Free Mobile Game of the Week: Dominoes by Maysalward

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Romeo Chalfoun
Mar 27 2014
Games
Free Mobile Game of the Week: Dominoes by Maysalward
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Dominoes  is an Android and iOS app developed by Maysalward that allows you to play with up to 3 computer players, and soon in multiplayer mode against human players. The game has astounding graphics and a seamless user interface with bones (or tiles) that move smoothly and quickly. It feels so natural that even a 4-year-old can learn to use it and play.

Maysalward built their first game of Dominoes in partnership with Nokia for the N9 model launch, and then carried on to build it for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. Dominoes is a popular board game played by people of all ages worldwide. The classic game of Dominoes has a Chinese manual that dates back to 1119, and while the board game has many variations, the app uses the popular Simple Straight Six Dominoes.

What makes the game fun and addictive

It’s simple to learn, easy to play, and with a bit of luck and some counting you can go a long way. All you need is a bit of strategy thinking. It is also a quick play, making you ask for more and jump from game to game without noticing the clock tick by.

If you’ve played any Maysalward game before, you’ll notice they like to really optimize gameplay—the engine behind the AI/Artificial Intelligence or computer players, and the User Interface and Graphics. “Playing the game shouldn’t take more than a couple of clicks, and we don’t release a game before it works well and looks good,” explains Ziad Al Masri, the CMO of Maysalward.

Dominoes is free to play across most platforms, with a couple of advertisements here and there. But the iOS version is different as it offers players free rounds, and then asks to add more rounds either by sharing their score on social media, or by purchasing in-app unlimited rounds.  Another innovative in-app purchase is the X-ray vision, which allows the player to look at the other players’ domino bones, which surely turns the tide to the player’s benefit. Players can also change the theme of the board and bones to their liking for a small fee.

Successes along the way

While the game has over 700,000 downloads across different platforms, Ziad Al Masri emphasizes the importance of having engaged users saying: “We have over 235k active users playing our dominoes game across all the platforms we support with an average of 4 minutes a session.”

Ziad Al Masri confirmed the active base of Dominoes has come through organic growth with no advertising spending or promotion whatsoever. “User engagement is promoted through leaderboards, achievements, and badges in addition to Facebook and Twitter posts when players win or gain a badge or XP level…”

“Our top markets are currently Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Iraq, China & Brazil,” explains Ziad Al Masri. “The board game was already popular in markets such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and in Far East China and Thailand as well as the Caribbean and South America with a large base of players and competitions.”

Maysalward Updates

Maysalward has an impressive game portfolio, and they’re always working on updating the games as well as building new games from Indie Developers. They also work closely with schools and universities to run bootcamps for students and graduates. Ziad exclaims: “The outcome was pretty amazing with individual- and team-related games that are live on the store.  The future is looking promising.”

Ziad Al Masri adds: “We are excited to be developing and co-publishing a new game with worldwide distribution with our partners One Spear Entertainment located in San Fransisco. The game will be available on iOS & Android in multiple languages this spring.”