Pllay
INTRO
Pllay is an AI-driven platform for game developers to enable easy integration of virtual simulated betting and peer-to-peer cash competitions, complete with best-in-class identity verification and KYC (Know Your Customer) functionality. As the platform expanded into casual games and smart TVs, I collaborated with an early customer, Play.Works, to launch an integration across their popular Roku casual gaming titles.
My ROLE
User experience, prototyping, UI design
Service design
Client
PLLAY Labs
Year
2022
Project Type
Mobile & Roku App for Game Betting Platform
The Core Concept
Expanding to casual games designed for a remote.
Play.Works is the world's leading publisher of connected TV games, with average gameplay sessions lasting over 20 minutes—proving to be even more popular than many might expect. While Play.Works develops hundreds of games, they lack the time and resources to integrate competitive or cash-based gameplay into each title. This challenge is further compounded by the restrictive development environment on smart TVs like Roku and Samsung.
To address these challenges, integrations needed to be simple to implement, overlay seamlessly on the game UI, adhere to TV platform conventions, and provide players with a trustworthy and intuitive experience. Moreover, cash-based gameplay and betting require strict compliance with U.S. regulatory standards, such as age and location verification—tasks that are difficult to manage on TVs but perfectly suited to mobile devices.
Most mobile-to-TV interactions are simple verifications. Pllay required a dynamic, multi-step process, seamlessly switching players between devices.
Key Challenges
The key challenge in this project was integrating Pllay's features cleanly into a game’s UI with minimal developer effort, while coexisting with Play.Works' primary ad-based monetization model.
Additionally, the technical complexity of the ecosystem posed significant hurdles. The interaction between the Pllay SDK, the Roku game client, the Pllay mobile app, the game server, and the back-end required meticulous planning and testing. This ensured the system was secure against monetary exploits and cheating, maintained data integrity, and adhered to regulatory compliance—all within the constraints of TV integration limitations.
Strategy Highlight
Select via the remote, follow on your phone.
We designed an innovative approach for Pllay to integrate seamlessly "on top" of existing games. Put simply, the SDK enables trigger buttons at specific points in the game's UI—ranging from the start menu to more detailed in-game menus—determined by the developer. The Pllay UI loads as a platform-specific overlay within the game canvas, blending with the game’s aesthetic without requiring adjustments.
To streamline onboarding, Pllay employs a soft-account service design, allowing players to explore competitive features without immediate KYC or monetary prompts. When needed, transitions to the player’s device are facilitated via QR codes or authentication codes to a native app or mobile web view. The system can seamlessly heal-up soft accounts to verified accounts, with updates synchronized to the Pllay SDK live in the game client.
Pllay competitions are primarily asynchronous, featuring modes like "Bet-On-Yourself" or timed tournaments. Because of this, integration with game servers is straightforward, requiring only basic data—user ID, game ID, time, and score at forgiving intervals (not NRT) and often passed via the SDK on the client. This approach is far simpler than typical SDKs which often require custom event pipelines between the platform and game server.
Strategy Highlight
Balancing native UI with platform UX
Previous to this integration, Pllay's entire experience was contained to its mobile app and did not feature direct integration into a game client. Roku is one of the most popular smart TV platforms hence a key venue for Play.Works connected TV strategy. This required a design that balanced Roku's restrictive UI limitations, flexibility to integrate with any Play.Works title and highlighting just enough of Pllay's brand to build trust in the platform.
