Smak Draw is a new style of drawing game by High 5 Team Building where players aim to guess the secret word by choosing the most creative players to help them out. Rather than simply guessing the drawing like most drawing games on the market, the guesser has to judge the drawings of their peers and choose who they want to help them out in the next round.
Smak Draw reinvents what a drawing game can be by encouraging players to judge eachother’s artistic choices and shoot for creative drawings that make their pictures stand out from the crowd. The result is a wacky party game that makes every player feel involved and part of the experience.
How To Play Smak Draw
The goal of the game is for the guesser to correctly guess the word on his/her back by looking at what every player has drawn. This is done in a few key steps where the guesser tries to determine which of the drawers were the most helpful and then pitting them against each-other. The end result is a game where everyone tries to find new and creative ways to get the guesser to arrive at the right word.
- Step 1: A guesser is chosen and a drawing card is smacked onto their back with the Smak Draw sticker, making sure the guesser doesn’t see what the word is.
- Step 2: The one-minute sand timer is flipped and everyone else begins to draw the word on the guesser’s back.
- Step 3: Once the timer is up, the guesser turns around and looks at the drawings in front of them. From there they pick which drawings seem to be most helpful and take a guess at the drawing word without saying it out loud.
- Step 4: The guesser now chooses the least helpful drawings on the table, and it’s time for those drawers to defend their artistic choices.
- Step 5: The guesser reveal their guess. If they are correct, the “helpful” drawings score a point and the guesser scores 2. If he was wrong, it goes to another drawing round where only the players deemed “helpful” can participate and they can each offer a 1 word hint as well.
- Step 6: The guesser takes another guess, and if they’re correct they get a point and so do the remaining drawers. If they are wrong, no points are awarded.
- Step 7: The remaining players who were not deemed helpful roll the included game die, and perform a mini-game based on what they roll.
Players take turns being the guesser and marking their points on the score sheet. Trying to be helpful while not getting lost in the crowd of drawings. The drawers can smak talk each-other to try and win the favor of the drawing and getting themselves a few points in the process.
Smak Draw Review
Overall, once we got a grasp of the rules, we had a good time with Smak Draw since it contained a bit more strategy than a typical drawing game. The multiple rounds and the judgements force a lot more interaction than typical drawing games. The ability to choose the drawers for the next round made everyone want their drawings to stand out, rather than just making the simplest possible drawing. This lead to a lot more creativity which made for some really off-the-board drawings.
Although the instructional video assured players that drawing talent was not needed, my series of awful blob-like animal drawings beg to differ. Regardless, it’s a hilarious game that makes sure everyone at the table is engaged so even if you don’t win the round you still have a great time.
Some of the aspects of the game felt like they weren’t necessary, such as mini-game dice, but it was nice because it made sure the players who don’t get to participate in the bonus round still have something to do. Where most drawing games tend to get stale after a few plays, Smak Draw is able to keep players engaged which adds a lot to it’s replayability. A great game for people looking for something interactive while not taking themselves too seriously.