Cat-Racing

Cat-Racing is a fun, community-focused game where adorable cats race in unique scenarios. With roulette mechanics and cheering interactions, it boosts engagement and creates lively reddit discussions.

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Inspiration

When starting this project, we focused on designing a game that could be actively played within a subreddit community. To achieve this, we centered our ideas around three key questions:

  1. What kind of game would thrive within a subreddit community?
  2. How can we foster communication among players while they play the game?
  3. How can we capture the interest of Reddit users?

Key Ideas and Development Process

1. First Perspective: Active Participation in Subreddit Communities

Subreddits are platforms centered around community interaction. In these settings, there are often moments where users need to choose from multiple options—such as selecting winners for community events or making decisions during collaborative games. This led us to focus on the idea of a “roulette” mechanism.

Roulette adds an element of fun to decision-making, making it a natural fit for community events and games. With this in mind, we decided to develop a board game that incorporates roulette functionality.

2. Second Perspective: Fostering Player Communication

We explored how to encourage natural interactions between players during the game. We concluded that having a structure where users can cheer for specific targets would inherently generate comments and engagement. A game that revolves around cheering would naturally lead to lively discussions and communication among players.

This brought us to the idea of “horse racing,” where players inevitably cheer for specific horses. Combining this concept with a roulette-style game could create a highly engaging experience that goes beyond simple outcomes, fostering enthusiastic participation.

3. Third Perspective: Capturing Reddit Users’ Interest

We realized that a basic horse racing game might not be distinct enough to stand out among existing content. While brainstorming further, inspiration struck during a walk when we noticed a cat in the bushes. This led us to wonder: what if we centered the race around cats instead of horses? Cats are universally adored, and incorporating them into the game could significantly enhance its appeal.

To make the game even more exciting, we added unique and entertaining elements, such as cats flying through the air or riding skateboards. These whimsical touches promised to make the game far more engaging and fun.

Final Outcome: Cat-Racing

The result of this process is the cat racing game, “Cat-Racing.” Cat-Racing features:

  • A roulette-style racing game where players cheer for their chosen cats and participate actively.
  • Gameplay that encourages natural commenting and communication, fostering vibrant community interaction.
  • Adorable cats as the central theme, capturing Reddit users’ attention with their charm and uniqueness.

Cat-Racing is more than just a game. It’s a tool for maximizing community engagement and interaction within subreddits. We hope this game brings joy to many users and enriches the communities where it is played.

What it does

Cat-Racing is an interactive and community-driven game designed to bring users together through playful competition and shared excitement. Here’s what it does:

  1. Creates Engaging Community Events: The game serves as a platform for subreddit communities to organize events where users can cheer for their favorite cats and join in the fun.

  2. Facilitates Communication and Interaction: Through cheering, commenting, and discussing outcomes, Cat-Racing promotes lively conversations among players and fosters a sense of community.

  3. Delivers a Unique Gameplay Experience: With adorable and animated cats racing in whimsical scenarios like flying or skateboarding, the game offers a distinct and entertaining experience that sets it apart from conventional racing games.

  4. Encourages Participation: By combining roulette mechanics with a cheering system, the game ensures every player feels involved, even if they’re not directly controlling the outcome.

Cat-Racing’s innovative design makes it not only a source of entertainment but also a catalyst for stronger and more interactive subreddit communities.

How we built it

We implemented the internal logic using the React library to build components within the Devvit webview and utilized the JavaScript game framework 'Phaser' to render smooth cat animations.

Most of the resources used in creating this game (such as the cats) were hand-crafted using pixel art. We referred to the visuals of real cats and experimented with various concepts, such as soldiers, witches, and more, to create unique designs.

Challenges we ran into

Our game was developed by a team consisting of 2 frontend developers and 1 backend developer. Due to the absence of a designer, the team had to create all the necessary resources themselves. In particular, the core element of the game, the cat characters, were designed as pixel art based on various reference photos, and successfully integrated into the game, resulting in a high-quality final product.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The greatest strength of Cat-racing lies in its combination of roulette and lottery systems, which can be applied to a wide variety of cases. Its versatility, allowing it to be used across all subreddits and for various purposes, is its most significant advantage.

What's next for cat-racing

Currently, Cat-racing only features a simple cheering system based on comments and a competition system based on the speed of cats. In the future, we plan to introduce a system where different skills can be used by cats based on the content of the comments. Additionally, we aim to add more diverse cats (or similar characters). Furthermore, we are planning to implement features that will enhance communication within subreddits.

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