iSketch FAQ by Tukka -------------------- v.1.2 ====================== 0.0: TABLE OF CONTENTS ====================== 0.0 - TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 - INTRODUCTION 1.1 - What is iSketch? 1.2 - What do I need to play? 1.3 - What does it cost to play? 1.4 - How do I play? 2.0 - THE RULES 2.1 - What do I need to know about the rules? 2.2 - What are you allowed to draw? 2.3 - What are you not allowed to do? 2.4 - Some rooms have special rules? What are they? 2.5 - What do I do if I notice someone breaking the rules? 3.0 - THE DRAWING TOOLS 3.1 - What should I know about the game's drawing tools? 3.2 - Where and what is the HINT button? 3.3 - Where and what is the SKIP button? 3.4 - Where and what is the DONE button? 3.5 - What are the main drawing tools? 3.6 - How do I use the color palette? 3.7 - How do I use the stroke width selector? 4.0 - SCORING 4.1 - How is scoring handled? 5.0 - GUESSING TIPS & INFO 5.1 - What should I know about guessing? 5.2 - What is a correct guess? 5.3 - When will the game tell me when I have one or more word correct? 5.4 - When will the game tell me when my guess is "close?" 5.5 - What are some things I can do to be a better guesser? 6.0 - DRAWING TIPS, INFO & STRATEGIES 6.1 - What do I need to know about drawing? 6.2 - What are some tips and strategies I should employ when drawing? 7.0 - SLASH COMMANDS 7.1 - What are slash commands? 7.2 - What are some general/functional slash commands? 7.3 - What are the commands available only to a room operator? 7.4 - What are some of the social slash commands? 7.5 - What are experimental commands? 8.0 - ABOUT THE FAQ 8.1 - What do you plan on adding to this FAQ? 8.2 - What is the version history of this fAQ? 8.3 - How do I contact the author? 8.4 - Can I redistribute the FAQ? ================= 1.0: INTRODUCTION ================= 1.1 What is iSketch? -------------------- iSketch is a Pictionary-like game that you can play for free at http://www.isketch.net. The premise is simple. The players take turns drawing a specific word or set of words (hereafter referred to as "the puzzle") and everyone else who is playing the game in that room tries to guess what the person is drawing. Points are earned when other players guess your word correctly or when you guess a word correctly. The winner is whoever has the highest score after a set number of rounds. 1.2 What do I need to play? --------------------------- The only thing you need is a reasonably modern web browser (you probably have one if you're reading this, but if not, download Firefox from http://www.mozilla.org, and Macromedia Shockwave, which is available at http;//www.macromedia.com. 1.3 What does it cost to play? ------------------------------ Nothing! 1.4 How do I play? ------------------ To start playing, go to isketch.net and log in. Choose whatever name you wish. At present, there is no way to reserve your name for your own personal use, so your iSketch handle is essentially temporary. The password field serves no useful purpose at present, so you can just leave it blank. Finding a room to play in from here is pretty self-explanatory. Reading the rest of this section may help a bit, but is probably unnecessary. In the window labelled "Chat" you will see some basic instructions on what to do. It says you should press the Instructions button and read everything there, which I suggest you do. I'll outline most of what the instructions say in this FAQ, but in case this FAQ gets out of date and they change the rules, I recommend that you take the time to read them anyway. On the right, you will see a list of rooms, with tabs above them for different categories. There are English rooms of various difficulty levels. US rooms use American spelling of the words, UK rooms use British spelling. There's the "Special" tab, which has themed word list rooms like "Movies", "Computer Games", "Around the House", "Animals" as well as some rooms with special rules and parameters like "Big Picture" and "Tandem" (more on them later). There's a tab for alternate language rooms, and also the "Social" tab for rooms which are just for chatting, or leisurely, non-competitive sketching. Rooms in the "User created" tab are created by players like you... user created rooms are also indicated by the fact that they are italicized. User created rooms will also appear in the "Social" or "Special" section, depending on room type. You can see the details of a room by hovering over the room name with your cursor for a while. There will be the room title, a brief summary of the room or wordlist. It will also say what round the game is currently in, and tell you how much time the artist is given to draw, and what the "grace period" is for guessing after the puzzle has been correctly guessed. More on this later. Select a room of your choice. I suggest an Easy public (non-user created) room for whatever language you speak most fluently, if you haven't played much before. Chances are, the game will already be in progress and somebody will be drawing. You won't be able to see anything they have drawn before you entered the room, so what you see may be pretty weird or confusing. In the room, you will notice in the upper left corner there is a list of the people playing the game in the room presently, in order of who has the most points to who has the least. Just right of that is the "guessing window", where you can see some of your fellow players' guesses as well as your own. Right of that is the drawing area where the artist does his or her business. In the bottom left corner is the chat/emote window, where you can socialize with fellow players. Between the player list/guessing window and the chat window, there is your input field, where you can type in commands, guesses and emotes. Before you start guessing, make sure you have the guessing window selected. It should be a yellow-orange color, not white. Also, the word "GAME" above the window should be boldfaced. You can switch between the chat window and the guessing window by pressing TAB, or by clicking the window you wish to use. If you have the chat window selected, you will not get credit for any correct guesses and all of your fellow players will be able to see what you type. After confirming that you have the guess window selected, guess away! Eventually, it will be your turn to draw. Do your best to clearly illustrate the puzzle without violating the rules. The more people who guess the puzzle correctly, the more points you will earn (unless you're playing in a room with no "grace period", like "Blitz!", in which case the round ends after the first correct guess). ============== 2.0: THE RULES ============== 2.1 What do I need to know about the rules? ------------------------------------------- A description of the rules of the game will follow, but I recommend that you read the rules section at the official iSketch site, as they have illustrated examples, and this FAQ may be up to date, while the official site won't be. 2.2 What are you allowed to draw? --------------------------------- * An ear to indicate "sounds like". For example, if you word is "fox", you may draw an ear followed by a box. * Symbols, such as punctuation, mathematical notation, and letters if they are used in a mathmematical or symbolic context (chemical symbols and other abbreviations, however, are NOT permitted). For example, drawing "x + y = z" is allowed, and it would be allowed to draw question marks around a stick figure's head to indicate something like confusion, but drawing the letters "Fe" or "iron" for the word-puzzle "iron" would be against the rules. * Draw numbers. Numbers can be used any way you like, with the following EXCEPTIONS: "leet speak", i.e. 533 for "SEE" or 808 for "BOB", and using numbers to indicate the number of letters in a word. * Word count. In multi-word rooms, you can indicate the number of words in the puzzle (the most common method of doing so is to draw an appropriate number of horizontal lines at the top of your drawing area). Make sure the lines are long enough so as to make it clear that you aren't drawing spaces for individual letters (which is against the rules, unless you use the HINT button). * Syllablify. You can divide up a single word into multiple parts by drawing a horizontal line, and putting slashes through it, and rendering each different word part separately. 2.3: What are you not allowed to do? ------------------------------------ * Drawing letters, in any context except those already mentioned above as being allowed. Personal messages to other players in the room are permissable, so long as they don't have any connection to what you're drawing, but should be avoided as other players might mistake it for cheating. * Rendering letters individually. For example, drawing an apple to indicate "A", an eye for "I" or a cup of tea for "T". * Word mapping. Drawing a similar word, then by use of letter spaces showing which letters in the word you have drawn match by way of arrows, colors, check marks or x's. * Drawing letter spaces. Drawing spaces to indicate how many letters are in a word, unless you use the HINT button first. * Giving away the answer. If you're a guesser who has discovered the word, you should refrain from giving away the answer in the chat box, or giving hints to the other players. If you notice someone has made a mispelling it is permissable to point that out, but not to give the correct spelling. * Improper conduct. Drawing rude or unrelated images, harassing other players, impersonating an iSketch adminstratator, ect. 2.4: Some rooms have special rules? What are they? --------------------------------------------------- Some rooms have special rules and conventions in addition to the normal iSketch rules. Mouse over the room name on the room list to get a description of the special room rules (if there are any) or enter the room and type /rr. Some special rule convention rooms include: Big Picture / Movies (Expert): In these rooms, you are not allowed to draw words individually ... instead, all words should be included in a single image. You probably shouldn't sybillify or use "sounds like" clues, either (official rules don't mention these specifically, but it seems to fit with the spirit of the room concept.) Connections: The idea in the "Connections" rooms is to incorporate the previous artist's word into the word you're drawing in a Big Picture, as best you can. So, for example, if the last artist had to draw the word "honey", and your word is "shark", you might draw a picture of a shark swimming around in a jar of honey. Tandem: These rooms have more than one artist working on portaying the same puzzle. There are two ways to achive this: 1) Using the order in which the names are depicted in the game window, each artist works on one word separately, the first artist working on the first word with the left part of the drawing area, with the second artist drawing the second word on the right side. 2) The artists collorate to draw a big picture. It is permissable to draw "BP?" to ask the other artist if this is way you wish to go, and the other artist may respond with a check mark or an X. Famous Faces: The idea here is to draw a celebrity face as accurately as possible. The artist is permitted to open a seperate browser window with an image of the celebrity to use as a reference to draw from. 2.5: What do I do if I notice someone breaking the rules? --------------------------------------------------------- If you're in a public room (one that wasn't created by a user), then above the drawing area there will be a yellow triangle with an exclamation point in it. This is the "WARN ARTIST"/SKIP button. Use this when you notice someone violating the drawing rules. You'll have to play for a while before this option becomes available, however. Otherwise you can /msg them asking them not to cheat. In more extreme instances of rule-breaking, you can vote to kick a person out of the room by clicking their name and selecting the BOOT option. Again, this option will not be available if you are a new user. This privilige should be used sparingly, however. If someone is harassing the other players, by all means, vote to boot him. Likewise if he are violating the other game rules repeatedly. If the person only violates the drawing rules once, however, the WARN ARTIST button should be used instead. Enough players will have to vote to skip/boot the person from the room, unless you catch the attention of a administrator, who can skip or boot someone regardless of votes. I believe three votes are necessary for both skipping and booting. If you're in a user created room, the room operators (ops for short) alone have the authority to skip and boot other players. Administrators will not enforce the rules in these rooms, players are free to use whatever rules they like in user created rooms. If you create a room, you will be the room's sole op. If you leave your room (or get disconnected) and return, however, you will lose your op status. To see a list of the other ops in a room, type /oplist. If you're an op, you can /skip (user name) to skip th current player's turn, or /kick (user name) to kick them out of the room. Oftentimes room ops will not realize they have these powers and will sit idly by while someone is violating their room rules. In this event you may want to /msg them informing them that they can skip or kick the player, and request that they do so. If the room op doesn't do anything, however, there's nothing you can do but endure the cheating, or leave the room. ====================== 3.0: THE DRAWING TOOLS ====================== 3.1: What should I know about the game's drawing tools? ------------------------------------------------------- The best way to learn the drawing tools is to practice with them in the studio (or in actual games). You can safely skip this section unless you're really lost. You have the following tools and options available to you while drawing. There are three different "palettes", each of which has different tools on them. You can double click a palette to toggle its orientation from horizontal to vertical and back again. You can drag and drop the palettes to different areas on your screen. Their location will be remembered for the next time you play iSketch. 3.2: Where and what is the HINT button? ---------------------------------------- The HINT button is a blue button with white lettering that says "Give Hint" on it. This allows you to give the guessers a hint. The first hint shows how many letters are in your puzzle, and reveals where any punctuation in the puzzle might be. The second hint shows the first letter of every word in the puzzle, and the third (and final) hint shows the second letter of every word in the puzzle. Hints come at a price ... for each hint you dispense, 2 points will be subtracted from the amount of points you gain from people guessing your puzzle. However, these points are not deducted from your score if you skip the word or if nobody successfully guesses it. Once someone correctly guesses your puzzle, you will be unable to give any hints. 3.3: Where and what is the SKIP button? --------------------------------------- This button appears beside the HINT button as a red hexagonal button with "SKIP" on it. This allows you to skip a puzzle that is too challenging. It's good etiquette to skip rather than let the clock run down on a puzzle you don't have any prayer of drawing well enough for people to guess, or if the round looks like it's about to end without a successful guess. This button disappears and is replaced by the DONE button if someone successfully guessing your puzzle. 3.4: Where and what is the DONE button? --------------------------------------- The DONE button is a green circular button that says "Done" on it. This button appears beside the Hint button after someone correctly guesses your puzzle. This is typically used in rooms with long grace periods in rooms where some guessers are AFK, to quickly bring the round to an end. This can also be used strategically to prevent a close competitor from scoring additional points on your drawing round. 3.5: What are the main drawing tools? ------------------------------------- All of the drawing tools appear on the "drawing tool palette". Most of them have keyboard shortcuts that you can use. Just press the specified key and you will automatically have or use the specified tool. ERASER: (shortcut: E) Appears as a pink eraser on the palette. When initially selected it will always be white, but you can subsequently select a color to use to erase. The eraser has a square shape (as opposed to the rounded shape of the pencil tool) and has a larger width than the pencil tool. RECTANGLE: (shortcut: S) Appears on square on the palette. This allows you to create a rectangular shape. By default it is solid, but you can create an empty rectangle by clicking/selecting the rectangle tool after it's already been selected. CIRCLE: (shortcut: C) Appears on the main drawing tool palette as a circle. This allows you to create a circle. By default it is solid, but you can create an empty rectangle by clicking/selecting the circle tool after it's already been selected. FILL: (shortcut: F) Appears as a paint bucket on the tool palette. This allows you to fill in the selected area with the current color. You have to be careful to make sure your outlines doesn't have any breaks in it, or this can spill out into unwanted areas of your drawing. SPRAY: (shortcut: Y) Appears as a spraypaint can on your tool palette. This creates a bunch of tiny dots in the selected area, creating a spraypaint-like effect. PEN: (shortcut: P) Appears a pen on your tool palette. This is likely to be your standard drawing tool, it creates opaque lines. CLEAR: Appears as an empty page on your tool palette. This clears your current drawing field. By default the new background will be white, hold shift when clicking the button for the new background to be the selected color. ZOOM: (shortcuts: + to zoom in, - to zoom out) Appears as a magnifying glass on your tool palette. This will zoom in on the selected portion of your drawing, allowing you to draw smaller details with more precision. Guessers will continue to see the normal, un-magnified image. LINE: (shortcut: L) Appears as a line on your tool palette. Creates a straight line between two specified points. BRUSH: (shortcut: B) Appears as a paintbrush on your tool palette. Creates semi-transparent brush strokes. 3.6: How do I use the color palette? ------------------------------------ On the right of the color palette is the color preview, displaying the color you currently have selected. The arrow buttons above and below allow you to adjust the shade of the currently selected color. Clicking the color preview will switch between the two color select modes. The basic palette mode displays 24 basic colors that you can select, while the advanced mode displays many. 3.7: How do I use the stroke width selector? -------------------------------------------- The stroke width selector allows you to select the thickness of your strokes for tools that use it, like the pencil, brush and spraypaint tools. On the right you'll see a preview of your current stroke thickness, while the selector on the left allows you to adjust the thickness itself. There are keyboard shortcuts to specify your stroke thickness ... pressing 1 through 8 will give you a stroke thickness equal to the number you pressed ... 9 will give you a thickness of 16, and 0 will give you a thickness of 32. ============ 4.0: SCORING ============ 4.1: How is scoring handled? ---------------------------- If you play to win, then it can help to know the scoring used to tally up points. It works like this: If you're guessing, you receive 10 points for being the first player to guess the puzzle. If you're the second to guess it, you get 9 points, 3rd nets you 8 points, and so on in 2 point decrements. You will receive a minimum of 5 points for correctly guessing the puzzle. If you're drawing, you receive 10 points for the first person who successfully guesses your puzzle, and 1 point for each additional person to correctly guess it, up to a maximum of 15 points per round. Each hint deducts 2 points from this amount. So if 3 people guess your puzzle, and you gave 2 hints, you will receive 8 points. ========================= 5.0: GUESSING TIPS & INFO ========================= 5.1: What should I know about guessing? --------------------------------------- Winning at iSketch is mostly about how well you guess. A fantastic, creative artist who guesses poorly will not win very often, while a terrible artist who guesses extremely well, will win often. If you can guess a puzzle very early, then you'll start the "grace period timer", giving the artist much less time to draw and the other guessers much less time to guess, possibly allowing you to "shut out" the other guessers for that round ... which naturally will give you a big points advantage. Unfortunately, it's tough to teach someone to guess well. Some people are naturally good guessers, and for others it takes a bit more practice. It's something you tend to get better at the more you play, so if you're not a great guesser, keep trying, eventually you will improve. One thing that does help is to know exactly what you have to do to get credit for correctly guessing a word, and how and why the game will tell you when one of your guesses is "close." These things may seem obvious, but there are some subtleties that can be helpful to be aware of. Read on if you wish to learn them. 5.2 What is a correct guess? ---------------------------- This will depend on the room parameters, but for most rooms, you will receive credit for correctly guessing the puzzle if your guess includes an intact string of text that precisely matches the puzzle-word ... even if you include unnecessary words or characters before or after your guess. Punctuation and spelling must be the same as the puzzle, but the guesses are not case sensitive. If you didn't quite get that, see the following examples for further illustration. Let's say the word is "rain", here is how the following guesses would register: CORRECT: rain CORRECT: RAIN CORRECT: RaiN CORRECT: raine CORRECT: train CORRECT: rainy day CORRECT: rain-out INCORRECT: rayne INCORRECT: r ain INCORRECT: locamotive Or for another example, let's say it's the movies room, and the puzzle is "Monster's Ball": CORRECT: Monster's Ball CORRECT: monster's ball CORRECT: oh i know-- monster's ball CORRECT: lolmonster's ballz INCORRECT: monsters ball INCORRECT: monster ball One last example, let's say the puzzle is "Punch-out": CORRECT: punch-out CORRECT: ITS PUNCH-OUT!! INCORRECT: punchout INCORRECT: punch out INCORRECT: Punching-out INCORRECT: punch-the-hole-out 5.3 When will the game tell me when I have one or more word correct? -------------------------------------------------------------------- In rooms where puzzles can contain multiple words, the game will tell you when you have correctly guessed words with three or more letters, if you have not guessed the entire puzzle, or have guessed it with the words in the wrong order. It will also give you the correct order of the words that you have guessed, and if the same word is used more than once in a puzzle, it will tell you how many times that word is used. Punctuaction is treated by iSketch as being part of the word it is attached to. Other guessers will not be able to see any part of your last guess if iSketch tells you that you got a word correct in that guess. I'll include some examples after I answer this next question, as they can conflict with each other, and it may be helpful to see the examples side-by-side. 5.4 When will the game tell when my guess is "close?" ----------------------------------------------------- If your guess includes a string of four or more characters that matches the first four characters of one of the words in the puzzle the game will tell you that your entire guess is "close", UNLESS you correctly guessed another word in the puzzle, in which case it will only give you the messaging that that word is correct. If the game tells you a guess is close, other guessers will not be able to see your guess. Here are some examples, all using the same puzzle: PUZZLE: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King GUESS: king iSketch SAYS: You found the following word: King EXPLANATION: "King" is a 3+ character word that is part of the puzzle that was guessed correctly. GUESS: the king iSketch SAYS: You found the following words: The the The the King EXPLANATION: "The" and King" are both 3+ character words. Since there are multiple instances of "the," iSketch shows you where they all occur (all of them are before "King"). GUESS: lore iSketch SAYS: (Nothing) EXPLANATION: Though iSketch will tell you when you guess a three character word, it will only tell you you're close if you guess at least four of the characters at the start of a word, so it tells you nothing here, even though "lor" is 3/4 of the word "lord". GUESS: landlord iSketch SAYS: You found the following word: Lord EXPLANATION: The game detects the string "lord" and tells you that that word is in the puzzle. It doesn't matter that there are letters before the "lord" portion. GUESS: the landlord iSketch SAYS: You found the following words: The Lord the The the EXPLANATION: Same as the last example, except it includes "the". GUESS: Ring iSketch SAYS: "Ring" is close! EXPLANATION: "Ring" is the first four characters of the word "Rings:", so it tells you you're close. GUESS: rings iSketch SAYS: "rings" is close! EXPLANATION: "Rings" is the first four characters of the word "Rings:", but as far as iSketch is concerned, the colon is a part of the word, so it only tells you that you're close, instead of telling you that you got the word "Rings". GUESS: Dead Ringers iSketch SAYS: "Dead Ringers" is close! EXPLANATION: This one is potentially very confusing. The game detects the string "ring" which is close to "rings:", but doesn't tell you WHAT part of the guess is close. In this event you're advised to guess both words seperately. GUESS: Scoring iSketch SAYS: "Scoring" is close! EXPLANATION: This is just another example of a potentially confusing "clue." Once again, the game again detects the string "ring" (it doesn't matter that there are letters before it in the same word) and tells you that you're close. GUESS: The Ring iSketch SAYS: You found the following words: The the The the EXPLANATION: In this event it only tells you that you found "the", because the message that tells you that you found a word essentially takes precadence or "overwrites" the message that would tell you that "ring" is close. This is another reason it can be helpful to guess each word separately. GUESS: The Lord of Rings isketch SAYS: You found the following words: The Lord the The the EXPLANATION: This similar to the last example. It doesn't tell you that you got the word "of," because it's only two letters. Words need to be at least three characters long for the game to tell you that you got that word. It doesn't tell you "Rings" is close for the reason explained in the last example. GUESS: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring iSketch SAYS: You found the following words: The Lord the Rings: The the EXPLANATION: This one is pretty straight-forward. GUESS: The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King iSketch SAYS: You found the following words: The Lord the Rings: The Return the King EXPLANATION: This guess looks correct, it's only missing the word "the" after the colon. In this event, iSketch is good enough to tell you almost the entire correct puzzle-phrase, since you've guessed every word, you just left a repitious word out. It doesn't give you the word "of," though, because it's less than 3 letters long. GUESS: The King of the Rings: The Return of the Lord iSketch SAYS: You found the following words: The Lord the Rings: The Return the King EXPLANATION: Again, this one is similar to the last example. The mistake here is mixing up the words "king" and "lord," but iSketch is good enough to give you the proper order (but once again, leaving out the two-letter word "of"). Here's one last example, using a different puzzle: PUZZLE: Kingfisher GUESS: Fisherman iSketch SAYS: (nothing) Explanation: Even though "fisher" is a big part of the word "Kingfisher", iSketch will not give you a clue saying it's close, because while it checks your entire guess for a string of matching letters, it only compares strings in your guess against the FIRST FOUR LETTERS in all of the words in the puzzle. 5.5 What are some things I can do to be a better guesser? --------------------------------------------------------- Though guessing relies a lot on your natural intuition, instinct, your vocabulary and familiarity with the word list, there are a few tips to keep in mind and "tactics" you can employ to give yourself the best possible odds of finding the puzzle-phrase. Here are some of them: 1) GUESS EARLY AND OFTEN You might be surprised how often one of your first, most absurd-seeming guesses will be correct. You think "that can't be it" and you can't even figure out why the word came to mind in the first place ... GUESS IT ANYWAY! More than once a word has popped into my head during the first 5-10 seconds of a draw, but for whatever reason I didn't guess it, and then, 60 seconds later I realize that the word that first popped into my head was, in fact, was the correct word! And more than once I have followed my "instinct" and correctly guessed a word with seemingly supernatural ability. Follow your instincts! A wrong guess costs you nothing (unless the room has a guess limit -- most don't) and has a huge competitive upside. Also, sometimes even an incorrect guess will help you, because the first four letters of one of the words in the puzzle will be in whatever you guessed. You many think that quality guessing is better than "quantity" guessing, but the truth is there's no reason you don't do both. 2) PUT MULTIPLE GUESSES ON ONE LINE If you follow my first tip, then you may find that if a bunch of things pop into your head to guess at once, and you submit each guess on a seperate line, you will get "spam locked" for scrolling the room, and will be unable to guess anything for several seconds. To prevent this from happening, when several things pop into your head to guess, type all of the guesses on a single line. You will get credit for guessing correctly if one of the words you guess is the puzzle, and you will be told if something you guess is close. 3) TRY NOT TO GET STUCK ON A SINGLE TRAIN OF THOUGHT Sometimes you will find that you're fixating on the wrong part of what someone is drawing, and your guesses, as a result, will not be as diverse as they should be, and you may find yourself completely on the wrong track. Try to look at a picture in different way, your assumptions about a "scene" may be incorrect. A crude drawing of a stage may look to you like a movie theater ... if you keep guessing movie stuff, you may not ever get the puzzle. When you run dry of things to guess, take a second to try to reconsider what the drawing might be and what it might mean. 4) HITCH A RIDE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S TRAIN OF THOUGHT One thing that can help is to watch what other people are guessing, as long as it doesn't distract you too much from the drawing and your own guessing. Other people will sometimes "see" what you don't, but once your eyes are opened to what THEY are looking at, everything clicks and your own guessing will improve. More than once I've been on completely the wrong track, and probably wouldn't have guessed the word on my own if you gave me 5 whole minutes ... but seeing what someone else guesses put's me back on the right track, and I end up guessing the word, sometimes the being the only person who guesses it. 5) GUESS "THE" and "AND" These are the two most common words in multi-wood puzzle wordlists. If you're in a room with multi-word puzzles, it's a good habit to guess these two words right off the bat. Sometimes they can be very illuminating. Another reasonably common word to guess is "with". 6) COMMUNICATE WITH THE ARTIST Don't be afraid to communicate with the artist every now and then if you need some help. Ask for (but do not demand) a hint if you're totally clueless, ask, "How many words?" if they haven't already indicated, or request that they concentrate more a particular word you're stumped on. Don't insult them or rudely demand anything, though. If they get flustered they're less likely to draw well and that doesn't help you any (plus, who wants to help someone who just insulted them?) And remember, sometimes there just isn't a good way to draw a word, and the artist is depending on your getting the answer from other words in the puzzle. 7) THE UP ARROW KEY ALLOWS YOU TO REPEAT AND SCROLL THROUGH PREVIOUS GUESSES You can call up your last guess by pressing the up arrow key. This can save you some precious time typing if you know the first few words in an answer and are rapidly attempting to guess (or spell correctly) the final word(s) of the answer. 8) REPEAT YOUR GUESSES Don't be afraid to guess a word you've already guessed before, if you are stumped. It's possible you made a typo and didn't notice, or that your memory is playing tricks on you. 9) STEALTH GUESSING If you know one word in multi-word answer, you can hide all of your subsequent guesses from other guessers by including the word you do know in every guess. This way others can't "steal" your "train of thought". This is a double-edged sword, however, as you will NOT be told if one of the words you are guessing is close to another word in the puzzle. See the explanation of the clues the game will give to you above for an explanation of this drawback. 10) SPELLCHECKING If you're a bad speller (or even a good speller), it can be advantageous to keep another browser window/tab opened to Google, or other spellchecking mechanism/site. After a couple failed attempts to spell a word, I will type it in Google, which is usually smart enough to ask, "Did you mean (correctly spelled word)?" This may be considered borderline cheating since you're not using your wits alone to get the answer, but it is not specifically mentioned that this is against the rules, and it can be extremely frustrating (for both you and the arist) to be thwarted by a single incorrectly placed vowel. 11) KEEP YOUR COOL Don't tell yourself, "I'm not going to get it" and give up. Keep guessing, follow the above advice, or just guess completely random and absurd things in hopes that you at least get a word that's close. =================================== 6.0 DRAWING TIPS, INFO & STRATEGIES =================================== 6.1: What do I need to know about drawing? ------------------------------------------ Drawing, also known as the "fun part" (though guessing can be a lot of fun too), is also an important part of the game. Though being a good guesser will generally benefit you more if you're trying to win games, drawing is a considerable factor, too ... it's generally easier to score and score more points as a drawer than it is as a guesser. You usually don't have to be a great artist, either. Drawing SMART is usually more important than drawing well, though drawing well can be an advantage too. 6.2: What are some tips and strategies I should employ while drawing? --------------------------------------------------------------------- There are several. Among some of the most important: 1) TAKE YOUR TIME When beginning your drawing, take your time (unless the game you're playing has an extremely short time limit). Think for a few seconds about the best way to illustrate what you're trying to get everyone to guess. Ask yourself if you'd be able to guess correctly with what you plan on drawing. Then take your time with the drawing itself. Even if you aren't a great artist, usually your drawings will be easier to understand if you're calm about it. 2) DRAW "BACKWARDS" ... DETAILS FIRST This goes along with the first tip, "take your time". Remember your goal when drawing, whenever possible, is to get at least five people to guess your puzzle. Towards that end, try to avoid drawing the puzzle in such a way that an extremely good or lucky guesser might be able to get the puzzle very early on in your drawing, before you've had a chance to flesh it out much. Ideally, everyone will guess your puzzle at about the same time... remember, a sloppy drawing that one person quickly understands is not as good as a careful drawing that everyone eventually understands. Sometimes this can throw off a person's train of thought, but usually you can emphasize the most important part of your drawing arrows, circles, etc. Remember, you will get more points if everyone guesses your answer in the last 10 seconds of the round than you would get if only 1 person guesses the puzzle in the first 10 seconds of the round. 3) IT'S A GAME, NOT AN ART Don't take TOO much time and care drawing the answer. Remember, this is more a game than it is an art. I've seen some great artists do rather poorly because instead of thinking creatively/cleverly about how to illustrate the answer, they use their drawing skills to do things the "hard way". For example, one guy tried to draw Bruce Willis to get people to guess "Die Hard". Though it was a recognizably good likeness, and would have been great in the Movies (Expert) room, this was the normal Movies room, and nobody got the answer until he gave us two hints. I've had many people guess this answer before by drawing a stick-man with X's for eyes (die) a diamond and an anvil (hard) and the crude illustration of a car battery (of which Die Hard is a brand name). 4) DRAW THE PUZZLE IN DIFFERENT WAYS Usually there is more than one way to effectively draw the answer. Unless the answer is something very easy and obvious, try to draw the answer in at least two different ways. Different people think differently, so try to help as many people out as possible by using different methods to convey the answer. 5) USE COLORS AND THE OTHER DRAWING TOOLS Don't forget to use colors! Visualize a basic image of what you're trying to draw and the colors it's composed of. You don't have to color everything in, but once you get the basic shape done, add some color for some detail. A little color can go a LONG way. Also consider drawing your image in a color other than black ... for example, if you are drawing an alligator, you may want to draw it in green, to possibly save yourself some time coloring it in, and to possibly save yourself from some of the mischief the fill tool can cause if you don't connect all of your lines. Likewise, if you've got an unsteady hand, don't agonize over drawing a good looking doorway or box -- just use the rectangle tool. 6) YOU DON'T HAVE TO DRAW WHAT THE PUZZLE IS Remember that if a person guesses a word that contains a word in the puzzle, it will tell them. So if the puzzle is "motive" and someone guesses "locamotive," they will be credited with guessing the word correctly. Sometimes it is much easier to draw a longer word that contains the answer than it is to try to illustrate the answer itself. Another example would be drawing hair for "air". Try to figure out if you can use this to your advantage -- it can often be useful for short but difficult words. 7) SPECIFY THE NUMBER OF WORDS In rooms where there the answers may be more than one word, it's usually a good idea to illustrate to other players how many words are in the answer by drawing an appropriate number of horizontal lines. This is permitted, but breaking up the lines into smaller lines to denote the number of letters in each word is not permitted by the rules (that's what the hint button is for). When drawing compound words, draw a slash through the middle of the line to specify this, and then, if possible, illustrate each portion of the word separately. For very long/complex words, you can render each syllable seperately. However, you are not allowed to draw things which represent individual letters (drawing an apple to illustrate "a", for example). 8) USE NUMBERS AND PUNCTUATION Drawing numbers and punctuation *ARE* permitted by the rules! Use them. The only time you're not allowed to use numbers is to indicate the number of letters in a word (for that you must use the Hint button) or to do "leet speak" type codes. With those exceptions, do not hesitate to use numbers and punctuation. If the answer is "2001: A Space Oddessy", you can actually draw out "2001:". This will save you and your guessers a lot of frustration. In fact you should draw out the following: "2001: ___ ______ ______". Punctuation is particularly insidious because it's considered part of the preceding word, and a person may type out the entire first word, sans punctuation, and not even be told that they're close (if it's a short word). This can be a killer. You do not have to use the hint button to indicate punctuation. Also consider using numbers to indicate plural or quantity. For example, if your word is "army", you might consider drawing one detailed soldier, then drawing "x 10,000" next to him. "x 2" can be used for the word "double", "x 12" for dozen. 9) CHANGE YOUR MOUSE SENSITIVITY In order to give you more control of your mouse cursor, consider lowering your mouse speed/sensitivity in Windows. This can be done by going to Start > Control Panel > Mouse > Pointer Options (this can be done in other operating systems as well, but you will have to look elsewhere to figure out how). This reduces the chances that a single twitchy motion will ruin your drawing. Also, don't forget about the magnify tool, to give you improved precision control when drawing in smaller spaces. 10) ERASE Don't hesitate to use the erase tool if you have to. If you notice some detail of your drawing is way off, and may be confusing the players, rub out your mistake and try again. Also don't hesitate to use the erase tool (change the stroke size if necessary) to give you more room on your drawing field. You can always wipe the entire field clean, but you may want certain images to remain on the field so your guessers keep those other illustrations in mind while you draw something new. 11) PAY ATTENTION TO THE GUESS WINDOW Every once in a while, look at what people are guessing to make sure you haven't completely confused them, or to see if they're on the right track, and to see if they are requesting any kind of specific help with the drawing. 12) WHEN TO SKIP If you know you have no chance of drawing the word (you have no clue what it is, or after several seconds of wracking your brain, you still have no idea how to draw it), it is good etiquette to skip to keep the game moving. Otherwise, it's usually a bad idea. You can gain more points in a round drawing than you possibly could guessing (10 for the first person successfully guessing your drawing, +1 point for the next 5 successful guesses ... 15 point maximum). For this reason you shouldn't skip your drawing turn unless you have extreme doubts about your ability to illustrate the answer. Depending on the point difference between yourself and the leader and the number of rounds remaining, skipping may not be an option if you want a chance to win. Also, if you're in the lead and nobody ends up guessing your word before the time limit expires, you're really not any worse off -- though it's generally good etiquette to skip if it looks like the round is going to end without a successful guess, so the round isn't wasted. Tactically you could just let the clock run down if you're in the lead (as long as you draw something so the game doesn't think you're asleep), but this wouldn't be very sporting. 13) WHEN TO HINT Hints should be used sparingly, and, generally speaking, as a last resort. Oftentimes it will make more sense to skip or let the timer expire. Each hint subtracts 2 points from the number of points you earn from a round if anybody guesses the answer. If you use two hints, five people will have to guess your answer just to get the same number of points you would have gotten if one person guessed it correctly without hints. If you're in a tight game, hints can hurt you a lot, as whoever is just in front or just behind you in points may be the only one to guess the answer, earning them 10 points, meanwhile you only net 8, 6 or 4 points total for the round depending on how many hints you gave. Also, think about what your hints will show the other players. Sometimes a hint or two will totally break open an answer and make it obvious to all of the guessers ... sometimes they won't provide any real help at all. Try to figure out the affect your hint will have before pressing the button. When in doubt, don't hint. 14) WHEN TO USE THE DONE BUTTON The "DONE" button replaces the "SKIP" button after someone successfully guesses your answer. usually you're just going to press the DONE button if the only remaining guessers are AFK, but sometimes you can use it to your advantage. If you're in a neck-and-neck battle with someone else in the room, and they haven't yet correctly guessed your answer, pressing the DONE button may be a tactically wise decision. Let's say you're in a room with 7 people in one of the later rounds in the game and one player (named Joe) is a mere 2 points below you in score, with everyone else 20 points or more behind you. Lets say that 2 people (neither of whom are Joe) quickly get your puzzle. If you hit Done now, you've earned 11 points for the round (if you haven't used any hints), extending your lead on Joe to 13 points. If you keep drawing and let the clock run down and Joe is the third person to guess your puzzle, and everyone else in the room guess it as well, you will have won 15 points for the round, while Joe won 8. In this scenario, your lead on Joe is only extended by 9 points. If Joe is the only extra person to guess the puzzle-phrase, your lead will only be extended by 4 points. Tactically, you're probably better off hitting "done," though this may be considered somewhat poor sportsmanship. 15) COMMONLY-USED SYMBOLS In rooms with veteran players, there are a number of symbols that people utilize to draw commonly encountered words or word parts. An example would be a line with a circle through it being representitive of the word "the" (because it resembles the Greek letter theta). For some illustrated examples, see the following thread on an iSketch forum: http://www.isketchforum.net/commonly-used-symbols-t1273.html =================== 7.0: SLASH COMMANDS =================== 7.1: What are slash commands? ----------------------------- Slash commands are commands that you can type in to socialize or do useful things. 7.2 What are some general/functional slash commands? ---------------------------------------------------- /MSG (user name) (message) - Sends a message to the specified user if they are online. This allows you to communicate with someone even if they aren't in the same room as you. /QUERY (user name) (message) - Starts a private chat with the user. /USERS (room name) - Generates a list of all of the players in the room with the specified name. If you don't specify a user name it will give you a list of everyone on iSketch at the moment. /FIND (user name) - Tells you whether or not someone using the specified user name is on iSketch at the moment. /AWAY - Flags you as AFK. Your name with grey out on the room list, and your turn to draw will automatically be skipped. /DRAWORDER or /DO - Shows you the drawing queue for the room. /RR - Short for "room rules". Displays the room description for your current room as it appears when you hover over the room name on the room list. /IGNORE (user name) - Causes it so you will not see anything that user says until you un-ignore them, by repeating the same command. /TIME (user name) - Displays the local time for the specified player. /PING (user name) - Allows you to measure the speed of the connection between you and the specified player, or if no user name is specified, you and the
iSketch server.  Pings are measured in milliseconds ... anything under 500 is
fine, anything over 1000 is bad.

/JOIN (room name) - Allows you to directly join the specific room.

/BACK - Sends you back to your previous room.

/COPY - Copies the current image to your clipboard.  You can paste it into an
image-editing program to save it or edit it from there.

/CLEAR - Removes all text from the chat windows (only for you).

/PROFILE (user name) - Displays the user profile for the specified user, even if
they are in a different room.

/INVITE (user name) - Invites the specified player to the room you are currently
in.

/ACCEPT - Accepts the last invitation you were given, so you automatically enter
the room.

/PARAM - Shows all the room parameters like the time limit, grace period, guess
limit, stroke limit, etc.

/STATS - Shows the amount of time you've spent on iSketch as well as the number
of games won and lost.  Note that that this command seems to be a bit buggy, so
take the report with a grain of salt.

/NOTIFY (user name) - Essentially adds the specified user name to your "friend's
list".  You will be notified whenever they log on.  Repeat the command to
remove a person from the list.  Use teh command without a specified user name
to show your current notify list.

/TEAM (team name) - You join a team.  Team names can be a maximum of 3 letters
long.  Everyone on the same team will have their points added together, and
at the end of the game, the team with the most points will be shown beneath the
name as the player with the most points.  Use /team without a parameter to
leave your current team.

/TEAMS - Shows the current teams in the room.

/OPLIST - In user created rooms, this will list the current room operators.

7.3: What are the commands available only to a room operator?
-------------------------------------------------------------

/OP (user name) - Gives operator status to the specified user.  You will retain
operator status after using this command as well.

/DEOP (user name) - Removes operator status from the specified user.

/RESET - Restarts the current game.  All user scores will be wiped and the game
will begin again starting at round 1.

/SKIP (user name) (comment) - Skips the drawer.  You can specify an optional
comment, explaining why they are being skipped.

/KICK (user name) (comment) - Boots the specified user out of the room.  You
can specify an optional comment, explaining why they have been kicked.

/MODIFY - Takes you to a screen where you can modify the room parameters.

/SET (parameter) (number) - Allows you to modify room parameters directly.
There are many parameters that can be changed.  Here they all are:

/SET TIME (seconds) or /SET T (seconds) - How long each round will last.

/SET GRACE (seconds) or /SET G (seconds) - How long a round will last after
someone correctly guesses the puzzle.

/SET WORDS (number) or /SET W (number) - Specifies the number of "words" an
artist will be given to draw.  Note that "words" in this case means "puzzles" --
each "word"/puzzle can be several words long.

/SET ROUNDS (number) or /SET R (number) - The number of rounds per game.

/SET ARTISTS (number) or /SET A (number) - Specifies the number of people who
will be drawing puzzles together.  Allows you to create "tandem" type rooms.

/SET STROKE (number) or /SET S (number) - Specifies the number of strokes an
artist is allowed to use in drawing their puzzle.

/SET GUESS (number) or /SET GU (number) - Specifies the number of guesses each
player is allowed to make per round.

/SET TYPE 1 - In rooms with more than one puzzle, this makes it so the player
must guess all of the puzzles.

/SET TYPE 2 - In rooms with more than one puzzle, this makes it so the player
only has to guess one of the puzzles.

7.4 What are some social slash commands?
----------------------------------------
/ME (emote) - Your basic emote.  This will appear in the chat buffer as your
handle, followed by a literal copy of whatever  it is you typed after me.
Example, if I'm Tukka, and I type /me waves hello!, it will show as "Tukka waves
hello!"

The following are pretty self-explanatory.  You can specify a target by putting
the person's name after the emote, or you can  leave it blank to sort of target
the whole room.

/KISS
/HUG
/FLIRT
/SLAP
/LAUGH
/CLAP
/BYE
/ASL - generates a random, semi-humorous response to an age/sex/location check.

==================
8.0: ABOUT THE FAQ
==================

8.1: What do you plan on adding to this FAQ?
--------------------------------------------
At this point, I consider the FAQ pretty much done, though I may tinker with
the wording here and there, shore up my grammar, fix typos, and generally
try to clarify things.  I may pare down some of the more verbose bits as well,
to tighten things up.

8.2: What is the version history of this FAQ?
---------------------------------------------

1.0:
 * Initial version.

1.1:
 * Tidied up some grammar, other little changes.

1.2:
 * Removed the "experimental commands" subsection, since they are no longer
   implemented in the game, so far as I can tell.
 * Added a link to a isketchforum.net thread which had some useful graphical
   illustrations and information
 * Revised section 8.1.
 * Corrected typos and other miscellaneous errors.

8.3: How do I contact the author?
---------------------------------

I play iSketch under the handle Tukka.  I can also be e-mailed at
quinstol@gmail.com.

8.4: Can I redistribute the FAQ?
--------------------------------

Contact me if you want to put the FAQ up on your web site, chances are I'll say
yes.