Snap today announced Bitmoji Party, its first original multiplayer game for Snap-chat.
It offers players a series of lightly challenging mini-games for the mobile phone, and is designed to be played by small groups. If successful, it could attract new users to Snap-chat while encouraging them to spend more time inside the app.
Bitmoji Party, which casts players as their company’s personalized avatars, will begin rolling out today around the world, the company said today at its partner summit in Hollywood. It’s part of an expansion of the company’s efforts around gaming, which also include the introduction of five games from publishers including Zynga.
Bitmoji Party began to be developed after the company acquired a game studio from the creators of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. Its development coincided with last year’s Snappables, a series of game-like experiences inside Snapchat that are played using the camera lens.
Initially, Snap plans to generate revenue from its games by introducing 6-second ads into the games. Players will be able to watch the ads to earn virtual currency that can be spent inside games. In the future, the company might also consider in-app purchases and other forms of monetization, executives said.
