 to 120 seconds.
• If you lose your connection you keep your place and your score for a minute, so you can come straight back. Rude words in the chat are hidden with asterisks.

Doodle Party tips and strategy

• Start with the outline. Draw the big, recognisable shape first and add details after. Guessers often get it from the first few lines.
• Pick a word you can draw. A hard word scores more, but only if people guess it. A clear easy word that everyone gets quickly is often worth more to you as the drawer.
• Guess early and often. Points fall as the clock runs down, and the first and second right guesses get a bonus. Wrong guesses cost nothing.
• Use the blanks. The letter count, the gaps between words and the revealed letters narrow it down fast.
• Watch for "close!": it means you're one or two letters away. Try another spelling, a plural or a similar word.
• Use fill and the colours: a yellow sun or a blue sea is guessed far faster than an outline.