Trolley Affair

Inspiration

We were inspired by the timeless philosophical debate of the "Trolley Problem" and the internet's fascination with moral dilemmas.

What it does

Users encounter a runaway trolley scenario in their feed and must choose between action ("Pull the Lever") and inaction ("Do Nothing"). To see the community's decision breakdown, users must first "unlock" the data by posting a comment explaining their choice.

How we built it

Frontend: React with Tailwind CSS to create a responsive, retro-terminal UI. We heavily utilized monospace fonts, CSS animations (scanlines, blinking cursors) to sell the "hacker" aesthetic. Backend: We used Devvit's Redis integration for persistent storage, managing user XP, leveling systems, and tracking dilemma votes in real-time.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing the "comment-to-unlock" mechanic was a risk. We wanted to encourage discussion without annoying users. We solved this by providing immediate feedback via the terminal logs and XP rewards for every interaction.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The Aesthetic: We're incredibly proud of the "Trolley OS" terminal theme.

What we learned

We gained deep experience with the Devvit platform, particularly in using Redis for real-time game state and user progression.

What's next for Trolley Affair

Global Leaderboards: Introducing "Ethical Profiles" (e.g., "Utilitarian" vs. "Deontologist") based on a user's aggregate choices. Community Templates: Allowing users to save and share their custom ASCII art scenarios for others to remix.

Built With

• react
• redis
• typescript