About Blind Architect
Blind Architect is a describe-and-draw game for two. One of you, the
Architect, sees a picture and explains it in words. The other, the
Builder, draws it without ever seeing the original. Then you compare the two
and find out how well you really communicate.
How to play
- Choose 5, 10 or 15 rounds and a difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard or Mixed. Create a room and share the four-letter code.
- Sit together or get on a call. The game has no chat, so all the describing happens by voice or messages.
- When you both tap Ready, a 2-minute timer starts. The Architect sees the picture and its name, and describes shapes, colours, positions and sizes without saying the name.
- The Builder draws with 15 colours plus a custom one, three brush sizes, an eraser, a fill bucket and undo. Tap Done Drawing to finish early, or the round ends when time runs out.
- The reveal shows the picture and the drawing side by side, and you each rate it: Uncanny, Close Enough or Disaster.
- You swap roles every round, so you both describe and both draw.
Scoring
Uncanny is worth 3 points, Close Enough 2 and Disaster 1. Each round adds
the average of your two ratings to one shared team score, so a round is
worth between 1 and 3 points, and a split vote can give halves like 2.5.
Any round that averages 2 or more is saved to your gallery, shown at the
end next to the original picture. Your end title depends on how close
you got to a perfect score for your number of rounds: Beautiful
Disaster, Solid Foundations, Master Architects or, at the very top, Mind
Readers.
Tips
- Start big: "a large circle in the middle, half the page wide". Details come after.
- Use the page as a map. "Top left corner" and "just below the circle" beat "over there".
- Mention colours as you go. The Builder's palette is picked to match the pictures.
Why it's great for two
It's a communication test dressed up as a drawing game. You'll find out
whether "a bit to the left" means the same thing to both of you, and
since you score as a team, even the disasters are shared laughs.
Quick questions
Do we need to talk while playing? Yes. The Architect has to describe the picture, so play side by side or on a call.
How long does a game take? Each round is up to 2 minutes of
drawing plus the reveal, so about 15 minutes for 5 rounds and around 40
for 15.
What kind of pictures are there? Almost 100 simple illustrations,
from a smiley face or a sailboat on Easy to a pirate ship or the solar
system on Hard.
Blind Architect is free, with no download or account needed. Available on
the web and Google Play.