‘Surpassed my wildest dreams’: Calgary-based Puckdoku exceeding expectations
Posted Nov 23, 2023 1:00 pm.
Last Updated Nov 23, 2023 1:04 pm.
Puckdoku is just what the doctor ordered for die-hard hockey fans.
The daily web-based puzzle gives you nine shots to fill out the three-by-three grid as you try to find player combinations based on teams, statistics, or even hardware won.
And keeping each puzzle unique is a challenging task.
Just ask Calgary’s Taylor Dixon, the founder of Puckdoku, who admits it’s been a whirlwind since he was inspired by a hockey podcast he was listening to while gardening in his backyard.
City’s Sandra Prusina speaks with Puckdoku founder Taylor Dixon
“It was your classic summer content where there’s not a lot of hockey going on, so they were playing a trivia game where one of the hosts was quizzing the other on the idea of a three-by-three puzzle, which had started in another sport,” he recalled, as a light bulb then went off in his head.
Dixon is a software developer, and he thought he could design a hockey one himself but admitted it would be an arduous task, so he sat on the idea.
“It was in the back of my head the whole time and eventually, I thought I should take a couple of days and see what I can do,” the long-time hockey fan explained. “The hardest part was finding the data. You can find some players, but to find a full data set of players, it’s normally something you would pay for, or you have to find ways of scooping up that data.
“Finding the data and figuring out how to get these players and the teams and these different stats to fit this game was the hardest part of the whole thing.”
Dixon bunkered down for the next four evenings, using every moment away from his actual full-time gig to put the Puckdoku prototype together.
The game launched on Canada Day, and the rest, as they say, is history: “It surpassed my wildest dreams of what I thought it ever would be.”
The Puckdoku community really pulled through yesterday with an all-time top answer for the “Undrafted Goalie” category: pic.twitter.com/2AnUxBDGOn
— Puckdoku (@puckdoku) November 16, 2023
Keeping every game unique is no easy task for Dixon, as he usually only makes each puzzle a day in advance. If it’s a game that features just teams or if they’re categories he’s done before, it’ll take him about five to seven minutes. But, if he has to create a new category or something that’s advanced, it can take a couple of hours for a single game.
“It’s a balance,” he offered. “I do have a life and a full-time job. How much a put into the new categories really depends on how much free time I’m sitting on.”
So, what’s next for Puckdoku?
Because Dixon has great access to player data, he hopes to leverage that into more hockey-based games after a player finishes their daily quiz.
“I’m working on that now,” he teased about his new beta offering. “It’s going be a hockey trade trivia-themed game. We’ll see how it goes!”
For inquiring minds: Jaromir Jagr is the most frequently used player because of his accomplishments, career tenure, and the many teams he played for, including the Calgary Flames. According to Dixon, if the second and third most common Puckdoku choices are added up, Jagr is still ahead.
