Draw Something

Draw Something is a game app from OMGPop. Launched on February 6, 2012, this game combined Pictionary with word puzzles. And from the day it was launched, the game became an instant success. Today the Draw Something game and its company are now owned by Zynga.

Gameplay
Two players take turns drawing a picture to convey the guessword for his/her partner to guess. The person drawing is provided three random words, ranked by difficulty (a star is easier to draw than a lion), earning one to three coins if their partner guesses correctly.

After the player has finished drawing, the guesser will view a stroke by stroke replay of the drawing, without the pauses in between. The guesser is given a number of blank spaces representing the number of letters in the word, and a selection of scrambled letters, which include all the letters of the word plus some more letters which are not in the word. The guesser gets unlimited tries and time to use these letters and attempt enter the guess word. The drawer gets an opportunity to watch her partner guess the drawing as it is replayed.

Coins build up to eventually allow the player to purchase more shades of color for drawing or "bombs". (See below.) The game comes with a limited set of colors and a small number of bombs; coins can also be obtained by an in-app purchase, while the player is offered bombs in exchange for watching advertisements. A "Pro" version of the game is also available which provides unlimited Bombs.

Tools
Each player is given a number of "bombs." As a guesser, the bomb eliminates letters which are not part of the answer; as a drawer, the bomb gives a new set of guess words to choose from. If the guesser cannot guess the word, they can "pass", forfeiting the game. This breaks the pair's winning streak. (Although not a feature of the game, the words offered to the drawer are randomly generated each time and therefore they can restart the application to get new words if they do not like the selection offered.)

Growth
Draw Something took advantage of viral growth through integration with Facebook accounts. Players could sign in with their Facebook accounts, and a list of all their friends playing could be seen. Challenging a friend playing involved only clicking on their name. If a user wished to invite a friend, they could easily do so from within the app. A recent update allowed users to save and share their drawings with a single click from within the app.

However, the game's initial popularity soon dropped off, and the game is currently regarded as a passed fad.

Board Game
In 2012, Zynga, in conjunction with Hasbro, released a physical board game version of Draw Something under the "Hasbro Gaming" imprint. This is one of several games in the Zynga game library to be released as physical board game versions. Others include Words with Friends, a CityVille edition of Monopoly and several kids' games based on FarmVille.