Blitzgram

Slay the Behemoth together! A fast-paced, 15-second vocabulary raid boss built entirely inside a Reddit post that turns comment sections into live battle logs.

Comment

⚡ Blitzgram: The Global Subreddit Raid Boss

Turn your subreddit into an epic, collaborative spelling arena!

Blitzgram is a fast-paced, 15-second word puzzle game built natively into Reddit posts. Players race against the clock to spell words, dealing damage to a massive, global "Behemoth" Boss whose Health Points (HP) are shared across the entire subreddit. Every word counts, every run matters, and every player contributes to taking down the Behemoth!

💡 Inspiration

Reddit is the internet's home for collective action and shared experiences. We wanted to build a game that wasn't just a solitary puzzle, but a true community event. What if the comment section wasn't just for discussion, but served as a live, hyping battle log for a global raid boss? Blitzgram was born to turn passive scrollers into active raid members, working together to defeat a common enemy while competing for the top spot on the leaderboards.

🎮 What It Does

  • ⏱️ 15-Second Blitz: Players get exactly 15 seconds to connect tiles and spell as many high-value words as possible.
  • 🐉 Global Raid Boss: All damage dealt by every player in the subreddit chips away at the "Banawe Behemoth's" shared, persistent HP bar.
  • ✨ Daily Magic Words: Every day at 00:00 UTC, a new "Theme" (e.g., CYBER MAINFRAME) and 10 hidden "Magic Words" are generated.
  • 💥 3X Critical Strikes: Guessing one of the day's Magic Words rewards the player with a massive 3X damage multiplier, an epic full-screen celebratory cutscene, and a permanent mark on their daily record!
  • 💬 The Battle Log: At the end of a run, players can share their damage directly to the post. Blitzgram automatically generates a stylized Reddit comment (e.g., "⚔️ u/Player just dealt 5,420 DMG to the Behemoth using the word 'HACK'! Total Boss HP remaining: 42,000."), turning the thread into a live, interactive raid log.

🕹️ How to Play

  1. Start the Raid: Open the Blitzgram post on Reddit and hit "PLAY".
  2. Spell Words: You have 15 seconds! Tap or click the letter tiles on the 4x4 grid to form words (minimum 3 letters).
  3. Deal Damage: The longer the word, the more damage you deal to the global Behemoth boss:
    • 3 Letters: 50 DMG
    • 4 Letters: 150 DMG
    • 5 Letters: 400 DMG
    • 6 Letters: 1,000 DMG
    • 7+ Letters: 2,500 DMG
  4. Find Magic Words: Check the Daily Theme above the letter board. Guessing one of the 10 hidden daily Magic Words grants a massive 3X damage multiplier!
  5. Keep the World Streak Alive: The subreddit has a persistent "World Streak" tracker. To unlock or sustain the streak for the day, at least 5 unique players must play at least 1 round!
  6. Share Your Score: When the timer runs out, click the "Share to Thread" button to automatically post your damage and your longest word into the Reddit comments.
  7. Check the Leaderboard: See how you stack up against the rest of the subreddit across the Damage, Words Found, Boss Kills, and Magic Words leaderboards!

🏆 Hackathon Categories & Alignment

Blitzgram was engineered specifically to hit the core pillars of the Reddit Developer Platform Hackathon:

1. Main Category: The Best Experience That Will Keep People Coming Back

Blitzgram thrives on shared play and collaboration. Because the Boss HP is global, players are incentivized to return repeatedly to see the boss's health dwindle and push for the final kill. The comment section becomes a strategy hub where players discuss the Daily Theme, share hints for the Magic Words, and celebrate massive damage runs. It transforms a standard Reddit post into a persistent, living raid encounter.

2. Sub-Challenge: Best Use of Retention Mechanisms

Retention is deeply baked into Blitzgram's core loop:

  • The Daily Ritual: The automated 00:00 UTC cron job ensures there is always fresh content. The "Daily Magic Words" mechanic hooks players into returning daily to solve the new theme.
  • Per-Word Tracking: Our Redis backend tracks exactly which of the 10 Magic Words a user has found each day, encouraging them to play multiple rounds to "catch 'em all."
  • Granular Leaderboards: We feature extensive leaderboards tracking Damage, Words Found, Boss Kills, and Magic Words Found across Weekly, Monthly, and All-Time timeframes. There is always a new rank to chase.

3. Sub-Challenge: Best Use of User Contributions

Blitzgram uses automated, hype-filled Reddit comments as a unique form of user-generated content. Instead of requiring users to manually type out their scores, the app seamlessly posts their glorious achievements (and their longest spelled word!) directly into the thread. This creates a waterfall of engagement, drawing new scrollers into the post to see what the excitement is about and challenging them to beat the current high scores.

🛠️ How We Built It

Blitzgram is a robust, full-stack application leveraging the bleeding edge of the Devvit platform:

  • Frontend (React & CSS): Built with React 19 inside the Devvit Webview API. We designed a premium, flat-vector "Adventure Time" aesthetic with smooth CSS micro-animations, screen shakes, and interactive overlays.
  • Backend Routing (Hono & tRPC): We use a Node.js serverless environment with Hono for lightning-fast API endpoints and tRPC for end-to-end type safety between the client and server.
  • Global State (Devvit Redis): All Boss HP, daily magic word themes, per-user word tracking, and complex multi-timeframe leaderboards are handled atomically using Devvit's built-in Redis plugin.
  • Automation (Devvit Triggers): Scheduled Cron jobs automatically rotate the Magic Words daily and spawn automated reveal posts for the community.

🚀 Links & Resources

Built with ❤️ for the Reddit Developer Platform Hackathon.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates

Submission history