Best practices

While optimizing the game by taking steps described in Deep linking from Bunch is a great start to offer people playing together a good experience when coming from Bunch, there are additional suggestions we highly recommend you implement to further improve the multiplayer experience in your game, even when players are not using Bunch.

Skip or defer onboarding (tutorial)

When new players come to your game as part of a Bunch party, it can be frustrating when their friends are waiting for them to finish the onboarding (particularly if the tutorial is a lengthy one and blocks access to multiplayer game modes). We highly recommend skipping or deferring it and letting people into the multiplayer game session immediately - keep in mind that new players are connected and chatting with their friends - who will likely explain what the game is about and how to play it anyway.

Make it easy to play again with the same players

When a multiplayer session ends, some games may require players to set up a new game from scratch. This can be frustrating for people who play the game connected together in a party as they likely want to play again with the same group of people. Making it easy to continue playing with the same group of players can result in people playing your game longer instead of deciding to try another game.

Allow players to spectate

Some of the players can join the party and open the invite link to multiplayer session in your game at a later time, after the game session has already started, is full or doesn't accept new players for any other reason. Instead of simply preventing the new players from joining the game with an error message, allowing them to spectate the game or at least letting them to the lobby with an indication when they will be able to play, offers much better and engaging experience and is likely to result in longer session with more connected players.

Allow players to easily switch between game sessions

When players are opening a deep link to play your game with their Bunch friends they may already be in another multiplayer session (for example playing random match with strangers while waiting for their friends to come online). It's a good practice to allow people to easily leave the current session and join the new one instead of throwing an error message preventing people from joining the new game session due to them already playing in another session.

Next steps

Apart from optimizing your game to offer the best possible experience for people coming from Bunch, further integrating Bunch brings the party experience directly into your game making it easy for players to connect with their friends and play together. Integration overview is a good starting point to learn more about it.