Scaling 0-1 Commerce Through Platform Design
Overview
Designed EverMerge’s in-game and web monetization experience for African markets, covering discovery, checkout, and LiveOps back-office tools for time-sensitive, one-time, and level-based offers built as a reusable framework for future expansions.
Categories
Commerce
Platform
Monetization
Admin systems
Team
1x Product Designer (me), 1x Product Manager, 3x Engineers, 2x Game LiveOps team (Big Fish Games), 2x Ops stakeholders at Pay1st
Timeline
8–10 weeks (Discovery → Design → Iteration → Handoff)
Platform
Mobile (In-game experience), Web (EverMerge Shop), Back-office / Admin (Pay1st Console)
My Role
Product design, UX Strategy, LiveOps tooling
Seven-figure
Monthly GMV uplift
80%
Reduction in LiveOps setup time, enabling weekly event launches
Reusable
Monetization framework across Pay1st integrations
The Background
EverMerge is a mobile puzzle and world-building game by Big Fish Games, where players merge items to unlock characters, islands, and new areas of the map.
Pay1st partnered with Big Fish Games to publish EverMerge across Africa on Google and Apple stores.
Unlike global launches that rely heavily on Apple and Google in-app purchases, African markets require localized payment infrastructure, flexible pricing, and alternative purchase surfaces; all while preserving the core game experience.
The Challenge
EverMerge already had strong monetization mechanics globally, but bringing it to Africa introduced new challenges:
How to handle purchasing
How to reuse the system in the future
How to handle complex bundle logic
The Solution
I designed:
A context-aware in-game shop experience
A standalone web shop for players who don’t want to leave gameplay
A Live ops framework reusable across future in-game monetization products
Deeper Understanding
Understanding the Game (Yes, I Played It 😄)
Before touching flows or UI, I spent time playing EverMerge deeply. Not skimming. Actually playing. I needed to understand:
Before touching flows or UI, I spent time playing EverMerge deeply. Not skimming. Actually playing. I needed to understand:
When players feel rewarded or stuck and the progression loops
When players feel rewarded or stuck and the progression loops
How offers are surfaced, when purchases are required and how it's been communicated
How offers are surfaced, when purchases are required and how it's been communicated
What motivates an average gamer to purchase and what makes a bundle feel “worth it” in context
What motivates an average gamer to purchase and what makes a bundle feel “worth it” in context
I later moved on to draft the In-game to shop experience and shop experience for alignment with stakeholders.
I later moved on to draft the In-game to shop experience and shop experience for alignment with stakeholders.
What Players Can Buy
I designed the experience around three core bundle types. The main currencies are: Rubies and Coins
Time sensitive bundles
Level-Based Bundles
One-Time Purchase Bundles
Driving discovery
The first key decision was to prioritize discovery of the shop experience. One of the strongest awareness drivers was In game rewards.
Player is in the game on mobile, She sees a daily reward notification or banner, She taps it and is directed to the EverMerge Shop, She lands on the free bundle, She can then claim a free reward.
Why this worked:
1.) Players love free rewards (2.) Introduces the shop without forcing intent
In-Game Shop
I designed a unified shop experience that allows players to easily browse and purchase currencies, event bundles, and level-based offers without disrupting gameplay.
The UI organizes products into clear tabs, highlights time-limited events with countdowns, and adapts available bundles based on player eligibility.
Once a player moves from in-game to shop, we pass unique player identifiers securely so purchases are correctly attributed and fulfilled.
Web Shop
Not every player wants to purchase navigating from the game. So I also designed a web-based EverMerge Shop, allowing users to:
Navigate directly to the shop and purchase without leaving the game
Navigate directly to the shop and purchase without leaving the game
Provide secure player identifiers pasted from the game
Reflected the same bundle logic and eligibility rules
Reflected the same bundle logic and eligibility rules
Synced purchase status back to the player’s account
Synced purchase status back to the player’s account
For this UX, it's very important the user provides the player ID to access all peronalized offers
Back-office design: Pay1st console
Who this was for:
The primary users are LiveOps and Ops managers, whose job is to: Create bundles, Schedule events, Update pricing and react quickly during live gameplay events
Time-Sensitive Bundles: Bundles that can be configured with start and end times, visibility windows, and live status controls.
Time-Sensitive Bundles: Bundles that can be configured with start and end times, visibility windows, and live status controls.
One-Time Purchase Bundles: Bundles that can be configured with purchase limits and automatically locked after being bought.
Level-Based Bundles: Bundles that can be configured to appear only for players at specific game levels.
Level-Based Bundles: Bundles that can be configured to appear only for players at specific game levels.
Takeaway
This project pushed me to design across gameplay, payments, and operations and to think beyond a single game toward a scalable system.
It was about making monetization feel timely, personal, and invisible to players; while making it fast and reliable for LiveOps teams behind the scenes.
Post-launch, we tested and iterated heavily on these banners, tracking conversion and drop-offs.
Seven-figure
Monthly GMV uplift
80%
Reduction in LiveOps setup time, enabling weekly event launches
Reusable
Monetization framework across Pay1st integrations
Resources that helped
Articulating Design Decisions
Don't Make me Think
Hooked
Measure What Matters
Arnoe de Vries
Lead Engineer
"Choice was honestly easy to work with on this. She explained her thinking clearly, grounded in how things already worked, stayed close to engineering constraints, and caught a lot of edge cases in the new bundle logic early. These were things that could have become real problems later during implementation."
Seyi
Product Manager, EverMerge
"Choice took the time to really understand how EverMerge works before jumping into solutions. The thinking behind creating a web version for users who didn’t want to leave or relaunch the game was spot on. She was thoughtful, collaborative, and consistently found the right balance between player needs and business goals."
Rosyid Qoim
Marketing Director at Planza
"Choice was thoughtful and practical in how she worked with engineers. Her designs reduced edge cases and helped improve the reliability of the payment flow."
Arnoe de Vries
Lead Engineer
"Choice was honestly easy to work with on this. She explained her thinking clearly, grounded in how things already worked, stayed close to engineering constraints, and caught a lot of edge cases in the new bundle logic early. These were things that could have become real problems later during implementation."
Seyi
Product Manager, EverMerge
"Choice took the time to really understand how EverMerge works before jumping into solutions. The thinking behind creating a web version for users who didn’t want to leave or relaunch the game was spot on. She was thoughtful, collaborative, and consistently found the right balance between player needs and business goals."
Rosyid Qoim
Marketing Director at Planza
"Choice was thoughtful and practical in how she worked with engineers. Her designs reduced edge cases and helped improve the reliability of the payment flow."
Arnoe de Vries
Lead Engineer
"Choice was honestly easy to work with on this. She explained her thinking clearly, grounded in how things already worked, stayed close to engineering constraints, and caught a lot of edge cases in the new bundle logic early. These were things that could have become real problems later during implementation."
Seyi
Product Manager, EverMerge
"Choice took the time to really understand how EverMerge works before jumping into solutions. The thinking behind creating a web version for users who didn’t want to leave or relaunch the game was spot on. She was thoughtful, collaborative, and consistently found the right balance between player needs and business goals."
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