Who knew blindfold drawing could generate such fun? You Said You Could Draw is a simple but entertaining party game from JPN Games that can be played by up to 8 players (minimum 3) of any age.
There's a stack of cards, each of which shows six numbered words. One player takes a card, rolls a die to select a word, and then dons a blindfold before attempting to draw a clue to that word. The other players then look at the finished drawing and try to guess the word on the card. You can't cheat by adding letters, numbers or symbols to your drawing, tho' the rules suggest options for making the game easier if your group are finding each other's drawings too bamboozling (the rules suggest that, in easy mode, you offer the first letter of the word and reveal whether it's one word or two). Players score a point for a correct guess and the artist earns a point for everyone who guesses correctly. There's a bonus point available to the artist if they correctly nominate a player who succeeds in identifying the drawing. Just to keep everyone honest and on their toes, there's also a two-point penalty if you're the only player who doesn't guess the word correctly.
Despite or, more likely, because of its simplicity, You Said You Could Draw is immediately engaging. The components serve their purpose well. There's a large dry-wipe board, a blindfold, a dry-wipe scoreboard, eight small dry-wipe boards on which players can record guesses, eight dry-wipe pens, a conventional six-sided die and a big stack of 100 double-sided word cards. Designer James Nigbur hasn't made it super easy with the choice of words on each card: there are several that many would struggle with. Drawing a TRAIN may seem relatively easy but, even without the handicap of a blindfold, players may struggle with a drawing for SOUL, unless maybe they fall back on the Disney movie. Our only gripe is that the words on each card that are marked with a star, giving additional bonuses for the artist and correct guessers, aren't necessarily the hardest ones to draw.
With 100 double-sided word cards, this game will almost certainly outlive the supplied dry-wipe pens, but these are readily replaceable. And You Said You Could Draw scratches the same sort of itch as the very popular Just One (Repos Production), except that its appeal is more universal. Nevertheless, it's an added bonus that the You Said You Could Draw cards can be pressed into service as a fresh deck of Just One cards, and vice versa.
You Said You Could Draw returns to Kickstarter on 18 May. Click here to check out the campaign.