In-Game Chat System — Mandy Wong

01 — PROBLEM

One chat system, many contexts — and no consistency

The game needed a full social layer in a month. The hard part wasn't the features — chat had to work across very different contexts: a sidebar on the island, a pop-up mid-match, positioned differently screen to screen.

Those inconsistencies, plus constant notifications, made the system easy to ignore. As sole designer, I owned it end-to-end across 10+ stakeholders.

"Same feature, different place, different behaviour on every screen — players stopped trusting where chat would even appear."

02 — THE CHALLENGE

Same system, three contexts

Chat lived in three contexts — Room, Match, and World — each surfacing two channels at a time. The same system had to feel native in all three: a full panel when idle, lightweight quick-access during a fast 10-second match.

Room context — // Room — Room + Team channels, coordinating before a match.

Match context — // Match — Team + quick-chat, inside the 10-second match.

World context — // World — World + Island channels, out on the open map.

// chat_system.ui — context → active channels

surfaces → Room Team

03 — PROCESS

I learned to align stakeholders earlier

With 10+ stakeholders, layout and button placement were debated heavily — chat popped up on both the left and right across contexts, so consistency was a constant fight that cost many iterations.

My honest takeaway: I hadn't aligned on goals early enough. Adding an alignment checkpoint upfront sharply reduced the back-and-forth later.

04 — SOLUTION

Designed for speed in fast play

Free typing doesn't fit a 10-second match — so every input is fast and contextual. Rounded out with @mentions, tappable player cards, and team colour-coding.