As part of Pocket Gamer Connects London 2020, Joy Marianowicz, part of the strategtic partnerships team at Facebook Gaming, gave a talk on how to optimise your game design for the company's Instant Games platform.
700 million people already engage with gaming on Facebook, whether that means playing games, watching gaming videos, or simply engaging with gaming groups on the platform.
The first part of optimising for the platform is "super powers" - using the things which differentiate games on the platform from other games and platforms.
Snackable
Through user research, Facebook found that its gaming platform was mainly used for "snackable gaming" - a short period of time when waiting, commuting, talking, or watching other things.
Off the back of this, the firm found that the games it should be placing on the platform need to be instantly playable, socially connected, and have a real-time presence to make sure players can immediately engage in a multiplayer experience with their friends.
"Everything about the platform should convey fun to the user," noted Marianowicz, pointing to daily challenges as a fun reward for engaged players who return to their games.
On the social aspect, Facebook is trying to implement more interactive posts, like polls on newsfeeds, which allow an instant engagement between friends.