PokeDoku shares insights into new Unlimited Mode, teases upcoming features

The web-based puzzle game PokeDoku has taken off since we first covered it last year and they’ve just added a new ‘Unlimited Mode’ which allows players to challenge themselves to as many puzzles as they’d like to tackle in a day.

We caught up with Joe, one of the two members of the PokeDoku team, to talk about how running and expanding the game has been, as well as what fans can expect next.

Following up with PokeDoku

PokéJungle: PokeDoku has added a lot of new features since launching and just released an ‘Unlimited Mode’. What has the journey been like since launching and improving the game?

Joe: The journey has felt long but short at the same time. It feels like we have put so much work into PokeDoku already but at the same time these past 7 months have flown by. It has truly been a blessing though and we couldn’t have asked for a better, more loyal fan base. Seeing the positive reactions of our fans when we drop a new update is priceless and we wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. 

Now that Unlimited Mode has been added, are there any other frequently-requested features your team is considering adding?

Definitely! We want to eventually have a full archive mode where every puzzle will be playable (including our first ever creator puzzle… your’s!). We want to expand on our user system with more stats and a friend system. We also like the idea of a public puzzle editor where you can make puzzles and send them to your friends. Lastly, we would love to make our game online multiplayer. We have some ideas on how to make it possible but we will be ominous and leave it at that for now. 

What challenges have there been when running PokeDoku and expanding the puzzle options and features?

I’d say finding time to implement these features. We are only a team of two with one developer who has a full time job so anything PokeDoku related he does mostly in his free time. Another challenge we face is finding a nice in between for puzzle difficulty. Our fanbase stems from casual Pokémon fans to the most hardcore Pokémon fans. There are so many different outlets of Pokemon and all different people indulge in different content so we had to make sure we stayed consistent with one which is the main series video games. Some things are different in the shows or in Pokémon GO than they are in the main series games so trying to make the game fun for everyone has been a challenge but it is a super important one that is high in priority for us. 

Have you ever considered adding other types of puzzles with answers of Pokémon Types, Moves or Abilities? Characters from the games or anime?

For sure. The reason we formed Doku Games was because PokeDoku is just the start. We want to build plenty of free-to-play web browser games similar to it. For now, we want to fully put everything into PokeDoku until we feel like it is a completed project. Making more Pokemon games sounds great and I assume it is something we will pursue, but at the moment, we still have some work to do on PokeDoku so it can hit its full potential. 

How has the response been from fans since the game launched? Do you ever get complaints some puzzles are too hard?

We do get complaints from time to time. One popular one is that you have to go 9/9 in order to complete the puzzle. I see where they are coming from but the goal of our game is that it is supposed to be a challenging puzzle to complete. The sports games with the same format as us use this same model so if it’s not broken, why fix it? Another recent one is our move based categories. We have some fans that are not big fans of these so that is why we have limited them to basic moves like Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, etc. We do plan on adding more moves to Unlimited Mode because you have the option to turn them off if you don’t like them. 

I see that ‘Doku Games’ has now been established, are you planning on creating puzzles for other franchises?

Absolutely. We will more than likely make more Pokémon games like I stated previously, but we won’t limit ourselves just to one franchise. I believe there are franchises that would do extremely well in the PokeDoku format. We have a couple that we have lightly experimented with but we won’t be able to release any information on that just yet!

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We appreciate Joe taking time to share these insights and I’m excited to announce that we will be featured again in a creator collaboration with PokeDoku on June 17! Mark your calendars 🙂

Don’t forget to also join our Discord server!