now.gg

Mobile Cloud Platform Play Online Games for Free

now.gg

Mobile Cloud Platform Play Online Games for Free

now.gg

Mobile Cloud Platform Play Online Games for Free

Role

Design Lead

Mentoring a team of 6 & managing Stakeholders
End to end brand designing

Outcome

200M playtime minutes

500K+ Daily active user.
5% Users spends in app currency

Timeline

~3 Years

Feb 2022 - Dec 2025

The Challenge

Democratizing High-End Gaming at Global Scale

In 2021, high-end mobile gaming was a "walled garden" accessible only to users with expensive hardware and flagship devices. As the first Design Lead for now.gg, I was tasked with orchestrating a 0-to-1 brand and platform launch to solve a critical business bottleneck: high user friction due to platform dependency and hardware limitations.

High end devices

Mobile games now a days are pretty rich in graphics and as result they required great processing power and memory. Not all of the users have high end mobile devices

Small screen

Even though mobile games today are more immersive than ever but the limited real estate on mobile screen can diminish the playing experience

Platform dependecny

Android mobile game library is way more richer than that of iOS which really limits the number of users who can play android mobile games on their devices

Unexplored territory

This way of gaming was fairly new in it’s field so the challenge of the unknown were still not sure. We never knew what we could encounter

This was my first project as a Design Lead. The expectation was clear, build the brand from 0 to 1. Collaborative efforts with cross functional teams. Keeping the business goals and user needs in the balance

This was my first project as a Design Lead. The expectation was clear, build the brand from 0 to 1. Collaborative efforts with cross functional teams. Keeping the business goals and user needs in the balance

Goals

Essentials to build the brand and the platform

To architect a hardware-agnostic, cloud-native gaming experience that balanced aggressive business growth goals with a seamless "one-click" user entry for millions of gamers worldwide.

Website and Gameplay experience

Creating a compelling website and proof of concept experience on the website itself so that the end user can see the value proposition of the platform

P0

Developer portal

A back end platform where game developers can get on boarded and upload their APKs and test out their game on our platform

P1

Brand Guidelines

We wanted the marketing material and brand guidelines so that we could start promoting the platform in parallel

P2

The Process

Lean UX- Minimize waste and Maximize learning

At now.gg, we utilized a Lean UX methodology to minimize development waste and maximize our learning velocity in an unexplored market. As Design Lead, I facilitated a cycle that prioritized rapid experimentation and data-backed pivots.

Think

Aligning stakeholders on "The Why"



Collaborated with Product Managers and CTOs to translate ambiguous business requirements into a concrete roadmap. We identified core friction points—such as cloud latency and small-screen readability—by analyzing the needs of game developers and the global Discord community

Make

Creating a scalable foundation






Led the design of a comprehensive, token-driven Design System that unified the gameplay experience across six regions. This wasn’t just about visuals; we built a Developer Portal and Brand Guidelines from scratch to ensure a 1.5x faster development cycle and brand consistency at scale

Check

Moving the needle on metrics






Leveraged user analytics from millions of sessions to validate design decisions. By analyzing behavior through our 'Global Playground', we optimized UI discovery, resulting in a 7% lift in engagement and a +5 minute boost in session duration

The End Game

Mockups, Design System & Guidelines

The final design for now.gg focused on building the brand and at the same time expanding the brand as a platform and as a service as well

The Impact

Scaling from MVP to a Global Gaming Powerhouse

With ~12 months of iterations and community feedback resulted in significant, measurable improvements in user engagement and overall product performance

200M

Monthly playtime minutes

Unexpected playtime

Engineered a high-performance UI that sustained massive engagement levels. By prioritizing cloud-native accessibility, we achieved a milestone of half a billion minutes played monthly

500K+

Daily Active Users

User retention

Transformed now.gg into a daily habit for a global audience. My focus on reducing 'time-to-play' friction resulted in a consistent, high-velocity user base within the first 6 months

Profitable

Ads & free for users

In-App Currency Adoption

Proved that 'Free-to-Play' can be highly profitable. I designed the integration for in-app currency and rewarded ads, leading to a 15% adoption rate and a self-sustaining ecosystem

Worldwide

Across 6 region

Scaling worldwide

Orchestrated a localized design strategy across 6 global markets. Worldwide Scale: 6 Regions & Counting

Game developers, discord community and our end users i.e. gamers became our most trusted source of user inputs. The collaborated effort really helped to shape the product

Game developers, discord community and our end users i.e. gamers became our most trusted source of user inputs. The collaborated effort really helped to shape the product

Behind The Scenes

Beyond the Pixels: Leading Through Complexity

Shipping a global cloud platform like now.gg required more than just a UI; it required a robust operational framework. As the Design Lead, I acted as the primary bridge between the engineering, product, and brand teams.

Reflections

🛣️ On a 0-to-1 Journey

Leading now.gg for nearly three years taught me that high-impact design is as much about people and systems as it is about screens

🤼‍♀️ Community is the Best Compass

Our most valuable insights didn't come from a lab, but from our Discord community and developers. Direct user input became our most trusted source for shaping the product roadmap.

🧩 Systems Drive Velocity

Building a brand from scratch taught me that standardization is the key to scale. By prioritizing a token-driven design system, we didn't just make the UI look better—we made the engineering process 1.5x faster.

💰 Design as a Profit Center

I learned to view UX as a driver for ad-revenue and in-app currency adoption. When design solves real user friction, profitability and worldwide reach follow naturally.

Thank you

Let's Work Together

Let's Work Together

© Copyright Risshi Bhaggat