- 90min
- free
- 2-6
- English
Description
Draw-the-line is a competitive game where players get points by drawing lines to capture shapes. To win, players must negotiate and create an optimal strategy. The game reflects the real world in a way how democracies often must deal with different groups of humans and the question who part of a specific group is and who is not. In a democratic system it has to be decided how voting districts are set up. And depending on the results this can heavily influence political power dynamics and elections.
Another topic always present in democracies is negotiating. A politician might promise to lower your taxes, for you to give him or her your vote, or one party agrees to increase spending for military budget, when in return spending for education also gets increased. Often the promises are bound to written contracts or agreements, for them to be kept from both sides. But what if not? Can you trust everyone to keep their promises? Draw The Line combines these two themes into a game about drawing borders, creating groups, and about negotiating within a situation where you cannot be sure, whether to trust the others to keep their promises.
Method & Activity Information.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Session location: Physical
- Test date: 25/08/2025
- Duration: 90min
- Costs: free
- Materials used: Draw the line gameboard, pencils, erasers and rulebook
- Youth participated: 3
- Registration: none
Case Description
We asked Tampere Youth Council if they were interested to test gamified methods together. This way, they can get information about gamified methods and we can gather how good the game is. We aimed to recruit youth between 15-18 to play Draw the line, talk about the game’s themes on democracy and division of society, and ask their feedback on the game. We talked about what participants leaned and where the game could be used to support youth societal participation.
In total 3 youth participated in the workshop. We served them snacks and offered a prize from participation, a 10 € gift card to a Finnish supermarket chain.
Method Usage
For the session we prepared slide presentation to explain rules to the participants, 2 printed A3 sized colored draw the line game board, and pencils and erasers to mark on the game board. Our aim was to play the game 2 times to let participants get used to the game.
In the first 3 player game, At the beginning of the 3 player game participants needed guidance, since they were still unsure how to draw lines to capture shapes and rules for drawing from the game board’s edge. We noticed without support, the players tended to focus on drawing, neglecting the social part of the game. After 10th round the game finished and counting points began. Since some of the lines weren’t properly erased, players couldn’t properly discern erased and drawn lines from each other.
In the second game, the youth worker joined the game to support communication among players. She started discussion with players sitting next to each other about making exchanges. After the game progressed further, the players started to open at negotiating and started discussing while seemingly having fun with some laughter.
After the second game we held a discussion and debriefing with the participants to ask their feelings during the game and talk about themes of the game. Participants liked the game, but since it was difficult to discern the lines sometimes, they thought the game could work well digitally.
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