A draw and guess game where less is more

If you love drawing games, Bear Minimum turns the usual goal around. In most draw and guess games you win by drawing more clearly. Here every drawing starts as the same blank bear, every prompt has five features worth points, and every feature you leave off is yours to keep, as long as the table still guesses it.

🐻 Create a free room How to play

What makes it different

A shared canvas. Every Artist starts from one of five bear poses, so the challenge is in the clue, not the linework.
Scoring rewards restraint. A Vampire guessed from just its fangs is worth far more than one with the full costume.
Order matters. In live mode the first right guess stops the drawing, so you draw the subtle clues first and save the giveaway.
The table reviews every bear and decides which features made it on, so the scoring stays fair.

Tools and settings

Pencil, brush, lines, shapes, fill and eraser, and a colour palette. No letters, numbers or symbols.
Hard modes: 45 seconds to draw, or no colour at all (black lines only, no paint bucket).
Two modes: live drawing, where everyone watches and guesses as you draw, or draw then reveal, like the printed card game.
88 built-in prompts kept secret until dealt, plus custom cards you write yourself.

Daily drawing challenges

For a solo fix there's the daily bear, a new prompt every day to draw in 90 seconds and score, and Guess the Bear, a daily puzzle where a bear gets dressed up one feature at a time and you guess it with as few as you can. In October there's Bearktober, a Halloween drawing prompt for every night of the month.

Questions

How is Bear Minimum different from skribbl.io or Gartic Phone?

Those reward drawing clearly enough to be guessed. Bear Minimum rewards drawing as little as possible: everyone starts from the same bear outline, and your points come from the features you leave out.

Is it like Pictionary?

It's a draw and guess game like Pictionary, played online with friends. The difference is the scoring: each prompt lists five features, and you score for the ones you didn't need to draw.

Can I play a drawing game alone?

Yes. The daily bear and Guess the Bear are solo daily challenges, the same for everyone, with a score you can share.

Ready to draw a bear?

🐻 Create a room

Or play solo: the daily bear · Guess the Bear