- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Scribble Labs is an experimental, low-stakes offshoot of the Scribble forum game originally created by GBA in 2021. After hugely fun but largely identical iterations in 2022 and 2023, the purpose of this game is to test out gameplay variations to see what sticks.
This tournament is in part for people already familiar with the Scribble format, but! If you're new and want to take part, please do so. This is meant to be for all artists, so let me know if you want to get involved but aren't completely sure about the rules or regulations. I love new artists.
The essential information is:
- There are 4 rounds, running weekly from March 20th to April 17th.
- There will be one bonus round after this, which is optional for all players.
- Each round lasts for approximately one week, consisting of a Submission Period and a Voting Period.
- The Submission period will last 5 days (Wednesday to Sunday), and the voting period will last 1 day (Tuesday).
- Little extras, like player portraits, lore, and story, will exist at my discretion and are subject to how much free time I have. Expect fun, not fiction!
In terms of major changes:
- The time limit for a Scribble has been changed to just 2 hours, in the interest of lowering commitment and levelling the playing field a bit. This applies to all rounds except Speedy Scribble.
- Each weekly round will have a special gimmick that will force you to reconsider how to best approach your Scribble.
- A Discord account is now required for requesting and receiving prompts.
Recommended Reading
Scribble Deathmatch 2021
Scribble Showdown 2022
Scribble Scrabble 2023
The Spirit of Scribble (please read this if you're unfamiliar - it sets out the expectations and guidelines for what makes a Scribble)
There will be four rounds this time, each with their own twist!
1. Shared Palette
On top of your selected 'base' colour, you can use your opponent's colour as much as you want in this Scribble! Black and white are okay as usual.
Mario, captured in Sunset Gold and Dusk Bronze
2. Speedy Scribble
Uh oh, do you like spending 4 hours on one piece of artwork? Tough! In this round, you only get twenty minutes to complete your Scribble.
Mario, captured really quickly. I'm running out of time. help
3. Complete the Scribble
No more prompts - you'll get an incomplete, abstract set of lines for you to draw your Scribble on top of. Make it funny! Make it exciting! Do what you want?
Wario and a sentient Dice Creature sample a bowl of spaghetti meatballs
4. Three Colours
Forget everything you know. You can pick any three colours to use in your Scribble, but you can ONLY use those colours - no black or white!
Mario, captured in a sickly state. The injections are working
5*. Color-swap
To be confirmed; this is an optional bonus round that you can opt into. You may only use black, white, and the color of your opponent.
Rules and reminders
- This is a Scribble game - and as such, many of its rules apply here. I expect players to be familiar with them from previous years, but here are the basics:
- Each round, you can receive a prompt at a time of your own choosing - once you get the prompt, you'll have a short amount of time to draw a Scribble based on the prompt and send it to me, the host.
- Scribbles are fun, simple(ish) drawings made on a square canvas. Unless special gimmicks apply, you can only use the colours white, black, and a unique colour you pick before the tournament starts.
- Square canvases are defined as 600*600px images on digital art software, and 10*10cm squares of paper when drawing with physical equipment.
- At the end of each round, all Scribbles will be shown off here. One other player will have had the same prompt as you - people will vote on which Scribble is their favourite for each pair!
- There is no elimination - winners and losers play on all the same.
- Even though the rules are being bent on purpose here, players should nonetheless adhere to the Spirit of Scribble.
- The purpose of Scribble is to create a level playing field for artists, regardless of experience or confidence. Therefore, attempts to use tools that other players might not have to gain an advantage is highly frowned upon, and often punished.
- Most special art tools (filters, gradients, copying and pasting, etc) are banned- line tools and fill tools are okay.
- You will find that sticking to the essentials (pencils, brushes, crayons, etc) will be a fortuitous path indeed, and one that will improve your skills as an artist.
- All voters are highly encouraged to factor in the Spirit of Scribble when voting.
- In 2022, my friends, the Kingsbournes, diligently helped out and offered Scribbles of their own when players couldn't submit an attempt for a round. They are all employed now, and cannot offer the same service. If your opponent forfeits or fails to submit, I will replace them myself, albeit with a strict handicap to counter my advance knowledge of prompts.
- Prompts will be reused from the last 3 years of matches. (Apart from Complete the Scribble).
- As for round-specific rules:
- Two Colours - you do not have to pick your second colour in advance of the prompt, but your first colour must be the one you signed up with.
- Three Colours - as before, you can choose which three colours you want to use after seeing your prompt. You don't have to use the colour you signed up with.
- Obviously, your extra colours can't be black and white. You're free to pick colours that are dark and light shades, but approximating black and white with very dark blue and very light yellow won't go down well. Think about the spirit of the game.
- Leiniency will be granted to Scribblers drawing on paper, since they can't easily fill out an entire canvas.
- Complete the Scribble - you can slightly modify the base lines if you think it'll improve your art, but you must leave the essence of the base Scribble intact. Disregarding the prompt to do your own thing isn't in the spirit of the game, and voters may not appreciate such blatant sacrilege.
Sign Ups
I'll need your name and your colour of choice. You can provide a hex code, a picture of the colour you intend to use, anything that lets me know what you're going to be scribbling with this time. I'm starting with 8 slots, and will raise it by 2 every time it is filled, up to a maximum of 16.
You can name your colour, but I'm doing something different this year instead of titles. If you want, you should include a common household or electrical object in your sign up. This might do something.
Unfortunately, due to the 1v1 matchup system, there has to be an even number of players. If an odd number of players have signed up, the last person who signed up will act as a replacement instead, which will likely be needed.
Sign ups will be open for roughly a week.
Last edited:
stark
