How a wobbly drawing becomes a 3D warrior
Drawriors starts with a drawing. Not a careful one: one closed outline, a few stickers, maybe some scribbled spots. A few moments later the same drawing stands on a pedestal in 3D, blinks, and walks into an arena. Here is what happens in between.
1. Puffing it up
The game looks only at the creature, not the empty page around it, and measures two things for every point inside the outline: how far it is from the edge, and how thick the body is there. Those two numbers decide how high the surface rises. Fat bodies come out round, and thin arms and tails come out as thin tubes. A front and a back are made the same way and stitched together along the outline.
Every creature also gets a seed that adds a little variation: puffiness, bumps, proportions and colour. The Mutate button simply rolls a new seed, which is why the same drawing can hatch many slightly different monsters.
2. Finding the bones
Next the game reads a skeleton out of the shape. The thickest part becomes the hips, the top of the body becomes the chest and head, and every thin part sticking out becomes a chain of joints. Where that part sits decides what it is: parts touching the ground are legs, parts out to the side are arms, parts on top of the head are ears or horns, and the rest are tails and tentacles. Drawn eyes even get a tiny bone of their own, so the drawing itself can blink.
3. Moving without animations
There are no hand-made animations in Drawriors, because nobody could animate a creature they have never seen. Instead every joint is moved by simple rules: legs plant their feet, tails wave, ears twitch, wings flap and arms swing. On top of that, each joint behaves like a little spring, so long, thin parts are floppy, a wave travels down a tail, and a knocked-out creature goes limp.
Attacks come from the body you drew, too. A creature with long arms swings them, one with a tail can sting with it, and a long neck reaches a little further.
4. Skins and a type
Skins like Fuzzy, Scaly and Gooey are painted onto the creature once when it is made, so even budget phones can show fur and scales during a fight. The shape also picks a fighting type: a big round body might be a Brute or a Tank, a long thin one a Serpent, and lots of spikes make a Spiker. You can always pick a different type yourself.
Try it
The best way to see it is to draw something. Play Drawriors free in your browser, or watch the promo video to see one drawing go all the way to its first win.