Monster Pet for Messenger Kids

My first task on the Messenger Kids team at Facebook was to design an experience that let kids take care of a cute, little pet.

MINIGAMES

Every day the kids can play 4 mini-games with their pet, such as this memory game where they have to feed fruit to the pet in the correct order.

CUSTOMIZATION

Players can unlock cool outfits for their pet and then take a picture with them in augmented reality.

EVOLUTION

Players get to watch their pet grow bigger and bigger as they progress throughout the month.

GAMEPLAY VIDEO

Here's a peek at the gameplay for Monster Pet! (No Sound)

Now let's take a look at how this was all created!

THE TEAM

Creative Director - Shiu Pei Luu

Producer - Robin Quick

Engineer - Trevor Lundeen

Artist - Niccolo Inigo Balce

Animator - Goose Manriquez

Game Designer - Adam Simpson

INSPIRATION

We were inspired by a very popular line of digital pets called Tamagotchi. We wondered how we could bring a similar experience to Messenger Kids.

THE TECH

At the time, we didn't have the technology to create persistent save states, a crucial element for this type of game. So I worked with an artist and we created a presentation to get buy-in from the Eng-team.

The presentation was a success! The Eng-team gave us full buy-in and built out all levels of local and global persistence that we asked for.

But now the pressure was on, as we had to fill our part of the bargain and design an experience that showed off this new tech!

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

The artist had already created a rough draft of the design, so I made revisions that streamlined the game, and created a first draft of the game design document.

PAPER PROTOTYPE

Then I constructed a paper prototype of the design. I had participants pretend the prototype was a tappable interface, and I emulated the animations and interactions.

PROGRESSION

I conducted the prototype over several days, and had the participants record their progression.

FEEDBACK

I collected feedback from the participants, and I brainstormed ways to address questions and concerns.

PROBLEMS

1. Participants saw the progression chart and felt bad that they might miss out on unlocks if they skipped a few days.

2. The progression didn't always feel rewarding and made some participants stop playing.

3. The mini-games were a bit too easy and became boring after a few sessions.

SOLUTIONS

1. Remove the wilting mechanic, and hide the progression system so participants don't experience any FOMO.

2. Space out the customization unlocks and evolutions so that something special happens every day.

3. Add a layer of difficulty for each mini-game to increase variety and challenge.

REDESIGN

I reworked the progression system, altered the mini-games, and relaunched the experiment. The updated prototype yielded a much smoother experience for the participants!

STORYBOARDING

I detailed out the designs of all the mini-games.

DESIGN HANDOFF

I finalized the game design documents, and guided the team as they built out the digital experience.

SUCCESS!

Monster Pet became a huge success for Messenger Kids, driving long-term retention for the app, and reaching millions of children worldwide. We launched new pets every other month, making new mini-games and outfits for each one.

MORE GAMES

After completing Virtual Pets, I designed dozens of other fun activities for Messenger Kids.

Here are some of my favorites: