Dot (Digital Board Game)

 

The winner of Red Dot Award (Germany)

in entertainment category on October 23rd, 2010.

 

“Dot” is a digital board game which features a spherical, border-less board and science-fiction pieces such as Robot, Transporter and Satellite. Since the spherical board has no boundary and all pieces on it can move without limit of steps, players will find that the experience of playing “Dot” is totally different from any other board game.

 

Although the spherical board is a 3-dimensional object, the surface of it is essentially a 2-dimensional manifold, which makes the strategy of winning this game not much different from the traditional, flat board games. However, it requires players to pay attention on every possible routes on a spherical surface, that makes the full-angle observation a critical skill for this game.

 

This game allows two players to compete by using the same device together or by using two different devices and linked via the Internet. It brings players wonderful game experiences especially when they play on multi-touch screen devices. Certain actions of this game, such as move or capture pieces, can be beautifully done by multi-touch gestures.

 

There are several hot-keys on the bottom of the screen for players to easily manipulate the attitude and display modes of the Dot. The two clocks on the left side of the screen record the use of time of each player during competition. The gear-like rotatable diagram on the right side of the screen offers a real-time reference of the relative position of pieces on the Dot.