Building Games on Snapchat
Snapchat makes it easier than ever to build highly engaging, social-first games inside Lenses. Games here are platform-native — seamlessly connected to the camera, the friend graph, and Snapchat's content ecosystem — which means your ideas can reach players instantly and spread organically.
- Instant Distribution – Publish once in Lens Studio and your game is immediately available across the Camera Carousel, Lens Explorer, and Search - no installs or extra steps.
- Viral Sharing – Games spread naturally through Snaps, Stories, and Spotlight — turning fun moments into content that friends pass along, helping your game reach a massive audience.
- Powered by Friends – Features like Bitmoji, Leaderboards, and Turn Based formats turn games into personal, social competitions.
- Creative Gameplay – Build AR games, mobile games, or combine AR inputs (device tracking, camera, face/gesture recognition) with traditional mechanics to create entirely new formats of games.
Why Build Games on Snapchat?
Lens Games aren't just solo experiences — they're designed to be played with friends and spread across the Snapchat ecosystem. Features like friend leaderboards, personalized Bitmoji avatars, and asynchronous turn based gameplay make Snapchat uniquely suited for lightweight, social-first game formats.
Creators also benefit from:
- Low Friction Multiplayer – With Leaderboards and Turn Based formats, you can build async multiplayer experiences in minutes. No other platform makes it this easy to turn one-off play sessions into ongoing social competition.
- Monetization – Creating amazing games is just the beginning. You can earn rewards from the Lenses you build:
- Lens Creator Rewards: Enroll and earn payouts if your Lens becomes a top performer. Games are some of our most rewarded Lenses!
- Challenge Tags: Each month, a new challenge will be released around building lenses. Sign up for the challenge tag and you'll be able to enter your lens to win from a monthly prize pool!
- Discovery – Features like Turn Based play, Leaderboards, and Bitmoji all drive a natural flywheel: back-and-forth gameplay, friendly competition, and seeing yourself and friends in the game encourage sharing — which spreads your Lens, helps it rise in the Carousel, and grows your audience.
Core Social Features
| Turn Based | Leaderboard | Bitmoji |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
Turn Based
Build asynchronous two-player games that Snapchatters can send back and forth through Snaps. Powered by Snapchat’s Turn Based Dynamic Response System, this format lets players take sequential turns, with game state passed automatically in each Snap. Perfect for classics like tic-tac-toe, competitive arcade games like pool, or any back-and-forth experience where friends trade moves over time. → Learn more about the Turn Based Component
Leaderboard
Make the competition personal with Leaderboards and let players compete directly against their friends' scores. The Leaderboard Component handles score submission and ranking automatically, and you can surface top scores with the Score Widget to keep competition visible. Perfect for hypercasual games, endless runners, or any format where replay value comes from climbing the ranks and beating friends. → Learn more about the Leaderboard Component
Bitmoji
Bring in the avatar system loved by millions. Bitmoji makes games instantly personal — players see themselves and their friends directly in the experience. Use Bitmoji 3D as a controllable player character in action or adventure games, or bring in Bitmoji 2D as stickers, cameos, or reactions to add humor and personality. → Learn more about Bitmoji Tools
Additional Game Components
Snapchat provides essential game components so you can focus on gameplay and fun:
- Character Controller – Modular movement system and collision handling supporting both Bitmoji and custom characters.
- Camera Controller – Flexible camera behaviors: Follow, Third-Person, Orbit.
- Input Action – Reusable user input mappings (joystick, taps, face events, mic) for gameplay actions.
- Joystick – Customizable on-screen joystick with scripting support.
These components work together like building blocks, so you can customize and prototype new gameplay quickly without worrying about low-level logic.
For an example of how these components work together, try out the Bitmoji Player Package, a game-ready controllable Bitmoji, from the Asset Library.
Best Practices
Performance Optimization
- FPS Target – Aim for at least 30 FPS across devices globally.
- Prioritize Mechanics – Keep mechanics (swipe, tap) lightweight and responsive rather than relying on heavy assets.
- Bitmoji Considerations – Bitmoji 3D can impact FPS, especially on older devices. Simplify other visuals when Bitmoji is present to maintain smooth gameplay.
Input and Interactions
- Override Default Touch Behaviors – Prevent Snapchat's default swipe gesture from pulling players out of the Lens during high-frequency tap or swipe mechanics with Touch Blocking. This avoids interrupting gameplay during actions like tap-to-shoot or swipe-to-move.
Spotlight and Engagement
| Camera On Backgrounds | Picture-in-Picture | Fully Designed Backgrounds | Camera Toggle |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
If you wish to optimize your Lens for better performance on Spotlight or greater video engagement, consider ways to keep the player's face visible. Games that perform best on Spotlight don't hide the camera — they highlight it:
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Camera On Backgrounds: Gameplay overlays the live camera feed so reactions stay front and center. This approach prioritizes the player's expression over the scene, and tends to drive more posts, sends, and virality on Spotlight. Avoid opaque backgrounds if your goal is video engagement.
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Picture-in-Picture Backgrounds: A camera widget (ideally ~30% of the screen) sits on top of gameplay to capture reactions clearly. If the widget is too small, it won't increase engagement. This setup lets players see both the game and themselves, making reactions part of the content.
If you wish to optimize your Lens for deeper engagement — like longer playtime and high quality shareable gameplay — consider these approaches:
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Fully Designed Backgrounds: Disable the camera feed entirely and use a fully developed background instead. This creates an immersive experience where scenery, assets, or other visuals take center stage.
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Camera Background Toggle: Give players the option to switch between an opaque, fully designed background and the live camera feed. This flexibility lets players choose: share their reactions publicly when they want, or play privately in a distraction-free immersive mode.
Resources to Get Started
The most successful Lens Games lean into the social features unique to Snapchat. Start building with these resources:
- Sample Projects: Pre-built templates for Leaderboards, Turn Based and Platformer games available in Lens Studio.
- Game Components: Reusable building blocks for gameplay mechanics found in the "Games" section of the Asset Library.
- Bitmoji Runner Game Tutorial: Step-by-step guide to building an endless runner game with Bitmoji.
- Lens Studio for Unity Developers: Migration guide for Unity developers transitioning to Lens Studio.
Ready to build your first game?
👉 Download Lens Studio.