Our projects
In winter 2020, after a hybrid (digital & non-digital) game night with a large group of friends, Marco Hoffmann decided to write a little drawing party game that would cater both small and large groups of players. Why? Some of his friends once again had to wait and watch because the digital party game they were playing only supported 8 players – not really fun if you're meeting to play together.
This was both the beginning of acureus' signature game "Draw & Guess", and set the foundation for our vision to create social games that support a large number of players. Here are our published projects!
Cave Guessers - RELEASED
Cave Guessers is a casual and creative guessing game with multiple game modes for up to 16 players – now available on Steam!
The game features 4 different modes that all require players to tickle their brains and find creative ways to explain a given prompt.
In Watch your words players are asked to describe a prompt without using specific words, but anything they type is immediately set in stone! Oops! Did you just start typing a forbidden word by accident? Unfortunately your watcher noticed and your prompt is discarded. Once a guessing player enters the correct word, a point is scored and a new prompt is sent. Collect as many points as possible before the time runs up!
In Break it Down players cannot type words to explain their prompt – but they can choose concepts to describe it. A book might thus become a rectangular object of small to medium size, made of organic material and found in terrestrial locations. Hm.. that could also be a wooden board! But no sweat! To narrow it down, guessing players receive a clue for the category, along with a hint of the length of the hidden word.
In Shadow on the Wall players cannot use words at all. They try to explain their prompt casting shadows with objects and using coloured lights! Guessing players now have to recognize the hidden word based on the shadows shown. Definitely one of our most challenging game modes!
In One or none all players know the prompt right from the start – except one. That player has to try and guess the prompt in just one try, but thankfully they get help from their fellow players. Those provide one-word hints, while trying to avoid duplicates. The guessing player will only see hints that are truly unique… or none, if no eligible hints have made it through.
Finally, in What’s that Tune? players can show their musical expertise! Each player selects a song that they then try to hum, whistle or clap for their fellow players. Don’t worry, it’s enough to know only a few seconds of the song, and if a note was too high or too low, just move it to a better position. Guessing players hear the final result and then choose from several potential answers.
Can’t choose which mode to try and play? Just combine any of them to a tournament!
Draw & Guess - released
Draw & Guess is a casual and creative drawing game with multiple game modes for up to 16 players – currently available on Steam!
The game was released in March 2021 and massively gained in popularity in summer 2021 when it was discovered by influencers in China. Since then, more than 3.5 million players have bought a copy of the game, and more than 10,000 users play it every day.
In its 2021 version, Draw & Guess included two game modes: a Charades-style drawing mode and the main mode, “Chinese Whisper”.
Since then the game has seen several new features and updates that have ultimately prepared it for February 2024, when we released a fully redesigned version free of charge to all existing players!
Draw & Guess now sports 5 game modes …
Whisper (4-16 players) – where all players draw and guess at the same time
Stage (2-16 players) – where players take turns drawing while all others guess
Lounge (1-16 players) – where players draw together non-competitively without any time limit
Robot (1-16 players) – where our home-made and trained guessing robot tries to recognize your images
Battle Royale (10-63 players) – where players compete to make it to the last round by drawing images our guessing robot recognizes best of all
… 3 mods …
Pixel Art with customisable grid sizes
Invisibility with lines disappearing as you draw
Gravity with lines following the pull of gravity
… and several convenience features previously not available:
Saveable Palettes to allow players to easily find and pick their favourite colors.
Layers for non-competitive game modes so artists can go all out in their drawings.
Sketchbook for reviewing, saving and editing previous drawings and matches.
In-game wordlist editor and browser for creating, editing and browsing wordlists without having to leave the game.
Shop featuring our newly introduced 16 characters and special skins – fully optional, as players receive a default set for free when buying the game.
All the while we have not shied away from difficulties, and have prioritised technical innovation over developing comfort:
Unlike other drawing games, Draw & Guess drawings are based on vector graphics, supporting lossless scalability – while posing challenges when it comes to features like fill. But this did not stop us, and we can proudly say we have created a vector-based bucket tool!
Our latest achievement includes experimental support for pen pressure. And we’re already hard at work on our next big game mode update!