Meme Sleuth

Inspiration

It all started with a simple question: How chronically online are you?

My inspiration for "Meme Sleuth" was to create a game that felt like a natural part of the Reddit experience. Memes are the universal language of this platform, the ultimate form of User-Generated Content. I wanted to build a game that celebrates this shared culture instead of feeling like an external feature.

The goal was to create the "Wordle for memes"-a simple, addictive daily challenge that feels right at home in communities like r/memes, r/dankmemes, or any subreddit where humor is king. It's a fun way to test your cultural knowledge and have a laugh, turning passive scrolling into an active, engaging game.

What I Learned

This hackathon was a fantastic deep-dive into the Reddit Developer Platform. As a beginner to Devvit, I learned the entire full-stack development process, from setting up the project to deploying a functional app. My biggest takeaway was mastering the client-server architecture, using React and TypeScript for a dynamic frontend while handling all the game logic and security on a Node.js/Express backend. It was a perfect crash course in modern web app development.

How I Built It

I started with the official Devvit Web React template, which provided a solid foundation.

• The frontend is built with React and TypeScript. It fetches the daily puzzle, handles user input, and displays the game state (the clue, the guess form, and the final result) using React Hooks.
• The backend is a lightweight Express.js server. It securely holds the puzzle data and exposes two simple API endpoints: one to serve the pixelated clue (/api/clue) and another to validate the user's guess (/api/guess).

This structure keeps the game's answers safe from prying eyes on the client-side while ensuring a fast, interactive experience for the player.

Challenges I Faced

The main challenge was planning the future automation. For the hackathon, the meme puzzle is hard-coded for stability. However, the ultimate vision is a fully automated system. I designed a plan for a server-side job that would run daily to:

1. Query the Reddit API for top posts from a curated list of meme-centric subreddits (like r/MemeEconomy, r/historymemes, etc.).
2. Select a suitable image and automatically pixelate it.
3. Set it as the new daily challenge. Figuring out the logic to reliably source and process a new meme every day was the most challenging-and exciting-part of the design process.

Built With

• devvit-web
• express.js
• node.js
• react
• reddit-developer-platform
• typescript