From Memory
Draw Australia, a giraffe or the Eiffel Tower from memory, in one line.
- Round
- 2 minutes
- Works on
- Mobile & desktop
- Category
- Casual
From Memory controls: Draw the outline in one line: press, draw, let go · mouse works too. Press Play, then the game takes the keyboard. Press Tab to leave it.
Free play · 2 minutes · no sign-in
Draw the outline in one line: press, draw, let go · mouse works too
How to play From Memory
Read the subject at the top of the drawing area: Australia, a giraffe, the Eiffel Tower.
Press anywhere, draw its whole outline in one continuous line and let go. The line closes itself back to where you started.
Watch your drawing line up on the real outline, printed in pink over yours, and see your match from 0 to 100 % and the verdict.
Draw all five subjects, each within 18 seconds; they get trickier as the run goes on.
Read your five drawings and your total out of 5,000 on the score card at the end, and share it.
Controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Touch: press and draw | Draw the outline in one continuous line |
| Touch: lift your finger | Finish the drawing (it closes itself and is judged) |
| Touch: tap during the reveal | Skip to the next subject (after two seconds) |
| Mouse: hold the button and draw | Draw the outline in one continuous line |
| Mouse: release the button | Finish the drawing, judged where you last held the button |
| Mouse: click during the reveal | Skip to the next subject (after two seconds) |
Tips
Get the big proportions right before the details. How long, how wide and where the bulges sit count for far more than a perfect coastline.
Draw it big. Size does not change the score, but a big drawing gives your hand room for the features that make a shape recognisable.
Go slowly around the famous features: the boot and heel of Italy, the Cape York point of Australia, the giraffe's neck, the arch under the Eiffel Tower. Missing one costs more than a wobbly edge.
Start at a corner you are sure of and go round in one direction. You do not need to land back on your first point: the line closes itself with a straight edge, so stop when you are nearly round.
Do not worry which way an animal or object faces: the game also tries the mirror image. Maps are different: north is up and there is only one right way round.
Use your 18 seconds. A second or two of picturing the shape before you press pays off, and speed earns nothing.
About From Memory
From Memory is a free draw from memory game: the game names something everyone has seen a thousand times, like Australia, a giraffe, Italy or the Eiffel Tower, and you draw its outline in one continuous line. Then the real outline is printed over your drawing, the overlap shows, and you get a percentage and a verdict, from "Recognisable!" to "Is that… a potato?". It is a quick, funny test of how well you really know the shapes of the world, it runs in your browser with no download, and a run of five drawings takes about a minute, which makes it one of our quick games.
Every run has five subjects, named along the top from the start: a simple country or continent first (Australia, Africa, South America, India, Iceland, Texas…), then a simple thing (an apple, a heart, a light bulb, Mount Fuji), then a place with one famous feature (the boot of Italy, Florida, the USA, Great Britain, Chile), then an animal or object (a cat, a whale, a guitar, a rocket) and last a tricky silhouette (a giraffe, an octopus, an elephant, the Eiffel Tower, a windmill). That makes it a draw countries from memory challenge and a classic drawing game in one, and a good companion to our geography games.
The scoring is built to be fair. Where you draw and how big never matter: before comparing, the game lines your drawing up on the real shape (the same box, the best fit, a small turn allowed, and a cat facing the other way still counts as a cat; a map has only one right way round). Then it measures how much the two shapes overlap and how closely the two outlines run, and turns that into a match from 0 to 100 %. A careful trace scores near 100 %, a good drawing from memory 75 to 90 %, and a blob in the right place far less, unless the subject really is a blob. Your five matches add up to a total out of 5,000, and every ranked run is re-simulated on our servers, which puts From Memory among our competitive games.
The look is a two-colour print on newsprint: your line in blue ink, the real outline in fluorescent pink, and the overlap printed purple where the two agree. At the end a score card shows all five drawings over the real shapes with their percentages and your total, made for a screenshot or the share button, so you can see whether your friends know the shape of Italy better than you. It is part memory test and part art class, which is why it also sits with our brain games, casual games and casual games for adults.
It plays the same on a phone and a computer. On a phone or tablet you draw with your finger: press, draw the whole outline and lift. With a mouse you hold the button down while you draw and let go to finish. Your line closes itself back to where you started, so you never need to land exactly on your first point, and a stroke that is too small to judge is simply refused so you can draw again. Find more games for touch screens among our mobile games and more for the mouse among our PC games.
Details
- Category
- Casual Games
- Tags
- Genre
- Casual
- Orientation
- Portrait (9:16)
- Works on
- Mobile & desktopPhones, tablets and computers
- Controls
- Mouse or touch
- Released
- Updated
- Credits
- Design and development: Gamefinity
- Country and continent outlines: Natural Earth (public domain), via world-atlas
- US state outlines: US Census Bureau (public domain), via us-atlas
- Age rating
- 4+
From Memory FAQ
How long does a game of From Memory take?
About a minute: five drawings of a few seconds each, a short reveal after each one and a score card at the end. Each subject has an 18-second clock, so even the slowest run ends within two minutes.
How is my drawing scored?
Your drawing is first lined up on the real shape, so where you drew and how big never matter (a small turn and the mirror image of animals and objects are allowed too). Then the game compares how much the two filled shapes overlap and how closely the two outlines run, half and half, and turns that into a match from 0 to 100 %. Each drawing is worth up to 1,000 points, so a run is out of 5,000.
Why is it one line?
One continuous stroke is the whole challenge: you have to know the shape well enough to go all the way round it without lifting. The line closes itself back to where you started when you let go, so you never need to hit your first point exactly.
What happens if my drawing is too small or I just tap?
Nothing is lost. A stroke too small to judge, or a tap, is refused with a hint and you can draw again while the clock runs. Only a round where the clock runs out without a drawing scores zero.
Where do the country shapes come from?
The countries and continents are simplified from Natural Earth's public-domain map data and the US states from US Census outlines, without small islands, so a one-line drawing can match them: Italy is the boot and Australia the mainland.
Can I play From Memory on my phone?
Yes. It is made for touch: draw with your finger and lift to finish. It plays exactly the same with a mouse on a computer.
Next up
More games like From Memory.
