01 — A place called home
Welcome to Draw the Line – Partner.
I suppose the first thing to do is introduce myself.
My name is Paul Raymond. That's my legal name, at least. I also go by Paul “Grrr” Raymond. But my growl is much worse than my bite.
As of October 2026, I am 58 years old.
I was born and raised in Ottawa, Canada. I've lived here all of my life.
I've skated on the Rideau Canal on brutally cold winter nights. I've swum at Mooney's Bay... AND at Hog's Back Falls. I've had drinks “in the Market.” I've watched Canada Day and New Year's Eve fireworks on Parliament Hill. And I remember the Ice Storm of '98. But who doesn't?
I've lived in more than 20 different places, all over Ottawa.
I am not simply from here. I am here. I'm in Ottawa, and Ottawa is in me.
But I suspect many of you know exactly what I mean, wherever you happen to live. It's what it means to belong to a place. To have a lifetime of experiences, memories, and connections that make somewhere your home.
I made this game here, in Ottawa. But I want people everywhere, in whatever place they call home, to enjoy it.
Now, where was I?
Oh, yes. Me.
02 — Finding the dream
For reasons I won't get into here and now, I've spent much of my life without taking charge of it. I never really set a path. Never set goals. I was content to drift through life and take whatever came. The only thing that consistently interested me was my own leisure time.
This led to a mix of success and failure in my scholastic career, even though I genuinely enjoyed learning.
I'd like to tell you that if this or that had been different, I might have excelled in school and gone on to excel in post-secondary education. I've always believed I could do anything I wanted to do. If I wanted it badly enough.
But the truth is, I was never interested enough in life to really live it. Thankfully, I was never so disinterested that I wanted to end it, either.
I simply drifted.
After high school, I took a job in the kitchen of an old-age home. I worked there for 14 years before moving into the maintenance department for another five.
During those years, I watched countless people come and go. Many worked while attending school, preparing themselves for careers and futures they were excited about.
And I envied them.
It wasn't their intellect I envied. It wasn't even really their work ethic.
It was that they actually had a dream.
It's hard to chase a dream when you don't have one.
But, as it turns out, I do have one.
I just had to find it.
In my forties, I began to step outside myself and take a long, hard look at who I was, and why. Self-examination isn't easy. Not when you're determined to be honest with yourself.
I believe I've found some of the answers. Perhaps not all of them, but enough.
And with that understanding came confidence. With confidence came an awareness of my own value. And with all of that came something I'd never really had before.
A goal.
One that, oddly enough, I'd been familiar with all along.
Fun and leisure.
Only now, instead of simply enjoying them myself, I want to create them for others.
You might be wondering why you need to know any of this. Why I've spent so much time telling you about myself when you came here to learn about a game.
It's important to me that you understand who I am, because some of what follows may be difficult to believe. And I'm quite certain some of it will sound like a sales pitch.
The irony is that, while I've always believed I could do just about anything I set my mind to, sales is one thing I've never been particularly good at.
So, that's me.
03 — An experience generator
Now, what exactly is Draw the Line – Partner?
I'm going to assume that most people reading this have already played the game.
But I want to make something clear.
It isn't quite the game you might think it is.
In fact, in my mind, it isn't just a game at all.
It's an experience generator.
And that, above all else, is what I want to give people.
Experiences.
Great experiences. Positive experiences. Everyday experiences.
The kinds of moments you share with friends and family. The laughter, the friendly competition, the ridiculous drawings, the unexpected victories, and the stories you might still be telling years later.
The game itself is simply the means of making those moments possible.
04 — Why “Partner” matters
Which brings me to the name.
Draw the Line – Partner.
I fully expect that most people will simply call it “Draw the Line,” dropping the “Partner” entirely.
That's fine. I get it.
The name took a little while to arrive at. “Draw Partner” was actually the original working title, but there was already software using that name. And “Draw the Line” is a common expression, one that might present its own trademark challenges.
As an independent developer, starting out with a potential legal fight didn't seem particularly wise.
But there was another reason I wanted to keep “Partner” in the title.
A much more important one.
It's how I see you.
Every person who downloads this game. Every person who plays it with friends or family. Every person who might someday walk through the doors of one of the places I hope to build.
You.
All of you.
You're partners in these ventures.
Not in the legal or financial sense, of course. But in the sense that matters most to me.
Without you, I... we... have nothing.
05 — Mutual value
And that's why Draw the Line has been designed the way it has.
There is no “energy” or “stamina” system to limit how often you can play.
There are no advertisements. Anywhere.
There is no fictional “premium currency” to disguise how much you're actually spending.
There will be optional purchases, of course. Additional words, additional content, and additional ways to play.
Some of you may consider those purchases “microtransactions.” I don't know.
From my perspective, they're additional experiences being offered at what I believe to be incredible value.
Whether you agree is entirely up to you.
And that's precisely the point.
I don't want to pressure you into spending money. I want to give you something you'll enjoy, at a price you'll feel good about paying.
Or, if you choose never to spend another cent, something you can continue enjoying anyway.
Because the relationship I want with you isn't simply that of a business and its customers.
It's a partnership built on mutual value and respect.
06 — What success builds
Now comes the part that I suspect some of you will find especially difficult to believe.
I'm not interested in accumulating personal wealth for its own sake.
Don't misunderstand me. I want to be comfortable. I want to take care of my sister and her children, and my mother in her golden years. I want the people who work for me to be treated well, respected, and compensated fairly.
And yes, there is one particular indulgence I'd like to allow myself.
I'd like to build my dream home.
My father, who passed away in the summer of 2026, was a builder. One of those old-school, jack-of-all-trades types who could put his hands to just about anything.
We built our family cottage together in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
I've always had an interest in architecture, even though it was one of my unsuccessful post-secondary endeavours. And for more than 30 years, I've been designing and redesigning my dream home in my imagination.
I'd very much like to finally build it.
But here's the thing.
After spending so much of my life without any particular direction, I've discovered that all I really want to do is build.
Build like my father.
And unlike my father.
I want to build more games. Build places. Build opportunities for people to come together, enjoy themselves, and make memories.
And if those things are successful, I want to use that success to build even more.
Money, to me, is a means to that end. Not the end itself.
I don't want to create things simply to accumulate wealth.
I want to create wealth so that I can keep creating things.
Things that people can enjoy. Things that offer genuine value. Things that make life a little more interesting, a little more enjoyable, and perhaps even a little more wonderful.
I want to deliver experiences for everyday people, every day.
And I have plans.
Big plans.
Stupidly big plans.
With all of you as my partners, Draw the Line is the first step.
Paul “Grrr” Raymond
Founder, Trajan Global Inc.