Dungeon Pet

One vote per day, shapes a living dungeon. Build rooms, evolve a community creature, compete on the leaderboard, and hope Chaos doesn't rewrite the outcome.

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Inspiration

What if an entire Reddit community could raise a virtual pet together instead of playing separate games?

That simple idea became Dungeon Pet. I wanted to create an experience that couldn't be completed in one sitting—a game that continued evolving even when players were away. Instead of rewarding endless play, Dungeon Pet rewards patience, anticipation, and collaboration. Every player gets just one vote per day, making every decision meaningful and turning an entire subreddit into a living, evolving world.

The goal wasn't just to build a game, but to create a reason for people to return every day to discover what the community had created together.

What it does

Dungeon Pet is a collaborative Reddit game where the entire community builds a shared dungeon together.

Every player receives one vote per day and chooses one of five room types:

  • 🔥 Fire
  • 💧 Water
  • 🪤 Trap
  • 💎 Treasure
  • 🌪️ Chaos

Each vote permanently expands a shared dungeon map that every player can see growing in real time.

The room that wins influences how the community creature evolves through two evolution stages, while Chaos introduces a hidden sabotage mechanic capable of changing the outcome even when Chaos doesn't receive the most votes.

The game also includes:

  • A live activity feed showing Reddit usernames as they vote
  • A leaderboard ranking the most active contributors
  • Automatic evolution announcements and daily summaries posted as Reddit comments
  • Custom artwork, animations, particle effects, and procedural sound effects built entirely in code

The hook is what keeps players coming back.

Because every player only gets one vote per day, nobody can finish the game in a single session. The dungeon keeps growing whether they're online or not, the creature gets closer to its next evolution, and the visible progress creates anticipation for tomorrow. Even players who never vote for Chaos still wonder whether a hidden sabotage event will completely change the outcome.

How we built it

Dungeon Pet was built entirely using Reddit's Developer Platform (Devvit).

Persistent game state tracks every vote, updates the shared dungeon map, manages daily voting limits, determines creature evolution, calculates Chaos sabotage events, maintains leaderboards, streams live activity, and automatically posts important milestones back into the Reddit thread.

Every visual asset—from the dungeon tiles and creature artwork to animations, particle effects, and sound effects—was created specifically for the project, allowing the game to feel like a native Reddit experience rather than an embedded web application.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge wasn't building a voting system—it was making players genuinely want to return tomorrow.

Unlimited voting quickly removed any sense of anticipation, so the game was redesigned around a strict one vote per person per day mechanic. Every vote needed to feel important without allowing a few players to dominate the experience.

Balancing the Chaos mechanic was another challenge. It needed to create excitement and unpredictability while remaining fair enough that players still felt their choices mattered.

Designing a game that unfolds over days instead of minutes required constantly asking one question:

"Why would someone come back tomorrow?"

That question shaped nearly every feature in the game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud that Dungeon Pet transforms a Reddit thread into a persistent multiplayer world.

Highlights include:

  • A community-built dungeon that permanently grows over time
  • Two-stage creature evolution driven entirely by player decisions
  • A hidden Chaos sabotage system that creates memorable moments
  • Live activity feeds and contributor leaderboards
  • Automatic evolution stories and daily summaries posted directly to Reddit
  • Original artwork, animations, visual effects, and procedural audio created specifically for the project
  • A gameplay loop that encourages daily participation instead of endless scrolling

Most importantly, we're proud that every player helps build a world that belongs to the entire community.

What we learned

Building Dungeon Pet taught us that meaningful limitations often create stronger engagement than unlimited freedom.

Giving players only one vote each day transformed a simple poll into a long-term collaborative experience. Small moments of anticipation—watching the evolution meter fill, wondering whether Chaos will strike, or returning to see how the dungeon changed—became more valuable than constant interaction.

We also learned how powerful Reddit's Developer Platform is for creating experiences that naturally become part of a community rather than existing outside of it.

What's next for Dungeon Pet

Dungeon Pet was designed as a living game, and we're just getting started.

Future plans include:

  • Multiple creature species with unique evolution trees
  • Additional room types and strategic voting mechanics
  • Seasonal events and limited-time dungeon themes
  • Community boss encounters and global objectives
  • Achievements, collectibles, and progression systems
  • Expanded social features and richer long-term gameplay

Our vision is to turn Dungeon Pet into a persistent community world where every vote writes the next chapter of the dungeon's story.

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