SubRoulette

Inspiration

Reddit's vast ecosystem of communities has always fascinated me—the way posts can go viral across different subreddits, each with its unique culture and audience. I wondered: could I create a game that tests players' intuition about where posts belong? Subroulette was born from this curiosity, aiming to gamify Reddit's social dynamics while educating users about the platform's diversity.

What It Does

Subroulette is an interactive quiz game where players guess which subreddit real Reddit posts belong to. Each round presents a post with four subreddit options. Players earn points for correct answers, with immediate feedback and smooth transitions between questions. After 10 questions, a results modal shows the final score and offers to play again. The game runs natively on Reddit using Devvit Web, featuring a Reddit-inspired UI and seamless platform integration.

What I Learned

Building with Devvit Web taught me the power of platform-specific development. I discovered how Reddit's API and Devvit's framework enable seamless integration with the platform's ecosystem. The project reinforced concepts in user experience design, particularly around feedback loops and progressive disclosure in games. Mathematically, the game involves probability calculations for scoring. Each question has 4 options, so random guessing gives a 25% success rate. With 10 questions, the expected score follows a binomial distribution: $P(X = k) = \binom{10}{k} (0.25)^k (0.75)^{10-k}$. This helped me balance difficulty and engagement.

I Built It

I started with a React TypeScript setup, creating components for the game flow: Header (score/progress), QuestionArea (post display), Options (answer buttons), and ResultsModal. The core logic manages session state, question shuffling, and answer validation. For data, I curated 20 real Reddit posts spanning diverse topics—from viral stories to niche hobbies. Each question includes the post content, four subreddit options, and the correct answer.

Challenges Faced

The biggest hurdle was ensuring the game felt authentic to Reddit while being engaging. Curating questions that weren't too obvious or obscure required extensive research across subreddits.

Accoplishments

Successfully delivering a polished, playable game that captures Reddit's essence in just a few hours. The game feels native to the platform and provides genuine educational value about Reddit's communities. Players can now test their intuition and discover new subreddits through gameplay.

Whats Next For SubRoulette

Future enhancements include adding more question categories, implementing daily challenges, and integrating social features like sharing scores. I'd also like to explore machine learning to dynamically generate questions from trending posts, making the game perpetually fresh.

Built With

• api
• blackbox
• css3
• databases
• devvit
• gamemaker
• github
• npm
• npx
• react
• reddit
• typescript
• university-of-reddit
• vsstudio