Comment Cascade

Test your Reddit knowledge! A daily puzzle where you guess the post from its redacted comments.

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Inspiration

The inspiration for Comment Cascade came from a simple observation: on Reddit, the comment section is often where the real story unfolds. I wanted to turn the passive experience of reading comments into an active game of deduction. What if you could test your knowledge of Reddit culture and solve a puzzle just by understanding the unique context and humor found in the comments?

What it does

Comment Cascade is a daily puzzle game where players try to identify a popular Reddit post based on a handful of its top comments. The game presents five heavily redacted comments, hiding key words. Players have six attempts to guess the correct post URL. With each incorrect guess, the game dynamically reveals more words, providing more clues and making every attempt a step closer to solving the mystery.

How we built it

I built Comment Cascade on the Devvit Web platform to create a seamless, embedded experience directly within a Reddit post.

  • The frontend is a modern React application written in TypeScript, providing a clean, responsive UI and robust state management for the game logic.

  • The backend is a lightweight Express.js server that runs within the Devvit environment. It exposes a simple API to the frontend.

  • To provide fresh content daily, the server uses the Reddit API to fetch top posts from a curated list of 10+ popular, text-focused subreddits.

  • To ensure every player gets the same puzzle each day, I used Devvit's built-in Redis (KV Store) to cache the daily puzzle ID with a 24-hour expiration.

Challenges we ran into

  1. Devvit Configuration: One of the biggest hurdles was understanding the correct configuration. The custom post type tab wouldn't appear in the UI until I discovered the post type needed to be declared inside the features array in the devvit.json file, which was a critical "Aha!" moment.

  2. Reddit API Specifics: The Reddit API has unique data structures. For example, accessing comments from a post object required navigating a Listing object. I learned through trial and error that the correct method was to access the post.comments.children property, after initially trying incorrect methods like .fetchAll() or treating it as an iterable.

  3. Local Development vs. Production: I encountered several errors during the initial setup and deployment loop that didn't appear locally, which taught me the importance of frequent uploads and testing in the actual playtest environment.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm incredibly proud of building a complete, full-stack application that feels like a native Reddit experience. Specifically, I'm proud of:

  • Implementing a robust daily puzzle system with Redis caching, which is a professional-grade feature that ensures fairness and replayability.

  • Creating an engaging "progressive reveal" mechanic that makes the game fun and rewarding, even when you guess incorrectly.

  • Successfully integrating with the live Reddit API to pull dynamic, varied content, making the game endlessly interesting and deeply tied to the culture of Reddit.

What we learned

This hackathon was a deep dive into the Devvit Web platform. I learned the ins and outs of its client/server architecture, how to manage app configuration through devvit.json, and the specific patterns for using the Reddit API within a Devvit app. Most importantly, I learned the value of systematic debugging and persistence to overcome unexpected challenges.

What's next for Comment Cascade

This project has a lot of potential for expansion! The next steps would be to add features that build a community around the game:

  • User Streaks & Leaderboards: To track daily performance.

  • Difficulty Levels: Allow users to choose puzzles from easier or harder subreddits.

  • Social Sharing: A button to let users easily share their score for the day (e.g., "Comment Cascade 4/6 🕵️").

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