Convert Doodles into Masterpieces in Happy Little Accidents

Can you take a squiggle and turn it into a judge? How about a doodle and make it look like a farm?

Happy Little Accidents, the second Bob Ross-themed game from Big G Creative, is all about turning mistakes into masterpieces.

Gameplay

Each player takes scoring tokens, a colored marker, and three sheets of paper. One player also takes a card. The card has three columns of six words each (one column for each round of the game). First, each player draws a quick doodle or squiggle onto each of their three sheets of paper, and all the sheets are then placed face down in the center of the table.

At the start of each round, each player selects one of the facedown sheets of paper. One player chooses a number and then the player with the card reads out the corresponding word from the current round’s column on the card. The thirty second timer is flipped, players turn over their sheets of paper, and everyone must turn the doodle on their sheet into a representation of the word given. After all players have finished, each player explains their picture and how it fits with the word prompt.

After players have done this three times, each player selects their favorite drawing that they did, places it in front of themselves, and discards the others. Players now vote. Everyone has voting tokens worth three, two, and one point. You award your tokens as you see fit, though you cannot vote for yourself. The player who receives the most points wins the game.

Review

Happy Little Accidents has a fun concept as its core mechanic. It’s fun to see the doodles players come up with and even more fun to try to turn these pictures into the unexpected word prompts. Plus, since you only have thirty seconds to finish your drawing, it doesn’t matter if you are not a fantastic artist.

Gameplay is fast, and even playing three rounds doesn’t take very long. It’s easy to transition from one game of it to another, with practically no setup involved. You’ll run through the included drawing pad quickly, but it’s easy to replace it with blank index cards or even sticky notes.

The components only take up at most a third of the box (possibly less). If the game came in smaller packaging, or included a carry case, it would be a lot more portable. This would be ideal since it is such a light party game with a fairly flexibly player count — it’s the type of game that is just great to have on hand.

If you enjoy drawing games, Happy Little Accidents is a fun one. The scoring system is a bit unexciting, since the real enjoyment comes in turning the doodles into pictures and seeing how good your result is, but the gameplay enjoyable and light.

Pros: A clever and enjoyable core mechanic, fast and light gameplay

Cons: Could be more portable, scoring system is unexciting

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.