iMessage, Facebook Messenger and WeChat are all growing to become huge platforms in their own right. As a game developer creating great messenger game experiences requires a unique set of design choices. I breakdown what makes a great messenger game.

1. Tom Kinniburgh @kinnth
Messenger Gaming
Short, Sharp and Inherently Viral

2. 🎨 Mobile Designer
💰 Mobile Publisher
📈 Mobile Marketer
🎓 Mobile Consultant
Who am I?

3. Game
Design
Blog
www.mobilefreetoplay.com

4. -Lauren Goode, The Verge
“iMessage is the glue that
keeps me stuck to the
iPhone”
http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/10/13225514/apple-iphone-cant-switch-pixel-android-imessage-addiction

5. SimilarWeb, Report 2016
“23 minutes and 23
Seconds”
https://www.similarweb.com/blog/messaging-apps

6. Messenger
Landscape

7. 1-100
Million
MAU
454 Million
MAU
1.2 Billion
MAU
889 Million
MAU
Top50
Top5
1 Billion
Active
WeChat
iMessage
FB Messenger
2016 2016 20172015

8. -David Marcus, Facebook F8
“1.5 billion games have
been played on
Messenger”
https://developers.facebook.com/videos/f8-2017/f8-2017-keynote/

9. ≃5,700 games
per second!
https://developers.facebook.com/videos/f8-2017/f8-2017-keynote/

10. Messenger Apps
provide Scale

11. Relatively low number
of developers
Huge feature potential
FB Direct Partnerships
Blue Ocean

12. Discovery

13. Install

14. Play
No
Messenger
Gaming
…yet

15. How do they work?

16. Technology
HTML5
No Native
Apps yet
HTML5
Monetization Sharing
None
None
WeChat
SMS
FB
Swift
Obj-C
IAP SMS

18. Highly Restrictive
Little chance of IAP heavy
gaming

19. Messenger Game
Design

24. Meet Game Pigeon

25. Pool Battleships

26. Good Bad
Pool Battleships

27. Give every choice
meaning

28. Instant
Skill
Game Pigeon - Pool

29. Cobi Hoops
Instant
Action

30. Too many
actions
Battle Bash

31. Start with high
intensity

32. FRVR Basketball
Easy in,

33. Words with Friends
Easy in,
Easy Out

34. Rounds End
Naturally

35. Meet EverWing

36. EverWing
RPG +
Social

37. EverWing
Group
Competition

38. EverWing
Daily
Messaging

39. Engagement and
Retention

40. RelativeSessionCount
Session Length (Seconds)
0 20 40 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300
Good Game Session Count
Game Session Length
Data kindly shared by

41. RelativeSessionCount
Session Length (Seconds)
0 20 40 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300
Good Game Session Count Session Count Messenger
Game Session Length
Data kindly shared by

42. Design for 30s

43. Inherently
Viral

44. Engaging
Message
EverWing

45. Dynamic
Message
Words with Friends

46. Challenging
Message
Cobi Hoops

47. Retention%
Session Length (Seconds)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Good Game Retention (%)
Retention
Data kindly shared by

48. Retention%
Days since install
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28
Good Game Retention (%) Retention Messenger Games (%)
Retention
Data kindly shared by

49. Natural, dynamic content
Retains

50. Conclusion
📈 Scale more important than monetization
🕑 Short Sessions - 30s
⚡ Instant Gameplay
👭 Build Dynamic Social Features

51. @mobileftp
✉ hello@mobilefreetoplay.com
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