Reddit and Phaser have teamed up for a hackathon, and yes, there's real money involved. The challenge is to build a game, experience or social experiment for Reddit's communities that will keep redditors coming back daily, using Devvit, Reddit's developer platform. Total prize pool: $40,000, plus an extra $5,000 Best Use of Phaser award on top of that.
Reddit Games with a Hook Hackathon: Dates and Prizes
Dates
- June 17 — Contest opens
- July 15 — Submissions close
- July 29 — Winners announced
Prizes
- Best App with a Hook (1x) — $15,000 USD
- Best Use of Phaser (1x) — $5,000 USD
- Best Use of Retention Mechanics (1x) — $3,000 USD
- Best Use of User Contributions (1x) — $3,000 USD
- Honorable Mentions (10x) — $1,000 USD USD
- Devvit Helpers (6x) — $500 USD
- Feedback Award (5x) — $200 USD
What to Build for the Reddit Hackathon
The brief is to build a new game, social experiment, or experience using Devvit Web that brings redditors together through shared play, collaboration, or competition. The key word is hook: something people will come back to. Games that turn the comment section into part of the gameplay, create inside jokes, spark community problem-solving, or generate recurring content tend to do well here.
For inspiration, Reddit points to some of the community games already living on the platform: r/honk, r/hotandcold, r/colorpuzzlegame, r/bunnytrails, r/alignmentcharts, r/dailyguess, r/bridgedit, r/battlebirds and r/kraw.
The hackathon accepts both new projects and existing ones that have been significantly updated during the contest period.
Reddit is looking for polish. Submissions should be as close to launch-ready as possible — well-tested and concept-complete. A good mobile experience is a bonus that judges will notice.
What Reddit Is Not Looking For
Worth knowing before you start: Reddit explicitly doesn't want obvious AI slop, games that are literally about Reddit (karma, Snoo, subreddits as gameplay mechanics), or a fishing game because "hook". They've also seen a lot of space shooters, Wordle clones, simple platformers and trivia apps. None of those are disqualified, but if that's your pitch you'll need a genuinely fresh angle to stand out.
How to Build a Reddit Game with Phaser and Devvit
There's a ready-to-use Devvit Phaser template on GitHub that gets you up and running fast. Reddit's Discord has office hours running throughout the hackathon for drop-in questions, and Phaser's Discord is there too if you need engine-side support.
After the hackathon, games that do well can qualify for Reddit Developer Funds, which pays out based on engagement milestones, and the Reddit Featuring Program, which gets your game in front of Reddit's actual user base. If your game is good enough to keep people coming back, that's a meaningful distribution channel 😄
Enter the Hackathon
Build games on Reddit with Phaser, show off your skills, and win a share of $40K. Submissions close July 15, 2026 🎮