Inspiration

The hackathon's clear purpose and well-defined goals were exactly what inspired us to jump in and build something we're genuinely proud of. We wanted to create a game that felt truly native to Reddit, not just a game that happened to live on the platform, but one where Reddit's community dynamics (shared experiences, friendly competition, daily rituals) were baked into the core gameplay loop. Word search felt like the perfect format: universally understood, quick to play, but with untapped potential for daily competition and community.

What it does

Daily WordSearch is a competitive daily word search game where every Reddit user gets the same themed puzzle every day. Players drag across letters to find 8 hidden words as fast as possible, with their finish time recorded on a daily leaderboard. The game features 8 rotating themes (Animals, Movies, Food, Space, Sports, Music, Ocean, Technology), streak tracking to reward daily players, achievement badges, and community theme voting where players choose tomorrow's puzzle theme after solving today's. A share button lets players copy their results directly into the comments, turning the comment section into a live competitive arena.

How we built it

We built Daily WordSearch using Devvit Web with React and TypeScript for the UI, Phaser 3 for game effects, Hono for the backend, and Redis for data persistence. The puzzle engine uses a seeded random algorithm to ensure every player gets the same 8 words from a 60-word pool, with an auto-placement algorithm that positions words across the 10×10 grid in all 8 directions. Phaser handles all the celebratory visual moments , themed ripple wave effects on correct word selections (with 8 unique color configs per theme), camera shake on wrong guesses, a bounce-in finish time reveal, and a full-screen confetti explosion on puzzle completion. A scheduled cron job automatically creates a fresh daily post at midnight UTC, so the subreddit stays active without any manual work.

Challenges we ran into

Integrating Phaser alongside React in Devvit's WebView environment was the biggest technical challenge. Phaser scenes run in their own isolated context, which caused closure issues when trying to pass React state into Phaser class methods, we went through several approaches before settling on a pattern that reliably worked. The auto-placement algorithm for the word grid also required careful handling of edge cases, particularly ensuring longer words placed diagonally don't overflow the grid boundaries. Getting the scheduler format right in devvit.json took multiple iterations as the documentation for newer Devvit Web features was limited.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of how cohesive the final experience feels, from the themed background images that change daily, to the Phaser ripple wave that uses theme-specific colors to the automated shoutout comments that post when someone sets a new fastest time. Beyond the technical side, we're proud of the new languages and frameworks we picked up along the way, the hands-on experience we gained building a real deployed product, and the teamwork and communication skills we developed working through every challenge together. Going from zero knowledge of Devvit and Phaser to a fully featured, polished, live game is something we're genuinely proud of as a team.

What we learned

We learned how to architect a full-stack Reddit app using Devvit Web, connecting React frontends to Hono backends with Redis persistence, all running inside Reddit posts. We deepened our understanding of Phaser 3, particularly around transparent canvas overlays, tween animations, and camera effects. We also learned the importance of designing for mobile first, since most Reddit users play on phones, and how small UX decisions (like hiding the timer but revealing it dramatically at the end) can significantly affect how competitive and satisfying a game feels.

What's next for Daily Word Search

We plan to add a Previous Games feature so players can revisit and replay past daily puzzles. We're also exploring Practice Mode , a separate non-competitive mode where players can choose any theme and play anytime without affecting the leaderboard. Longer term, we want to add weekly tournaments, more achievement badges, and expand to more puzzle themes based on community suggestions.