After 55 Million Downloads, Dots Gets A Major Upgrade

Dots, the incredibly basic but addicting mobile game created by gaming studio Playdots, is getting its first major upgrade in over a year.

Dots now features three new themes: Space, Mod Synth, and Desert. There’s also a custom “Designer” option if users prefer to select their own dot and background color palate. 

The goal of the game is simple — connect same-colored dots, vertically and horizontally, to rack up as many points as possible while a timer counts down 60 seconds.

When Dots originally launched two years ago, it had a single style and a single game mode. A few months later, Playdots added a “Moves” mode, where you’re limited to 30 moves instead of timed, and an “Endless Mode” that lets you play until you have no moves left.

Most of Playdots’ recent attention has been on Dots’ successor TwoDots, which is why it’s been about a year since the original game has seen any update love.

Considering that the appeal of the game, for the most part, is rooted in its childish simplicity, it will be interesting to see how users respond to the new designs.

Dots was created under the supervision of betaworks, the NYC startup studio and incubator, in 2013. The company spun out at the end of last year with $10 million in funding from Tencent and Greycroft.

Since launch, more than 55 million people have downloaded the original Dots and more recent Two Dots games, which are both available for free on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android.

The Dots team is actively designing new titles for 2015, but they’re not revealing any specifics yet.