Pokémon Go‘s senior producer Chad Jones said that the game’s new Routes feature is “the hardest feature” he worked on in his career.
In a question and answer session on July 26, Jones explained User Generated Content features like this one were extremely complex and needed a lot of work to get ready for players.
“User Generated Content on its own is already very complicated and easy to get wrong,” he said. “Adding the complexity of location exacerbates it immensely from multiple angles – not the least of which include the frustration of players who have to wait for content to arrive in their area.”
Routes were introduced to Pokémon Go on July 21, alongside the Blaze New Trails event to celebrate it. But Niantic received backlash from players who expressed disappointment and argued they were unable to enjoy the event due to the lack of Routes in their area.
Others complained about various bugs and crashes, or shared Routes they considered shouldn’t have been approved due to safety concerns or poorly-designed trails.
Despite a rocky start, the feature doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. The senior producer said the team was “still working very hard to make it the best experience possible,” indicating changes and quality-of-life improvements can be expected in the future.
This will include more tools to “improve the discoverability of Routes” to “create a cleaner experience. They also might be used in upcoming Pokémon Go Fest events, although it’s unclear how.
Related: Pokémon Go players beg Niantic to bring overdue changes after messy Riolu Hatch Day event
He stated the feature was a way for players to discover new places, hikes, and hidden gems, to “serve as their own quests in a way,” similar to missions in Niantic’s previous AR game Ingress.
Chad Jones said “more features designed to further strengthen communities” like Routes and the Campfire app were also in the works, although he didn’t share more details on the matter.
