Blockdot

Blockdot is a branded entertainment and game studio based in Dallas, Texas, owned by Media General, that builds many of the games for Microsoft's Club Bing.

History

It was founded in March 2001 by Michael Bielinski, Dan Ferguson, and Jason McMinn. In August 2005, it was bought out by Media General (NYSE: MEG). After Blockdot was shut down in 2015, the founders started new companies.

  • Dan Ferguson is the founder of www.groovejones.com a digital studio creating VR and AR games.
  • Jason McMinn is the founder of www.locuslabs.com an indoor mapping technology company.

[1]

Games

  • Chicktionary: a variation on the game of anagrams, it features an egg rack, replete with three to seven-letter sequences of eggs. Seven chickens appear at the bottom, each bearing a letter. When the player clicks on a hen, its letter is dropped into a box. Clicking on three or more hens in sequence can create a word. If it is a valid word, a sequence of eggs of the appropriate length will be filled up with the word. The game increased Microsoft's share of the search market increased by 13.2% in June 2007.[2][3]
    • Spelling Bee: similar to Chicktionary, players are given seven letters from which to form words
    • Word Slugger: similar to Chicktionary, players are given seven letters from which to form words
  • Banana Shuffle: players transform one word to another by changing one letter at a time.
  • Clink: phrase-matching game
  • Coffee Break: sampler consisting of short versions of Chicktionary, Crosswire, and Clink
  • CrossWire: items on one side must be matched to corresponding items on the opposite side.
  • Dingbats: players solve a puzzle and may guess letters, similar to Hangman
  • Discover the World with Matt Lauer: world trivia game with 8 questions per game
  • Flexicon: crossword-like game.
  • Quote a Pillar: players spell out famous quotes using the letters provided.
  • Red Carpet Reveal: celebrity trivia game.
  • Seekadoo: word search
  • Taxi Wrangler: time management game consisting of three rounds
  • Time Capsule: daily question of events related to present day in history
  • Trivia Bound: multiplayer trivia contest consisting of five rounds of questions. Players score points by inputting answers that rank the highest on a Bing search query
  • Truffula Shuffula: the official game of the movie, The Lorax (2012)

References

  1. ↑ STEPHANIE STOUGHTON (2005-08-16). "Media General Buys 'advergaming' Business". AP Online/HighBeam Research. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
  2. ↑ Associated Press (2007-07-19). "'Chicktionary' Game Helps Microsoft Boost Search Ratings", Fox News.
  3. ↑ Blockdot (2008-04-15). "Blockdot Game Portfolio", Blockdot.
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