---
key: mechanic/drawing--family-g14
type: mechanic
id: drawing--family-g14
lang: en
title: Communication and conveying meaning
summary: >-
A drawing conveys a concept, story, instruction, or attitude to another
participant or game character.
updatedAt: '2026-10-22'
status: active
url: 'https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/drawing--family-g14/'
jsonUrl: >-
https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/drawing--family-g14.json
markdownUrl: 'https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/drawing--family-g14.md'
aliases: []
tags:
- Drawing
- Mechanics catalog
sourceIds:
- source-6ee014ecac3a8696
- source-345eb2d2764f2afd
sources:
- id: source-6ee014ecac3a8696
title: 'Gartic Phone: How to play'
url: 'https://garticphone.com/'
verifiedAt: null
- id: source-345eb2d2764f2afd
title: Drawful 2
url: 'https://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/'
verifiedAt: null
relations: []
placements:
- catalogId: drawing
id: family-g14
title: Drawing
url: 'https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/drawing/#family-g14'
categoryIds:
- section-1
supersededBy: []
attributes:
preview:
updatedAt: '2026-10-22'
title: Communication and conveying meaning
description: >-
A drawing conveys a concept, story, instruction, or attitude to another
participant or game character.
image:
src: images/mechanics/interface-drawful2-01.webp
width: 1440
height: 810
game: Drawful 2
sourceUrl: 'https://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/'
originalUrl: >-
https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/442070/ss_e19d50c7aafaf684139bdc50222987e585a18c3d.1920x1080.jpg?t=1728584390
credit: 'Jackbox Games, Inc. / Jackbox Games, Inc.'
rights: >-
© Jackbox Games, Inc. / Jackbox Games, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.
caption: 'Drawful 2: participants interpret another player’s drawing'
alt: 'Drawful 2: participants interpret another player’s drawing'
markers:
- x: 48
'y': 54
label: The drawing communicates with other participants
tips:
- Allow clarification unless ambiguity is the intended challenge.
examples:
- title: Drawful 2
url: 'https://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/'
endsAt: null
provenance: >-
Original editorial design catalog consolidated from project discussions on
2026-10-20. Complete discussion item lists and contextual limitations are
preserved; linked primary sources support specific techniques, not the entire
classification. English translation was prepared with machine assistance and
editorial review.
license: CC-BY-4.0
codeLicense: MIT
attribution: gamemechanics.pro contributors
catalogKey: catalog/drawing
---
# Communication and conveying meaning
id: drawing--family-g14
type: mechanic
key: mechanic/drawing--family-g14
lang: en
status: active
url: https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/drawing--family-g14/
A drawing conveys a concept, story, instruction, or attitude to another participant or game character.
## At a glance
[Drawful 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/) · © Jackbox Games, Inc. / Jackbox Games, Inc.. All rights reserved. Excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.
1. The drawing communicates with other participants
- Allow clarification unless ambiguity is the intended challenge.
- [Drawful 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/)
## How it works
A drawing conveys a concept, story, instruction, or attitude to another participant or game character.
## Variants
### Variants and applications
- Guessing the picture. Rule: Draw a hidden concept that other players must name. Criterion: Human recognizability. Example status: Design pattern.
- Conveying instructions with a drawing. Rule: Show your partner an action or procedure without words. Criterion: Follow the instructions. Example status: Design pattern.
- Drawing from an oral description. Rule: Recreate an image visible only to the describing partner. Criterion: Coincidence of ideas. Example status: Design pattern.
- Drawing from text and text from drawing. Rule: Alternately translate the message between the image and description. Criterion: Transmission and distortion of meaning. Example status: With example.
- Visual associations. Rule: Create an image that connects several concepts or evokes the desired association. Criterion: Interpretation. Example status: Design pattern.
- Image of emotion. Rule: Convey the mood, attitude or state of the character with a drawing. Criterion: Interpretation. Example status: Design pattern.
- A story in pictures. Rule: Create a sequence of images from which others reconstruct the story. Criterion: Narrative clarity. Example status: Design pattern.
- A hand-drawn response to the character. Rule: Express a request, decision or attitude with an image that is taken into account by the interlocutor in the game. Criterion: Reaction of the interlocutor. Example status: Design pattern.
- Pictographic language. Rule: Create and use consistent hand-drawn signs to communicate. Criterion: Consistency of language. Example status: Design pattern.
## Context and limits
The author's working classification of mechanics in which the player creates or changes an image, line, outline or stroke, and the game uses the result. Does not claim to be a closed universal list. Catalog unit: player action, drawing interpretation and result. Related options are separated when the rule or outcome criterion changes. A design pattern means that the specific game example in that directory is untested; This is not a statement about the primacy, prevalence or absence of such games.
## Connected materials
## Sources and provenance
Original editorial design catalog consolidated from project discussions on 2026-10-20. Complete discussion item lists and contextual limitations are preserved; linked primary sources support specific techniques, not the entire classification. English translation was prepared with machine assistance and editorial review.
- [Gartic Phone: How to play](https://garticphone.com/) (id: source-6ee014ecac3a8696)
- [Drawful 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/442070/) (id: source-345eb2d2764f2afd)
CC-BY-4.0 · gamemechanics.pro contributors