Snap Multiplayer Game Challenge | Explained

There’s a new challenge for Lens Creators, and today we’re going to break it all down: the prizes, categories, the new feature, official Lens Studio documentation, and everything else you need to know to not only take part in the challenge, but to maximize your chances of becoming one of the winners.

Snap Multiplayer Game Challenge

A race to the finish, a last-player-standing showdown, or a challenge that takes the whole team to solve – some games are just more fun together, and the best ones are the ones created by you, Lens Creators.

With Multiplayer Matchmaking, available from Lens Studio 5.24, you can build game Lenses that bring Snapchatters into the same live match.

The SNAP Multiplayer Game Challenge invites you to put that feature to work, with a $10,000 prize pool across two game categories. Before you start building, let’s explore how matchmaking works and what it means for your game.

What is Multiplayer Matchmaking?

Multiplayer Matchmaking connects Snapchatters who are looking to play your game around the same time. They enter a shared live session: positions, scores, and gameplay events stay in sync across participants.

That means players can react to one another in the moment, whether they’re racing for first place or working toward a shared goal. You can even represent them as their own Bitmoji to make the experience feel more personal.

Behind it all is Snap’s Connected Framework, which handles sessions, state synchronization, and player lifecycle so you can focus on building the gameplay.

Matchmaking and Chat multiplayer: what’s the difference?

Multiplayer Lenses can also bring friends together through Chat, but the two formats behave differently.

Chat sessions stay open. Friends can join through an invite at any point. Your game needs a way to welcome someone arriving mid-session, for example, letting them spectate until the next round begins.

Matchmaking sessions have a fixed group. Players join when the session forms, and the group can only get smaller as people leave. A fresh matchmaking search is how you bring in a new group for the next match.

For this challenge, your submission must use Multiplayer Matchmaking.

Choose your challenge category

Ready to turn those ideas into a game? There are two categories to explore.

➡️ “Winner Takes All!” is for competitive, free-for-all games with one winner. Think fast races, elimination rounds, and accessible challenges where every player competes for themselves.

➡️ “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work” puts collaboration at the center. Matchmade players can work toward a shared goal in a co-op game or form teams that compete against each other. Give them a reason to coordinate their actions and help one another succeed.

Each category offers $2,500 for first place, $1,000 for second, $500 for third, and four $250 honorable mentions.

Getting Started: Give Your Multiplayer Game a Head Start

Think about your Lens, and what’s the best way to make it happen. There are resources in Lens Studio, that can help bring your vision to life. Start from a ready-made matchmaking template or remix a working sample mini-game.

➡️ The Empty Multiplayer Matchmaking Template comes with matchmaking, player setup, and synchronization already wired, but no game logic, giving you room to build your own experience from scratch.

➡️ The Matchmaking Minigame Sample Project is a complete, playable race mini-game with synced game states and transitions. Use it as your foundation, experiment with the gameplay, and turn a working example into something uniquely yours.

Ready to bring players together? Register for the challenge

Register for the challenge, build your game in Lens Studio 5.24 or later, and publish a playable Lens that uses Multiplayer Matchmaking. Then record a video preview showcasing your multiplayer experience and submit your Lens.

Judges will look at the originality of your idea, how engaging the gameplay is, how well it uses multiplayer, and the quality of its technical and visual execution.

Give Snapchatters a reason to compete, collaborate, and come back for another round. Your multiplayer game starts here – You have until October 12 to create, register & submit your Lens.