{"id":658058,"date":"2013-05-15T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=645389"},"modified":"2013-05-15T00:00:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T04:00:50","slug":"dots-game-from-betaworks-hits-100-million-game-plays-in-first-2-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/658058","title":{"rendered":"Dots game from Betaworks hits 100 million game plays in first 2 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dots, the super-addictive iOS game from Betaworks that launched just two weeks ago, has already hit 100 million games played, Betaworks told us.<\/p>\n

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Betaworks CEO John Borthwick and Om Malik talk about the future of Betaworks and testing new products at paidContent Live 2013 Albert Chau \/ itsmebert.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The game came out of experimentations with iOS interactions and designs, and it\u2019s sort of like a mobile version of Connect Four. The main screen on Dots displays 36 colored dots that users have to connect to remove from the screen, and the simplicity of the game\u2019s design<\/a>\u00a0emphasizes\u00a0the flat aesthetic that\u2019s become popular in mobile design recently<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dots comes from Betaworks as the\u00a0NYC technology incubator has set an agressive schedule for releasing beta products<\/a>\u00a0each week for six weeks\u00a0in hopes of seeing what works.\u00a0Betaworks CEO John Borthwick talked about this strategy and said a game was in the works<\/a>\u00a0at our\u00a0paidContent Live<\/a>\u00a0conference last month.<\/p>\n

Our review of the game can be found here<\/a>, and Zach Seward wrote a guide for Quartz\u00a0dissecting\u00a0the different ways<\/a> a user can excel at Dots. (Hint: it\u2019s all about the squares.)\u00a0The\u00a0game is free to download from Apple\u2019s app store<\/a>, with in-app purchases that gives users a few additional features. Betaworks reported that the game hit 25 million games played about a week ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the company\u2019s description of how Dots got started:<\/p>\n

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About 3 months ago,\u00a0Patrick Moberg<\/a>\u00a0started experimenting with various iOS interaction designs as part of the hacker in residence program. \u00a0We didn\u2019t set out to build a game, but quickly realized there\u2019s a desire for well designed mobile entertainment so that\u2019s where we focused. \u00a0Patrick worked for a few weeks to build something that looked beautiful and provided you some level of stimulation. \u00a0After a few days playing one of the initial concepts, we were all completely hooked. \u00a0Several betaworks employees and their partners clocked hours and hours of playtime off a fairly rudimentary pilot. \u00a0Over the next few months, we refined the scoring, design, and overall aesthetic to come up with what we simply call Dots \u2013 a game about connecting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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