Your mobile game can have tons of bells and whistles, but if it’s not a game people innately understand, it’s game over.
The makers of puzzle game Dots say that the secret to its success is that it’s easy to look at and its goal is instinctual. With its flat, minimalist aesthetic, the game sends users on a simple mission: to connect as many dots of the same color.
A design-first approach has been at the heart of its strategy from the beginning. “The hypothesis we put out there [was] do people care about the design of the entertainment as much as the entertainment itself? And our results validated that people do care about the design as much as the entertainment,” says CEO and co-founder Paul Murphy.
Since launching Dots in 2013, the company has added two more games: Two Dots and Dots & Co. All told, the company says its apps has been downloaded 100 million times.
Check out the video above to learn more about their strategy.