Scribbits

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  Scribbits runs directly inside Reddit: draw a fighter, raise it, and battle community rivals.

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  Meet your Scribbit at home, watch it grow over three days, and get it ready for the arena.

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  A shared community theme gives every Redditor the same creative challenge.

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  Start with a blank canvas and turn the daily prompt into your own fighter.

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  Color is gameplay: every stroke helps shape how your Scribbit fights.

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  Name your finished doodle and turn it into a one-of-a-kind Scribbit.

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  Your drawing becomes a balanced fighter with a combat role and fair stat budget.

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  Readable attacks, telegraphs, knockback, and counters make every matchup distinct.

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  Win battles, land the final splat, and clear Arena goals.

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  Choose an authored rival and send your Scribbit into a quick Rival Run.

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  Equip weapons, armor, shoes, and accessories from a tactile binder-style Bag.

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  Browse your collected Gear by category and build the loadout you want.

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  Inspect each Gear item's effect before equipping it to your fighter.

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  Every equipped item contributes clear combat modifiers and an active technique.

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  Combat techniques add readable passive effects like Center Fold and Smudge Step.

Inspiration

Drawing games usually treat player art as decoration. We wanted the doodle itself to become the fighter, then turn that personal creation into a daily Reddit community ritual.

What it does

Scribbits Arena turns Redditors’ drawings into animated fighters. Players draw a creature directly inside a Reddit post using a daily Community Theme or untimed Free Draw.

The drawing’s dominant colors choose its combat style: Brawler, Longshot, or Mage. Every official Scribbit receives the same fair 100-point stat budget, so creativity shapes identity without creating unfair power.

Players can watch their Scribbit fight immediately, enter nightly community Rumbles, predict the Champion, earn Clout, complete Rival Runs, collect Gear, and revisit recent battles. Scribbits grow for three days, remain playable when Mature, and can become permanent Archived cards.

How we built it

Scribbits is built with Devvit Web, TypeScript, Phaser 4.2, Hono, Vite, and Reddit’s managed Redis and media hosting.

The server validates and analyzes every submitted PNG, owns progression, and resolves battles using a deterministic 20 Hz simulation. It stores the authoritative combat transcript before playback begins.

Phaser animates that immutable result as a lively real-time battle using the player’s actual drawing, role-specific movement, signature attacks, equipment, visual effects, and rotating arenas. This makes combat feel live without using client-authoritative outcomes or WebSockets.

Scribbits runs inside one stable Devvit custom post and uses Reddit identity, reporting and deletion controls, media hosting, and explicit battle-clip sharing.

Challenges

The biggest challenge was making arbitrary drawings mechanically meaningful without rewarding artistic skill with unfair combat power.

We also had to fit drawing tools, progression, collection management, and readable animated battles into a portrait Reddit WebView. Keeping battles smooth while preserving strict server authority required separating deterministic simulation from client-side spectacle.

Accomplishments

We are proud that:

• The player’s exact submitted drawing fights immediately.
• Three readable combat roles create a clear counter system.
• Battles are deterministic, replayable, and server-authoritative.
• The game includes nightly Rumbles, ten arenas, twenty authored founders, Rival Runs, progression, earned Gear, and permanent archives.
• Reddit-native identity, community competition, safety controls, and battle sharing are built into the core experience.

What we learned

Creative input feels strongest when players immediately see its effect. Separating server authority from presentation also made combat fairer, easier to test, and much easier to polish.

What’s next

Next we want to launch the first public ranking season, expand community themes and arena events, improve onboarding and accessibility, and grow the Gallery and social competition around player-created Scribbits.

Built With

• devvit-web
• hono
• html
• mesh2d
• node.js
• phaser.js
• pngjs
• reddit
• reddit-media
• redis
• typescript
• vite
• webgl