Discoverability is just as much of a challenge in the User Generated Content (UGC) space as it is on Steam, console marketplaces, and many other parts of the video game industry. Sometimes it can be seen as even more of a challenge on emerging platforms within games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Eggy Party. These platforms are still developing features that are commonplace on popular platforms in other mediums like YouTube and Twitch. Since these platforms also rely on user-submitted content, they can be defined as UGC platforms as well.How can UGC platforms learn from the functionality of YouTube and Twitch? Netase data mining engineer Xingchen Zhou explored the UGC landscape and the specific ways the Eggy Party developers have adjusted their recommendation system to appeal to its massive audience of players during a talk at the 2025 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.Eggy Party, according to Zhou, is the most "popular competitive casual game in China." The party game, which shares similarities with games like Stumble Guys and Fall Guys, surpassed 40 million daily active players during Lunar New Year in 2024. Eggy Party has surpassed 100 million user-created maps as of last March.Recommendation algorithms are key to UGC platformsRelated:Zhou covered a common thread among other UGC platforms outside games, arguing that their uniting element is an effective distribution system. He compared them to Vine, a popular short form video platform that shuttered at the beginning of 2017, saying the Twitter-operated video app failed due to its lack of "personalized recommendations and a lack of innovation" which led to a loss of content creators."TikTok, Google, Netflix, Spotfiy - having a strong distribution capability is key to achieving market leading position," Zhou said, also alluding to non-UGC platforms like Netflix. "They all share one advantage - a powerful distribution system with algorithmic recommendations."Games are far more complicated to distribute effectively than short videos. In a game like Eggy Party, players will need to play a map for at least 5 minutes in order to "truly experience a map," according to Zhou . Short videos only take a matter of seconds for a user to understand what they are watching, and then decide if they want to continue watching for the full duration of the video. Despite the difference, the main factors in the success of a UGC platform are similar."Although the product forms are different, the core always lies in the interaction and connection between users and the platform," Zhou said.Related:Zhou went into detail about Eggy Party's "digital DNA bank," which helped the platform create a portrait of players in "1000 dimensions." These portraits include thousands of tags that identify personal attributes of players, including what sort of content they enjoyed in the past and what they might enjoy in the future. Tags included a player wanting more challenging maps, multiplayer experiences, and genre-specific maps like puzzles.Outside a recommendation system, Zhou emphasized the importance of first impressions during discovery. The Eggy Party user interface includes titles, cover images, and statistical data highlighting the number of players and likes a map has at a moment's glance. Players need to get an idea of what a map is and how popular it is in seconds, making those first few moments in front a player crucial for success."High rated maps receive more exposure opportunities," Zhou said, talking about how player interaction is also important for discovery.Zhou also covered some mistakes the Eggy Party recommendation system made, including recommending what he called a "female-oriented dress up" map to male college students, which led to dissatisfaction for both the players and the creator.Related:Missteps like that can prevent creators from building more experiences for other players and can dissuade players from using a games' built in recommendation systems, both problems that could harm the overall health and reputation of a UGC platform.Eggy Party's recommendation system can also lead to rapid success. Zhou pointed out another use case where a creator had a critically low player count on their maps, but integration within the system led players who enjoyed similar maps to this specific user. It led to a huge uptick in interactions with players.NetEase has been running an incentive program that rewards players who create popular with cash prizes, which has brought in a large number of creators to their UGC environment. Zhou didn't bring this up during the talk, but did mention the importance of not falling into the trap of the "Matthew Effect," which refers to certain users gaining an advantage over others, leading to a wider gap between those who have resources and those who do not.That result has become common on some UGC platforms, where some users have the advantage of more time in the space, publisher favoritism, monetary resources, or something else giving them a leg up on the competition. Creating a system that can bypass any of those advantages and lead players to maps they would enjoy naturally is a key to success.