Inspiration

We wanted to bring back the fun of old-school side-scrolling fighting games like Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. Our goal was to make this classic style of game easy for modern players to jump into. We did this by putting our game directly into a Reddit post using Devvit, mixing arcade action with daily challenges from the community.

What it Does

Kickpunch is an exciting 2D fighting game where you play as Brian. He punches, kicks, and dives through groups of street thugs and elite guards. Finally, he faces off against the boss, Arkian, to save Gloria. The game works completely within Reddit, giving you a truly immersive experience:

• Interactive Display: A screen that shows your health, how many enemies you've knocked out, and the daily challenge.
• Daily Challenges: These tasks are updated every day through Devvit. Examples include "Defeat 10 enemies" or "Complete Level 1."
• Saving Progress & Tokens: When you finish daily challenges, you earn "brawler tokens." These tokens are saved securely in Redis, and your player profile updates in real-time.

How We Built It

• Game Engine: We used Phaser CE (version 2.9.2), which makes games using HTML5 Canvas for smooth and responsive gameplay.
• Backend & Data: We used the powerful Reddit Developer Platform (Devvit) and Redis to store tokens efficiently across different game sessions.
• Connecting Parts: We carefully created a secure postMessage system to allow smooth communication between the game inside its frame and the Devvit environment.
• Graphics & Art: We chose an old-school 8-bit pixel art look, with retro scanlines and classic Game Boy colors, to give it an authentic vintage feel.

Challenges We Faced

• Connecting Game Events: It was tough to make sure game events, like finishing challenges and updating tokens, worked perfectly across the game's frame without slowing down the game.
• Phaser with Devvit: Getting Phaser to work and managing how game assets loaded and performed within Reddit's webview sandbox was tricky.
• Sound Issues: We had to work carefully to make sure HTML5 Audio worked well despite browser restrictions and sandbox limitations.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of

• We successfully created a full 3-act action game that starts instantly within a Reddit web view.
• We achieved smooth and accurate collision detection, complex combos, and smart enemy artificial intelligence.
• We developed a strong system that ensures the game plays perfectly, whether it's running on its own or inside a sandbox environment.

What We Learned

• We gained valuable knowledge about connecting complex canvas-based games with data APIs backed by Redis in Devvit.
• We mastered how to organize web assets for the best performance within Reddit's runtime environments.

What's Next for BotKeyi

• We plan to add local and global leaderboards to encourage friendly competition.
• We'll introduce customizable skins and characters that players can unlock with their earned tokens.
• We'll develop an endless survival mode with random enemy waves for continuous fun.

Built With

• devvit-api
• html5
• javascript
• phaser-ce
• redis
• typescript
• webpack