Fugdale’s Funhouse

Review: I dug back in the archives a bit for this classic, which deserves a little attention. ISketch first arrived on the web over 5 years ago, but it still holds up as one of the best online interactive games. Players of board games like Pictionary and Cranium will already know how to play iSketch. It uses the same familiar concept as both of those games. Players log in to a free account or play as guests. You choose from any of the open rooms or can create your own game. Rooms vary by category and language and range from simple easy single words, to famous faces, to animals, to titles of movies (for the more challenging games).

Once you have joined a room, you will have a list of between 3 and 10 other players from around the world. You will also notice a drawing area on the right and a chat area on the left. Additionally, there is a guessing area on the top left next to the list of names. The game chooses one person to go first. That person will see a secret word or phrase and some special drawing tools will appear in the drawing section. The person whose turn it is, then uses the drawing tools to draw the word and the other players in the room frantically type their guesses into the text window (make sure you have clicked on the guessing section or your text will go to the chat area instead). The drawer can choose from different brush sizes and colors, as well as using simple tools like a paint-bucket to fill an area.

Drawers should not use symbols, letters, or numbers, but can indicate parts of their drawings with arrows. When giving phrases, most players permit you to draw dashes representing the number of words in the phrase. But some players prefer you don’t do that. As the timer of 60 seconds counts down, the game will start giving clues to the word or phrase at the top of the screen (the starting letter or how many letters in a word, etc). If no one guesses the correct word in 60 seconds, play passes to the next person in the list and no points are awarded.

When any player types the correct word in the text box, it will not display to the other players, but will notify the player who typed it that they got it right. That triggers a ten second period where any other player can guess the word and still get awarded some points. The player who guesses first gets the higher score and other players get a smaller score. If you guess close to a word or part of a word, the game will tell you that you are close. And if you play a version with phrases, it will tell you when you have guessed any one word correctly.

The first time I tried this game, I felt really intimidated to jump in and play with others, because it moves very quickly and it has a frantic quality about it, but once you play a few turns, you will discover yourself having a lot of fun. Each game lasts 10 rounds and if you stay in the room, a new game will start right up, so you can play all day. The words and phrases occasionally repeat, but the site incorporates a wealth of constantly updated material. You can sometimes find help with a word by watching the words others type. The fact that the game hides all correct guesses from other players allows you to eliminate words when other players type them.

The chat features allow players to nominate troublemakers (people who swear or harass other players) for eviction. When two people nominate someone, they get booted from the room. This feature keeps the game play friendly and communal. Also for new players, those who have slower connections, or for times when you have to draw a very difficult word, you can choose to skip your turn as drawer. If someone doesn’t start drawing shortly after their turn, the game will automatically move on to the next player. This feature allows people to play the guessing part without getting too intimidated at first.

The only thing that upsets me about this game is the fact that Macromedia has yet to release a plug-in for Intel Mac users running Safari or Firefox. HELLO SHOCKWAVE, HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO WAIT?. So, in order for Intel Mac users to play, you must use Safari and run it in Rosetta, which will allow the plug-in to show up. For simple instructions on doing this click here. It’s worth the hassle to play this game and you can always revert Safari back to it’s Universal setting later.

iSketch really delivers a fun gaming experience for users of all ages. For those who already play this game, I apologize for blogging about it years after the fact, but a good game deserves to be revisited now and then.