- Pen line pressure detection will no longer change the thickness of other peoples’ lines in lobby drawing
- Optimized line to point conversion threshold allowing for shorter lines again
- Robot mode presentation does not skip to last image when reconnecting
- Fixed an issue where changing settings multiple times and then cancelling would cause the lobby to break
Draw & Guess
Update Notes April 8th
Update Notes April 4th (2)
- Optimized player state display in Whisper
- Fixed an issue in lobby drawing with line thickness not being consistent across players
- Fixed an issue in lobby drawing where line deletion was not correctly synced
- Fixed an issue in lobby drawing where line ownership was not correctly recognised after rejoin
- Fix more cases of Match History not showing images for some people
- Character optimizations
- UI optimizations
Update Notes April 4th
- Fix Match History not showing images for some people
- Handle some cases getting stuck in Whisper
Update Notes April 2nd
- Anonymous voting can now be enabled in Whisper
- Improved pixel art offset in match history
- Unlockable Characters now display how many more matches you need to finish
- Playerlist in lobby drawing can now be scrolled with mouse wheel
- UI Optimizations
Draw & Guess Revamp - What’s Next?
We released the initial version of Draw & Guess back in 2021 as a project made with the help of some friends. Today, thanks to the outpouring of support and creativity of our players, we’ve seen over 3 million players join the Draw & Guess community.
We’re incredibly humbled and thankful for the community that has been building around Draw & Guess - there are two key two pieces of recurring feedback we’ve seen from players we want to focus on:
- The game isn’t polished enough
- Servers are bad
Your voices have been heard and we spent the past two years working through numerous challenges in both these areas, as well as developing some completely new features we believe you’ll love!
Starting mid-February, we’re excited to release a fully revamped version of the game. This won’t be a separate sequel, but a FREE update for everyone.
Visual Overhaul
We have re-designed the user experience from the ground up, as well as developed a new look and feel to the interface of Draw & Guess. Our goal was to design a mix of cozy and casual with stylized 2D art for characters, combined with more realistic art for the interface.
Characters & Ink
We’re introducing fully animated avatars, usable across all game modes. You may’ve seen our previous announcements with Gus and Scarlet, with more to follow.
These characters will also have skins available as part of our optional monetization system. Our plan moving forward is to invest in high-quality unique game modes, develop our server architecture, as well as to continue to implement meaningful new features - this isn’t possible with the current model.
We do not want to monetize game modes, tools, or any other part of the game that impacts gameplay.
The skin system is our way of implementing a means for players to express themselves and support us if they wish so, allowing us to sustain the development of new features and overall improvements to the game.
✨ As a thank you for all the support shown to us over the years, we will be adding some currency to the accounts of all players who purchased Draw & Guess before the update. ✨
Gameplay
The current game modes will keep their core gameplay unchanged, but we've given them a fresh look to address some of the UX problems we saw players experiencing.
More game modes are our #1 priority moving forward. We want to bring you a variety of modes that feel unique and engaging, adding new features to offer a more practical and fun experience to everyone, regardless of how you choose to play, with a strong focus on quality over quantity.
We're adding a whole bunch of completely new features as part of the update. Some of them include:
- Colour Palettes
- Sketchbook (Saved drawings + "Zen drawing" mode)
- Layers
- In-game Wordlist browser + revamped editor/publishing
We also have new game modes and features on our roadmap for after the revamp release as we look for ways to keep the gameplay fun and fresh!
Servers & Networking
We have spent the past two years collaborating with networking experts developing and experimenting with different approaches/architecture designs to improve the overall experience. If you are a long-time player, you may have already been a part of some of the experiments we've run over the years.
We understand that networking issues can be incredibly frustrating, and as gamers ourselves, we are equally upset when they occur. We want to be transparent with the process.
Steam networking was our choice at release, a P2P-based solution offered by Valve - while this service is free and operates well for most Western players, we saw frequent reports of players in Asia experiencing issues.
For players in China especially, we saw much higher rates of disruption (even when using a VPN) due to lost packets/corrupted data when passing through the firewall. This is an issue for all games with servers located outside of mainland China. Unfortunately, the only solution would be to operate servers locally, however, due to the nature of Draw & Guess being an entirely user-generated content game, local publishers are unable to get the necessary government license for us to use local hosting providers.
We started developing our own networking solution in October 2021, and deployed new solutions over 10 times during the following two years, making significant changes after each update. These tests ran for 1-2 days at a time. In June 2023, after seeing significant improvements consistently compared to Steam's networking solution, we made the switch.
We spent a large portion of our time developing networking infrastructure on "protecting" matches as much as possible from disruption by implementing more recovery measures, hyper-specific to Draw & Guess' use case.
The current solution is not perfect, though we will be continuing to make improvements over time - if you know any games that operate servers outside of China with a high amount of Chinese players, hop in our Discord and let us know!
Transition Period
As we gear up for the revamp release, a transition period is underway, including changes to Player Names and Wordlists. Our team is diligently preparing for a smooth release. Stay tuned for updates, and we'll keep communication transparent to help you prepare without any issues.
Future Roadmap Preview
The revamp is just the beginning! We'll be sharing a more detailed roadmap after release, though with this milestone out of the way, we'll be shifting our focus to:
- New game modes (e.g. Battle Royale)
- Mobile release with cross-play PC support
- Trust score system for players that frequently abandon/grief games
- Dedicated Twitch Integration
- and more!
If there's a feature you'd like to see brought to Draw & Guess, head over to our Discord server and let us know!
Wrap Up
We're thrilled to share this two-year effort with you. Your feedback is crucial as we strive to continuously improve Draw & Guess. Share your thoughts on our Discord or here - your voice matters in shaping the future of Draw & Guess.
Important: Wordlist Changes
Here's what you need to know to prepare for this change:
Current Wordlists
At the moment, wordlists are published on Steam and other players can interact with them via Steam.
New Wordlists
As of January 28, wordlists will be hosted on our own wordlist service. Players can still publish wordlists on Steam, but they will not appear in the new version of the game.
We’re currently fetching wordlists on Steam and migrating them, but any new wordlists as of January 28 will not be migrated to the new version.
You will be able to publish and update wordlists for the new version as soon as that is available!
If you have any questions about this process or if you need any help, feel free to reach out to us on Discord!
We’re excited about this major update and we can’t wait to share more about it! Make sure you’re tuned to our channels until we’re ready for release this year.
2023 Recap
The first half of the year we focused on implementing a new network solution among other improvements to the game.
Around September things started to get more exciting as we finally started to talk about the major update planned for early 2024.
Our very first announcement included a preview of a brand new feature, the Colour Palettes! 🎨
Right after that, we entered Spooky Season and welcomed Scarlet to Draw & Guess with a fun Halloween Contest full of incredible submissions. 👻
With Scarlet on board, it was time to share another new feature preview, the Sketchbook! We shared everything about it on our Discord server, so make sure to check it out in case you missed it.
October was over and as we removed all the pumpkins and spider webs to give room to the Christmas tree, we announced yet another feature: Layers!
Next, we discussed a very important change to how Player Names will work after the major update in 2024.
It’s now December, temperatures are dropping and winter is coming. Perfect time for a Christmas Contest filled with heartwarming artwork from our amazing players! #DGChristmas2023
Finally, with just 4 days until 2024, we realized Scarlet needed some company while waiting for the update. So we had Gus & Ollie join the team!
All in all, this was a wonderful year and our team worked really hard on this new version and we can’t wait to share the next chapter of Draw & Guess with you. Make sure to join us on Discord, Twitter, and TikTok so you don’t miss any news. 👀
Thank you for an incredible year! Here's to an amazing 2024 filled with creativity and joy!
Christmas Contest Winner
Among the many AMAZING submissions we received, please join us in congratulating:
猪一笼 🏆
Congratulations on creating this incredible art piece and we hope you enjoy your Wacom Intuos S!
❗️Please stay tuned as a member of the acureus team will reach out to collect the information needed to send the reward.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest, it was an incredibly magical time and we hope everyone had a great time!
Don’t forget to keep an eye out on our channels as we have a lot of fun stuff planned:Discord - Twitter - TikTok - Instagram
Christmas Contest
While our team prepares for the release of Draw & Guess’ major update in 2024, we want to invite you to have fun and share your drawing skills with everyone in our Christmas Contest.
So grab a warm drink, get comfortable, and prepare your best creation with the theme of 🎄Christmas🎄
🎨 To participate:
- Open Draw & Guess and go into Lobby Drawing
- Create your Christmas masterpiece
- Post your submission with the hashtag #DGChristmas2023 in the screenshot section on Steam or on the #share-drawings channel in our Discord server.
Be sure to submit your drawing by December 26th at 12 pm UTC. Any submissions violating the rules below will be removed and disqualified.
📑 Rules:
- Sexist, racist, nudity, and NSFW submissions are not allowed. Keep it safe and respectful.
- Submissions must be created by yourself using Draw & Guess - any submissions using other software or drawing bots are not allowed.
- Submissions must include the hashtag #DGChristmas2023 to participate.
- Multiple submissions are allowed.
Winners will be announced by December 27th and will be awarded with: ✨ Wacom Intuos S CTL4100 ✨
❗️To be eligible for prizes, winners will need to provide their postal address and agree to be contacted by a member of the acureus team.
Good luck and Merry Christmas!
Important: Player Name Changes
Here's what you need to know to prepare for this:
Current Player Names
Currently, player names shown in-game are the same ones you use for Steam. This is currently acting as a limitation for some of the plans we have for this major update, so we’re switching to our own system where every player name will be unique.
New Player Names
As we enter this transition period from our current version into the 2024 version, we’re releasing an update in December that allows everyone to register their favorite player name before the release of the 2024 version.
You can still pick a new player name once the 2024 version is out if you don’t manage to participate in the reservation period.
Reservation Instructions
- Make sure your game is up to date so you’ll be able to see the countdown on the top right corner of the main screen.
- Once the player name reservation is available, if your game is up to date with the latest version, this notification will change to something like this:
- By clicking on the button to reserve your player name, this pop-up will appear:
- After entering a valid name, click on ‘register’ to confirm and the window will show the following:
- This should confirm your name reservation. If you wish to change your name, don’t worry, simply click on the ‘edit’ button.
If you have any questions about this process or if you need any help, feel free to reach out to us at Discord!
We’re excited about this major update and we can’t wait to share more about it! Make sure you’re tuned to our channels as we’re sharing our progress over time until we’re ready for release in 2024.