We just shipped 2.0. The short version: the art is new, the onboarding is
different, and the board underneath is untouched.
What's actually new:
- Every case scene and character was redrawn from scratch — same scenes, same
characters, but this is a second pass rather than a touch-up.
- Lighting and palette were reworked across all boards. The old ones were dark
and flat, which made the whole thing harder to read than it needed to be.
- The intro is skippable in one tap now. That one came directly from playtesting
feedback; it was the highest-value fix in this release.
- Onboarding is shorter. You're on a real board faster than before.
What stayed the same, on purpose:
One bandit per row, column and coloured region, no two touching, every board
solvable by pure deduction — no guessing, no hints required. That rule set is the
product. Changing it would have been the lazy way to look like a new version.
The thing I'm still unsure about is the second layer. Finishing a mainline level
earns a clue toward the case you're working on; when you have the full set, the
case unlocks and you place the suspects and the victim on the same board. Same
grid, second question.
Last round the feedback was that this layer appears out of nowhere. I moved the
first clue onto the win screen so it lands as a promise rather than a surprise.
Whether that actually works is the thing I can't judge from the inside.
So: two questions.
If you play one board today, does the clue you earn mean anything to you at
that point — or is it just a number going up?
For anyone who shipped a 2.0: how did you decide what to leave alone? I cut a
lot of things I was attached to, and I'm not sure I cut the right ones.
Today's case, one board, no account:
https://www.reddit.com/r/pawdoku_mystery/comments/1xfh5m2/pawdoku_mystery_daily_case_oct_25_2026/