Kreature Keeper (Class Pet)

Inspiration

I've always loved games where you can bond with your character. Ever since my first Tamagotchi, I've enjoyed real-time games where patience is key. There's nothing more satisfying than taking a little baby creature and helping it grow into a powerhouse. I wanted to bring that same sense of growth, care, and community into Reddit — a place where groups already come together around shared interests.

What it does

Class Pet turns any subreddit into a living virtual world.
Each community gets a shared animated goblin character that the entire subreddit can nurture together by feeding, playing, training, and competing in mini-games. As players interact, the goblin’s energy, happiness, and stats (INT/DEX/STR) rise or fall, changing its behavior and mood in real time.

Communities earn gold collectively to unlock cosmetic items, participate in weekly events, and compete on global leaderboards. Every interaction happens directly inside Reddit posts through Devvit Web, making it the first truly community-owned creature on the platform.

How we built it

We built Class Pet with:

• TypeScript + Phaser 3 for real-time animation and interactive game scenes.
• Devvit Web runtime for full gameplay directly inside Reddit posts.
• Express + Redis backend for persistent subreddit state and leaderboards.
• Kiro for packaging and deploying assets to Reddit’s Devvit platform.
• AI tools (Claude, Codex, Junie, and ChatGPT) for rapid sprite generation, code scaffolding, and prompt-based iteration — accelerating development within the 30-hour build window.

Each subreddit has its own persistent record (classpet:subreddit:<name>) storing hunger, happiness, energy, stats, gold, and inventory.
The creature’s animations and accessories are socket-driven, dynamically layered, and rendered responsively across devices.

Challenges we ran into

• Devvit sandbox limitations required careful handling of local storage, asset loading, and sound decoding inside Reddit’s constrained environment.
  
• Phaser scaling and input alignment demanded a custom approach since standard container hit areas were unreliable within the Devvit canvas.
  
• Integrating real-time updates between the Reddit post and the backend while keeping latency low was a major technical challenge.
  
• Managing multiple asset pipelines (sprite sheets, sounds, JSON metadata) while maintaining consistent style pushed the limits of our 20-hour time box.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a fully playable, visually polished Phaser game inside Reddit using Devvit Web.
  
• Delivered three complete mini-games (Fishing, Fireflies, Word Scramble) tied to pet stats.
  
• Implemented a working shop, leaderboard, and persistent subreddit pet state.
  
• Created original AI-assisted artwork, animation, and ambient audio loops consistent with the game’s cozy “storybook” aesthetic.
  
• Made a game — and it actually works inside Reddit.

What we learned

We learned how powerful community play can be when built around shared ownership. Watching people collaborate to feed and train a single pet showed that asynchronous multiplayer can feel just as alive as synchronous gameplay.
On the technical side, we gained a deep appreciation for Devvit Web’s potential — and for how AI-driven asset and code generation can drastically accelerate game jams and hackathon development.

What's next for Kreature Keeper

We plan to complete and polish the game with:

• Additional mini-games and seasonal events.
• Enhanced evolution and mood systems.
• Expanded shop and accessory customization.
• Community competitions between subreddits.

Our goal is to make Class Pet the first living Reddit creature — a cozy, collaborative experience where communities nurture, play, and grow together.

Built in under 30 hours for the Reddit Community Games Challenge.

Built With

• devvit
• phaser.js
• typescript