Meme Word Search

Difficulty Selection
Gameplay (Mid-Game)
Hint Animation
Puzzle Complete
Leaderboard

Inspiration

Word search puzzles are a timeless classic, but they've never truly belonged to the internet. We wanted to bring that nostalgic puzzle format into Reddit's community-driven culture — by filling the grid with the language Redditors actually speak: meme words. From DOGE and PEPE to SKIBIDI and RIZZ, every puzzle is a love letter to internet culture.

What it does

Meme Word Search is a daily word search puzzle game built natively for Reddit using the Devvit platform. Each day, a new puzzle drops with a random meme topic (Classic Memes, Gaming Culture, Internet Slang, Reddit Legends, and more). Players drag across letters to find hidden words, race the clock, and compete on a daily leaderboard. Features include:

⏱️ Timed speed challenges with scoring
🏆 Daily top-10 leaderboard
💡 3 hints per game with animated highlighting
🔥 Streak tracking for consecutive days played
🎊 Confetti & sound effects on completion

How we built it

We built it with React, Hono, and Reddit's Devvit Web platform. The frontend uses a custom touch-optimized drag selection system for mobile-first gameplay. Puzzles are procedurally generated server-side with word placement across horizontal, vertical, and diagonal directions. Player scores, streaks, and leaderboard data are persisted using Devvit's Redis storage. The entire app is bundled with Vite and deployed directly to Reddit.

Challenges we ran into

Drag selection on mobile was tricky — we had to carefully handle touch events, prevent scrolling interference, and provide smooth visual feedback as users drag across the grid.
Procedural grid generation needed careful balancing to ensure words fit without overlaps while keeping the grid challenging but solvable.
Daily puzzle consistency — ensuring every user sees the same puzzle each day required deterministic seeding based on the date.

What we learned

We learned how powerful the Devvit platform is for building interactive Reddit experiences. Designing for both mobile and desktop within Reddit's webview constraints pushed us to think creatively about UX. We also gained a deeper appreciation for puzzle generation algorithms and responsive touch interaction design.