Remember when everyone was really into Wordle? Well brace yourself for a new long-lasting addiction, PokéDoku! The new game taking the internet by storm is a combination of classic Sudoku, with a Pokémon twist, that is the perfect daily challenge to test your Pokémon knowledge. Do you really know your typings and generations as well as you think? I do PokéDoku every single day, and I just had to reach out to the team behind it to learn more about them. Meet your new obsession!
So first up, who are the team behind PokéDoku? Tell us a bit about yourselves.
Hello! We are only a team of two. One of us is our game developer/software engineer who has created and coded our website, his name is Ryan. The other team member is me. My name is Joe and I run all of our social media accounts and run all of our marketing events. I get people to play our game and he continues to make our game as great as it can be. We first met each other in 7th grade and have been close ever since. We have always wanted to work on a project together but never had an idea worth pursuing until PokéDoku.
How did you first discover your love of Pokémon?
We both grew up playing Pokémon! Not to throw Ryan under the bus but I’m definitely the bigger Pokémon guy out of the two of us. I was practically raised by Pokémon haha. I’ve been hooked to Pokémon ever since I was 4 years old. My parents used to read off a random number from 1-151 (Gen I) to me and I used to tell them what Pokémon that was. No, I can’t still do that haha.
When I was that young the first Pokémon-related thing I got into was the TV show. Then once I hit Elementary School, I was still watching the TV show but started collecting Pokémon cards and playing all the Pokémon video games! Once I started Middle School, I stopped watching the shows and collecting cards but since I started playing the video games, to this day, I have never stopped. I believe I have played every Pokémon game except for some of the spin-offs.
How did the idea for PokéDoku take hold?
The idea of PokéDoku was an idea of mine! It started with me finding out about Immaculate Grid for the first time. For those who don’t know, Immaculate Grid is a website like ours where they have a blank 3×3 grid but instead of being Pokémon-themed, it is with MLB Baseball Players. I am a huge fan of hockey. I played Roller Hockey for my college and have been a die-hard New York Rangers fan my whole life. When I first found out about Immaculate Grid I was hoping there was a hockey version! There was not, I looked everywhere. That got me thinking, why don’t we make one?
I immediately texted Ryan asking “How hard would it be to make a website like Immaculate Grid?” Ryan being the genius that he is replied with “Not that hard.” Before we even got into planning it out, BOOM, PuckDoku appears which is the hockey version of Immaculate Grid. We weren’t that bummed because it was way more of a thought than an actual plan. Later on, Crossover Grid came about and they offered a plethora of sports including hockey. Soon after that, Immaculate Grid added a bunch more sports including hockey.
Honestly, at that point, I was just happy someone made it. Every morning before work, like the hockey nerd I am, I would sit there and complete all three Hockey grids on all three websites while I sat at my kitchen table drinking my morning coffee. A month into my morning ritual, was when it randomly hit me. Instead of matching a player to two sports teams, you can match a Pokémon to two Pokémon types!
The first thing that I did was made sure that no one beat us to create this idea first. I couldn’t find anything so once again I texted Ryan. Based on the immediate success of PuckDoku, we knew we needed to act fast this time around and the rest is history!
Tell us about PokéDoku, and how it works.
PokéDoku is a game that takes place on a blank 3×3 grid. There are two categories that match each box and you must enter a Pokémon that matches both these categories into each box. There are nine blank boxes and you only get nine guesses so there is no room for error! The categories we have to offer are all the Pokémon types, all the regions, Legendary, Mythical, and a whole lot more! We also implemented a uniqueness score which shows you how unique your correct answer is. The lower the score the better.
Do you have any dream people you’d love to collaborate with on their own PokéDoku?
Honestly, I haven’t put too much thought into who our dream collaborators would be. For those who don’t know, we host a segment called “Creator Monday” where we collaborate with a Pokémon content creator and they get to create their own “Master Puzzle” that will be hosted on our website for that day. So far, we have worked with awesome creators and we have no complaints!
We are also booked until January with more awesome creators who I can’t wait to work with. I’m not giving away any spoilers though! For the sake of answering the original question, I’ll name-drop a few people! The first one I’d go with is Pokimane. She is a global star at this point and if she wanted to be the host of a Creator Monday, that would be a dream come true. Two more I’ll go with are Haydunn and Shofu. To be transparent, I don’t really watch YouTube but when I was in High School I did really enjoy both of their channels so those would also be great creators to work with.
Who are your top 5 favourite Pokémon?
Another question I never put too much thought into. I’d say my favorite Pokémon of all time is Piplup. After that, I am not too sure! I really liked Politoed when I was younger and I think that was because of their character in the show maybe? I’m not too sure. Then from always choosing Piplup in Sinnoh-based games obviously I have developed a soft spot for Empoleon. To take the final two spots I’ll go with Charizard and Gengar because who doesn’t love the original mon’s! One honorable mention I’ll throw out there is Fuecoco just because of how adorable they are. Definitely my favorite Pokémon from the most recent Generation. Also, I think Ryan’s favorite Pokémon is Roggenrola. If you’re reading this Ryan and I am wrong, I do apologize!
Do you play Pokémon GO, and if so, what is your favourite part of the game?
I do play Pokémon GO! I played a bunch when it first came out, like everyone else on the planet haha. Then for like 3/4 years, I stopped playing. I believe I got back into it around 2021 when we were free from quarantine. Since then I’ve been playing quite regularly. I used to do the online battling, but for the most part, I am just trying to complete my Pokedéx! That’s really my goal and it’s always been my favorite part in all of the Pokémon games is to “Catch ‘Em All” as cliche as it sounds haha. I have tried getting into competitive battling in the main story games as well but it isn’t really my thing. I always get so worked up when I play competitive video games and Pokémon has always been a nice relaxing experience for me so I like to keep away from the competitive aspect of it.
What is your favourite main series Pokémon game?
Pokémon HeartGold is probably my favorite Pokémon game of all time.16 gym’s! How can you beat that? Shoutout to Pokémon Emerald too!
Are there any Pokémon games you’d love to see a sequel for, or a remake of?
I’d say next up has got to be a Pokémon Black/White remake right? I played through Black and Black 2 in High School and haven’t played since so I would love to play a remastered version of those games. Sign me up!
What are your dreams for PokéDoku in the future?
One of our goals is to create a user system so our players can have accounts to see their scores and how they rank amongst their friends and the world. This would also make implementing an archive system to play past puzzles easier and our fans have been begging for that feature. Another idea we have in mind is an unlimited mode. We have been telling our fans that these two features are on their way. We do feel bad about how long it is taking, but we had no idea our website was going to grow this much traction this fast. We are taking our time with everything in order to only release a polished product for our fans.
Is there anything you’d like to let our readers know?
Honestly no! You asked a lot of great questions and we were honored to be interviewed by your website so thanks again for having us! We have a new puzzle that is released every day at midnight EST. For anyone reading this who has never played our game before, you can find it at pokedoku.com
Here is a list of our social media accounts to stay in the loop with all of our future puzzles and updates:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/poke_doku_
- Instagram: poke_doku_
- Facebook: PokéDoku
- YouTube: pokedoku
- Reddit: r/pokedoku
