Dam Attack

Help a beaver build its dam, easy at first and then face unpredictable challenges.

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Inspiration

"Dam Attack" was born from a cherished childhood memory. Growing up, my favorite game was a simple Tetris console that ran on batteries not even a Nintendo, just something my parents picked up at the local grocery store. I don't remember where exactly they got it, but I vividly remember how that game made me feel. My eyes would light up every time I played, and whenever I felt stressed or anxious, that Tetris game became my refuge. I built this project because I wanted to share that same stress free experience with the Reddit community. I envisioned a zen mode space where people could focus on playing a simple game while a cheerful beaver offers encouraging messages as you help build its dam.

What it does

A modern day Tetris game with a flare of nature. Dam Attack is a beaver-themed tetris game where you stack wooden pieces to build and protect a dam. Seasonal environments, such as rising water create urgency while a friendly beaver guides the storyline. Players progress through campaign levels with polished overlays, scoring, and gentle, performant animations. There is also Classical mode so you can play a more traditional Tetris game.

How we built it

I initially started development using Cursor, then transitioned to Kiro for the main build. For design work, I used Figma to create the splash page. My approach was largely "vibe coding" building iteratively based on feel and feedback. Whenever I hit roadblocks, the Reddit Developer documentation proved invaluable, and I also leaned on Discord community support when I got stuck.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was connecting the MCP. Kiro encountered some technical difficulties with the MCP connection during a particularly buggy period the server kept throwing errors, and at one point, the AI just started repeating my prompts back to me. I had to switch back to Cursor temporarily to resolve the connection issues. That said, I appreciated Kiro's strength in creating sleek UI elements early on, and the vibe mode feature was genuinely helpful. Once I finally established a stable MCP connection, I was able to implement a functional leaderboard a major milestone for the project.

Another hurdle was configuring the splash image. The initial configuration simply wouldn't work, and it took several rounds of trial and error before I successfully got the splash background to display on my subreddit.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm just so proud of completing my first game!

What we learned

This project taught me invaluable lessons about patience, troubleshooting, asking the right questions, and pivoting when ideas weren't working. As a first-time game builder, seeing the game come to life was incredible. But what truly made it special was watching real people engage with it receiving feedback, seeing strangers' names appear on the leaderboard, and realizing that people were not only playing my game but spending significant time with it. That moment of discovery was absolutely exhilarating.

What's next for Dam Attack

My vision is to implement more challenges levels that create more of a story arc within the game.

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