Paddleborn

Roguelite pong in a debtors' pit. Descend daily curses, arm your familiar, and don't die owing the House.

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Inspiration

Paddleborn started as a fantasy-book take on pong that could live inside Reddit posts. The hook is a debtors' pit: you descend daily curses, arm a familiar, and try not to die owing the House.

What it does

A Devvit web roguelite pong game for Reddit. Moderators install it on a subreddit; players tap Play Paddleborn in the feed to jump into the expanded view.

  • Runs: paddle combat with perks between rounds
  • Daily expedition: one shared UTC-day challenge with cursed modifiers
  • Armory: paddles, orbs, courts, familiars, and runes
  • Relic Vault + Hall of Rallies: achievements and daily leaderboard

Progress (coins, inventory, streaks) saves to the Reddit account for that install.

How we built it

  • Client: Phaser + Vite (Devvit iframe)
  • Server: Hono + tRPC on Devvit's Node serverless runtime
  • Storage: Redis via Devvit for profiles, runs, dailies, and achievements

Live on r/paddleborn. App version 0.0.20 is published and pending Reddit app review.

Challenges we ran into

Shipping a full roguelite loop inside Reddit's iframe constraints (inline splash vs expanded game), keeping the fantasy-book UI readable on mobile, and wiring Devvit Redis/tRPC so daily curses and leaderboards stay shared per community.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

A playable fantasy-book roguelite loop on Reddit Devvit with dailies, loadouts, familiars, and community leaderboards - published as app version 0.0.20.

What we learned

Devvit web's split between a light inline splash and a heavy Phaser expanded view matters a lot for feed performance. Shared Redis state is the right backbone for daily curses and Hall of Rallies.

What's next for Paddleborn

Finish Reddit app review for 0.0.20, keep polishing the House's daily curses, and grow play on r/paddleborn.

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