What it does
Word Connect is an interactive word puzzle game where players get a set of words scrambled on a circular wheel and need to find and connect them by dragging letters. Once you find a correct word, it gets placed into a crossword-style grid. Even if you find a valid word that's not in the grid, you still get bonus points for it. You can play solo or team up with another player in real time multiplayer mode to solve the grid together. There's an in-game chat so you can talk while you play, and we have powerups to help when you get stuck. The whole thing feels like a native mobile game with smooth dragging interactions and responsive controls.
Inspiration
I've always loved word games, but most of them feel pretty static and boring after a while. I wanted to create something that's actually fun and interactive, something that feels like a real native app experience, not just another basic puzzle. Word games are perfect for Reddit because people can jump in quickly, play a round, and share their results. I wanted to bring that casual but engaging vibe to the platform with real multiplayer features that make it feel alive.
How I built it
I started by sketching out the word wheel concept and testing different grid layouts on paper. The first challenge was figuring out how to automatically generate crossword grids from a word list. I went through several algorithms before finding one that actually worked without creating overlaps or weird placements. Once I had the basic puzzle generation down, I jumped into building the UI. Getting the letter dragging to feel smooth and responsive took some trial and error. I tested different approaches for the touch interactions until it felt natural, like something you'd find in a mobile game. For multiplayer I used Devvit's realtime and Redis to sync game sessions, handle the in-game chat, and manage all the connection edge cases.
What I learned
This project really taught me to think from the user's perspective for every single decision. Like how do people actually understand games? What keeps them engaged? What frustrates them? I learned a ton about game design concepts and player psychology, things I never really thought about before. It's one thing to build features but making those features feel intuitive and fun is a completely different challenge.
Challenges I faced
The grid generation was brutal. I wanted it to work automatically where you just input words and the system generates a proper crossword grid without any manual editing. That meant filtering out invalid words and inappropriate content, then finding the right algorithm to place everything without overlaps or weird placements. It took forever to get it working smoothly with multiple layout options.
Multiplayer was the other huge challenge. Properly connecting users, managing sessions, destroying them after games end, implementing the in-game chat, all of that had to work flawlessly. Plus I needed to handle edge cases like users disconnecting and making sure their partner knows what happened. Getting it all working was tough but super rewarding. It actually works and that feels great.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The grid creation system and multiplayer functionality were huge wins for me. I'm also really proud of the smooth responsive dragging experience I built. These are the things that made all the hard work worth it.
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