How to Scribble
With credit to Gabumon and GBA for helping refine and write up these rules
There's some new faces here, some of whom are entirely new to Scribbling. So, let's go through the process, step-by-step! You should be a competent and confident Scribbler after reading this; you can get a bit of practice in before starting your first round proper, of course.
Step 1: Receiving Your Prompt
Each week, between Wednesday and Sunday, you can pick a time to make a Scribble.
Your Scribble should be a drawing based on the 'prompt' you receive, e.g. MUSHROOM. You can interpret this as creatively or as literally as you want - make a comic about a mushroom, a still-life depiciton, something abstract, whatever! As long as it's relevant to the prompt you received, you are otherwise free to do as you please.
Prompts and general information about the tournament is managed by
Uncle Awards, the trusty Scribblebot. You'll need to talk to it on Discord, where it has the ID
Uncle Awards#3645. You can also find it on the official
Mario Awards Discord Server. Uncle Awards supports two commands:
/scribble prompt - upon confirmation, this will send you your prompt for the week, and start the timer.
/scribble info - this will show you your name, color (and hex code), and opponent, as well as information about the active round. Useful for quickly finding out the essential information.
An example of how to use the Scribble Bot to receive prompts.
Don't worry if you use the bot in a server with other people - no one else will see what it sends you.
When you're ready to start, just use
/scribble prompt and the Scribbling will begin.
Step 2: Scribbling
When Scribbling, there are a few basic things to remember.
- You'll have 2 hours after receiving your prompt to finish your Scribble and send it to me.
- Scribbles must only have 3 colours in total - black, white, and your base colour.
- The dimensions of your Scribble must be 600x600 pixels if drawing digitally, or 10x10 cm if drawing traditionally.
- Scribbles must be static images; animated pictures or videos are not allowed.
- Keep your prompt to yourself!
Make sure you can set up your Scribble correctly before starting, as these rules are important and it'd be a shame to spend time making a Scribble that can't be accepted.
It is recommended, if drawing digitally, to use a brush that is pixel-perfect; one that doesn't try and blend colours to make your lines look smoother. Every drawing app I know has an option for this, so try to find it before starting.
Of course, each week has an
additional gimmick that I will explain three million times each week. The prompt will come with the extra rule, but here's the basics one more time;
- Week 1: You can also use your opponent's base colour!
- Week 2: You only have 20 minutes to finish your Scribble!
- Week 3: Your prompt is an image - fill in the blanks to make something new!
- Week 4: You can pick any 3 colours to use, but they can't be black or white!
With all that in mind, just draw - the rules are there to keep things simple and fair, so it's best to just do what the game says - Scribble.
That looks pretty good!
Step 3: Sending
When you're done with your Scribble, get a copy of the image and send it to me - this can be on the forum (you'll receive a PM chain to do this), or on Discord. Give me a shout if you're having trouble getting in touch with me.
You can also give your Scribble a title - this can help explain a joke or give some extra meaning to what you've made. This is optional.
Remember, your image must follow the rules! If you send me a Scribble and it doesn't follow the rules, I'll have to replace it with something else. There's a chance I'll be around to see it before your time limit's up, and tell you which rules it breaks so you can go back and fix it, but don't bank on it. If you're unsure, feel free to have a practice in your own time and I'll check it over.
Step 4: Voting
At the end of the round, when everyone's sent their Scribbles in, I'll post each artist's work alongside their opponent, as well as the prompt they received. Every player and spectator can then vote on their favourite Scribble for each prompt.
Voting takes place on a Google Form. It's pretty simple.
When voting is over, the winning Scribblers get one point, and there will be about a day's downtime while I set up the next round.
Points don't really mean anything - they'll influence who you get paired up with, but there's no real winner and no one gets kicked out for losing a match. Some Scribblers like to fight for high scores, but others just enjoy taking part.