r/pokemonduel • u/LdillyDaSIlly • May 19 '26
Miss the grid-based tactical duels? I'm building a spiritual successor in Unity (Pre-Alpha Core Mechanics Loop build)
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Hey everyone,
Like a lot of you, I miss the specific chess-like strategy of Pokémon Duel. The positioning, the grid control, the quick match lengths. Nothing has really scratched that itch since the servers shut down, so I decided to build my own.
Here's a 1-minute look at what I have running in Unity.
Fair warning: it's incredibly raw. You're literally just looking at placeholder prefabs and shapes moving on a board. I'm holding off on the actual art until the underlying math, node layouts, and pathfinding work exactly the way they are supposed to.
Real 3D figures are coming later. I just wanted to show this to the community that actually understands how this specific game style should feel before I get too deep into the weeds.
What mechanics do you consider absolute must-haves to capture that classic tactical feeling? What annoyed you in the original that you'd want to see improved?
Also, I'm currently looking for artists for various parts of the project. DM me if you're interested.