HACKER CRACKING

A hacker-themed code-breaking game where you crack 4-letter sequences. Create, share, and solve infinite community-built levels, and compete on leaderboards unique to every single puzzle post.

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YouTube Video - Check out the features

Daily Puzzle - This is where everyone competes on the same puzzle each day.

Custom Level Example - See what other players have created.

Inspiration

Inspired by classic code-breaking games like Mastermind and modern puzzle phenomena like Wordle, Hacker Cracking aims to create a deeply engaging, community-driven experience on Reddit. We wanted to build a game where the content is endless and the competition is fresh every day, all wrapped in a cool cyberpunk/hacker aesthetic.

What it does

Hacker Cracking is a word/logic puzzle game built entirely within Reddit using Devvit.

The Challenge

Players are presented with a randomized set of 6 characters and must deduce the secret 4-character code. After each guess, the game provides feedback, indicating correct characters and positions.

User-Generated Puzzles

The core of the game is its powerful level creator. Any user can select 6 characters and define a 4-character solution, then publish it as a new, playable post in the /r/HackerCracking subreddit.

Per-Post Leaderboards: Every puzzle post has its own unique leaderboard. Players compete to solve the puzzle in the fewest moves. To keep the competition fair, scores are only recorded on the first attempt, and leaderboards reset daily. Every day there's a fresh Random level generated based on user's ID for everyone to solve.

How we built it

This project is built on the Devvit platform, leveraging its capability for creating rich, interactive apps directly on Reddit.

Frontend

TypeScript and Vite for a reactive user interface.

Backend & Data

An Express backend handles the core game logic, while Redis is used for its speed and efficiency in managing the thousands of potential leaderboards and ensuring persistent user data for daily scoring.

Challenges we faced

Designing an intuitive but powerful level editor was a key challenge. Another was architecting a leaderboard system that could be tied to individual Reddit posts rather than a single global board.

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