Overview

Reddit is hosting a virtual hackathon from February 27th to March 27th. We’re offering developers $36,000 in prizes for the best apps built for redditors!

The challenge: Build a new game, social experiment, or experience on Devvit (Reddit’s Developer Platform) using our Interactive Posts feature. We’re looking for massively multiplayer games and experiences. Our favorite apps create genuine conversation and speak to the creativity of redditors. Apps that were submitted for our previous hackathon are not eligible to participate in this hackathon.

Getting started

  1. Get started with the quickstart.
  2. Once you have Devvit set up, you can dive deeper with interactive posts.
  3. View the resources tab for examples, inspiration, playground links, and more.
  4. Join us on Discord for live support and office hours.

Inspiration

Our previous hackathon has some excellent examples of games built with the platform.

Your app can be designed for a new subreddit, similar to r/place, r/pixelary, or the button (Reddit’s April Fools’ Day games are great inspiration), or you can build with a specific topic or community (e.g sports, animals, entertainment, beauty, etc) in mind.

See r/pixelary, r/chessquiz, and r/riddonkulous for examples of apps built to work in feeds. Another great app to review is r/hotandcold (note, this app is not using the most up-to-date web views feature set.)

  • Scheduling posts. r/chessquiz regularly posts a new puzzle every 4 hours.
  • Encourage user-generated content. r/darkdungeon lets users design their own dungeons.
  • Prompts and templates. E.g. r/pixelary suggests specific words to draw and prefaces comments with “I tried”.
  • Use setCustomPostPreview. Create a unique preview for every post. This will load instantly in feeds.
  • Make it performant. Follow our best practices to make your app as fast as possible.

Requirements

What to Submit

  • Video: a short (1-minute) walkthrough of your app
  • App listing: include your unique app link (i.e. developers.reddit.com/apps/{app-name}), which is created after you upload your app to the Developer Platform. Include a detailed README.md in the root directory of your app that describes the game and how to play. See how to get started here. Please note, you do not need to publish your app in order to submit it for the hackathon.
  • Demo Post: include a link to your a) test subreddit b) a post running your game. Please make sure your subreddit is public, OR you can install this app into your subreddit to allow our team to join automatically. Our judges will be reviewing submissions on Desktop web for this contest.
  • Repo [Optional]: provide a URL to your public code repository of the Project.
  • Feedback [Optional]: complete our developer satisfaction survey to qualify for the Best Feedback prize.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$36,000+ in prizes
+ other prizes
Best App - First Place
$20,000 in cash
1 winner

Best App - Runner Up
$7,000 in cash
1 winner

Best App - Honorable Mentions
$500 in cash
10 winners

Feedback Awards
$200 in cash
5 winners

$200 to five participants who submit insightful or constructive feedback

Devvit Helper
$1,000 in cash
3 winners

For helpful members of the Devvit community that improve the experience of other participants. Nominate someone when you make your submission (you cannot nominate yourself or other members of your project team)!

Participation Trophy
1,000 winners

A Reddit trophy for contest participation. These will show up on your Reddit user profile.

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Reddit Staff Panel

Reddit Staff Panel

Judging Criteria

  • Delightful UX
    Experiences should be built with exciting layouts and themes. While apps do not need to be perfect, it should be easy and fun to uncover what the app has to offer.
  • Polish
    Your submission does not need to be ready for launch, but it should be self-explanatory. Judges should be able to understand everything we need to know by interacting with example posts. The closer to launch quality, the higher the score here.
  • Built for the Feed
    Does your app encourage discussion? Does the app create new content that will stay fresh in Reddit feeds? Is it performant? Does the app re-engage users? We want to see games that encourage commenting, daily play, and achievements.
  • Reddit-y
    Reddit is all about community and embracing topics people care about, no matter how weird. We want apps to have their own identity, look, and bring something fresh and fun to the platform.

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

Tell your friends

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