This page provides a revision history for the following documents:
July 11, 2024
- Refactored the technical requirements into multiple pages.
- Requirements cleanup and deduplication.
June 24, 2024
Increased total bundle size limit from 100 MiB to 250 MiB and added lazy loading guidance.
June 17, 2024
Test Suite Updates:
- Games no longer need to be served over HTTPS and can be served from localhost for testing.
- Refresh button added next to URL field to refresh content of iframe without reloading the entire Test Suite.
May 16, 2024
Move the design best practices to a separate document to better delineate between design requirements and best practices.
May 08, 2024
Refactored the Playables developer site to broaden access and improve navigation.
May 07, 2024
Updated the Technical Requirements for Game Ready Notification with
additional details for the firstFrameReady call.
May 3, 2024
- Created an archive of previous requirements versions.
March 05, 2024
Increased individual file size limit from 10 MiB to 30 MiB.
February 23, 2024
Added IN_PLAYABLES_ENV boolean to top level namespace to tell developers when
their game is running within the Playables environment.
December 04, 2023
Test Suite updates
- Added check for unsupported characters in file names.
- For information on supported characters, check Technical Requirements - 1.9 File names.
- Known limitation: This check may not validate all loaded resources.
- Added feature to mock the loading screen, including setting the initial iframe height be set to 0.
- Updated the pause-resume button to more closely match production by toggling audio when pausing and resuming.
- Removed non-actionable messages from event logging.
November 10, 2023
The downloadable Test Suite bundle has been replaced with the hosted Test Suite.
The TypeScript type definitions file, previously available in the Test Suite bundle, has been moved to the main Playables SDK article.
September 07, 2023
The Get started section has been updated to change the Playables
SDK URL from v0 to v1.
August 30, 2023
The File names and Thumbnails sections have been
updated to remove references to explicitly list the allowed special characters
(_, -, .).
Additionally, Cloud saves section has been updated to require cloud saves to work in new game versions.
August 25, 2023
The saveData section has been updated to clarify that a save data must be a valid and well-formed UTF-16 string.
August 18, 2023
The Pause and resume section has been updated to clarify that the
game must pause all executions after onPause is called and only resume once
onResume is called.
August 11, 2023
The File names section has been added to include character limitations used to name files in the game bundle.
August 10, 2023
The Interaction methods section has been updated to require all of the UI components of a game to work as intended and without errors or unexpected behaviors.
August 09, 2023
The Thumbnail images section has been added to list the game's thumbnail requirements allowing users to effortlessly discover and recognize a Playable in YouTube.
August 08, 2023
The Gestures and input section has been updated to prohibit the
game to call preventDefault() on Esc events.
Additionally, a new File references section has been added to require games to only use relative paths when referring to other files in the bundle as using absolute paths can cause error.
August 02, 2023
The Mute section of both the Technical Requirements and Playables Game Design Guidelines have been updated to refer to the mute and unmute features as audio controls and to indicate that the granular audio controls may contain either volume sliders or a mute toggle or both.
July 28, 2023
The Playables Game Design Guidelines documentation has been updated to standardize verbiage and update best practices and screenshots.
July 20, 2023
The Pause and resume section has been added to provide cross-platform pause and resume capabilities.
July 19, 2023
The YouTube Playables site now includes the Playables Game Design Guidelines documentation to serve as a guide in providing an optimal game experience for users playing YouTube games across different devices and platforms.
The game design guidelines focuses on the following areas:
- Thumbnail images
- Device adaptation
- User Interface (UI)
- Gestures and input
- Pause
- Mute
- Haptic feedback
- User onboarding
- Game end (win screen)
- Accessibility
Additionally, the onAudioEnabledChange section has been updated to fix a
small typographical error on the code which caused an error in Flutter's
proposed JavaScript interoperability (JS-Interop) layer.
July 14, 2023
The Size section has been updated as follows:
- Removed the requirement that the game must be playable in full-screen on a desktop and in landscape or portrait on mobile.
- Added that the game must be playable in portrait.
- Added that the game should be playable in landscape. Otherwise, the game must be centered or must include a pillarbox.
- Added that the game must not lock device orientation.
July 11, 2023
The Flutter web (experimental) section has been added to enable integration with games written with Flutter Web.
July 01, 2023
The Mute toggle section requires the game to respect the audio setting of both YouTube and the system and that the game sound must not play unexpectedly.
Additionally, Completion of Content Handling section clarifies that the game must communicate to the user that there is no more content to interact with such as in the final level or game completion.
June 30, 2023
The Get started section now includes a note that the SDK would be a no-op when the game is served locally. To verify SDK integration correctness, see SDK Test Suite.
June 02, 2023
The YouTube Playables site now includes the Playables SDK documentation that features a robust set of APIs to support YouTube games.
May 26, 2023
The Technical Requirements documentation updates are as follows:
| Section | Changes |
|---|---|
| Load time | Included the average internet speed of 6.8Mbps worldwide and 20Mbps for US. |
| Interaction methods | Added that when a user interacts with the game, the game must not unintentionally delay or ignore input. |
| Thumbnails | Updated the required image resolutions for the 1:1, 5:7, and 16:9 ratios. |
| Publisher or Developer information | Added this new section requiring the game to include the name of the publisher or developer and may also be required to provide content rating in the future. |
| Load Playables SDK | Added this new section requiring the game to load the Playables SDK before any of the other game code. |
| Game Ready Notification | Updated to call the firstFrameReady API only when the
first frame of your game is ready to be rendered on the screen and to only
call the gameReady API when the game is ready for any user
interaction. |
| Mute toggle | Added that when the YouTube mute is set, the audio must not be output and the game's mute or unmute controls must not affect the audio output. |
March 24, 2023
The YouTube Playables site now includes the Technical Requirements documentation with the aim to provide a smooth gaming experience to users playing games on YouTube.
The technical requirements section focuses on the following areas:
- Game stability
- YouTube experience
- YouTube integration
- Localization
- Monetization