STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- “Draw Something,” a hit mobile game, lets players take turns drawing, guessing objects
- It’s been the No. 1 free app on the iPad, iPhone and has attracted 35 million users
- Player on the game’s appeal: “It’s not a competition, it’s about collaboration”
Playing the game is simple once you scan your social-network contacts for someone to play with. The app gives you three choices of things to draw; you pick a word and then draw it with your finger on the touchscreen, using the basic colors provided in the app. Your friend hopefully deciphers your picture and guesses it correctly, then draws a picture for you in return.
The back and forth continues in an addictive cycle. There’s no winner; instead, players work together to build streaks of correctly guessed drawings.
Dan Porter, former CEO of OMGPop turned a vice president of Zynga, said they were inspired to create something that was close to a party game — targeted at everyone and not too competitive.
“We wanted to be that game that was on the phone of the people who had no other games on their phone,” Porter said. “We thought it would do well. But we were shocked that it did this well.”
The point system complements the easygoing nature of the game. Players have the ability to pick from a list of three words, which range in difficulty. Harder words are worth more virtual coins, which can be cashed in for features or hints within the game.
What’s interesting is how these points work. The person drawing gets coins if the other player guesses it correctly. The person guessing is given the same number of coins for guessing it.
Read the entire CNN story here.
Download it from iTunes here.