If you're a solo dev or small studio who hasn't made a 'successful' game but wants to start building a community for the things you're making, what would you focus on? 1. Public discord channel 2. Youtube channel 3. Insta/Threads/Twitter/BlueSky 4. Newsletter subs 5. Blood oaths and why pls? - ThreadSky

studiobolland.bsky.social • 89 days ago

If you're a solo dev or small studio who hasn't made a 'successful' game but wants to start building a community for the things you're making, what would you focus on?

1. Public discord channel
2. Youtube channel
3. Insta/Threads/Twitter/BlueSky
4. Newsletter subs
5. Blood oaths

and why pls?

Comments

techartjon.com•88 days ago

Why would someone want to be a part of your community unless you have a game that they want to talk about? (It could just be your friends, and that's fine, but I think that communities form around some common interest.)

techartjon.com•88 days ago

I think setting up a mailing list is easy enough, especially as something to link people to for if/when a game explodes in popularity and you don't have a store page ready for wishlisting.

techartjon.com•88 days ago

But otherwise I feel like trying to build a community is a distraction from making the thing that attracts a community in the first place.

It doesn't have to be a full game. It doesn't even have to be fully playable. But it does have to be something that someone would want to share with a friend.

studiobolland.bsky.social•88 days ago

For sure, I get what you're saying. But for those who are already building the things, adding an extra 5-10% effort to funnel the support towards a single community (whether that's a mailing list, discord, youtube channel etc...). My question is more WHAT vehicle to use?

mandyjwatson.bsky.social•88 days ago

Always a mailing list/newsletter, although the third-party options these days aren't great, because it's the only thing you own.

I'd recommend you read Chris Zukowski's stuff (How To Market A Game) if you don't already.

studiobolland.bsky.social•88 days ago

For every prototype we've made we've gained a little bit of support (obviously nothing huge, but 10 - 50 "fans" with each project.) But we don't have any place on the interwebs to say: "Hey, get to know us more here!" Maybe we don't need to? And maybe social media or Makers Massive is enough?

studiobolland.bsky.social•88 days ago

Sure, we need to focus on WHAT we're making to ultimately attract people. But if I look at communities like Sokpop and PigSquad, I'd say their presence as a community/collective is perhaps stronger than what they make. Obviously, games like Stacklands have 100x the Sokpop community.

bassoncj.bsky.social•88 days ago

Bringing people on your journey to creating your first successful game is something that I would definitely engage with. There is good evidence of creators sharing a journey like this, who have been able to build and leverage a community.

bassoncj.bsky.social•88 days ago

It commonly looks like casual devlog videos + short videos + social sharing which starts to create a following across social platforms, which translates into more direct engagement in Discord communities.

adriaan.games•89 days ago

newsletters are the only thing you really truly own. and with something like Sendy it's also dirt cheap

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