A full guide to the party game: the drawer acts out the hidden word on the canvas, the team races to guess it in the chat, and the timer keeps the pressure on. Controls on muta.pro and tips for a fun group.
Crocodile is a lively association game for a group. One player becomes the drawer: they receive a secret word that they must act out so the others can guess it — but without hints in words. The rest call out their guesses one after another. The goal is to score more points over the game: both for words you guess correctly and for words guessed thanks to your drawing.
📖 How Alias differs from Charades and how to play them online — in detail on the blog: "Describe the word" games online: Alias and Charades for a group.
The host mimes the word with expressions and pantomime — no talking allowed.
The game itself gives the drawer a random word and its category. The drawer sees the whole word, the others see only a mask of dots showing the category and the number of letters. For the round a 60-second timer. When time runs out or the word is guessed, the drawer changes and the next player in turn receives a word.
The drawer sees the hidden word and its category on a card. Their task is to depict the word on the canvas without writing the answer itself.
Draw images and associations, but do not use letters or numbers from the answer. The team must guess from the picture.
The other players type their guesses into the chat. The system automatically checks each guess against the hidden word.
Each round has a countdown. The faster the team guesses, the more points the one who guessed earns — time has a price.
If things get stuck, the drawer can reveal another letter of the word or swap it for a new one so the round does not reach a dead end.
After a correct guess or when time runs out, the turn passes to the next player and a new round begins.
While the drawer draws, the guessers see only the word mask with the category and the number of letters. Letters revealed by a hint are highlighted in gold. Below are typical situations on the screen.
Points go to whoever is the first to type the word correctly in the chat: base points plus a speed bonus — the earlier in the round the word is guessed, the bigger the reward. The drawer also gets a bonus for being understood. If time runs out and no one guesses, there are no points for the round. The game goes in rounds, and the winner is the player with the highest final score.
First show the general category or a similar image so the team grasps the direction of thought.
A hard word is easier to act out in parts: draw each piece of meaning separately.
Guessers should type any versions — even a wrong guess can lead a neighbor to the right one.
It pays off for the drawer to be guessed faster: use a hint if the drawing reaches a dead end.
A good presenter thinks not "how do I draw the object" but "how do I lead the team to the word in the fewest strokes". The drawing here isn't a painting, it's a chain of associations: first a rough image, then refinements based on how the chat reacts. Your goal is to get it guessed fast, because speed earns a bonus for both you and the guesser.
Sketch a big, recognizable silhouette (a house, an animal, a person), and add the small stuff only once the team has caught the general direction.
"Sunflower" = sun + flower, "Snow Maiden" = snow + girl. Draw the parts one by one, and the chat will assemble the whole itself.
A verb or a scene reads faster than a thing: a flying plane, a running person, pouring rain get guessed more readily than a static icon.
If people type a close word, emphasize that part of the drawing more boldly or with an arrow. If they're off, erase the excess and come at it from a different image.
Remember the ban on letters and numbers: you can't write the answer itself or pieces of it. Arrows, "plus" and "equals" signs, check marks and cross-outs are allowed, and they save precious seconds. Experienced presenters keep a simple rule in mind: one stroke, one idea. If a line adds nothing to the puzzle, better not draw it: a clean canvas reads more easily than a cluttered one.
Don't be afraid to show the category separately. A quick sketch of "it's an animal" or "it's a profession" narrows the search field, and from there the team builds up the specific word from your refinements. This approach saves far more time than trying to draw the whole word perfectly with the very first line.
Points go to whoever types the correct word into the chat first, so guessing is a race, not a polite queue. The winning team is the one that thinks out loud: someone else's wrong version is often the very nudge that makes a neighbor blurt out the right answer.
Throw out any versions, even raw ones. "Bird? fish? penguin!" — a chain out loud works faster than a perfect guess kept to yourself.
The category and the number of letters cut out half the options. "Animal · 6 letters" is not "pelican" (7) and not "cat" (3).
When the presenter opens a hint, the letter is highlighted in gold. Build the word from it, not from scratch.
There's a team trick too: split roles on the fly. While one player shouts synonyms for the overall image, another runs through words of exactly the right length by the mask. That way you comb two directions at once and almost always beat opponents by the seconds that decide who gets the bonus.
To avoid guessing letters blindly, it helps to understand what the word mask and the hint look like. Revealed letters are fixed in their places; the dots are the positions not yet solved.
Mask "Animal · 6 letters": the hint revealed the first letter "P" (gold) — the other positions are still closed with dots.
The basic mode on muta.pro is a drawing on the canvas plus chat, but the game is easy to tweak for your group: from a light family version to a tough challenge for veterans. Agree on the rules before you start so the rounds run smoothly and no one argues mid-game.
The point of the variants is the same — match the load to the players. A mixed group with kids will prefer the gentle classic mode, while a well-drilled team will want hardcore without hints or themed rounds where every word has a catch. Below are working formats easy to assemble from the standard settings.
The word comes with a category, the presenter draws, everyone guesses in the shared chat. Standard timer and hints are on — the best entry point for beginners.
Agree not to reveal letters and not to change the word. The presenter gets by on the drawing alone — harder, but more points for speed.
Split into two teams and count the combined score. If "your" team guesses, the points go to it; if the other team intercepts, the points go to the opponents.
Limit the category — only "Animals", "Professions" or "Films". The mask already hints at the field, but the words within the theme are trickier.
Give kids and a big group more time; for experienced players shorten the countdown — it adds to the thrill.
Pass the role strictly around the circle so everyone draws: that way the game doesn't turn into one artist's showcase.
Most failed rounds aren't about "I can't draw", they're about a wrong strategy for drawing and guessing. Let's look at the typical slip-ups that steal points and time from both sides — and a way to avoid them.
Frame drawn? Action shown? Chat reacted? If it's "yes" to everything, the round is nearly won.
The game checks the answer automatically against the chat — this removes the "but we almost guessed it" disputes and keeps the game's pace.