Guess The Metric

A daily Reddit native estimation game where players guess real-world metrics, protect their streak, and compete on the weekly board.

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Inspiration

We wanted to build a Reddit game that people could understand in seconds and still have a real reason to return tomorrow. Daily puzzle games work because they become a habit, but many of them either take too long, depend on niche trivia, or feel disconnected from the community around them.

Guess The Metric started from a simple idea: everyone has an instinct for everyday numbers, but those instincts are often hilariously wrong. How heavy is a full soda can? How long does sunlight take to reach Earth? How fast can a cheetah sprint? Those questions are quick to try, fun to compare, and perfect for a subreddit post.

What it does

Guess The Metric is a daily estimation game built for Reddit communities. Each day, players get one themed challenge with three real-world metric questions.

For each question, players get three guesses and one optional hint. After every guess, the game gives deterministic feedback like Too High, Too Low, Within 25%, Within 10%, or Very Close. Players earn XP based on accuracy, number of guesses used, and whether they used a hint.

The game also includes a 90-second bonus timer, streak tracking, a weekly leaderboard, and a community submission form where players can suggest future metric prompts for moderator review.

How we built it

We built Guess The Metric on Reddit's Devvit Web platform using React, TypeScript, Hono, Vite, and Devvit Redis.

The client handles the compact game UI inside the Reddit post surface, including the splash screen, gameplay flow, results, leaderboard, and submission form. The server owns the important game logic: daily challenge selection, guess validation, feedback bands, scoring, hint usage, answer reveal, streaks, completion locks, and leaderboard writes.

All mutable player progress is stored server-side in Devvit Redis, so refreshes do not reset the bonus clock or corrupt the game session.

Challenges we ran into

The hardest part was fitting a complete game loop inside Reddit's post constraints without making the UI feel cramped. We had to keep the layout mobile-first, avoid nested scrolling, and make every screen readable at a glance.

Another challenge was keeping the game fair. Active rounds cannot expose answers, aliases, answer notes, or unused hints to the client. The server controls the canonical answers, validates guesses, and only reveals the correct answer after a question is completed.

We also had to balance scoring so hints feel useful but not free, and the 90-second bonus adds pressure without blocking players from finishing after the timer expires.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that Guess The Metric feels like a complete daily game rather than a one-off demo and is optimized for mobile users perfectly. It has a real retention loop: daily themes, streaks, XP, a weekly leaderboard, speed bonuses, and community-submitted future prompts.

We are also proud of the server-backed structure. The app persists sessions, prevents duplicate completion rewards, keeps answer data hidden until reveal, and supports moderator-created daily posts.

Most importantly, the game is easy to explain: see a number question, make a guess, get feedback, improve, and compare your score.

What we learned

We learned that a strong Reddit game is not just about gameplay mechanics. It also needs to create conversation. Estimation questions naturally make players want to compare guesses, argue about surprising answers, and suggest better prompts.

We also learned how important it is to design around the Reddit post surface from the beginning. A game that works in a normal browser can still fail inside an embedded post if the layout, scrolling, and first-screen clarity are not handled carefully.

What's next for Guess The Metric

Next, we want to add moderator tools for reviewing submitted prompts, subreddit-specific theme packs, badges for streak milestones, and community average guess stats after each reveal.

We would also like to add weekly events where communities vote on upcoming themes, making the daily challenge feel even more connected to the subreddit playing it.

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