How is Doodle Dash as a party game? Some party games are just not it. Some party games are far from what they should be: the recipe for a ‘party’. And some party games are perfect and do exactly what they are supposed to do. Doodle Dash belongs in the latter category.
The concept of the game is simple: by correctly guessing other people’s drawings, you score points. Each player gets their own drawing board with marker. There should be three things in the centre of the table: the golden bar, the die and a pile of cards equal to the number of players times two (or if playing with three or four players, twelve cards). The active player (or: guesser) names a number and the player to the right of the active player looks at which word to draw. This player shows the chosen word to the other players, after which everyone starts drawing like crazy. When you finish drawing or think your drawing is good enough to be guessed, take the gold bar from the table as quickly as possible. Whoever comes next takes the die. This player keeps rolling the die until the die indicates to stop. The markers go down and the active player starts guessing.
First up is the player with the golden bar. If the word is guessed, the active player and the player with the golden bar get one point. If the word isn’t guessed, the drawing of the player with the die is examined. If the answer is right, the active player and the player with the die get one point, if the answer is wrong, all other drawing boards are shown. At this point, the active player must surely have figured out what the word is, unless all the drawers have invoked their artistic freedom. Anyway, after all the cards have been played, it’s decided who has collected the most points and that is the Doodle Dasher of the evening!
Whether you can draw or not at all (which is often more fun than having a Vermeer or Van Gogh among the players), Doodle Dash ensures smiling faces. It’s great fun to see how everyone handles both the time pressure and the marker. It’s sometimes said that desperate needs lead to desperate deeds, but the players of Doodle Dash sometimes do really special things. When you’re in your Doodle Dash or when you’re in a hurry (read: Doodle Rush but not the game that goes by that title), it always produces surprising scenes. Drawing a tourist or a clown, for example, already offers a lot of scope to let creativity run wild.
A simple game, easy to put on the table and atmosphere-enhancing. That’s all you need. Go draw. And quick!
