Emojicode

Create
Right answer
homepage
Home base screen with all menus
Close guess to answer
posted in r/emojicode
profile
level rank and benefits
leaderboard and badges
level rewards earned
sounds
menu
menu

Inspiration

"Guess the movie in emoji" is already something people do for fun in Reddit comments. We felt it deserved an actual game — one where you post it and it's live right away, and people can compete over it instead of it just disappearing into a thread.

What it does

You pick a movie, show, or phrase, turn it into exactly 5 emojis, and post it. It goes live instantly, and other redditors guess what it means in the comments. Guesses don't have to be exact — small typos or different wording still count. Get it right and you earn XP, build a streak, and level up over time. There's a leaderboard, a daily featured cipher, and a little celebration animation when you crack one.

How we built it

It's built on Reddit's Devvit platform, with React on the front end and Redis storing all the game data — streaks, XP, leaderboards, and so on. Guess-checking uses a simple fuzzy-matching system so small differences in wording still count as correct. We also added an optional AI moderation check for safety, and used Phaser for the physics animation that plays when someone solves a cipher.

Challenges we ran into

Getting the guess-matching right took a few tries — early on, a guess missing just one word would get marked wrong, which felt unfair, so we changed how similarity gets scored. We also hit a couple of annoying platform bugs, like a Reddit post ID getting double-prefixed and a Windows-only script issue, both of which took some digging to track down. Keeping things fast was its own challenge too, since the physics library we used is fairly heavy — we made sure it only loads when someone actually solves a cipher.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The whole thing runs without any manual moderation — safety checks, scoring, and leaderboards all happen automatically. We're also proud the celebration animation is a real physics effect, not just a static graphic, and that it doesn't slow the app down for anyone who hasn't solved something yet.

What we learned

The instant "post it and it's live" feeling mattered more than we expected — it's really what makes the game feel satisfying. We also learned to be more careful with heavy dependencies, and to actually read error messages closely instead of guessing at fixes.

What's next

We want to fine-tune the guess-matching using real player data, add a few more small touches like this to other moments in the game, and eventually open it up beyond our test subreddit once we're confident it can handle real traffic.

Core Gameplay

Create a cipher: pick exactly 5 emojis, type what they mean, post instantly — no approval wait
Guess directly in the post or in comments
Smart guess checking — small typos, different wording, or a missing word still count
Players can add alternate correct answers after solving, so future guessers get credit too
Hint option (shows word shape, never a letter) and a no-penalty Give Up
Category and language tagging
Hard Mode tag for higher-level players

Progression

XP and leveling with named ranks, no level cap
Daily streaks with a reminder if you're about to lose one
Achievement badges for milestones and first solves
Two separate leaderboards — one for guessers, one for creators
A featured "Cipher of the Day" that changes daily
A trending section for top creators
Weekly leaderboard recap posted automatically

Safety & Fair Play

Automatic content filtering on every post, no manual moderation needed
Optional AI-powered moderation layer for extra safety
Safe-by-default behavior — if a safety check fails, the post is blocked, not published