This document provides an overview of bringing chat features to games. It discusses the benefits of in-game chat for facilitating teamwork and community. Both text and voice chat are covered, including their pros and cons. Common chat types like global, group, and private are described. The large scale of messaging platforms is compared to demonstrate the potential impact of chat. Toxicity is a risk and reducing it requires clear guidelines, reporting systems, and muting options. Build vs buy options for chat solutions are weighed, favoring buying third-party plugins due to their ease and reliability. Key takeaways emphasize how chat can enhance engagement when integrated appropriately for different game and audience types.

1. BRINGING CHAT TO GAMES
A Practical Guide
Daniel Sierpiński

2. Who am I?
● 11+ years in Gaming Industry
● 9+ years Unity Developer
● RPG & RTS genres
● PC & Mobile platforms
● Currently working on Text/Audio/Video
Communications systems for Unity
projects at Stream Daniel Sierpiński

3. Games I’ve worked on

4. Power chat for 2+ billion users
Chat Plugins for:
FREE for Indie Developers -> “Maker Account”
Cloud Messaging Solutions
+11 more

5. Who’s my audience?

6. Scope of this Talk
● Overview of in-game communication
● Pros & Cons
● Case stories
● Players Toxicity and ways to Reduce it
● Build in-house vs Buy 3rd party

7. Let’s talk about chats

9. Scale of Messaging
● 100 billion messages are sent via WhatsApp every day
● There are 2 billion WhatsApp users around the globe
Source:
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/whatsapp-statistics, https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/beyond/overview/, https://a-z-animals.com/blog/how-many-birds-are-in-the-world/,
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
- 100 billion <- Stars in our Galaxy
- 50 billion <- Birds on Planet
- 8 billion <- People in the World

10. Social impact of Games
61%
Games helped to
stay in contact with
family and friends
Source: https://www.theesa.com/resource/2022-essential-facts-about-the-video-game-industry/, https://create.unity.com/toxicity-in-multiplayer-games-report
83%
Found new friends in
games
46%
Found a good friend
or a life partner in a
game
78%
Communicate with
others when playing
multiplayer games

11. Why have a chat in your game?

12. Benefits of an in-game Chat
● Facilitates Teamwork & Coordination -> FPS, Tactical shooters, Co-op
● Enhances social aspects
● Increases a sense of community
● Improves Player’s Experience
● Can be a meaningful part of the gameplay

13. Most common types of chat
● Global chat -> all players
● Group In-game Chat -> your team when playing
● Lobby Chat -> your team before starting a session
● Party chat -> your team even if not playing together e.g. Fortnite Party Hub
● Private messages
● Clans/Guilds/Clubs/Rooms

14. Text vs Voice
Which one you need?

15. Text and Voice Chats are often not
interchangeable

16. Voice Chat - Pros & Cons

17. Voice Chat - PROS
● Efficient:
○ Much faster than typing
○ Doesn’t interrupt playing the game
○ Doesn’t interrupt the immersion
● Good option for:
○ VR & Consoles -> cumbersome typing with no keyboard
○ Fast-paced games -> no time to type
Practical

18. Voice Chat - PROS
● Players socialize more -> voice is more intimate than text
● Can be more engaging -> Voice conveys emotions and is more personal
● Extra fun with friends!
Social

19. Voice Chat - PROS
● Improves teamwork -> Players can coordinate their actions
● Can add realism -> Survivals, tactical shooters, etc.
● Good options for games requiring effective cooperation
Gameplay

20. Voice Chat - CONS
● Not always possible -> mobile game + public place/transport
● More challenging to moderate
○ Auto-detection is very hard -> Tone & sounds can be abusive as well
● Doesn’t work well with large groups -> Unless doing a proximity chat
○ Hard to not talk over each other
○ Mixing backgrounds noise -> e.g. barking dogs
● Expensive (Unless using Discord)
Practical

21. Voice Chat - CONS
● Distracting to some players
● Some people aren’t comfortable with sharing their voice with
strangers
○ Foreign accent
○ Language barrier
○ Ashamed
○ Social anxiety
● Disturbs the immersion -> hard to enjoy music or voice acting
when player are talking
● Toxic behavior is much more annoying
Social

22. Text Chat - Pros & Cons

23. Text Chat - PROS
● Good for multi language audience -> auto translations
● Easier to moderate
○ Auto-moderation options:
■ Blocklists
■ AI-based
● Asynchronous communication -> time zones are not a problem
● Good for Clans, Clubs, Guilds, Rooms. etc.
● Relatively cheap
Practical

24. Text Chat - PROS
● Can be fun -> reactions, emojis, stickers, gifs
● Smaller psychological barrier -> easy to stay “anonymous”
Social

25. Text Chat - CONS
● Not always practical/possible -> You can’t both play and type in
a chat
● Not as engaging as Voice chat
● Smaller psychological barrier to act arrogant/toxic

26. Other forms of “Chat”

27. ● Puts a colored marker on the spot you aim
● Followed by your character comment
● Multiple types:
○ Go
○ Enemy
○ Looting This Area
○ Attacking Here
○ Going Here
○ Defending This Area
○ Watching Here
○ Someone’s Been Here
Ping System

28. ● Only predefined shouts
● But still can potentially be abused
● Mutes available
Quick chat

29. Incentivise Players Communication
Tip of the day:

30. ● Real-time multiplayer strategy
● Units & Spells are represented by
cards that you collect
● Cards are obtained from Chests or a
Shop
● Players can create and join Clans
Overview

31. Clans
● Share your deck
● Request & Donate cards
● Friendly battles
● Clans Wars
Encourages Discussions

32. Chat impact
● Get feedback on your deck = learn from others
● Request cards that others can donate
● Practice without risking your rank
● Clan owners “manage” and lead their clans
Chatting brings various benefits to Players

33. Chat as a core mechanic

34. ● Online Multiplayer
● “Social Deduction” game
● Players are a crew on a spaceship
● 4-15 players per session
● Random player is an Imposter
● Imposter tries to kill everyone on the ship
● Imposter uses deception to not get detected
Overview

35. Core gameplay:

36. Players Toxicity

37. Scale of the problem
41%
Think toxic behavior
increased over the
past 12 months
Source: https://create.unity.com/toxicity-in-multiplayer-games-report
68%
Experienced toxic
behaviour
21%
Experience it often or
every time
92%
Think solutions are
needed to reduce
toxic behaviour

38. Players Reaction to Toxic behaviour
21%
Call the player
out
Source: https://create.unity.com/toxicity-in-multiplayer-games-report
24%
Use in-game
reporting
23%
Leave the
game
20%
Ignore
10%
Record and
post online

39. How to reduce Toxicity?
● Provide Clear Guidelines
○ Needs to be clear when the line is crossed
● Shield Players -> Give options to:
○ Disable the chat
○ Mute Players
○ Mute Channels
● Fast Detection:
○ Reporting System
○ Auto-moderation
■ Profanity blocklist
■ Context-based AI detection

40. Essential Features

41. Essential features
● Moderation
○ Reporting/Flagging
○ Muting
○ Banning
■ By account
■ By IP
○ Profanity blocklist
● Permissions system
○ Admins, Moderators
○ Channel owners (e.g. Clan/Guild owners)
● Online status
○ “Invisible” option
● Reactions, Emojis, Stickers, Gifs
● Real-time synchronization
● Commands -> e.g. /mute, /whisper, /dance, /invite [player name]

42. Build vs Buy

43. Build - PROS
● Full control over features & customization
● Can be cheaper in some scenarios
○ Small usage
○ No fancy features needed
● Can be easier to integrate

44. Build - CONS
● Usually more expensive
● Takes time
● Takes away resources that you could focus on other parts of the game
● Maintenance
Nowadays usually not worth unless you have a good reason for it

45. Buy - PROS
● Fast time to market
● Easy to scale
● Cheap to start
● Cheap to exit - just quit subscription
● Tested & reliable

46. Buy - CONS
● In some cases can be more expensive
○ Lowest plan can exceed your needs
○ Seasonal activity -> you pay for usage potential and not for actual usage
○ Pricing plans may not fit your needs
● Potential integration Issues
● Technical support is out of your control
● Vendor can drop the product or go out of business

47. Key takeaways
● Chats can drive engagement and enhance game community
○ Strong community fuels game popularity
● Chat = Feature
○ Figure out how it works with other features
○ Give players a reason to communicate
○ Pick type of communications that work with your game
■ Who will play our game? Where?
■ How fast is the gameplay?
■ On what controls/platforms?
● Moderation is critical
○ Aim for auto-moderation + community moderators
○ Reporting system
○ Mute option
● General chats tend to be toxic and unutilized
○ Small groups often work better
○ Players talk more + easier to make friends

48. Thank You!

49. Questions & Answers