Sketch to Midnight

Sketch to

Midnight

2–16 players10-20 minNo app or download

How to playPlay

About Sketch to Midnight

Sketch to Midnight is New Year’s Eve drawing charades played on the phones already in the room. One player — the doodler — is handed a secret card on their own phone: a cork bouncing off the ceiling, twelve grapes eaten in a hurry, a kid begging to stay up till twelve. They draw it with a finger, the drawing streams live to the TV and to every other phone, and their team shouts guesses out loud. The second the doodler hears the right answer they tap “They got it!” and the clock stops.

The clock is the score: whatever seconds are left when the card is guessed become the points for that turn, so dithering costs you in front of the whole party. The card is then revealed and the players on the other teams confirm that somebody really did say it: two Yes votes settle it, so nobody polices their own side. A drawing that runs the clock flat before midnight scores nothing.

Play in teams, where your team guesses and the other teams confirm, or solo, where everyone guesses and the doodler taps who got it and takes double points for it. Two to sixteen players, ten to twenty minutes, and it plays in the browser with no app to install, so the friend on a video call from another time zone can take a turn like anyone else. All 126 cards live inside the night itself: the countdown, the toast, the stroke of twelve, the lucky traditions and the first blurry morning of the new year.

How a room starts

1. Pick a game from the catalog — every occasion has its own room.
2. Put the game's board screen where everyone can see it: a TV, a laptop, or a shared screen on a video call.
3. Players scan the QR code (or type the room code) in their phone's browser. No app, no account.
4. Play — everyone answers, votes, and scores from their own phone.

How to play Sketch to Midnight

A short narrated walkthrough of the whole game, from joining on your phone to the final scores: watch the how-to video. It is one tap from inside the room too, so a first-time group never needs the rules explained.

Where Sketch to Midnight fits

You will find it in the New Year's Eve room, alongside the other games picked for that occasion.

Common questions

How many people can play, and how long does it take?

Two to sixteen. Teams mode needs at least four so there are two teams to judge each other; solo works with two. Two teams over three rounds runs about ten minutes.

Do we need a TV?

It is better with one, because the drawing is the show — but the same live drawing goes to every phone, so a room with no shared screen can still play by watching their own.

Can I draw well enough for this?

That is rather the point. One colour, one finger, sixty seconds and the category on screen for the whole room. Panicked scribbles are usually guessed faster than careful ones.

What stops somebody peeking at the card?

The card only ever reaches the doodler’s own phone. Every other device, the TV included, holds nothing but a hash of it until the reveal.

Can we still play it after New Year’s Eve?

You can, but every card is about the night itself — the countdown, the champagne, the fireworks, the resolutions and the morning after — so it lands best somewhere between the evening of the thirty-first and the first of January.

What happens if somebody joins late or drops out?

A latecomer takes a seat and joins the smallest team at the next turn. Anyone who drops and comes back lands on their own seat with their points intact, and if the doodler disappears mid-turn the card goes back in the deck and the turn scores nothing.