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Banner - Scroll to explore advanced features you wouldn’t see in a quick session, including streak screens, breeding, hatching, and more.
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Battle Scene
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Early streak rewards with a clear color theme that shows daily progress and encourages players to return.
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Max streak bonuses with a gold theme and a warning that missing a day removes buffs to keep players engaged.
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Breeding lab showing two parents and trait inheritance chances for creating new creatures.
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Eggs screen showing incubation timers and a hatched egg ready to be named.
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Newly hatched creature with stats, traits and naming options before joining the squad.
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Share confirmation screen that lets players post their new creature to the subreddit.
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Example of a shared creature post with stats and traits shown inside an interactive Reddit post.
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Confirm comment modal that appears before posting any emoji reaction or custom comment to the thread.
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Moderator panel for enabling Double XP or setting an end date for community events.
Inspiration
Sub Safari was inspired by my love of Pokémon, especially the classic Game Boy games and the exploration-driven mechanics of Pokémon GO. I’ve always enjoyed creature‑collecting systems, stat growth, and discovering new things. The idea of turning subreddit communities into creatures, with strength and rarity based on real Reddit data, felt fun and unique. Once the concept clicked, I knew I wanted to build it and enter it into the Reddit Games Hackathon.
What it does
Sub Safari generates creatures from real subreddits, using subscriber counts to determine their strength, rarity, and personality. Players can explore the world, battle creatures, capture them, breed new hybrids, hatch eggs, share their creatures, and climb a global leaderboard. The game blends classic turn‑based RPG mechanics with Reddit’s live ecosystem, creating a world that grows as Reddit grows.
How I built it
The project combines Devvit’s app framework with Phaser for rendering and interaction. I built systems for:
- Procedurally generating creatures from subreddit data
- Turn‑based battles inspired by classic Pokémon mechanics
- Breeding with inherited stats, traits, and temperaments
- Egg incubation and hatching
- A global leaderboard and automated flair updates
- A daily streak system with accumulative rewards
- A world map populated with creature spawns and exploration points
Every part was designed to capture the spirit of Pokémon while being uniquely powered by Reddit’s communities.
Challenges I ran into
One challenge was balancing stability with ongoing development, even though the game is in alpha, I wanted players to feel confident that their progress mattered. This meant carefully structuring systems to avoid breaking changes while still leaving room for future expansion.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I’m proud of creating a creature‑collecting RPG that feels nostalgic yet uniquely Reddit-powered. The procedural creature system, the breeding lab, the battle mechanics, the daily streak system, and the leaderboard all came together into a cohesive experience. I’m also proud of learning Phaser from scratch and building a fully playable game inside Reddit.
What I learned
I learned how to use Phaser effectively, how to structure RPG systems inside Devvit, and how to design mechanics that feel smooth within Reddit’s UI. I also learned a lot about state management, performance considerations, and building systems that can grow over time.
What's next for Sub Safari
There’s a long roadmap ahead. Planned features include:
- A PvP arena for player battles
- A refreshed world map with richer terrain and points of interest
- Improved creature tracking and movement
- New subreddit-based creatures
- More animations and visual polish
Sub Safari is still in alpha, and community feedback will shape where it goes next.
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