Draft & Doodle is an art exercise/party game designed to let both novice and skilled artists practice drawing. Players actually draw pictures according to assigned themes and constraints. Beginners can practice the most important part of drawing, actually drawing things, without worrying about the quality of their art, while long time hobbyists and/or professionals can practice working with specific constraints. This game is a formalized version of an exercise I used to do for fun where I would attempt to draw things in Microsoft Paint with one minute time constraints.
But I'm not an artist!
I'm not either, but it doesn't mean you can't draw! Everyone can draw. You just need to start doing it and practicing.
But I'm an artist!
Great! You can practice techniques you normally wouldn't use in an environment that you're perhaps not familiar with.
What do I need to play?
At minimum, you just need something to draw with and something to draw on. Any style or medium works, whether it's something you're intimately familiar with or some crazy new set up you've never tried before. However, it is also recommended to have friends to play with, either in-person or online. Drawing with friends is great fun.
Post-Mortem
This is the first time I've ever competed in the Compo. I ended up starting very late because I was busy on the first day, and had no ideas to run off of until the night of the second day. I spent less than 24 hours making this game, but I'm very happy with the result as a whole, even if it is a very simple concept and system. This is the first time I've ever made a game that genuinely feels like something that is fun to play on a somewhat regular basis. Hopefully you can enjoy practicing drawing by playing Draft & Doodle!
I read the rules and I think it could be a nice party game if there was a timer involved that keeps the players in a little rush :) Also I love the random tables, and dice rolling is always a great option... Wish that this would be the focus of the game design to create a lot of dice roll tables for the game. For example on each round you draw 2 tables and roll a die on them. :) I like the overall idea of the game
I used random.org's number generator to roll some "dice" for me. Rolled a 20 and an 89. I'm not an artist, but I tried Paint and then Adobe Illustrator, with five minutes for each attempt, to see if I could draw a "drone" (LOL nope).
I like the concept, and enjoyed the fonts and clean presentation of your rulebook. Including a simple random number generator and having it present the results from the roll table would have been a nice addition. Still, this is a solid foundation. Congrats on the submission!
Your rulebook was well presented and was easy to follow, could have had some additions as mentioned in the previous comments to make it suitable for a sole player. But overall nice concept for an art lover!
@fictions There is a rule for time constraints so that you're forced to draw things in a relatively short amount of time. The official written rules for time constraints is between 1 to 15 mins, but honestly after playtesting a bunch, I think it should be something closer to 30 seconds to 5 minutes at most.
@tohubohu Nice! I had to pump out a lot of weird drawings given the constraints and theme before. In the banner for the game, the bottom right drawing is "Donkey Kong" but drawn without using my hands.
I draw a lot but even for me it's hard to visualise most of these themes like Lyrical Phrase/Movie Quote etc
It will be better to use themes which uses in art class for basic drawing. Primitive shapes, Faces, Body parts, Furniture, Architecture, Robots/Mechanism, Weapons, Landscapes, Situations, Vegetables, Frutes, Dishes, Trees, Flowers etc
I was hesitant when I opened this, deciding whether it is fun or not. Then I tried it (I'm bad at drawing btw) and I loved the idea. I didn't like what I drew (19 body part, 6 wristless, tried to draw a hand) but I think this is really a game "starting with nothing" 😆 Good job!
I don’t know whether we’ll have the opportunity to play your game before the voting period ends, but I’m pretty sure we will eventually try it. I just wanted to leave a note saying how inventive I thought it was; we happen to organise drawing sessions with the same friends we do game jams with, and I’m sure we’ll have fun with it.
This sounds like a really fun party game or classroom activity. I really liked the long list of constraints - lots of clever stuff in there. Well-presented and well-thought out.
Fun game! Just like Ludum Dare, your prize is your product :)
I usually do pixel art so thought I'd try paper this time. Wasn't gonna post it at first, but I enjoyed seeing other peoples' work, so why not.
The "theme generator" was a nice touch and saved me some mental energy (I got "object in the room" / "birds eye view", and limited it to 5 minutes). I feel like my particular theme/constraint combo worked, although the theme by itself might not have given me enough direction with another paired constraint. Guess it depends on the player though, and how much direction they want. Anyway, thanks for the game - it was nice to take my eyes off the screen for a change.
Comments22
I had fun playing your game!
I like the concept, and enjoyed the fonts and clean presentation of your rulebook. Including a simple random number generator and having it present the results from the roll table would have been a nice addition. Still, this is a solid foundation. Congrats on the submission!
Good job !
@tohubohu Nice! I had to pump out a lot of weird drawings given the constraints and theme before. In the banner for the game, the bottom right drawing is "Donkey Kong" but drawn without using my hands.
It will be better to use themes which uses in art class for basic drawing.
Primitive shapes, Faces, Body parts, Furniture, Architecture, Robots/Mechanism, Weapons, Landscapes, Situations, Vegetables, Frutes, Dishes, Trees, Flowers etc
Congrats on the game!
I usually do pixel art so thought I'd try paper this time. Wasn't gonna post it at first, but I enjoyed seeing other peoples' work, so why not.
The "theme generator" was a nice touch and saved me some mental energy (I got "object in the room" / "birds eye view", and limited it to 5 minutes). I feel like my particular theme/constraint combo worked, although the theme by itself might not have given me enough direction with another paired constraint. Guess it depends on the player though, and how much direction they want. Anyway, thanks for the game - it was nice to take my eyes off the screen for a change.
I got Geographic Location, Draw a birds eye view perspective of the theme so... I just decided to draw Australia
Adding more tables would be cool because... TABLES!
Edit: God the image is huge.