Pawty Draw

Draw-and-guess on everyone's own phone. In the same room, phones connect without Wi-Fi. Across countries, play online. Tap to guess, so nobody has to spell.

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Inspiration

My husband and I are an international couple living in Canada. Two Christmases ago, both our families flew in, from Korea and Brazil. We don't all share a language, so we grabbed a whiteboard and played draw-and-guess. Easy words, terrible drawings. Everyone laughing. Then everyone flew home, and last Christmas was quiet.

So I put the whiteboard in our phones.

What it does

  • One person draws. The strokes arrive live on every other phone.
  • You don't type your guess, you tap one of eight answers. Nobody has to spell in their second language.
  • Same room: phones connect straight to the host's phone over Bluetooth (up to 6 players), or shared Wi-Fi (up to 12). No venue Wi-Fi needed.
  • Far apart: the host creates an online room and everyone joins with the same five-letter code.
  • Three modes: Standard (the party game), Rush Rush (fast rounds, a growing streak), and Memo (the telephone game, drawn).

How it makes money

The game is free to play locally. Only the host buys a one-time unlock for online rooms and the extra modes. Joining is always free: everyone else just types the code. Word packs and avatars are there for anyone who wants more. All purchases run through RevenueCat.

  • No ads. An ad in the middle of a drawing round would break the game.
  • No subscription. This is an occasional game: Thanksgiving, birthdays, Christmas, office parties. A monthly fee doesn't fit that.
  • Only the host pays. I wanted anyone, of any age, to be able to join. Grandma never sees a paywall. She just enters the code and plays.

How I built it

Flutter and Dart, one codebase for iOS and Android. The host's phone runs the game and the other phones send what they draw or tap. I send stroke events, not images, so drawings stay light enough for Bluetooth. The same game runs over three connections: Bluetooth, local Wi-Fi, and an online relay server for players in different places. Purchases use RevenueCat.

Challenges I ran into

Definitely testing!! The game needs at least 2 players and supports up to 12, so I couldn't test it alone. To test with 12 people, I invited friends to a "pizza party." We ate a lot of pizza, played the game together, and I asked everyone for feedback.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

A game that works with no shared Wi-Fi, where nobody needs an account, and where a player who doesn't speak English can still guess by tapping.

What I learned

I expected Memo to be the least fun. It has no points and no winner. You look at the previous player's drawing, try to memorize it before time runs out, then redraw it from memory. At the end, the gallery shows how each drawing changed along the way. It turned out to be the funniest part of the game, and everyone was laughing together at the end. The mode I almost didn't care about was the one people remembered.

What's next for Pawty Draw

More languages, starting with Portuguese and Korean!! My goal is for our whole family to play together with no language barrier, and then every family like ours, where not everyone at the table speaks the same language.

Category

Entering the Best Game Award.

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