Spell Pals

Project Context

Spell Pals was an asynchronous Facebook Instant Game built around a Boggle-style word-search experience.

Players could challenge friends and family through Facebook and Messenger integration, testing vocabulary skills through short social game sessions. The game also included ad integration and analytics tracking so the team could understand player behaviour and tune the experience over time.

Retention features were a major part of development. Social sharing, Messenger bot flows, tutorials, power-ups and other mechanics were designed, implemented, tested and sometimes removed based on A/B testing and player data.

I supported development by overhauling parts of the visual presentation and implementing A/B-tested features, including tutorial flows, power-ups and Facebook shareables. The team consisted of two developers, one artist and one producer.

Object-Oriented And ECS Architecture

The game used object-oriented programming alongside an entity-component-system style architecture. This helped keep gameplay systems, rendering and platform logic separated while still allowing reusable components to be assembled into larger game features.

That structure was useful for a live social game where features could be added, tested, adjusted or removed as player data came in.

Facebook Instant Games SDK

The Facebook Instant Games SDK was used to integrate the game with Facebook and Messenger. This supported player entry, friend challenge flows and platform-specific behaviours needed for asynchronous social play.

The SDK also provided access to platform metrics and context around session behaviour, which informed ongoing iteration.

Ad Integration

Spell Pals included ad integration to support monetisation. Ads could be shown at appropriate points in the experience, such as between rounds or after completing a game.

Ad placement and frequency were considered alongside analytics so the experience could remain balanced rather than feeling disruptive.

Messenger Integration

Messenger integration allowed players to challenge friends, receive updates and re-enter the game through social flows. That helped the game fit the Facebook Instant Games model, where distribution and retention are closely tied to social sharing and friend-to-friend interaction.

Analytics And A/B Testing

The team used analytics tracking to understand behaviour such as session length, retention and engagement. This allowed development decisions to be based on observed player behaviour rather than assumptions.

A/B testing was used across areas such as difficulty, tutorial flow, power-ups and social sharing mechanics. Many features changed or were removed as the team learned which ideas were effective for player retention and engagement.