Threedot is an arcade-like game that takes place in a world of micro-organisms. Your goal as a good micro-organism is to destroy other bacteria that are trying “to kill or otherwise harm” you (as the father of all bacteria, Sid the Sloth, would say).

So the purpose is to stay alive. You achieve that by using liquid from certain bubbles that can do all sort of harm to the enemies: intoxicate them, freezes them (and then they become breakable) or transform them into kamikaze zombie bacteria where they kill each other.

The game has a neon theme, all bacteria look neon-ish and some have three dots (hint to the game’s name). My favorite weapon is the mass-destruction one, where you touch a green bubble and all enemies on the screen are instantly destroyed. If you think it’s easy to kill those organisms it’s worth mentioning that Threedot is a tilt game, so you control your good micro-organism by tilting the phone. You’ve guessed well, your device must have gyroscope in order to play this game (but then again, it’s difficult to find a smartphone now that doesn’t have gyroscope). You can see the game in action here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv3icumR5D0

Threedot’s main features:

  • Neon graphics and particle effects add up to a cool arcade-like feeling
  • Smooth gameplay, you’ll understand on the spot what you need to do and the tilting is very responsive
  • 3 different game modes: Classic (fight waves of enemies and unlock new weapons), Crazy Shake (maximum difficulty level named like this after the weapon) and Zen (time-limited mode, you can break enemies by touching them)
  • Scary enemies: squid, singlecell, whirligig cell, glowfish, nautilus
  • Powerful weapons: toxic bomb, instant freeze, injection (to infect the infected), crazy shake, time bomb
  • Save your score online on a global leader board (or keep it saved locally only)

The game has a lite and a full version, the only difference between them being the single gameplay mode in the lite version – however given that the full version is 99 cents, it’s well worth the price.

You can download the app directly from Google Play: Threedot Lite or Threedot Full.

The developer released a new game for the Android, “Decrypton: hack to save world!”, so if you enjoyed playing Threedot give this new one a try (it’s free) via https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.agcgames.decrypton

Yurii Osadchyi, the developer of Threedot, agreed to a short interview in which he shares information about the game and offers some advices for new indie developers:

Q: Can you share some information about yourself with our readers?

A: I’m living in Ukraine and working for more than 10 years as an enterprise Java programmer, so it was new and undiscovered territory for me, to code a game for Android :)

Q: It’s quite innovative to use the tilting option in a phone to play the game, how did you come with the idea to create it this way, what inspired you?

A: I don’t think that’s innovative, but for me it looks as the most natural and intuitive control for such games. It was important to make a game which allows users to play, relax, and not worry about controls.

Q: How long did it take from that idea until the first public release?

A: From idea to final product it wasn’t a very long time – about 3 months. But they were really hard-working months – I coded the game before and after work so I didn’t have time to sleep a lot, but it was really funny.

Q: Have you developed other apps or is this your first one? Do they target only the Android market or others as well (i.e. iOS)?

A: No, it’s my first application for mobile platforms. But I already have a lot of ideas to develop and distribute applications for Android/iOS, probably Windows Phone.

Q: With hundred of thousand of apps in the appstore, how do you make people aware of your apps?

A: Fortunately some online magazines and other Android-related resources published info about my app right after it was available, so I just sent press releases to some sites :)

Q: What future plans you have for your app (new features, …)?

A: For now I’m gathering feedback from my users, so there are a few small improvements in scheduled for Threedot. But I also have big plans related to the game, including a new very challenging game mode – I’ll be quiet for now :) Also, I’m about to release my next game, it’s a quite challenging one, small and free.

Q: What popular apps are an inspiration for you as a developer and why?

A: I like games which are real ART products: flOw, OSMOS, Contre Jour, Tiny Wings, Doodle Jump, VVVVVV, Don’t look back, Super Hexagon. It’s because I like games with simple ideas behind them, in conjunction with good implementation – they are really addictive.

Q: Have any tips/advices for other developers that want to start working on an app? Any tools that you consider to be a must?

A: My tips to starting game indie devs:

  • Start from an idea, not from the technical part
  • Think how to make the game addictive – do not try to overcome NFS and other great games in graphics :)
  • Try to make a working prototype as fast as you can – it will give you a vision of how it looks
  • Give the game for testing to as many people as you can: stability is a major goal, the feedback which you will receive is most important thing. You can correct your game before the release. But try to follow your initial scope for the game as well – a game cannot be addictive for everyone.
  • Use score sharing services like Scoreloop and others: they are not only good for users, but for you as developer – you can track how hard your game is, how often users play and so on.
  • Use the power of automation, most of the characters in Threedot were drawn in Inkscape and they’re automatically transformed to bitmaps. Visual effects are applied during resource precompilation, it saves a lot time and gives you a consistent look and feel.