How a room works
Online rooms are rolling out, so if a room can't be made right now, practice drawing still works and you can try again later.
- Tap Create a room. Playing online asks once for your date of birth, with no account to make; only the year is kept, on your device. Under-13s can't play online.
- Share the invite link, or read out the six-letter code. A room takes two to four players, each on their own phone, tablet or computer, with nothing to download.
- When at least two of you are in, the host taps Start. The host can also remove a player.
- On your turn you have 15 seconds to choose your word from three on offer: one easy, one medium and one hard. If you don't pick, you get the easy one. Then the timer runs, 80 seconds as standard, while everyone else watches your lines appear and guesses.
- Everyone draws twice. Anyone who joins late starts drawing from the next round.
There is no typed chat. You cheer each other on with quick phrases and emotes.
How the points work
A right guess is worth 50 points plus up to 250 more for speed, falling as the timer runs down. The artist scores for every player who gets it. Harder words pay more for everyone.
| Word | Fastest guess | Last-second guess | Artist, per guesser |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 300 | 50 | 100 |
| Medium | 375 | 65 | 125 |
| Hard | 450 | 75 | 150 |
Two lessons follow. For guessers, an early right answer is worth up to six times a late one. For the artist, speed doesn't change your points, but every friend who gets it does: a clear drawing that everyone guesses beats a clever one that only one person gets. A hard word you can draw well is worth more to the whole room than an easy one you can't.
Drawing so friends guess fast
- Start with the big shape. Get the outline down in the first few seconds and make it big: a whale is one long curved body, a house is a box and a triangle. Details come second.
- Add the one giveaway detail. The spout on the whale, the mane on the lion, the handle on the mug. One telling detail beats ten accurate ones.
- Use colour sparingly. You have six inks, an eraser and three brush sizes. Colour helps only when it is the clue: a yellow sun, a red cherry, a green frog. Colouring in costs time and rarely helps.
- Act it out with arrows. Many words are actions, such as jump, sneeze or juggle. Draw a stick figure, then show the movement: an arrow up from the feet, a spray from the nose, dotted curves between the hands. An arrow or a circle round the important bit tells guessers where to look.
- Read the wrong guesses. Everyone's guesses appear on screen. If they keep saying cat when you mean lion, add the mane rather than starting again.
- Keep it clean. Use Undo for a bad line instead of scribbling over it, and leave letters and numbers out: they spoil the game.
Guessing well
- Think category first. Animal, food, object or action? Then run through the most common words in it.
- Short, common words. Every answer is a single everyday word for a thing or an action, never a name or a brand. Try the plain word before the fancy one.
- Use the blanks. You can see how long the word is from the start. A letter appears halfway through the turn and, for longer words, another at three-quarters time.
- Listen for close. If your guess is one letter off, Suvi tells you privately. Try the plural, a different ending or another spelling.
- Guess early and often. Wrong guesses cost nothing, though you get about one a second. Spaces and hyphens are ignored, so snow man counts as snowman.
- Hints cost a little. One hint a turn shows you an extra letter, but a right answer then earns a quarter less.
Practice mode
Tap Practice drawing to play on your own, with no account and no friends needed. Pick one of three words, draw against the clock, tap Done and watch your doodle play back line by line. It's a good way to rehearse fast outlines: aim to have the main shape down in a few seconds, then see how soon it becomes obvious in the replay.
If you only remember three things
- Draw the big shape first, then one giveaway detail.
- Use colour only when it is the clue, and arrows for actions.
- Guess early with short, common words, and use the blanks.
Warm up with practice drawing in Doodle Guess, then send the invite to your friends. Looking for a game for two on one phone? See two-player games.
Questions
- How many people can play in a room?
- Two to four, each on their own phone, tablet or computer. The host needs at least one other player to start.
- How long does a game take?
- Everyone draws twice. A turn lasts up to 80 seconds, plus a few seconds to choose a word and see the scores, so four players finish in a quarter of an hour at most, and sooner when the guessing is quick.
- Can an answer be more than one word?
- No. Every answer is a single word. If you type a space or a hyphen in your guess, it is ignored.
- Are online rooms live yet?
- They are rolling out. If a room can't be made when you try, Suvi offers practice drawing instead, and you can try the room again later.
Play it now
Doodle Guess is free on Suvi, on your phone or computer, no download.