Cache Canon

Aim your cannon, fire shells across the board, and uncover three hidden caches. Compete for the highest score on the daily leaderboard or create your own custom boards to challenge other players.

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Inspiration

We wanted to create a game that feels native to Reddit instead of simply embedding a traditional web game into a post. Daily games like Wordle have shown how a shared puzzle can bring communities together, but we wanted to explore a different style of gameplay—one centered around spatial reasoning, strategy, and deduction. Cache Canon was designed to give every player the same daily challenge while also letting the community create and share their own custom boards.

What it does

Cache Canon is a Devvit game played entirely inside Reddit. Players fire shells across a hidden board to locate three concealed caches using as few shots as possible. Every day, all players receive the same official puzzle and compete on a shared leaderboard.

Beyond the daily challenge, players can create their own custom boards by hiding three caches and generating a shareable link. Friends and other Reddit users can play these custom challenges, making the game both competitive and social.

How we built it

Cache Canon is built on Reddit's Devvit Web platform.

  • The game client is built with Phaser, providing responsive gameplay and animations.
  • A Hono server handles gameplay validation, leaderboard updates, and synchronization.
  • Devvit Redis stores daily leaderboards, official scores, custom boards, and other gameplay data.
  • Reddit authentication is used to associate official scores with Reddit accounts while allowing practice play for everyone.

The architecture separates rendering, gameplay logic, and persistent storage, making it easy to add new game modes and community features.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was designing a puzzle that rewards logical deduction instead of random guessing. We spent considerable time refining how shots reveal information so that each move provides meaningful feedback.

Building a seamless experience inside Reddit also required careful handling of synchronization between the web client and Devvit backend, especially for validating official scores and ensuring every player receives the same daily challenge.

Creating a reliable custom board sharing system was another challenge. We needed a format that could securely store player-created boards while making them easy to share through simple links.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Built a complete daily game that runs entirely inside Reddit.
  • Created a fair daily competition where every player receives the same puzzle.
  • Implemented server-side validation to ensure leaderboard integrity.
  • Added community-created custom boards that extend gameplay beyond the daily challenge.
  • Designed an architecture that's scalable for future game modes and events.

What we learned

Developing Cache Canon taught us how to build interactive experiences using the Devvit platform while balancing client-side responsiveness with secure server-side validation.

We also learned the importance of designing puzzles that are easy to understand but difficult to master. Small gameplay adjustments had a significant impact on player strategy and overall enjoyment.

Finally, building social features like custom board sharing reinforced how community-generated content can dramatically increase replayability without requiring constant developer-created content.

What's next for Cache Canon

We're excited to continue expanding Cache Canon with additional features, including:

  • Weekly and seasonal challenge events.
  • Multiple board sizes and difficulty levels.
  • Replay support for top leaderboard runs.
  • Community voting and discovery for custom boards.
  • Player statistics and achievement tracking.
  • New gameplay mechanics that introduce fresh strategic possibilities while preserving the core deduction experience.

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