CompDraw

CompDraw — One Prompt. One Day. Community Champions.

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CompDraw — Project Story

Inspiration

The idea for CompDraw came from spending a lot of time on Reddit and seeing how creative people are — from sharing sketches and memes to participating in art challenges in comments. While these challenges are fun, they are often scattered and don’t feel very interactive, especially on mobile.

We wanted to create something simple: a place where anyone could open Reddit, pick up their phone, draw something in a few minutes, and feel part of a creative community. We also wanted to make art feel less intimidating and more about participation than perfection.

That’s how CompDraw started — as a way to turn daily scrolling into daily creativity.

What it does

CompDraw is a daily drawing competition that lives inside Reddit.

Every day, users get a new prompt chosen by the community. They can draw directly on their phone using a built-in canvas and submit their artwork. Other users vote on their favorite drawings, and at the end of the day, the top three entries are featured.

Winners earn badges, and users can also suggest and vote on future prompts. This keeps the experience fresh and fully driven by the community.

In short, CompDraw turns Reddit into a daily art studio.

How we built it

We built CompDraw using Reddit’s Devvit platform and modern web tools.

Tech Stack

  • Frontend: React, TypeScript, and HTML5 Canvas
  • Backend: Devvit server and APIs
  • Storage: Devvit KV Store
  • Automation: Daily schedulers

We designed the app to run completely inside Reddit, without relying on any external servers.

The drawing system was built using HTML5 Canvas, optimized for touch input. The backend handles submissions, voting, prompt selection, and daily resets. We focused a lot on making the experience feel smooth and natural on mobile devices.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was making drawing feel good on phones. Different devices handle touch differently, and getting smooth lines without lag took a lot of testing and tweaking.

Another challenge was keeping the competition fair. We had to prevent people from voting multiple times, voting for themselves, or submitting more than once per day. This required strong server-side validation.

Automating the daily cycle was also tricky. Every day, the system needs to close voting, pick winners, assign badges, select the next prompt, and update posts — all without breaking.

We also had to optimize how drawings were stored so that they wouldn’t take up too much space or slow down the app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that we were able to:

  • Build a complete creative competition inside Reddit.
  • Create a smooth, mobile-friendly drawing experience.
  • Make prompts and challenges community-driven.
  • Automate daily challenges and winner announcements.
  • Deliver a polished product within a short hackathon timeline.

Most importantly, we’re proud that CompDraw feels fun and welcoming, even for users who don’t consider themselves “artists.”

What we learned

Building CompDraw taught us a lot about designing for real users.

We learned how important mobile-first design is, especially for creative tools. We also learned how to manage community features like voting, moderation, and automation inside Reddit.

Working with Devvit helped us understand how powerful native Reddit apps can be when combined with thoughtful UX design.

We also learned how valuable fast feedback and iteration are during a hackathon.

What's next for CompDraw

We see CompDraw as something that can grow far beyond this hackathon.

In the future, we’d love to add:

  • Collaborative drawing sessions.
  • Timelapse replays of artwork.
  • Weekly themed challenges.
  • User galleries and profiles.
  • Better moderation and reporting tools.
  • Cross-community competitions.

Our long-term goal is to make CompDraw a daily creative habit for Redditors — a place where people come not just to scroll, but to create.

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