Doodle Roar Strategy: How to Win

You win votes for pages that make people laugh at the reveal. A perfect drawing that gets guessed right is nice, but it rarely wins the book. The page where the story takes a sharp turn does.

So play for the chain, not just your own page. Give the next player something they can work with, with enough room to go wrong. A book where every page is “a dog” gets no laughs. A book that goes from “a dog at the dentist” to “angry potato” to “volcano with teeth” gets plenty.

One more thing: you cannot vote for your own pages, so every point you get comes from someone else enjoying your work.

You get 30 seconds and up to 80 characters. Use them for something short and odd that can be drawn. The best prompts are easy to start and hard to finish.

• Mix two things that do not belong together: “a shark doing homework”, “grandma on a skateboard”.
• Give it an action. A thing doing something is funnier and harder to read than a thing sitting still.
• Keep it to one picture. A prompt that needs three scenes ends up as a mess nobody can guess, and that is less funny than you would think.
• Avoid words with no shape, like “justice” or “Tuesday”. The drawer will freeze, and the book stalls.
• Use a feeling or a twist the drawer has to show: “a very nervous snowman”. That small extra is what gets lost or twisted down the chain.
• Stuck? Tap the dice for one, then change a word to make it yours.

You have 90 seconds, and once two thirds of the room is done, the rest get 10 seconds. Plan to finish in about a minute.

• Draw the big shape first with the thick pen. Then switch to the thin pen for faces and small details.
• Pick the one or two things the prompt cannot do without and draw those large. Skip the background.
• Use color where it names the thing: yellow for a sun, red for fire, green for grass, blue for water, brown for a tree trunk.
• Faces sell feelings. Big eyes, a wide mouth or a frown tell the next player what is going on faster than anything else.
• Show action with simple marks: lines behind something to show it moving, drops of sweat, little stars for a bump.
• Pinch to zoom in for tiny details, then tap the fit button to see the whole page again before you hand in.
• Use Undo for a bad stroke rather than the eraser. It is faster and cleaner.
• Writing the words on the drawing is not against the rules, but it kills the chain. The fun is in what gets lost.

You get 45 seconds to name what you see in a few words. You do not see the prompt it came from, only the drawing.

• Say what you actually see. If it looks like a potato with legs, “potato with legs” is a great guess, and often the funniest one.
• Name the action as well as the thing. “Cat falling off a roof” gives the next drawer far more than “cat”.
• Keep it short and drawable. The next person has to draw your guess, so a guess of “confused” on its own leaves them stuck.
• Look at the colors. A blue blob under a shape is probably water. Red and orange near something is probably fire.
• Do not leave it blank. An empty guess reads “no idea”, and that gives the next drawer nothing.

Any page can win a vote: the prompt, a drawing or a guess. The pages that win are usually the turning points, where the story changes.

• A confident wrong guess gets votes. If a drawing looks like something else, lean into it.
• A drawing that takes the prompt a bit too literally gets votes. “Raining cats and dogs” drawn as cats and dogs falling from a cloud is a classic.
• A great prompt gets votes too, because the room watches it fall apart page by page.
• Each drawing draws itself again at the reveal, stroke by stroke. A drawing with a surprise last stroke, like a hat or a face, plays well.
• Vote for the page that made you laugh most. Bots vote too, but at random, so the people in the room decide most books.

• Writing a long, clever prompt that cannot be drawn.
• Spending the whole clock on one detail and leaving the main shape half done.
• Drawing tiny in one corner. Use the whole page.
• Guessing a single vague word that the next drawer cannot draw.
• Writing words on the drawing, which stops the chain from going wrong.
• Leaving a page empty. Half a drawing still goes in the book; an empty page does not.

Doodle Roar is best in one room, where you can hear the reveal. A TV at joinme.games/watch shows every page large, so the whole room reads together.

If someone always takes too long, the host can call last call from the waiting screen to give them 10 seconds. With a slow group, keep timers on.

With 1 to 3 people, bots fill the seats up to 4. Their guesses are random, which can make your book go very strange. Write clear prompts and draw clearly to keep the story in human hands.

• Turn timers off for young kids so nobody feels rushed. The host can still call last call.
• Suggest prompts about animals, food and silly jobs: “a pig chef”, “a cat astronaut”.
• Let kids say their guess out loud to a grown-up who types it, if spelling is slow.
• Turn scores off if votes cause tears. You still get the full reveal, just with no leader list.
• Tell everyone the worst drawing often wins. It is true, and it takes the pressure off.

• Prompts: two things that do not belong together, doing something.
• Drawing: thick pen for shapes, thin pen for faces, color that names the thing.
• Guessing: say what you see, thing plus action, in a few words.
• Finish in about a minute; the last call is only 10 seconds.
• Vote for what made you laugh, not what was drawn best.

How do you win at Doodle Roar?

Make pages the room votes for. Write odd prompts that can be drawn, draw the main idea clearly so the chain keeps moving, and guess what you really see, even when it is wrong. The funniest turns in the story win the votes.

What makes a good Doodle Roar prompt?

Short, odd and drawable. Put two things together that do not belong, and give them an action, like “a shark doing homework”. Avoid ideas with no shape and prompts that need several scenes.

How do you draw fast in a drawing game?

Draw the big shape first with the thick pen, then add faces and details with the thin pen. Draw only what the prompt needs, use the whole page, and use color that names the thing, like yellow for the sun.

Any tips for drawing games if you can’t draw?

Bad drawings are often the funniest pages. Focus on one clear shape, a face that shows a feeling, and simple marks for movement. Nobody votes for the neatest drawing; they vote for the one that made them laugh.

Is Doodle Roar good for kids?

Yes. Turn timers off so nobody is rushed, suggest prompts about animals and food, and turn scores off if you would rather just enjoy the reveal.