The Game Developer Playbook, Part One: Getting Started on Discord
Cody Owens
July 2, 2021
The beginning stages of game development offer the opportunity to nurture a small group of individuals within your community of players who could end up becoming your biggest supporters, advocates, and trusted insiders.
Discord was originally built for private conversations between small groups of friends, making it a fantastic tool for developing community relationships. You’ll be able to create a space where you can schedule and monitor playtests, gather feedback, gain insights and have conversations with players within your community who want to be part of your game’s success.
While it’s possible to establish a community at any stage of game development, it’s best to start the journey as early as possible.
Getting Started
Before getting into the how-to's, we recommend having a basic understanding of the following aspects of using Discord:
The guiding principles of your new playtest community should always be simple and straightforward: let people easily test your game and provide their feedback. You may have a few other objectives in addition to observing user tests, but keep the server's scope as focused as possible.
We’ll be guiding you through how we set up a new playtesting server. Follow along with us by using this Server Template! You’re always welcome to expand upon our template as your needs evolve over time.
Below, you’ll see a screenshot of how we’ve structured an example “Game Playtest Server” using our template. (Lovely name, we know). We’ll be guiding you through how we set up this starting server. You’re always welcome to expand upon our template as your needs evolve over time.
Categories
Our playtest server is set up between read-only info, two-way discussion, staff-only communication, and individual voice channels for voice, video, and screen sharing for playtests.
We recommend you keep an order similar to the example screenshot throughout all stages of your server’s life so members can clearly understand what info is most important (e.g., rules, announcements, and updates) and then discuss it in chat.
If your game has a wide variety of classes, kits, and heroes, you should make a forum channel for each so people can talk about them individually. Or, if your game has a lot of complex mechanics, breaking them down into channels could be helpful “dungeons, raiding, crafting, etc.”
Roles and Permissions
Our membership is set up between two primary Roles: @admin, which you should later rename to your Studio Name, and @playtest. Those without a role won’t be able to do anything until they’re given the ”@playtest” role.
The purpose of the two Roles are relatively straightforward. The Game Studio (@admin) should have access to every channel so they can see all activity, while your testers (@playtest) will have access to all channels except for the Admin-only category.
If you revoke all permissions from the @everyone role (a.k.a., someone without Roles), they won’t be able to see the contents of your community. Even if someone uninvited uses a rogue invite to gain access to your community, they’ll see an empty server until they have a role.
Tip: Use the View Server As feature to see what your Roles see and have access to.
This is what an uninvited guest should see: Just their lonely selves.
Consider Enabling “Community” in Server Settings
By enabling the “Community” feature set for your game testing server, you’ll gain access to features designed for managing growing communities, and your server will become discoverable. If your server starts to get big over time, consider turning on Community to access the following features:
Announcement Channels: A unique type of channel that allows users to follow your server’s updates on their servers. You can pick which messages get published.
Server Insights: If your server reaches 500 members, you can receive detailed breakdowns of member engagement and retention. If your server ever grows this big, consider checking in from time to time.
Community Onboarding: Let new members self-assign Roles and require them to agree to your server’s rules before they can participate.
You don’t have to use every feature at the beginning—if one of these features makes more sense to use down the road, you can use it later.
Channels
Each channel in our server has a core function. When naming your channels, make sure the channel name is descriptive enough to know what’s in it at a glance.
Your read-only channels should have a consistent format, utilize emotes and markdown so readers can immediately identify important information and act on that info.
Rainbow 6's verified server is an excellent example of great formatting.
To give you some inspiration, here’s an explanation of how our test server channels are set up.
Note: Read-only channels = general Roles that do not have Send Message permissions.
#rules-and-info - A read-only channel that holds all the rules and guidelines for server members. Learn more about developing your community rules here.
#announcements - An Announcement channel that’s the source of news on the latest updates and announcements as they relate to your game or playtest group..
#patch-notes - We assume you know what patch notes are, so we won’t go into too much detail—just remember to make it an Announcement channel!
#game-discussion - A channel for conversation related to your game.
#build-feedback - A spot for members to share feedback, observations, and critiques for the dev team to discuss.
#report-issue - Create rules around how bugs and issues are reported using specific formatting, or offer a form.
#admin-chat - A private channel for your team to talk amongst yourselves.
#admin-log - Report info on the server for admins to see, usually filled by AutoMod or a server bot. Perhaps bad actors are forming within the server that should be monitored, or changes were made to the structure of the server with internal notes on why that happened
Admin Voice - A private voice channel, accessible by admins only.
Playtest Room - A series of voice channels where you can perform user testing via screen sharing, host demos, or have a dev team member talk with the community.
(Optional) #off-topic - If your server is intentionally scaling, consider adding new channels that members can use to socialize so they don’t have to move away from your server. This helps support member retention.
Remember: more channels does not always mean better. Try to keep the amount of channels to a minimum until you have a specific need to add more. Otherwise, newer members entering your community will suffer from information overload. This principle remains true for all stages of game communities.
No matter what stage you’re in, there is no one way to set up the perfect server. We encourage you to look at other like-minded communities on Discord for inspiration and find the right format that works for you and your community.
Steps to Secure Your Server and Content
You have your Roles, channels, and general playbook for how you want to engage with your testing group. There are several options available to help ensure your server is a secure space where only your most trusted members can communicate.
Roles and Permissions
As a reminder, make sure your Roles and permissions are set up in a way that is easy for admins to assign Roles to new members you’ve invited. Invite leaks can happen, but if your server is set up correctly, uninvited guests will not be able to access sensitive information.
Pro Tip: You can double-check how your server is seen to other members by using the “View Server As Role” option in Server Settings > Roles
Establish Clear Terms and Conditions
Prior to inviting new members to your playtest server, you may want to consider a way to ensure that willing participants understand that what goes on in this server stays in the server. For example, you can use an NDA or terms with the server invite. There’s always a degree of trust, so make sure you’ve vetted new members appropriately. We recommend you work with your legal counsel to determine what works for you.
Game Detection
Discord’s Game Detection is awesome—we’d normally never suggest turning it off. However, if you’ve already added Rich Presence or the game you’re testing is a secret, keep in mind that this will cause your game to be displayed on a user’s Discord status, meaning their members’ connections outside of your server will also be able to see that information.
Note: Note: Discord's game detection will intentionally ignore a player's status if they are marked as Invisible or Offline on Steam.
An example of Discord's Game and Music Detection
Moderation Settings
Verification Levels help set up guardrails for new members before they’re able to jump into participating. When these are enabled, the newest members will have to reach certain platform requirements before participating, such as having a verified email or phone number.
You will not have access to their email or phone number once they verify it. This simply means that a unique email or phone number has been verified on the user’s account, whatever it may be.
You’ll find the option in Server Settings > Moderation > Safety Setup > DM and Spam Protection.
Use Discord API to Add New Members at Scale
Discord offers a free API that unlocks a number of automation opportunities through custom Discord apps.
A common question that comes up within game dev communities is: “How can a server admit and assign Roles at scale if you’re planning to invite hundreds or thousands at a time?” Our OAuth2 and bot creation tools give you the option to create a solution that works best for you.
We've created a guide that is targeted towards events, but the solution is the same: when a new member joins the server, they’re asked to verify their credentials against a database via OAuth. If the linked Discord account meets the requirements, they’re assigned a role. If they don’t qualify, they’re kicked from the server.
Managing Your Playtest Community
You’ve checked out how the Roles are set up, which permissions they have access to, and have an understanding of why your categories and channels are the way they are. Now, here are some ways you can put all of those components to use:
Establishing Community Guidelines & Rules
Your community should run through an established rule set before being able to participate in your server, even at the earliest stage in its life. You can use the Rules Screening feature to have all your members agree to a set of rules before they’re able to participate if Community is enabled for your server.
Your rules should cover a few basic principles in stage one. When setting up Rules Screening, you can choose to include a handful of pre-written rules alongside your own:
Users who join your server will be required to agree to the server rules before participating in the community. If they break one, you’ll know that it’s something they already agreed to beforehand.
Playtesting & Feedback
Playtesting is an integral part of running your server. It’s not a playtest server if you don’t, you know… playtest! With Discord, you can schedule playtest events with your community to gather tests and have them stream their gameplay within Voice channels.
Schedule: You can use the Scheduled Events feature to plan out playtests and notify users when they begin. A Scheduled Event will take care of the timezone differences and show users the time it starts for them. Discord is a platform where everyone in the world can come together, so you’ll likely have users from more than one time zone in your server.
Stream: Use screenshare to stream your game or application. This can be a handy tool to observe user interaction and intent in real-time.
Feedback: Your server is a valuable tool for gathering feedback using a variation of the channels we listed above. When sourcing feedback, if Community is enabled, use Forum Channels to give each topic its own dedicated Thread to hold conversations with the development team.
Listen: A two-way conversation is critical to success on Discord. Listen to what members have to say about your game, take notes, and acknowledge their participation.
Consider establishing a reporting template that all members should follow that includes a username, what type of bug it is, and how to reproduce it. Not only does this make your lives easier, it becomes readily apparent for new members to follow. (Remember to pin it!)
Seeks of Skyveil's server is a great example of providing clear instructions, context, scheduling, and reminders of playtests with their community
Engage with your Community
A successful community on Discord is where your server members can easily talk together and find belonging, which is why continued engagement with your community outside of playtests and updates is critical. Consider the following:
Hang out: Depending on how your server has grown, consider off-topic channels for people to talk amongst themselves outside of your game. While people join a Discord server for a single shared interest, everyone has unique hobbies and interests outside of your server as well!
Events: Run community events on your Discord server to connect directly with your fans and testers. AMAs (Ask Me Anything), Trivia, Dev Q&As, and fan art contests are a few ideas to start with. Use the Scheduled Events feature to help let members know when things begin!
Play: Scheduling playtime with other games outside your playtests is another great way to engage with your small community. Consider a few pick-up games of Rocket League, Overwatch, or Among Us, or an Activity built directly in Discord to show your community that you’re more than just an employee—you like to play games and have fun, too!
Communicate Game Updates, Patch Notes, & Events
Treat your Discord’s announcement channels as you would social media channels like X and Facebook. When posting updates on your server, double-check the following pointers before you post:
Clarity: Does a message intended for other social platforms also make sense for Discord? Post or summarize the information directly within the text channel instead of depending on external links.
Emphasis: Format your message to highlight what you want the reader to find most important, such as balance changes, new characters, or other new content. Use Markdown when necessary, like bolding and headers.
Enhance: Add images, emojis, and flair to your announcements! Take a look through Server Discovery and see how other Discord servers format their news for inspiration on how to add images and emojis to make your posts shine.
Below, you’ll see some of these principles put to use in some Verified Servers:
Borderlands' Announcement Channel
VALORANT's Announcement Channel
Moderation
Acquaint yourself with the fundamentals of moderation on Discord. We recommend taking some time to familiarize yourself with our Safety Library curriculum to understand what it takes to start moderating a community.
Moderation Settings: If you’ve set your server as a Community, it will already set your moderation settings to Low. Depending on your needs you can adjust them at Server Settings > Moderation > Safety Setup > DM and Spam Protection. Regardless, it’s always recommended you have some sort of Verification Level enabled and the Explicit Media Content Filter set to “Scan media from all members”.
App Setup: Adding new apps to your server may sound intimidating, but they’re relatively easy to set up! Check out the App Directory to discover thousands of apps for all sorts of use cases. There are moderation tools, helpful utilities, and even a few games to add. It’s ultimately up to you if you’d like to add a bot this early in your Discord’s life cycle, but here are a few general moderation bot recommendations for your server:
_MKT_01_Blog%20Banner_Full.jpg)
.png)
.png)
