Party & Social
Sketchy Whispers
Write. Draw. Misunderstand entirely.
- Category
- Party & Social
- Players
- 3–8 players
- Duration
- ~8 minutes (estimate)
- Best group size
- We recommend 5 to 8 players, because longer chains drift further from the original. The game is capped at 8 players.
How to play
Sketchy Whispers is the drawing version of the telephone game. It supports three to eight players, and the cap is real: the shelf will not take a ninth.
It starts with everyone writing a prompt on their phone. You get 45 seconds to come up with something weird and specific. Then the prompts are passed along. The next player gets 60 seconds to draw what they were given, and the player after that gets 45 seconds to guess what the drawing shows, in words. That guess is passed on to be drawn again, and so on, so every prompt becomes a chain of drawings and guesses.
The chains stay unrevealed while you play. Once they are complete, they are revealed one step at a time on the big screen, and the whole room watches each original idea mutate into something unrecognisable.
Scoring rewards the moments that actually work. When a guess shares words with what the drawer was trying to show, both the drawer and the guesser earn 100 points for each matched word. So drawing clearly and guessing carefully both pay off, even though the real prize is the reveal itself.
Tips for hosts
- Tell players that specific prompts make better chains than single words. A scene with a twist mutates in funnier ways.
- Stop the conversation during the reveal so the whole room sees each step land. Commentary can wait until the end of a chain.
- Use it as the centrepiece of the night. It is long enough to feel like an event, and everyone participates in every step.
- With nine or more people, split into two games or pick a game that supports ten players instead.
Best for
Best for: Creative groups who would rather laugh at the journey than win the race.
Play Sketchy Whispers
Open Sofa Showdown on a laptop or computer connected to your TV, choose Sketchy Whispers from the game shelf, and share the four-letter room code with your friends.
Play now Opens hosting on this screen. Nothing starts until you choose a game.