Highrise is a social-first MMO where players create avatars, build apartments, and engage in user-generated worlds and challenges.

In designing Highrise, we focused on creating an experience that feels like both an app and a game, which is crucial for user engagement.

This architecture enables us to create various games and products by swapping out elements of Highrise, like introducing a hero collector game or an adventure fishing game.

We learned from early experiences that players would leave Highrise for other platforms once they exhausted the game's content, highlighting the need for a strong social component.

To maintain user engagement, Highrise must feel like a social app, similar to Snapchat or Instagram, to prevent users from leaving after gameplay.

Pocket Worlds is looking to enhance this architecture by developing more social-first experiences and games.

Our design philosophy, called 'social first', prioritizes community features and social interactions before integrating game mechanics.

Our architecture is a blend of 50% app and 50% game, utilizing Swift and Kotlin for Android, and C++ for the game engine.

The social-first approach addresses the challenge of retaining player attention by fostering friendships within the game, which keeps players engaged long-term.