Presentation by FB engineer on using FB in social games

1. developers
Prashant Sridharan
github.com/CoolAssPuppy
@CoolAssPuppy
Building Social Games
Thursday, May 2, 13

2. iOS & Android Devices - Time Spent
Source: Flurry Analytics
http://blog.flurry.com/bid/95723/Flurry-Five-Year-Report-It-s-an-App-World-The-Just-Web-Lives-in-It
20%
Browser
14%
Other
8%
Utility
8%
Enterta-
inment
32%
Playing Games
18%
Facebook
0% 100%
50%
Thursday, May 2, 13

3. 28%
72%
US top 400 grossing iOS apps
Source: App Figures
Thursday, May 2, 13

4. 22%
78%
US top 400 grossing Android apps
Source: App Figures
Thursday, May 2, 13

5. On average in March, how many games were
added to the Apple App Store every day?
143
Source: 124Apps.biz
http://148apps.biz/app-store-metrics/?mpage=submission
Thursday, May 2, 13

6. 250M
Gamer MAU
751M
Mobile MAU
1.1B+
Global MAU
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7. Facebook Provides Unique Social Channels
2012
Requests Sharing Scores &
Achievements
Open Graph
Thursday, May 2, 13

8. Scenarios for Using Facebook Social Channels
2012
1. Invites
2. Sending Gifts
3. Leaderboards
4. Tournaments
5. Bragging
6. Challenges
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9. Sending Invites
Custom
Friend Picker
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10. Sending Gifts
Invitations
with Value
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11. Sending Gifts
Invitations
with Value
‣ Q: Why use this over native
push notifications?
- Cross-Platform
- Works with users who’ve
not installed your app
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12. Social Leaderboards
Peer Pressure
Bubble Witch
Saga
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13. Weekly Tournaments
Build regular
engagement
Diamond
Dash
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14. Bragging
Finding natural
moments to share
new share dialog
screenshot neede
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15. Start with Facebook Login
User’s identity Appearing in SearchUser’s friends Getting Distribution
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16. Make Facebook Login Prominent
Explain what you’re
going to do with user
data and upsell on the
value of Facebook Login
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17. Ask for Read Permissions First
[FBSession
openActiveSessionWithReadPermissions:@[@”email”]
allowLoginUI:YES
completionHandler:
^(FBSession
*session,
FBSessionState
status,
NSError
*error)
{
//handle
result
}
];
Thursday, May 2, 13

18. Ask for Write Permissions In Context
FBSession
*fbSession
=
[FBSession
activeSession];
[fbSession
requestNewPublishPermissions:@[@"publish_actions"]
defaultAudience:FBSessionDefaultAudienceFriends
completionHandler:^(FBSession
*session,
NSError*
error)
{
//handle
result
}
];
Thursday, May 2, 13

19. Support Free & Paid Versions of Your App
FBSession
*fbSession
=
[[FBSession
alloc]
initWithAppID:@"480369938658210"
permissions:permissions
urlSchemeSuffix:@"free"
tokenCacheStrategy:nil];
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20. Requests
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21. Get Existing Users to Recruit New Users
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22. User Flow for Requests
Sending Receive Push Notification Light up notification jewel
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23. User Flow for Requests
Sending Receive Push Notification Light up notification jewel
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24. User Flow for Requests
Receive Push Notification Light up notification jewel Appear in notification list
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25. User Flow for Requests
Receive Push Notification Cross-Platform
(Web / iOS / Android /
Mobile Web)
Light up notification jewel Appear in notification list
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26. Sending a Request
NSString
*message
=
[NSString
stringWithFormat:@"I
just
smashed
%d
friends!
Can
you
beat
it?",
nScore];
[FBWebDialogs
presentRequestsDialogModallyWithSession:nil
message:message
title:@”Invite
Friend”
parameters:params
handler:nil];
Thursday, May 2, 13

27. Frictionless Requests
▪ Automatically sends future
requests without prompting the
user
▪ Useful for Games to send a
“Your Turn” notification, to send
lives/gifts to friends
Thursday, May 2, 13

28. Request Filtering
GET https://graph.facebook.com/USER_ID/friends?fields=devices
▪ What if you don’t support all platforms?
▪ Restrict Requests only to users that support your platforms...
▪ Can query the set of devices a user has via the Graph API
▪ Send the result of the query to your native Friend Selector
Thursday, May 2, 13

29. Demo: Sending Requests
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30. Advanced Filtering
NSString
*fql
=
@”SELECT
uid,
devices
FROM
user
WHERE
uid
IN
(SELECT
uid2
FROM
friend
WHERE
uid1
=
me())
and
is_app_user
=
0”;
[FBRequestConnection
startWithGraphPath:@"/fql"
parameters:@{@”q”:
fql}
HTTPMethod:@"GET"
completionHandler:^(FBRequestConnection
*connection,
id
result,
NSError
*error)
{
//parse
list
}
];
▪ Remove friends who are already using the app
▪ Send the result to to your custom Friend Selector
Thursday, May 2, 13

31. Deep Linking from Requests
fb[APP_ID]://
authorize#expires_in=[ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRATION]
&access_token=[USER_ACCESS_TOKEN]
&target_url=https://apps.facebook.com/
[APP_NAME_SPACE]/?
request_ids=[COMMA_SEPARATED_REQUESTIDs]&ref=not
if&app_request_type=user_to_user
Thursday, May 2, 13

32. Build Your Own Friend Selector
▪ Build your own friend selector
for better results
▪ Use your game’s artwork for a more
consistent user experience
▪ Native dialogs will perform better
▪ Send the selected friends to the
Facebook Requests Dialog
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33. Thursday, May 2, 13

34. Sharing
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35. Using the New Native Share Dialog
[FBDialogs presentShareDialogWithLink:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://
yoururl.com/"]
name:@"Checkout how awesome I am"
caption:@"See if you can beat me!"
description:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"I just scored %d points!]
picture:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://youurl.com/yourimage.jpg"]
clientState:nil
handler:nil];
Thursday, May 2, 13

36. Sharing
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37. Demo: Feed Dialog
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38. Share Interesting Moments
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39. Support Deep Linking when Sharing
▪ Feed and Timeline stories link
directly to the native app
▪ Don’t just send users to a
generic title screen, provide
context
▪ Parse target_url to provide a
contextual experience
Thursday, May 2, 13

40. Scores & Achievements
2012
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41. Graph API for Scores
▪ Simple API, only for
games
▪ Post an integer score
for a player
▪ We generate stories
automatically
▪ These stories are only
for desktop Facebook
▪ ...but the Scores API is
still useful for mobile...
Thursday, May 2, 13

42. Example: Publishing Scores
NSMutableDictionary*
params
=
[NSMutableDictionary
dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:
[NSString
stringWithFormat:@"%d",
nScore],
@"score",
nil];
FBRequest
*req
=
[[FBRequest
alloc]
initWithSession:[FBSession
activeSession]
graphPath:[NSString
stringWithFormat:@"%@/scores",
playerFBID]
parameters:params
HTTPMethod:@"POST"];
[req
startWithCompletionHandler:^(FBRequestConnection
*connection,
id
result,
NSError
*error)
{}];
Thursday, May 2, 13

43. Creating a Social Scoreboard
GET https://graph.facebook.com/APP_ID/scores?
access_token=USER_ACCESS_TOKEN
"data": [
{
"user": {
"name": "Christine Abernathy",
"id": "1424840234"
},
"score": 106,
},
{
"user": {
"name": "Amir Naor",
"id": "627802916"
},
"score": 57
},
...
]
Thursday, May 2, 13

44. Demo: Social Scoreboard
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45. Creating a Tournament
DELETE https://graph.facebook.com/USER_ID/scores/
DELETE https://graph.facebook.com/APP_ID/scores/
Delete individual user score
Delete all user scores
Easily delete scores, per-user or all users and
run weekly tournaments
Thursday, May 2, 13

46. Achievements API
▪ Define a set of achievements a player can earn
in your game
▪ Each achievement can be earned only once
▪ Publishes on user’s Timeline, appears in News Feed
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47. Managing Achievements
<html>
<head>
<meta
property="og:type"
content="game.achievement"/>
<meta
property="og:title"
content="50
Score!"/>
<meta
property="og:description"
content="Smash
50
friends
in
1
round"/>
<meta
property="og:url"
content="http://www.friendsmash.com/achievement_50.html"/>
<meta
property="og:image"
content="http://www.friendsmash.com/images/achievement_50.png"/>
<meta
property="game:points"
content="50"/>
<title>Friend
Smash!
-­‐
Achievement:
50
Score!</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Friend
Smash!
-­‐
Achievement:
50
Score!</p>
<img
src="http://www.friendsmash.com/images/achievement_50.png"
/>
</body>
</html>
POST https://graph.facebook.com/me/achievements&
achievement=http://site.com/ach1.html&
access_token=USER_ACCESS_TOKEN
Thursday, May 2, 13

48. Open Graph
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49. Custom Open Graph Actions for Games
▪ Custom actions and objects, tailored to your game
▪ Publishes on the user Timeline and Newsfeed
▪ Represents core gameplay interactions
▪ Allows you to differentiate your game
Thursday, May 2, 13

50. 2012
Requests Sharing Scores &
Achievements
Open Graph
Thursday, May 2, 13