March 19, 2018

Creating “Google Play Instant” for Panda Pop

Blog

With all the great games available today, discovery can be challenging for developers. One of the largest barriers to converting new players is the friction of the install process.

That’s why we were excited to partner with Google on a Google Play Instant version of Panda Pop – which was announced this morning at Google’s Developer Day at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. Google Play Instant allows players to try Panda Pop without having to download and install the full game. Check out the announcement and Panda Pop case study Google posted today on its Android Developers Blog as part of its “Big Bet on Mobile Games” in 2018!

Jam City leveraged Google Play Instant to enhance Panda Pop’s architecture and design and find a new way to acquire high quality players. The talented Panda Pop engineering team built and launched an Instant version of the game that allows players to experience the first ten levels of game play. The build removes menus, unnecessary codes and unused plugins leading to a significant reduction in build size.

Marcelo Ferreiro, Director of Engineering at Jam City, said:

“Building Google Play Instant was a great opportunity for Jam City to see where Panda Pop could be optimized. We’ve taken those learnings and applied them to the full version of the game, which now runs smoother and with a reduced memory footprint.”

And

“Google Play Instant is a win-win for players and developers – players get a fully functional gameplay experience before downloading, and developers get a promising new way to acquire high quality users.”

Google Play Instant is still in closed beta and will be opened more broadly later this year. Below are some pictures from Google’s Developer Day at GDC, where they discussed Google Play Instant and more!