Fans of the hit puzzle game Snood may be interested in an interview recently published with the game's creator at Newsobserver.com. The interview goes over the surprising success of the game, along with how the game itself came about. Here's a snippet:

Like the object of any addiction, Snood seems harmless at first. Try it, an office worker suggests to a colleague when the boss is away. Nothing to it. Take a few shots.
Next thing, the hapless devotee is dry-eyed, hours past bedtime, alone with his obsession.

Lucky it's just a computer game.

Nearly a decade after Dave Dobson designed it, Snood -- rhymes with "rude" -- is keeping millions of people from what they really ought to be doing.

Dobson designed the game with the goofy little monster faces for his wife in 1996, when he was in grad school at the University of Michigan and she was teaching high school. On a lark, he offered it on the Internet as shareware, and figured if a few people bought it for $10 apiece, he and Christina could go out for a nice dinner.

Today, Dobson is an assistant professor in geology and computer science at Guilford College in Greensboro, but only because he loves teaching. Snood, once estimated to be the most-played computer game behind the games installed in new computers when they come out of the box, has made him a wealthy man.

"It's nuts," says Dobson, on sabbatical from Guilford this academic year. Stopping by his office on campus for an interview, in jeans, tennis shoes and a "Snood University" sweat shirt, he props his feet up on an extra chair, looking more like a student than a 35-year-old faculty member. His office decor also is more relaxed than rarefied; students who stop by for consultation often linger for a game of foosball on the table Dobson installed outside his door.

Snood Creator Interviewed

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