Company outings are the ultimate test of your team's culture. You can spend thousands on an off-site venue, catering, and logistics -- but if your agenda is boring, it all falls flat. The best company outings feel like they just "happen" naturally, with people genuinely enjoying each other's company.
Drawing games for company outings solve this problem. They're low-pressure, laugh-inducing, and work perfectly on your phone or tablet with zero setup. Whether you're planning a summer picnic, a mountain retreat, or an office garden party, drawing games create the kind of moments that become office legends.
Most company outing activities fall into one of two traps:
Trap 1: Too Rigid -- Forced team-building exercises that feel like work. Nobody wants to do trust falls or motivational workshops when they're trying to relax.
Trap 2: Too Unstructured -- People just stand around eating. Conversations stay surface-level. Cliques form. It feels more like an obligation than a celebration.
Drawing games for company outings hit the sweet spot. They're:
When your entire company is gathered, you need games that keep everyone engaged simultaneously. Nothing's worse than people standing around waiting for their turn.
Simultaneous Drawing Competitions: Everyone draws the same prompt at the same time. The twist? Doodle Duel's AI judge rates the drawings in real-time, creating instant winners and hilarious reactions. With 30-50 people drawing, the variety of interpretations is guaranteed to produce laughs. Set a 2-minute timer per round and run 5-6 rounds in a 15-minute window.
Team Drawing Relay Races: Divide your company into teams of 4-6. One person draws while their teammates shout instructions: "Draw a robot dancing." The drawer can't talk -- only draw. After 60 seconds, the team votes on who guessed it first. Rotate so everyone draws at least twice. This format works great on phones because everyone can see the live drawing on a shared screen projected overhead.
Collaborative Company Mural: For a more reflective activity, set up a massive piece of butcher paper with a theme like "Our Company Journey" or "What This Team Means to Me." People draw throughout the outing whenever they want. By the end, you have a collective masterpiece that captures the day's energy -- and it's a perfect photo opportunity.
Smaller groups allow for more intimate gameplay and room for strategy.
Head-to-Head Drawing Duels: This is where Doodle Duel's competitive format shines. Pair people up randomly (great for cross-team connection) and have them draw competing interpretations of the same prompt. The AI judges who drew better. It's lighthearted but competitive enough to keep energy high. People love seeing themselves ranked against peers in a fun context.
Back-to-Back Drawing Challenge: One person describes a complex object to their partner while sitting back-to-back (can't see each other's work). The challenge is in communication -- how clearly can the describer explain? How well can the artist listen? After revealing the results, the mismatches are hilarious. Follow up with discussion: "What would you explain differently next time?"
Story Building Through Drawing: Start with a simple prompt (e.g., "A robot discovering something unexpected"). Each person adds to the drawing for 30 seconds before passing it to the next person. By the time it comes full circle, you have a bizarre, collaborative story that reflects your team's collective creativity.
Some companies do "virtual outings" or hybrid events. Drawing games work beautifully in these scenarios because they're phone-based.
Asynchronous Group Drawing: Send everyone a link where they can submit drawings throughout the day in response to daily prompts. No need to coordinate timing. People draw during their lunch break, between sessions, or whenever they're in the mood. At the end of the day, reveal all submissions and vote on favorites. This works perfectly for distributed teams across time zones.
Mobile-Only Tournaments: Many online drawing games are optimized for mobile (unlike traditional desktop-based platforms). Mobile drawing game platforms let you create a "company tournament" bracket where teammates draw against each other throughout the week, building excitement and friendly competition.
Before you pick a game, answer these four questions:
1. What's your group size? Large groups (50+) need games where everyone draws simultaneously. Small groups (under 15) can do turn-based games with more downtime. Medium groups (15-30) need either simultaneous games or team-based rotations.
2. How much time do you have? A 5-minute icebreaker needs something instantly playable. An entire afternoon event needs variety and a tournament-style structure so people stay engaged for hours.
3. What's your team's vibe? Competitive teams love ranking and leaderboards. Creative teams might prefer collaborative murals or story-building. Mixed teams work best with games that don't require prior skill (since drawing ability varies wildly).
4. Where are you playing? If you're outdoors in the sun, you need games that work on phones without needing a connected laptop or projector. If you're in a pavilion or indoor space, you can project gameplay on a screen for spectators. This changes which games work best.
Set clear expectations upfront: "This isn't about being good at drawing. It's about having fun together. The sillier your drawing, the better." Nervous people need permission to be bad at this.
Have a mobile backup plan: Not everyone will bring a device. Make sure your game platform works on phones so people can join without needing a laptop. This is non-negotiable for modern teams where people are used to smartphone-first interactions.
Rotate partners randomly: Use a random pairing tool so people draw with colleagues they don't normally work with. This is where real culture-building happens -- engineers suddenly laughing with finance people.
Celebrate the funniest drawings, not the best: This keeps pressure off and ensures people with zero drawing confidence still win at something. Establish a "Best Bad Drawing" category or "Most Likely to Confuse the AI Judge" award.
Take screenshots and share after the outing: The day's hilarious drawings make perfect post-event content for your internal Slack or company newsletter. People love seeing themselves memorialized in funny moments.
Most HR leaders gravitate toward typical team-building: ropes courses, escape rooms, trust falls. These are fine, but they have limitations:
A 40-person SaaS company held their summer off-site at a mountain lodge. The first day felt awkward -- people were cliquey, conversations stayed surface-level. By mid-afternoon, the organizers launched a drawing game tournament on employees' phones.
The rules were simple: Everyone drew simultaneously to prompts, the AI ranked them, and highest scorers got their names on a leaderboard. In 30 minutes, the entire energy shifted. People were laughing out loud, showing each other their terrible drawings, and bragging about their scores. Even shy engineers were jumping in.
The best part? People who had been at the company for 2+ years suddenly had genuine conversations with new hires. The artificial ranking system (which is just for fun) created permission for people to connect over something lighthearted.
By the end of the outing, the company had collected 200+ drawings, created inside jokes around the worst submissions, and -- most importantly -- people felt connected to colleagues they rarely see.
Company outings succeed when people feel genuinely connected, not when they're checking off activities on a corporate checklist. Drawing games create that connection naturally because they're fun first and team-building second.
The magic isn't in the game mechanics -- it's in watching your CFO lose to your junior designer, seeing introverted team members finally laugh in a group setting, and realizing that the best culture-building moments happen when people are just having fun together.
For your next company outing, skip the rope course. Try Doodle Duel's drawing games instead. Your team will thank you -- and they'll still be talking about it months later.
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