13 May 2026

Why I Created Joodle: The Daily Memory Game to Test Your Brain

We’ve all been there. You walk into a room with intense purpose, only to cross the threshold and completely forget why you are there. Or, perhaps more dangerously, your wife asks you to remember three simple things from Tesco and you return triumphantly with two of them and a bag of cookies*.

My memory has never been my strongest asset and as I get older, it occasionally feels less like a steel trap and more like a colander. That is precisely why I created Joodle, a daily memory game designed to give your brain a quick, brutal and highly entertaining workout. But the journey to launching this daily puzzle game goes a bit deeper than just forgetting the milk.

*not on the list.

The Lockdown Legacy of Daily Puzzles

To understand the origins of Joodle, we have to rewind to the strange, isolated days of the lockdown. Like millions of other people across the globe, my family and friends found a bizarre sense of unity in daily browser games. Every morning, our group chats would light up with the green and yellow squares from Wordle, quickly followed by our Waffle scores.

There was something really special about that routine. It wasn’t a game you could binge for six hours; it was a shared, five-minute daily ritual. It gave us something to talk about, a harmless way to compete, flex our brains and connect or check-in. I loved that simplicity, but I wanted to build something that specifically targeted short-term recall and cognitive speed and challenge me a little deeper.

What is the Name? The Birth of "Joodle"

Naming a game is surprisingly difficult. Every domain you can think of is already taken or super expensive and making up a new word that sounds catchy is an art. I wanted a name that sounded lighthearted, a little bit silly and hinted at the idea of your brain getting into gear.

I started playing around with the phrase "using your noodle," then “jog your brain” and therefore.. Joodle. It sounded like a fun, easy to say word that can be put in the phrase “have you played Joodle today?”. More importantly, the domain name was actually available. The moment I said it out loud and to others, it stuck. It also ended in an “le” which seems to be a successful part of daily brain games.

Screen Time, Kids and "Sudden Death"

I have young kids and like any parent, I worry constantly about screen time. We live in an era of infinite scrolls, bottomless social media feeds and games that are designed to keep you tapping endlessly for hours or paying more and more for ad-ons.. I wanted Joodle to be the exact opposite of that.

When you play Joodle, you get your daily brain workout and then you’re done. Go outside, talk to humans.

More importantly, I wanted to bring back the mechanics of old-school games. Modern games hold your hand, offering infinite respawns and endless retries. In the retro games I grew up with, actions had consequences - Alex the Kid, Tomb Raider, Broken-Sword - Games where you couldn’t cheat (easily) and had to work out problems for yourself. That is why Joodle features sudden-death bonus rounds like Blitz, Rapid Fire and Mind Wipe. If you blink and lose focus, or if your memory slips, it’s game over. You get one spare life a day. It forces you to be entirely present in the moment, which is a rare feeling on a smartphone these days. I introduced Gridlock because my sister kept beating the Mind Wipe. I reduced it from 5 hearts to two, because my brother kept beating Gridlock.

The Elephant in the Room (If I Can Remember It)

On a lighter note, Joodle is partly an act of self-preservation. I am notoriously bad at remembering passing comments, shopping lists.. or instructions from my wife. I am hoping that by actively training my working memory every single day, I might actually remember to take the bins out on a Thursday without being prompted.

On a much more serious note, cognitive health is something that hits close to home for my family. My granddad suffered from dementia and watching a sharp mind slowly slip away is one of the hardest things a family can endure. I’m not a doctor and I’m not claiming that a daily browser game is a cure. But research has consistently shown that keeping the brain active, challenging your memory and learning new things can contribute to long-term cognitive health. If Joodle can help people keep their mental gears turning—even just a little bit—then every hour spent building it was worth it.

Coding with a Co-Pilot: Gemini

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not a world-class software engineer. Building a complex web app with plenty of logic traps and storage issues and rules to be random, but not too random, was a massive mountain to climb. To make it happen, I used Google Gemini. When I got stuck on how to handle the Service Worker caching, or when my JavaScript logic for the Gridlock round was causing the game to crash, I used the AI to help debug, refactor and streamline the code. It allowed me to take the crazy game mechanics I had in my head and actually translate them into a functioning, smooth web app faster than I ever could have alone.

What’s Next?

Right now, Joodle lives on the web and it is entirely free to play. But the ultimate goal is to develop a dedicated app version for iOS and Android, complete with leaderboards, historical stat tracking and perhaps a few more memory traps.

Until then, the daily gauntlet awaits. Give it a try, share your results and let’s see who really has the sharpest noodle.