TwoDots
Dots begins a new journey with TwoDots
Six months ago we asked one of our lead game designers, David Hohusen, and half of the team to leave Dots. The group was given the mission to build something unique, fun and beautiful. Their journey led to TwoDots, and we couldn’t be more excited to release it today.
TwoDots takes players on an adventure with two thematic characters, Amelia and Jacques, as they navigate their way through a complex world increasing in difficulty across 85 levels. Hidden in-game clues and thoughtfully crafted sound and visual design make this game a lot of fun to play. TwoDots is available for download now in the Apple App Store and will launch on Android later this year.
As the design for the game evolved, the team focussed heavily on mixing luck and skill. They felt there was this large and growing community of Dots players out there that would come into the game with experience, and that should help them. At the same time, there needed to be something new to grasp and a strong element of chance. They experimented with different kinds of puzzles, from fixed puzzles to timed puzzles, and ultimately landed on randomly-generated challenges on a designed game board for each level.
One of my biggest hopes for TwoDots is that it teaches players how to improve over the course of the game. Like Dots, TwoDots rewards skill and thinking ahead. Luck absolutely impacts a game’s outcome, but a good player won’t have to rely solely on a good board layout. — David Hohusen, TwoDots Game Designer
TwoDots follows on the success of our first game, Dots, designed and built last year by Patrick Moberg at betaworks. Once Dots reached a million downloads (we’re at about 20 million now), Patrick and I decided there was a bigger opportunity in front of us — to build a studio focussed on making unique games with thoughtful design. At that point, Dots the game turned into Dots the company and we set out to recruit the best game designers and developers we could find.
The TwoDots gameplay looks much more derivative of Dots than it actually is. As you dig deeper, you realize TwoDots simply tips their hat to our first game Dots, but quickly takes the player down a very different and fun path. — Patrick Moberg
There are more games to come, but for now we hope you enjoy the great creative work of David, Ryan, Ksusha, Steven, Ross, Cody, Owen, Adam, Draco, and the rest of the team at Dots.
