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Inal Kardanov How to create a game with millions of users

3 min readupdated 2026-06-06✏️ Suggest an edit🕑 History
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The author: Inal Kardanov your partner TON Ventures Before that, Gaming Lead in TON Foundation from 05.2023.

TON Ventures#

  • The classic VC;
  • The Foundation $40 million;
  • Invests in early projects The TON ecosystem;
  • More commonly associated with **Telegram**But not always.

Three aspects of game development/TMA#

  1. Social interactions;
  2. Rewards for users;
  3. Interactions between teams.

Social interactions#

Types of players (game theory)

The typeThe motivation
KillersWinning, leaderboards, ranking
AchieversAwards and status
SocializersSocial interactions, chat in games, list of friends
ExplorersPuzzles, difficult achievements
Airdrop huntersThe money .

You need to focus on 1–2The categoriesIt's not going to work for everyone.

Referral systems

94% of users Notcoin They came by invitation from friends.

What is it ?The descriptionConvertedViral release
Simple Text + the linkOpening the bot .Lower .It 's higher .
Bot + auto-open TMAOpen the app right awayIt 's higher .Lower .

Recommended: A simple text bypasses option 2 by virtue of its viral nature.

️ Referral system It 's supposed to reward It doesn't work that way.

Awards and honours#

Comparison of models

The projectThe modelThe result .
NotcoinOne-level: 2500 NOT (normal friend), 50K (with premium), One time .✓ It 's better
The PixelsMulti-level: % of the earnings of guests (3 levels)It 's worse .

The ideal: I 'm going to mix it up . instant reward when you connect, plus a percentage in the future.

Leaders

  • Part of good game design;
  • They 're magnifying . retention;
  • They work for Small groups;
  • Telegram Games (old platform) native API for leaderboards.

Competitions

Case , please . Fanton: custom tournaments (players dismiss + winner takes over). It's the only case with any real results, helping to attract super-motivated users.

Interactions between teams#

The Squad

  • Notcoin introduced community competitions;
  • **Squads are made for bloggers.**Not for players .
  • Bloggers → game traffic to their channel;
  • The bloggers are getting serious rewards (Notcoin paid a lot).

What about PvP on Telegram ?

Case , please . Gatto: through 7 seconds . Waiting for the match . 92% of users leave.

The reason: Telegram has a lot of distractions (notifications, channels) → users close quickly.

→ If there is a waiting game, there will probably be a problem.

Not obvious optimizations#

The actionConverted
Stop the button . In the boot .+4–6% The TMA opening
The emoji . in the button+2%
Showing total number of users (not the MAU)↑ (social confirmation)

About the payments

  • Telegram + Google policy: only Telegram Stars;
  • Android: We don 't know the lock cases .
  • iOS: TMA was blocked for trespassing.

Mechanics for retention#

Mechanical engineeringThe description
Lucky WheelWheel of fortune, daily sunset, not to break the game economy.
The stripes .Rewards for regularly visiting (Duolingo)
Beji .+18% retention 7th day at The Pixels (even if they don't affect anything)
Random Time ChallengesSudden tasks (like Earn in Notcoin)
Funny lulzFunny gifs in the notifications, cool branding.
CommunityBest example Gatto
FOMONotcoin everyone played so as not to lose

Other sources#

Similar articles#

️ Requires confirmation#

-New mechanics in the TMA after March 2025.

ℹ️ Information verified: 2025

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