Draw Joust

How to play Draw Joust

Draw Joust is a physics jousting game where you draw your own weapon. You drive a little cart with a driver sitting on top. So does your opponent. Before each round you sketch a weapon in front of your cart, and whatever you draw becomes a real, solid part of the cart, with real weight. Then both carts charge across the arena. The rule is simple: touch the other driver’s head with any part of your cart or weapon before they touch yours.

1. Look at the small preview of your opponent and their weapon in the corner.
2. Draw your weapon inside the dashed box in front of your cart. You can use several strokes, but ink is limited.
3. Press Fight! or let the 10-second timer run out. After 3-2-1 both carts drive at each other.
4. First head hit wins the round. A driver whose head hits the ground or a wall is unhorsed and loses it too. A double hit or 8 seconds without a hit means the round is replayed.
5. Win two rounds to beat the opponent and unlock the next one. Win 2–0 for three stars.

Tips on weapon design

• Height beats length. A lance that is long but points at the other cart’s weapon only gets you into a shoving match. Aim for the gap where your opponent’s weapon is not, then up or down to the head.
• Protect your own head. A short upright stroke in front of your driver works like a shield. It costs some ink and weight, but it can turn a lost round into a win.
• Go over the top. Walls, balls and forks guard the space in front of a driver. A hook that rises straight up from your bumper, runs forward high above their weapon and then drops down can land right on their helmet.
• Make them tip. A long weapon that jams against yours at an angle can lever its own cart up on its back wheels. If a driver’s head touches the ground, they are unhorsed and lose the round.
• Weight is real. Every bit of ink adds mass in front of your wheels. A huge club tips your nose down and drags on the ground; a light, well-placed spike keeps your cart nimble.
• Read the opponent. Each rival has a personality: a hammer that comes down from above, a tall shield wall, a hook that curls back, a tiny fast cart with a tiny head. Counter what you see in the preview.
• Keep what works. Between rounds your weapon is kept, so if it won you can press Fight! straight away. If it lost, press Clear and try a different idea. The opponent drives a little differently every round.

The opponent ladder

There are 14 jousters to beat, each with a hand-made weapon and a different cart. The first few are gentle: Rookie Rex brings a short stick, Pokey Pip a rising lance and Pole Vault Paul a pole so steep that he tends to lever himself over. Tank Tina is slow but far too heavy to push back, and Zippy is so small and fast that you barely see him coming. In the middle of the ladder the Spike Twins guard two heights at once, Captain Hook curls his weapon back towards you, Big Bertha hides behind a giant ball and Hammer Hank swings a heavy head over your cart. The last stretch is about defence: Umbrella Ulla keeps a roof over her head, Sir Shield hides behind a tall wall, Fork Freddie points a trident at your face and Scythe Sal sweeps a curved blade over everything. At the very top waits the Black Duke with a long lance, a big shield and a heavy, powerful cart. Every match is a best of three, so you can adapt your drawing between rounds.

Why drawing your own weapon is so much fun

Most fighting games give you a fixed set of moves. In a draw-your-weapon game the weapon itself is the move, and it can be anything you can sketch in ten seconds: a lance, a scoop, a hook, a fork, a ramp that lifts the enemy off their wheels, or a simple wall. The physics engine treats your drawing as a rigid object, so shapes that look silly sometimes work brilliantly and serious-looking lances sometimes bounce off. That mix of planning and surprise is what makes a good physics drawing game, and it trains real skills: thinking about angles and leverage, predicting how a shape will behave, and learning from each round.

Every round is simulated with a fixed timestep, which means the same drawing against the same opponent always plays out the same way. Nothing is random: if you lose, it is the weapon, not bad luck, and a small change to the angle or height is often all you need.

More drawing games to try

Like using your drawings to solve problems? Try Draw Puzzle, where one drawn line has to bring two balls together. If you would rather sketch against the clock, Quick Drawasks you to doodle a word while the computer guesses it, and Draw Online is a free sketchpad for drawing whatever you like.