Quantum Lab — Daily Physics Puzzles

A daily collaborative physics puzzle game built on Devvit and Phaser, where players use magnets, gravity wells, and mirrors to stabilize an energy core and co-create future levels in the comments.

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⚛️ Inspiration

We wanted to build a game that naturally fits the Reddit community spirit—something collaborative, mind-bending, and highly replayable. Quantum Lab is a daily physics puzzle where the entire community works on the same challenge every day, competing to stabilize an energy core and discussing solutions.

🎮 What it does

Every day at midnight UTC, a new "Quantum Lab" layout is procedurally generated using a daily seed.

  • Players must guide the Energy Core into the Containment Zone to stabilize it.
  • The field is populated with active modules: Magnets (which push/pull), Gravity Wells (which pull objects into a vortex), and Laser Mirrors that influence the environment.
  • Once players successfully stabilize the core, they are prompted to suggest new module ideas for tomorrow's layout directly in the comments, making level design a community-driven process.

🪝 The Hook (Retention Mechanics)

  • Daily Refresh: Just like Wordle, players get exactly one new puzzle per day. This creates a compelling daily ritual that brings players back to the subreddit day after day.
  • Global Solve Tracker: Each successful stabilization increments a global counter in Redis, letting players see how many other Redditors solved today's lab.
  • Social Engagement: The game loops back into Reddit's core strength—the comments section. Players discuss their strategies, share their completion stats, and suggest new items.

🛠️ How we built it

  • Frontend: Powered by Phaser 4 and Vite for smooth, responsive 2D physics and rich animations (glowing energy rings, pulsing magnetic fields).
  • Backend: Built on Node.js using Hono and Devvit Redis to handle daily seed caching, leaderboard solves, and suggestion processing.
  • Reddit APIs: We utilize Reddit's Comment API to automatically post module suggestions straight to the thread, keeping all user interactions natively integrated.
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