Daily Detective

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  Web view of timer and mystery loaded

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Inspiration

We were inspired by Reddit’s history of social experiments like r/place, The Button, and its April Fools' events. We wanted to create something lightweight, interactive, and replayable—an experience users could return to daily, challenge themselves with, and engage with meaningfully.

What it does

Daily Mystery Challenge is a Reddit-integrated game that posts a new riddle or logic puzzle each day. Users interact through a full-screen web view, submit their answers, use hints and receive real-time feedback. Submissions are validated using fuzzy logic, and top performers are ranked on a live leaderboard.

How we built it

• Built using Reddit’s Devvit platform with a custom post type and web view integration.
  
• Used Redis to persist user state, including attempts, timestamps, and leaderboard data.
  
• Developed the frontend using vanilla JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, rendered within Reddit’s embedded environment.
  
• Daily content is managed through a structured JSON dataset.
  
• Implemented an automated scheduling system to post new challenges each day.

Challenges we faced

• Understanding Devvit’s state management and syncing web view interactions with backend logic took time.
  
• Designing a fuzzy matching system that accepts close-but-not-identical answers while maintaining fairness required careful tuning.
  
• Ensuring that the UI remained clean, accessible, and well-integrated within Reddit’s native feed environment was a significant design consideration.

What we learned

This was our first time working with the Devvit framework and Reddit’s developer platform. We learned how to:

• Build and deploy serverless applications within a platform-native environment.
  
• Integrate Redis for real-time, multi-user state tracking.
  
• Create responsive and dynamic interfaces using Devvit’s WebView API.
  
• Automate content delivery using Reddit’s scheduling capabilities.

What's next

We’re planning to enhance the game with:

• User-submitted mysteries and moderation tools
  
• Adjustable difficulty levels
  
• Threaded discussion under each mystery post
  
• Achievement badges and streak-based progression

Built With

• css
• devvit
• html
• javascript
• json
• redis
• typescript
• webview-api