Prototyping a mobile-first gaming platform
Exploration into how users can create publish, distribute, and run live game experiences through an AI-first mobile platform prototype.
Platform:
Meta Horizon mobile gaming platform
Scope:
Prototyping, strategy, UX writing, prompt design
Partners:
UXR, product design, design leadership, and engineering partners
The problem
With the pivot of Meta Horizon from VR gaming to an AI-first mobile gaming platform—where consumers and game creators can use template games and AI prompts to create custom games to play with friends and share with their community—we needed to design a new platform experience.
I worked as a content designer prototyping the web game creation flow, with a focus on game publishing, distribution, and LiveOps.
The process
I worked to define an AI-first, lightweight approach to LiveOps, enabling creators to run and grow live game experiences on Horizon. The goal was to ensure every Horizon creator could operate their experiences like the best live games in the world—keeping content fresh, driving player return, and growing audiences across surfaces.
I partnered closely with UXR to understand user needs and collaborated with product design and the wider design team to develop flows and prototypes using Manus, while running ideation critique sessions to gather stakeholder feedback and build alignment. I used accessible language and clear terminology to simplify complex inner-loop player engagement tools, making them easy for creators to understand and integrate into their games.
I also developed these engagement capabilities as "AI skills," enabling creators to embed in-game re-engagement mechanics through simple, AI-native prompting that guided them toward proven retention patterns. Finally, I built out prototypes to explore the end-to-end user journey for setting up engagement tools and automating LiveOps. This included designing a publishing flow that auto-generated game preview reels for distribution across Facebook and Instagram to drive traffic, as well as notification systems that updated creators when key build and publish milestones were reached.
The result
The work helped the team test how AI-first LiveOps, publishing updates, auto-generated preview reels, and milestone notifications could work together in one creator journey.
It also gave the product team a clearer picture of how language, guidance, and workflow structure would need to support a mobile-first platform as the concept developed.