How to play Doodle Duel
Draw a warrior. Watch it fight.
Play Doodle DuelYour drawing does the fighting
Doodle Duel is a drawing game where the drawings fight. Everyone picks a class, draws a warrior over its outline, draws a weapon for it, names it and gives it something to shout. Then the warriors compete in a knockout tournament, with everyone watching the same battles and cheering them on.
Each warrior moves the way its class moves, and whatever you drew follows, a little late and with a wobble. Even a simple stick figure with a frying pan can become a fighter that swings its weapon.
It plays two to eight in six to fifteen minutes.
Drawing your warrior
There are eight classes, and each comes with an outline to draw over and a weapon of its own. The Barbarian carries an axe, the Wizard a staff, the Druid a branch, the Warlock an orb, the Paladin a great sword, the Ranger a bow, the Rogue a dagger and the Fighter a sword. Two players can pick the same class and still end up with warriors that look nothing alike.
The outline shows only while you draw. In the fight, everything on screen is your own drawing, and anything you add past the end of a limb, such as a hat, a horn or a tail, stays attached and moves with it.
Your weapon has its own outline too, showing which end goes in the hand. Draw whatever you like over it, and it will be held and swung.
Your warrior's name can be up to 16 characters. Then you write one to three battle phrases of up to 24 characters each, and one of them appears in a speech bubble every time your warrior attacks.
There is no time limit on drawing.
The tournament
Every warrior is introduced first, one at a time. Then they fight a knockout tournament, two at a time, with the whole room watching the same battle. When an odd number are left, one warrior picked at random goes through that round without a fight. Nobody gets that twice, and everybody fights at least once.
The two warriors take turns attacking, a blow every two or three seconds, and a battle lasts thirty to forty-five seconds. If one of the two is yours, you choose which of its four attacks it throws next, and if you choose nothing, one is picked for you. Each class has its own four. The Barbarian has Chop, Charge, Headbutt and Windmill. The Fighter has Jab, Swing, Kick and Cartwheel.
Hype and the winner
When your warrior is not fighting, you can hype one of the two in the battle. Hype makes that warrior's attacks land more often. It adds no damage, its effect is capped, and it fades a few seconds after the cheering stops. You cannot hype a battle your own warrior is in.
Once your warrior is knocked out you are part of the crowd, and you can hype every battle left. The last warrior standing wins, and gets the screen to itself at full size.
Brick against Sir Wobble
Five players. In the first battle, Kemal's Barbarian, Brick, faces Ayşe's Wizard, Sir Wobble. Lena's Rogue goes through this round without a fight, since five warriors do not split into pairs.
Brick is drawn as a potato carrying an axe. Kemal gave him one phrase, I AM THE WALL, so every Brick attack says it. Sir Wobble's hat is three times the size of the rest of him, and Ayşe wrote three phrases: Respect the hat, Is this thing on, and Not the hat.
You, Sam and Lena are watching, so you three can hype. Sam and Lena repeatedly hype Sir Wobble while you hype Brick. The room leans two to one toward the wizard, his bolts land a little more often, and early on Brick takes two in a row.
Kemal picks Windmill and leaves it there. It lands three times running, the axe swinging with the potato-shaped warrior attached, and every time the bubble says I AM THE WALL. Sir Wobble goes down with his hat still on, and Brick goes through to the next round.
Tips
Draw big and bold. Your warrior fights at phone size next to somebody else's, so thick lines and a big head read better than fine detail.
Draw beyond the outline if you like. Horns, capes or extra heads attached to a limb move with it, giving your warrior a distinctive silhouette.
Make the weapon ridiculous. It is in every attack, so a fish, a baguette or an enormous spoon adds a visual joke to each attack.
Write three phrases. With one, your warrior says the same thing on every attack. With three, it works through all of them before any repeats.
Hype throughout the battle. The crowd's effect lasts a few seconds, so steady cheering from several people does more than a burst at the end.
Choose attacks for variety. All four attacks have the same chance to land and deal the same damage, so pick the one you want to see next.