Vaultbreak

Intro
Vaults
Game Level

Inspiration

We wanted a game where the players ARE the content pipeline, not just consumers of it. Mario Maker's "you must beat your own level before publishing" rule felt like the right shape for Reddit: it guarantees every published vault is solvable, and it makes every designer also a player.

What it does

Vaultbreak is a 100% user-generated heist puzzle. Design an 8x8 vault with walls, spikes, and lasers on a strict point budget, place the loot, and — Mario Maker rule — you must crack your own vault yourself before you're allowed to publish it. Other players then attempt your vault in heist mode: fog hides the spikes, moves are capped, and only your first attempt counts. A failed heist earns the designer notoriety and pushes their vault up the "most feared" board; a successful crack builds the robber's own record. Every player is both designer and robber. Five hand-built "house" starter vaults ship pre-seeded so the board is never empty on day one.

How we built it

React inside Devvit Web. The exact same grid-pathing and collision simulation (a BFS solver plus a step-by-step replay validator) runs on both client and server, so a crack can't be faked client-side — the server independently replays every submitted heist path against the real vault layout before crediting a crack.

Challenges we ran into

Guaranteeing every published vault is actually solvable was the core design problem. We solve this at publish time: the server runs its own BFS pathfinder over the submitted layout and rejects publishing if no safe route from entrance to loot exists, independent of whatever "proof" path the designer submitted.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An entirely player-authored content supply from day one, backed by five hand-built house vaults so there's always something to crack even before the community publishes anything.