THE ULTIMATE GARTIC PHONE GUIDE — All modes explained
Gartic Phone started by passing sentences through a chain of players using drawings and their descriptions to see how it turned out in the end! However, we developed many modes to suit everyone’s gaming preferences and innovated more constantly.
For that, we created The Ultimate Guide for our modes so you can easily find their description and explanations.
1. NORMAL MODE
The first ever Gartic Phone mode
Basically, you alternate between writing and drawing. Start the game by writing a nonsense sentence, such as a pink whale eating ice cream.
Then, you get a sentence created by another player and have to draw it the best way possible. Next, you get a drawing from another player and have to describe what you think it is. It’s a fun back-and-forth dynamic that leads to some pretty hilarious results!
- Time: Normal
- Task Flow: Writing, Drawing
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
We have a YouTube video explaining how to play it; check it out!
2. KNOCK-OFF
Can you rely on your memory?
First, draw whatever comes to mind. Then, you must replicate the drawing you receive on each round… but there’s a trick: once you click on “DRAW IT!”, you can no longer see the original drawing! So you must memorize it as best you can, and no matter how complicated the drawing is, you must try to replicate it within the available time.
The time also gets progressively faster, so the drawings tend to get a little messy at the end of the album… but that’s the beauty of it all!
- Time: Regressive
- Task flow: Only drawings
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
Click here to see an example of this mode!
3. SECRET
The main character here is the secrecy feature. It makes everything a mystery!
Don’t worry — the mechanics are the same as in Normal mode. However, all your actions will be hidden: the lines will disappear once you start drawing, and the letters will turn into little dots once you start writing. So, you must rely on your intuition and try to picture what you’re drawing without seeing the lines.
An example of how the game hides every action during Secret mode
An example of the album exhibition displaying how the players managed to draw and write without seeing what they were doing
- Time: Fast
- Task Flow: Writing, Drawing
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
- Secrecy: ON
4. ANIMATION
And the Oscar for Best Animated Feature goes to… YOU!
Draw frames that will turn into an animation at the album exhibition. Start drawing freely. Using the Notes tool, you can instruct the next player about the movement you want in your drawing.
You’ll receive a frame from another player, and your mission is, by retracing the previous drawing, to make changes so it creates movement. This will continue until the end, and you’ll see the final product at the album exhibition!
The Note tools lines won’t show in the final animation, so don’t worry! You can check an explanation about some of the tools here.
- Time: Normal
- Task Flow: Only drawings
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
- Animation: ON
If you want to see an example of animations created using our game, check it out here.
5. ICEBREAKER
One sentence and loads of drawings!
Everyone will receive the sentence you write at the start of the game, so use your creativity to elaborate on it! You can either give a prompt, such as “Draw your favorite cartoon character,” or ask a question, like “What was the last movie you watched?”
The album will display the fixed prompt and all the drawings, including yours, so you can see the different interpretations of the sentence you created. This mode is called icebreaker because it’s an excellent way to break that first tension in a group and make everyone more comfortable.
- Time: Normal
- Task Flow: Single Sentence
- Turns: All + 1
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
Click here to watch an example!
6. COMPLEMENT
Finish the sketch!
The first round is faster than the others, so start by making a simple drawing. The idea is to make an incomplete drawing, each player will receive the exact drawing you made and finish it how they want.
The album exhibition will display everyone’s creative interpretations of your initial drawing!
- Time: Faster first turn
- Task Flow: Drawings with a background
- Turns: All +1
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
Here is an example of this mode!
7. MASTERPIECE
This mode is for our artists, who create the most stunning art pieces!
We understand it takes time to perfect a drawing, so Masterpiece mode has no time limit! It’s you and your creativity working together on a single turn. Grab a snack, stretch your hands, and relax while you let your artistic veins flow!
- Time: Host’s decision
- Task Flow: Solo drawing
- Turns: Single turn
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
Here are a few incredible art pieces created using Masterpiece mode!
8. STORY
No drawings at all!
As ironic as it sounds, we invite you to put the brushes down and mentalize your inner writer.
Write the beginning of a story, for example, “Once upon a time there was a spider named Jack….” The other players will continue writing through the rounds, and you’ll see the full story at the album exhibition!
The fun part is that you can only see the previous sentence, so you have no idea how the story started!
- Time: Normal
- Task Flow: Only writing
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
9. MISSING PIECE
It’s a puzzle with a missing piece, and your job is to find a creative way to replace it!
This mode has a unique dynamic: the players take turns contributing to the same drawing, but the game erases a portion of it on each round.
For example, Player 1 must create an incomplete drawing with something missing, and Player 2 then receives it and finishes in their way. However, by the time Player 3 receives it, Player 1’s original portion has been erased, leaving an incomplete drawing for them to complete again.
- Time: Normal
- Task Flow: Only drawings
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Only the previous drawing
10. CO-OP
Teamwork makes the dream work; as the name says, this is about cooperation!
There are six turns: one for writing and five for drawing. Start with the usual and write a sentence that will lead the drawing. Other players will draw in the following rounds, but instead of making a separate drawing, they will take turns contributing to the same one.
The prompt will stay the same. For example, “Mickey Mouse dancing with Pikachu.” That’s a complex sentence to draw, but it’s not an issue in co-op mode because the next player will continue from where you left off when the time is up.
In the end, the album will showcase a collaborative creation!
- Time: Fast
- Task Flow: Single Sentence
- Turns: 6 turns
- Keep drawing: All drawings
11. SCORE
The competition is on!
Jokes aside, the Score mode works exactly like Normal mode but with a points system. So, you’ll play with the same dynamics, but the game will generate a ranking at the end of the album.
To understand how the points system works, check our article here. In a few words, to win points, you must maintain the sequence of phrase-drawing-phrase, not necessarily with the original prompt.
You can use this mode to create healthy competitions between friends and even reward the winner.
- Time: Normal
- Task flow: Writing, Drawing
- Turns: All
- Keep drawing: Disabled
- Scoreboard: ON
12. SANDWICH
A good sandwich has one slice of bread, loads of fillings, and another slice of bread.
Well, Sandwich mode works exactly the same way!
To start, write a sentence. The next player will draw it, and the others will try replicating it. The dynamics are similar to the knock-off mode, where players must memorize the drawing and try their best to replicate what they saw.
In the last round, everyone receives one last drawing to describe what they think it is. That means they have to decode the drawing and imagine what it looked like in the first place.
- Time: Normal
- Task Flow: Writing only at the beginning
- Turns: All
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
13. CROWD
Play with a large number of people. Entertain crowds. Make your online call a great bonding time.
We created Crowd mode to ensure the game stays fluid even with many people.
The dynamics are the same as Normal Mode but with fast time settings and fewer interactions per album. That means the game randomly selects and distributes the players among the albums, making sure everyone gets to play!
In this mode, you need at least 4 people, and the turns are reduced up to 50% of the total number of players (for example, if you have 10 players, you get 5 turns, or if you have 4 players, you get 2 turns).
All players can see the albums, even if they didn’t participate!
- Time: Fast
- Task Flow: Writing, Drawing
- Turns: Few
- Keep Drawing: Disabled
14. BACKGROUND
Animations with context!
In the first round, you draw the animation’s background, considering that the other players will receive it and draw the animation over it! It can be a scenario, a simple sketch, or a character.
For example, I drew this little planet:
The next player will receive my background and create the first drawing over it. In this case, they decided to draw a spaceship:
Remember: They can’t erase any elements from the background; only draw over it!
Then, the third player will get the background + the previous player’s drawing in low opacity so they can continue the animation!
This way, players won’t need to draw the background again from scratch, which makes the animation look cleaner!
Here are two examples of animations using background mode made by members of our Discord Server
- Time: Slower first turn
- Task flow: Drawings with a background
- Turns: 200%
- Keep drawing: Disabled
- Animation: ON
15. SOLO
Regular animation mode, but make it a one-person job!
It’s pretty simple; you’ll have five frames to create your animation. Even if other people join you in the room, each player will have their album and work on their animation alone.
As usual, you see everyone’s creations at the album exhibition.
- Time: Dynamic
- Task Flow: Solo Drawing
- Turns: 5 turns
- Keep drawing: Disabled
- Animation: ON
Now that we have covered all 15 modes, you can choose the one you like best. Share your creations with us on social media. We love to see it!
If you still have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at team@gartic.com
