Lexi Smash

Inspiration

We wanted to build something for Reddit that felt fun and I really like word games . It is a swipe based word games and with the satisfaction of chipping away at obstacles in tile matching games, so we combined those two ideas into one board. The idea felt like a perfect fit for Reddit.

What it does

Lexi Smash is a daily word puzzle. Players swipe across a seven by seven grid of letters to spell words. Clearing a word chips away at colored blocks sitting on the board, and the goal is to smash through every block before you run out of moves. The board is generated from a seed tied to the current date, so every player who opens the post that day is solving the exact same puzzle, making scores genuinely comparable. There are two modes, an easier one with fewer blocks and more moves, and a harder one with more blocks and fewer moves. The app tracks your best score, your longest word, and the fewest moves you have used to fully clear the board that day.

How we built it

The post itself runs on Reddit's Devvit platform, which handles the menu actions, server routes, and hosting the game inside a webview. The actual game is a Flutter web app compiled and embedded inside that webview. Inside Flutter we built the board generator, the swipe detection that turns a finger drag into a word, the block health and clearing logic, gravity for refilling the board, and the scoring and daily stats system.

Challenges we ran into

The initial load time takes a while but once it's loaded, it works. We hit a layout bug where the title letters overflowed off the edge of the screen on narrower phones, and a slow first load that we solved by shrinking the download and prefetching it quietly in the background while the splash screen is showing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making a really fun flutter game.

What we learned

We also learned how much small layout details matter once a game is actually tested on a real phone screen instead of a desktop browser.

What's next for Lexi Smash

Sound effects and music are next on our list, along with more puzzle modes, streaks that carry across multiple days, and a simple way to share your daily result with friends directly from the post.

Built With

• flutter