Smart Othello • Press Kit

Why Smart Othello?

Othello/Reversi apps are a dime a dozen in the App Store. Why create another one? Basically, because you deserve better, and I can create one that doesn’t suck. One that is well designed, plays at your level, and teaches you how to improve your play while making the game fun.

Contact the author: support@smartothello.com

For more on Othello: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reversi
Othello vs. Reversi: https://www.worldothello.org/news/47

Othello® is a registered trademark of MegaHouse Corporation, and is used with permission. Smart Othello is paying a licensing fee to MegaHouse.

Features

Five levels of computer play, from novice to master. (The top three levels are unlocked by the Pro Pack.)
Game Center support for real-time matches.
Achievements and leaderboards to challenge you.
Blunder Guard to keep you from making bad mistakes.
Random openings that give both players an equal chance.
Hint, undo, and easy game replay.
Collection of games by top players for replay and study.

Smart Othello app and website are localized into multiple languages from the start: Japanese, French, and German.

Pro Pack

The $2.99 one-time in-app purchase for the Pro Pack unlocks the following features:

Stronger computer opponents: the free version includes Novice and Student levels, the Pro Pack unlocks Teacher, Expert, and Master.
Database of 129,000 tournament games (including 281 played by Anders).
Opening analysis based on those database games.
The blunder guard is active during online play.
Random openings are available during online play (only chosen if both players set that preference).
Five extra seconds per move (25 seconds instead of 20).

Author

Smart Othello was created by Anders Kierulf, an indie software developer living in Salt Lake City. As an expert Othello player and experienced iOS developer, he’s bringing a unique set of skills to the task:

1992 US Othello Champion. Played at six Othello World Championships: Paris (1983 & 1988), Warsaw (1989), Stockholm (1990), New York (1991), and Barcelona (1992).
Author of acclaimed SmartGo apps for the game of Go (smartgo.com and gobooks.com). Experience with iOS and the App Store since 2008.
Ph.D. in computer science, with a relevant thesis: “Smart Game Board: a Workbench for Game-Playing Programs, with Go and Othello as Case Studies” (ETH Zürich, 1990).

Anders was a development lead working on PowerPoint at Microsoft’s Graphics Business Unit in Silicon Valley. He has more than 20 years of experience in computer Go, and has been working on SmartGo full-time since 1999.

Fun fact: Anders’ first Othello program played in a tournament in Santa Cruz in 1981, long before he first made it to the USA.

Website and app design by Scott Jensen.

Pricing & Release Dates

SmartOthello 1.0 was released August 15, 2016. It was priced at $2.99: no ads, no in-app purchases, no gimmicks. Sales were slow.

SmartOthello 2.0 was released May 4, 2017, as a free app with a $2.99 in-app purchase that adds some features and removes ads. Those ‘ads’ are explained here.

SmartOthello 2.1 was released July 3, 2017, again as a $2.99 app. All the features are enabled for everybody, even if you downloaded it while it was free. The reason for this change is explained in this long blog post.

SmartOthello 3.0 added the Mac version that was released April 20, 2020. It's a universal app created with Catalyst: buy once, download on both iOS and macOS.

Smart Othello 4.0 was released June 13, 2023. Added a space in the name to improve App Store search, changed from turn-based matching to real-time games, and made it free with in-app purchase. More in this blog post.

Screenshots

Please feel free to use these screenshots provided for different devices and languages.

Smart Othello by SmartGo