DodgeDot™ is an incredibly simple game to learn and play. You can play for fun, relaxation, or hone your skills and strategy for competition! Many people jump right in and learn the game quickly through trial and error. But the following game rules and explanations will help you understand both the basic ways the game works along with a few key details that will let you maximize your scoring and competitiveness.
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First, here's a simplified and shortened version if you only want to know the basics. You can also scroll on down for a more detailed presentation of the game's rules, behaviors, and interrelationships. Knowing exactly how the dynamics of the game work will allow you to develop playing strategies that will maximize your scoring and competitiveness.
Basic DodgeDot™ Instructions
1) A game starts with three lives, shown in the scorebar at the top of the screen. The game has a maximum time limit of 30 minutes. Your objective is to achieve the highest possible score.
2) Drag the colored moving dots to their matching colored goals to score points. You must clear the field of all moving colored dots in order to advance to the next level. Getting to higher levels is not the primary objective of the game, other than to continue scoring more points. Your points scored are what determines your rank, not the level that you've reached. Skilled play will result in more points scored in fewer levels.
3) Clear all moving colored dots from field before the Level's Runout Period (equal to five seconds for every colored moving dot present at the beginning of the level). The Runout Period is shown as a white overlay disappearing across the scorebar, moving from right to left. Failure to clear the field before the Runout Period ends will result in the forteiture of points scored during that Level, and having to replay the Level over.
4) Dots of the same color can be "Joined" by dragging a dot into another of the same color, or touching a dot when another moving dot of the same color contacts it. Joins result in a larger dot and earn a bonus multiplier. All bonus multipliers earned in a Level are added up at the successful end of a Level and multiplied by the points scored. Each Dot Join also halts the Runout Period Timer for five seconds.
5) Avoid "Collisions" where a dot being touched, dragged, or expanded during a join contacts another dot of a different color. This error will result in them freezing together into a gray barrier which must be avoided for the remainder of the Level. Collision errors incure a penalty loss of 50 percent of health from the game lives.
6) Avoid "Slams" where a dot being touched, dragged, or expanded during a join contacts goal of a different color. This error will result in large dots being broken into smaller, less valuable dots and the creation of one or more small white "Death Dots" which must be avoided for the remainder of the Level. Slam errors incure a penalty loss of 25 percent of health from the game lives. Contact with a Death Dot will result in the loss of one of the game's three lives.
In-Depth DodgeDot™ Instructions
1) At the top of the playing field is the scorebar. It shows (from left to right) the running point score (symbolized by a dot), the remaining game lives (symbolized by a person), the remaining health of the current game life (symbolized by a heart), the remaining total game time (symbolized by an hourglass), and the current level (symbolized by stair steps).
2) A game begins with three lives, each of which starts out with 100% health. A game ends after either the full limit of thirty minutes, or when all three game lives have been lost incrementally through health penalties. Each game life begins with 100% health, and this health can be lost through penalties in increments of 25%, 50%, or the remainder of the current life altogether.
3) The objective is to drag colored dots to their matching colored goals to score points, clear the field before the end of the level's runout period, and advance to the next level. The bigger the dot, the more points it's worth. When a level begins, each of the starting dots are slowly cycling between growing and shrinking. Once one of these initial dots is touched, it stops growing or shrinking and stays its current size and relative point value.
4) Join dots of the same color to earn bonus points at the end of each level. Dragging a smaller dot to contact and join a larger dot will earn a larger bonus than dragging a larger dot to contact a smaller dot.
5) Each level has a runout period, the length of which is equal to five seconds for every dot initially present at the beginning of the level. This is shown by a translucent white bar gradually disappearing from right to left across the score bar at the top of the screen. Dot points are worth their maximum at the beginning of each level, and gradually lose value until they are worth nothing at the end of the runout period.
Game play can continue past the ending of the runout period, and the field must still be cleared in order to end the level. If the player fails to clear the level before the end of the runout period, any points earned before the runout period expired will be forfeited. The overall game time timer will continue to count down after the runout period expires, and all penalties incurred during and after the runout period will remain.
6) Avoid contacting dots of unmatched colors, or "Collisions." Accidental contact will cost 50% health and create stationary gray dot obstacles that must be avoided for the rest of the current level, or risk losing more dots and their potential points and making the obstacle larger.
7) Avoid contacting goals of unmatched colors, or "Slams." Accidental contact will cost 25% health, break up larger dots into smaller ones, and release wandering small white death dots that must be avoided for the rest of the current level. Accidental contact with a death dot will result in the loss of the current game life. Every time death dots are created during a game, their number is increased by one.
8) On the main Game Menu screen (which is seen after launching the app), there are four options: New Game (which starts a new game), Resume Game (which will pick up where a previously unfinished game left off), My Game & Level Scores, which will list the player's current best overall game score along with a scrollable list of the highest scores for each level reached.
9) From the main Game Menu level there are five tabs at the bottom of the screen:
- Game (which is the main Game Menu or Home screen).
- High Scores (which shows the current high scores for registered players in the Jampaq Network, including the ability to view player rankings for the Current Round/this week, Last Round/last week, and All Time/an overall average).
- Following (active only for players registered in the Jampaq Network, and which functions similarly to the High Scores tab, but for viewing rankings among other players the signed-in player has Followed by clicking the "Follow" button on their Profile).
- Followers (active only for players registered in the Jampaq Network, and which functions similarly to the High Scores tab, but for viewing rankings among other players who are following the signed-in player).
- Settings (which allows any player to choose a Color Scheme for the game, turn Sound and Vibration On and Off, Sign Up or Sign In as a Registered Player, Edit Player Profile and Account Settings if Registered and Signed In, Sign out, and access the About Screen).
10) Unregistered Players or Registered Players who are not Signed In play in the Local Mode. In Local Mode the player can still access and see the High Scores of other players in the Jampaq Network for the Current Round, Last Round, and All Time.
Unregistered Players or Registered Players who are not Signed In do not have access to weekly Round changes or the ability to Follow other players and the Following and Followers tabs are inactive.
Registered Players who are signed out will still be able to be followed by other Registered Players in the Jampaq Network but will have to Sign In to access listings of these players.
11) Signed In players enjoy new Game Rounds that begin every week at Midnight Pacific Time between Sunday night and Monday morning. The starting sizes, positions, and moving directions of the dots for each game level are changed up each round to keep the game fresh and allow new opportunities each week to compete for Player ranking!
Additionally, registered Jampaq Network players get their own Player Profile, accessible by other players. Registered players can follow other players and their ranking amongst them, and also see which players are their followers! Rankings are always available and accessible for the current round, the previous week's round, and all-time rankings.
So sign up today and power up your fun! Registration as a player in the Jampaq Network is free! To Sign Up, tap on either the Following, Followers or Settings tabs, tap the Sign Up button, and complete the simple Sign Up process.
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About DodgeDot™
DodgeDot™ is truly a game for everybody. It's so simple to play, its basic rules can be described in less than a minute and many players learn the basics just by jumping in and discovering them by trial and error. It's a game that can be played at a gentle and relaxing pace and yet also provides plenty of challenges for players that want to develop their dexterity, playing strategy, and overall game skills for competition.
Beneath the simple rules and objectives there are a number of interrelationships between the game's elements that have significant effects on scoring. The nature of the game's dynamics are infinitely variable, with its dots moving in different directions and speeds, and with time and every player interaction affecting the subsequent dot movement patterns and point values.
Unlike some games, which have fixed patterns which once understood do not change, DodgeDot™ is designed to have some aspects of patterns (particularly at the start of levels), but which are subtly affected by the normal interaction caused by moving dots around.
New Game Rounds, automatically started weekly for Registered Players also provide additional freshness to the game. Registered Players have a week to learn initial level patterns and hone their strategy for the unique patterns that week, but are also rewarded for developing basic agility and judgement skills.
This mix of temporary patterns and dynamic complexity makes DodgeDot™ a unique game that rewards skill in both strategy and agility. Understanding DodgeDot™ in a detail will give players a deeper appreciation for both the game's elegant simplicity and its rewards for skill and strategy.
1) General Structure of the Game
At the top of the playing field is the scorebar. It shows (from left to right) the running point score (symbolized by a dot), the remaining game lives (symbolized by a person), the remaining health of the current game life (symbolized by a heart), the remaining total game time (symbolized by an hourglass), and the current level (symbolized by stair steps).
DodgeDot™ is a game of successive levels that start off easy and become more challenging as the game progresses.
A new game begins with three game lives, each of which starts out with 100% health. A game ends after thirty minutes, or when all three game lives are lost, due to the accrual of penalties.
In each level there are moving dots of four different colors. There are four correspondingly colored goals, located at the four field positions of top, right, bottom, and left sides (or 12 o'clock, 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock).
Points are scored by successfully dragging dots to goals matching their colors, or touching a dot when its contacting or overlapping a goal of a matching color, while avoiding contact with dots or goals of unmatched colors. The objective in each level is to clear all of the moving colored dots from the field within the level's runout time.
2) Total Game Time and Level Runout Timers
A game of DodgeDot™ is limited to a total of 30 minutes. This time is displayed in the score bar next to the hourglass symbol and counts down by seconds during active gameplay. It pauses in between levels, and when the game is suspended, such as turning off the iPhone or for an incoming call or text message, etc.
In addition to a 30 minute countdown game timer, each level also has a runout time period gauge, signified by the brightened bar that moves from right to left across the score bar. The runout time for individual levels corresponds to five seconds for each dot present at the start of the level, but will be paused for five seconds each time the player successfully joins two dots of matching color.
After a level's runout period ends, the game's overall 30-minute countdown timer continues. The player must still clear the field of dots by dragging them to their matching goals and avoid penalties in order to end the level.
In levels that end after the runout period, all points and bonus multipliers earned during the level prior to the end of the runout period will be erased. No points will be earned for the level, but all penalties accrued before and after the runout period will remain. The player will not be able to proceed to the next higher level, and will have to repeat the current level again from the beginning.
3) How Scoring Works
Dragging a colored dot to its matching colored goal, or touching it when it is already in contact with its matching colored goal, will score points. Points scored are related to both the size of the dot and the amount of time in the runout period that has elapsed since play on the current level started.
All dots, regardless of size, are worth their maximum individual value at the beginning of a level and steadily decline in value to nothing at the end of the level's runout period. The maximum point value of any dot at the beginning of a level is equal to 3x its diameter in number of pixels.
When a goal is successfully scored, the dot's point value will be briefly flashed as it fades and disappears. The game score, located at the far left of the score bar and symbolized by a dot, will be raised by that amount.
Points scored during a level will only be retained if the level is completed within its runout period. If not, any points scored during the level and added to the total in the scorebar will be forfeited.
After the level's runout period ends, no points will be earned for goals scored, and all points earned subsequently in that level will be erased and the player will not be able to advance the next level.
Additionally, when a level begins, each of the initial starting dots are slowly cycling between growing and shrinking, which corresponds with increasing and decreasing relative point values. When one of these cycling dots is touched for the first time, it will stop its growing and shrinking cycle and remain at its current size and relative point value.
4) Joining Dots of the Same Color For Score Multiplier Bonus
A player can join together two dots of the same color to create a larger single dot that's worth more potential points. When a player successfully drags a dot to collide with and join another dot of the same color or touches a dot when it is overlapping a dot of the same color, it will earn a the bonus score multiplier.
If the level is completed within the runout period the total bonus score multiplier number from all successful dot joins will be multiplied with that level's scored dot points to calculate the total points earned in the level.
This calculation is conducted and animated at the end of each level. If there were no successful dot joins during the level, the bonus will be displayed as zero and there will be no additional change to the total level score.
The larger the dots joined, the larger the bonus multiplier earned. Also, when dots are joined, the dot the player is touching is the one that will be enlarged by the dot contacted. The larger the dot contacted, the larger the increase in size the join will cause.
The size of the bonus multiplier is based on how much larger the dot that the player is touching grows as a result of the join, as a percentage of its size before the join.
Therefore, it's more valuable to drag the smaller of two dots to contact the larger of the two, resulting in a larger bonus multiplier earned. A smaller bonus multiplier will be earned for dragging a larger dot to contact a smaller one, since the smaller dot will not increase the larger dot's size by as large a percentage.
The maximum bonus multiplier that can be earned for a single join is 5x, which corresponds with the smallest possible dot joining with the largest dot that will allow the resulting joined dot to fit between the field's goals.
Extremely large dot joins are valuable, but risky, so it's important to be careful, lest a penalty occur from contacting a dot or goal of an unmatched color.
Bonus multipliers earned by joining dots are not affected by nor decreased over a level's runout period.
5) Penalties for Contact with Dots of Unmatched Colors - "Collisions"
When dragging a dot around the field, avoid contacting dots of unmatching colors or touching any dot when it's overlapping with one or more dots of different colors. Doing so will result in both dots freezing together into an stationary gray obstacle and 50% of health for the current game life will be lost.
Since each game starts with three game lives, six accidental contacts by themselves will incur enough health penalties to end a game. Gray obstacles persist for the remainder of the level and must be avoided, or a player will risk adding more frozen gray dots to the obstacle and losing more health.
6) Penalties for Contact with Goals of Unmatched Colors - "Slams"
When dragging a dot around the field, avoid contacting goals of unmatching colors or touching any dot when it's overlapping with any goal of an unmatched color. Doing so will result in the breaking up into one or more smaller dots of the same color and also releasing one or more small white death dots.
If contact is made with a death dot, the player will lose the current game life. If the player is on the last of the three game lives, the game will end.
Each time that the player contacts an unmatched goal during a game, an additional death dot will be released. Therefore the first accidental contact will release one death dot, the second accidental contact will release two death dots, and so on.
Each time there is an accidental contact with an unmatched goal 25% of health for the current game life will be lost. Since each game starts with three game lives, twelve accidental contacts by themselves will incur enough health penalties to end a game. Death dots will wander around for the remainder of the level.
7) The Game Menu
On the main Game Menu screen (which is seen after launching the app), there are four options: New Game (which starts a new game), Resume Game (which will pick up where a previously unfinished game left off), My Game & Level Scores, which will list the player's current best overall game score along with a scrollable list of the highest scores for each level reached.
8) The Application Tabs
From the main Game Menu level there are five tabs at the bottom of the screen:
- Game (which is the main Game Menu or Home screen).
- High Scores (which shows the current high scores for registered players in the Jampaq Network, including the ability to view player rankings for the Current Round/this week, Last Round/last week, and All Time/an overall average).
- Following (active only for players registered in the Jampaq Network, and which functions similarly to the High Scores tab, but for viewing rankings among other players the signed-in player has Followed by clicking the "Follow" button on their Profile).
- Followers (active only for players registered in the Jampaq Network, and which functions similarly to the High Scores tab, but for viewing rankings among other players who are following the signed-in player).
- Settings (which allows any player to choose a Color Scheme for the game, turn Sound and Vibration On and Off, Sign Up or Sign In as a Registered Player, Edit Player Profile and Account Settings if Registered and Signed In, Sign out, and access the About Screen).
9)Unregistered Players and Registered Players Who Are Not Signed In
Unregistered Players or Registered Players who are not Signed In play in the Local Mode. In Local Mode the player can still access and see the High Scores of other players in the Jampaq Network for the Current Round, Last Round, and All Time.
Unregistered Players or Registered Players who are not Signed In do not have access to weekly Round changes or the ability to Follow other players and the Following and Followers tabs are inactive.
Registered Players who are signed out will still be able to be followed by other Registered Players in the Jampaq Network but will have to Sign In to access listings of these players.
10)The Jampaq Network and New Weekly Game Rounds
DodgeDot™ is powered by the Jampaq Network - an exclusive and friendly player community. So sign up today and power up your fun! Registration as a player in the Jampaq Network is free! To Sign Up, tap on either the Following, Followers or Settings tabs, tap the Sign Up button, and complete the simple Sign Up process.
Signed In players automatically enjoy new Game Rounds that begin every week at Midnight Pacific Time between Sunday night and Monday morning. In each new weekly round, the starting sizes, field positions, moving speeds and directions of the initial dots for each game level are newly randomized.
New Weekly Rounds keep the game fresh, while giving players a week to learn the best strategies to maximize scores for each level, and wipe the slate clean each week to compete for Player rankings!
Additionally, registered players get their own Player Profile. Player Profiles can be customized with an image or icon, where the player is from, a web link of the player's choosing, and a short bio or message to others.
Profiles also display the color scheme the player is currently using, allowing other players to choose that for themselves if they like.
Other players that the Signed In player is following are listed and viewable by ranking and the order they were added under the Following tab.
Conversely, other players that are following the Signed In player are similarly listed and viewable by ranking and the order they followed the Signed In player under the Followers tab.
High Score, Following, and Followers lists are easily viewable by tapping on the This Round, Last Round, and All Time tabs at the top of the screens. You can also order the Following and Followers lists by tapping on the Date Added or Player Ranking tabs. Date Added puts the players you've most recently followed at the top of the Following list views, and those that have most recently followed you on the Followers list views.
