On the Dot

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On the Dot is a very cool game from Brainwright with a simple but rather clever concept. Invented by Dominique Bodin, this game is a re-edition of the original Vitrail (translated from the French as stained glass) launched in 2006.

This concept, however, is not entirely new. If you're familiar with the Transposer puzzles, this is very similar in the way that you have to overlap cards so that they show a specific pattern. The game comes with four sets of transparent cards, each set in a different color. The pattern you see on each card is the same. In the other words, the position of the four dots found in each card is always the same, but the color arrangent differ from card to card. What's fascinating about it is that you can rearrange the cards in so many different patterns by just rotating and flipping them in any direction.

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There are some rules you need to take into account in order to play the solitaire game. You can also play the game with more players, but for now let's just focus on the main game. There are 60 challenge cards included in the game. There are no difficulty levels indicated in the cards, but you can tell if it's an easy or a hard challenge by the number of dots that appear on each one.

To start a challenge you need to pick one set of transparent cards with the same color border and find a way to overlap all four cards so that only the spots on the challenge card are shown. The secret is to find a way to hide the spots you don't want to appear. The cards have to overlap in a square, not diagonally or other odd directions.

Most of the challenges are pretty easy to solve, even the ones that show more than four spots. What I found most interesting is that it didn't matter which set of cards you choose for any challenge. Each set has four cards with different color arrangements, but they're identical in each of the four sets. The reason there are four sets is to play with up to other three players. The rules are simple: just pick some challenge cards and race against your opponents to finish all the patterns first.

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Closing Comments:

On the Dot is a pretty fun game to play. I prefer to play it alone, as I'm not very fond of playing multiplayer games. If you liked any of the Transposer puzzles this one will certainly please you as well.

Availability: On the Dot is currently out of stock at PuzzleMaster. Keep checking back on their website for updates on availability. In the meantime, you can check out other interesting puzzles and games from Brainwright.

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