# Draw & Guess

> A live draw-and-guess game — players take turns drawing on their phones while everyone else races to guess the word.

Source: https://engageslide.com/knowledge-base/quiz-games/draw-and-guess · EngageSlide Help Center · Quiz & Game Slides

## What is Draw & Guess?

**Draw & Guess** turns your audience into a live Pictionary-style game. Players join on their phones and take turns as the **drawer**: the drawer secretly picks one of three words and sketches it on their phone, and the drawing appears stroke by stroke on the big screen and on every other phone. Everyone else types guesses; the faster you guess right, the more points you get, and the drawer scores for every player who guesses their word. After every turn the word is revealed, and after the last turn the **Final Scores** crown the winner. It is a great icebreaker or energiser, and with your own word list it becomes a fun vocabulary or topic review.

Video tutorial: [Draw & Guess — video tutorial](https://youtu.be/d6RNzVibLEk)

Presenter creates the slide → Click Present → Share code / QR → Audience enters code → Respond & submit → Real-time results

## Create a Draw & Guess slide

1. On **Home**, click + Create new presentation (or add a slide to an existing one).
2. In **Choose Slide Type**, pick **Draw & Guess**. You can also type it into Search slide types….
3. The slide is created and the right panel opens on the **Content** tab.

## Set up the content

1. There is no question to type: everything is under **Settings** on the Content tab.
2. Choose the number of **Rounds** (1 to 5, 1 on a new slide). In every round, each player draws once.
3. Choose the **Drawing time** for each turn: 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100 or 120 seconds (20 seconds on a new slide).
4. Pick a **Word source**. **Theme** uses a ready-made, family-friendly word list: **General**, **Animals**, **Food & Drink**, **Everyday Objects**, **Nature**, **Sports & Hobbies**, **Places & Travel** or **Actions**. **My own words** opens a box where you type one word or phrase per line, for example volcano, photosynthesis, food chain. Add at least 3 words; up to 200 are used.
5. Leave **Reveal letter hints** on to uncover letters of the word as time runs down, or turn it off for a harder game.
6. Present the slide, let everyone join, and press **Start game** on the big screen.

![The Draw & Guess editor — slide list, live screen with join code & QR, and the content panel](https://engageslide.com/images/kb/draw-and-guess-editor.webp)

## Draw & Guess settings

- **Rounds** — 1–5 rounds. Every player draws once per round, in a new random order each round.
- **Drawing time** — 20 / 30 / 40 / 60 / 80 / 100 / 120 seconds per turn (default 20). The turn ends early once every guesser has the word.
- **Word source** — **Theme** (default **General**) or **My own words** — your list of words or phrases, one per line. Words already drawn are avoided until the list runs out.
- **Reveal letter hints** — On by default. After 40% of the drawing time, letters are uncovered one by one, up to half of the word. It also turns on the private _You’re close!_ nudge for guesses that are one letter off.

## Present & share the join code

1. Click **Present** in the top bar to put the slide on the big screen.
2. A **join code** and a **QR code** appear (e.g. `36Y56`).
3. Participants open the **Audience** app at **join.engageslide.com**, type the code and press **Enter** — or simply scan the QR.
4. When everyone has joined, the responses start flowing in live.

## How the audience responds

Players join with your code, see _Pick a nickname to join the game_, type a **Your nickname** (up to 20 characters) and tap **Join**; the phone then says _You’re in! Waiting for the host to start…_ When it is your turn to draw, you get **Choose a word to draw** with three word buttons and a 15-second timer — if you don’t choose, the first word is picked for you. Your phone becomes a drawing pad showing **Draw:** and your word, with 12 colours, three brush sizes, an eraser, undo and clear. When someone else is drawing, you see the drawing appear live, the word as blanks (_ _ _ _ _) with any hint letters, the timer and the guess feed. Type in **Type your guess…** and tap **Guess** (or press Enter) as often as you like. Wrong guesses appear in everyone’s feed; a right guess shows _✓ You guessed it! +87_ on your phone, while the others only see that you guessed the word. After each turn the phone shows **The word was**, the word and your points for that turn (or _No points this round_), and at the end the **Final Scores** — the top eight, with your own row highlighted.

## View results

In the lobby the big screen shows every player who has joined and the count, and the **Start game** button becomes active once one player has joined. During a turn it shows _Anna is choosing a word…_ with a countdown, then the play screen: the **Players** list with scores (✏️ for the drawer, ✓ for those who guessed), the live drawing with the word as blanks, a timer and progress bar, and the **Guesses** feed with system lines like _Round 2 of 3!_ After each turn the screen shows **The word was**, the word and everyone’s points for that turn, then moves on after a few seconds. After the last turn, **Final Scores** shows the top five players. Press **Play again** to go back to the lobby with all scores reset, then **Start game** for a new game. The game is run by the presenting screen, so keep that screen open while you play.

> **Tip** — Pick a **Drawing time** of 60 seconds or more for groups new to the game or for harder words, and keep custom words concrete — _volcano_ is fun to draw, _democracy_ is not. One round is plenty for groups larger than 10; every player draws once per round.

## Ideas for Draw & Guess

- **Classroom:** review vocabulary with your own list — science terms, animals in a new language, story characters.
- **Training:** draw your product features or company jargon, then discuss what each one means.
- **Team building:** a 10-minute warm-up for a remote or hybrid meeting.
- **Events and parties:** use the **Actions** or **Sports & Hobbies** theme for quick, funny drawings.

## Frequently asked questions

### How are points worked out?

A guesser earns between 100 points (right at the start of the turn) and 50 points (at the last second), depending on the time left. The drawer earns up to 60 points: the share of the other players who guessed the word, so 3 out of 4 guessers gives 45 points.

### How exact does a guess have to be?

Guesses ignore capital letters, accents, spaces and punctuation, so _Ice Cream_, _icecream_ and _ice-cream_ all count. Otherwise the word must be right; with hints on, a guess that is one letter off gets a private _You’re close!_

### Can players join after the game has started?

Yes. A late player joins the current game with 0 points and gets a drawing turn at the end of the current round.

### What if the drawer leaves?

Their turn is skipped and the game moves on to the next drawer. Players who leave stop taking turns.

### Do Draw & Guess points go to the Leaderboard slide?

No. The game keeps its own scores and shows them on **Final Scores**; the Leaderboard slide only counts quiz questions.

### Can I use words in other languages?

Yes. Custom words can be in any language or script — Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and so on. Accents on Latin letters are ignored, so _cafe_ matches _café_.