"What do I want people to do on my server?” is a good question to ask yourself from time to time, no matter what game development stage you’re in. Part One of our guide focuses on creating a private space for conversation and feedback during the early stages of your game. 

In Part Two, we’ll build on that foundation to reshape your server for a public audience to inspire conversation around  your game and foster community engagement. 

The role of your server will always evolve and change as your game develops. Your Discord server’s pre-launch is a great opportunity to connect with a growing fanbase and establish an environment for your community to talk, share thoughts,  and even learn about a game some members may not have access to yet.

Getting Started, Part 2

Just like last time, here are a few articles and resources we recommend you check out before diving into this piece. You may have encountered these features while initially creating your server:

• Server Setup
• Permissions on Discord
• Setting Up Roles
• Discord Mod Academy

If you’re starting your community at the Early Access phase, check out this Server Template we’ve created to jumpstart your community: Early Access/Pre-Launch Server

So what do you want members to do?

The vast majority of spaces on Discord are small, private communities containing anywhere from five to 15 people spending time together. These private spaces are where they’re most active, so when someone new joins your server, they’re typically looking for something, whether it’s for information about your game, searching for like-minded players or fans, entering to share feedback, or seeking opportunities to join on organized events/experiences. 

At any stage of your server’s evolution, it’s important to have a clear vision of what you want your members to do when they visit your server. Here are some of the more common traits successful servers have shared in their communities: 

Inspire Open Conversations: Players want to learn and talk about your game, whether it’s a reaction to your newest trailer or a town hall with the development team to voice feedback. More importantly, they’ll want to talk and form a connection with your team. 

Foster a Network of Ambassadors and Super Fans: 99% of servers on Discord are invite-only. Consider how you might develop an insider group within your server to disseminate information and give your regulars a reason to consider your server one of the many communities they’ll check in on a daily basis. 

Participate Together: Discord is where both small and large groups of people gather together. Think through how you can tailor your server events or activities for groups of all sizes. 

Gather Feedback: Don’t just post one-way announcements—when you reveal your latest news and updates, create a Thread under your announcement where members can ask questions and have a dedicated space to provide feedback about that specific announcement. 

Players Finding Players: Players typically look to official game servers for groups to play with or discuss particular game mechanics, strategies, and their mutual love for what you’re building. If your game focuses on team play, consider creating LFG-style channels that let players connect and play together.

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Server Layout and Design

There’s no wrong time to start a community on Discord, but the earlier you get started, the better you’ll understand the role of your server and the community it becomes a home to.

Below are a few things to consider throughout your server’s life:

• Servers that primarily focus on a single game are often best. Servers that list multiple games or franchises at once can become confusing to navigate, which may be overwhelming for newer members.
• If you’re shifting from a private playtest to a public server, consider starting a new server from scratch and inviting your playtesters to your new community. You can even reward them with a snazzy VIP role for being an early fan.
• Experiment often, and don’t feel locked to a particular setup—your community is what you make of it.

Categories

Our example server has grown since it began! The core category structure hasn’t changed, but we’ve added some additional channels for our community to chat amongst themselves, and a support category for offering technical support.

Channels

Every channel should have a clear purpose so conversations remain focused on relevant topics. Don’t overwhelm your members with too many channels—start small and expand from there. Utilize categories and emojis to make channels more recognizable. 

Roles & Permissions

Our server still has the same @Admin roles as Part One, but now we have a new @Moderator role, letting a handful of community moderators help keep the server running smoothly. 

For your roles, @Administrators should be trusted to make sweeping changes to the server, while @Staff may have lighter permissions and access to staff-only categories or channels. @Moderators usually have a subset of access and permissions that enable them to enforce server rules. 

When adjusting your server in the future, remember that it’s easier to add channels and roles in the future rather than take back established settings, so think through your setup carefully and stay lean.

Server Tactics and Member Engagement

Your new server provides your team with the unique opportunity to build deep and meaningful relationships with your most passionate players. 

There’s a common misconception that the  more members your server has, the more successful you are. While we all love seeing numbers grow, it’s best to think of your server as an ongoing community conversation rather than a one-way megaphone to your “followers.” 

Instead, consider the following metrics the best way to measure your Discord’s success.

• Activation & Engagement: For every member joining your server, what percentage of members have sent a message or explored your channels on their first day? 
• Communication: What percentage of your members are sending messages or hopping into voice channels? How does that break down by day, week, or month? 
• Retention: What percentage of new members came back the next week and engaged with your server again?

If you've marked your server as a Community, you'll have access to Server Insights to help keep track of these metrics and tons more. Frequent use of pruning 30-day inactive members can help make room for more active members.

An important thing to note: Pruning 30 day inactive members doesn't mean you remove someone who hasn't posted on your server in 30 days. Instead, you're pruning members who have not used Discord at all within the last 30 days.

Pairing these metrics with your high-level community objectives is the key to success for a thriving community. Check out a few of the following suggestions and ideas we’ve seen successful in other communities:

Announcements

Don’t resort to copying and pasting content from your other social channels. Your server should play a unique role in your marketing strategy, and announcements within your Discord server should be tailored to your audience. When sharing announcements within your server, make them actionable and inspire conversation. Most importantly, participate in that conversation after you post!

Developer AMAs/Town Halls

With the launch of Stage Channels, the ability to create a one-to-many audio, video, or streaming event is easier than ever. Stage channels allow you to share a focused conversation with select individuals to an audience of listeners. 

Remember to pay attention to how the audience reacts, and use your stage as a place where fans and players can interact and share a two-way conversation with your team. On Stage channels, Members can “raise their hands” to ask to speak, and a moderator can let them onto the stage to participate. It’s empowering to feel like your voice has been heard. 

Offering an opportunity for your members to feel like they are insiders is a great feeling. With Stages, it can be done on a regular basis.

Contests and Challenges

Any server can easily add an app that lets them do giveaways. If you want to go above and beyond, get creative and consider how to use your game’s lore, brand or, when applicable, back catalog of content to create fun and interesting challenges. And, of course, talk to your legal counsel about any planned contests or giveaways to ensure they comply with applicable laws. Offer members a chance to tap into their creative side with art contests or cosplay. Perhaps there’s an opportunity for the larger community to come together and solve a mystery or challenge, or maybe run an elaborate ARG that unlocks new information about an impending update.

We encourage you to check out Sabotage Studio’s guest blog post about all the crazy stuff they’ve been done on Discord. 

Looking For Group (LFG)

LFG categories and channels can be an important source of engagement within your server by helping community members gather for a few games.

In certain cases, this can be achieved by creating an LFG category containing text channels for players to share what they’re looking for in their future teammates (or competitors). Then, have a number of voice channels with limited space to jump into to make sure your four-player romp doesn’t turn into 40-person voice chaos.

Incorporating Discord Within Your Marketing Plans

Your Discord server can be shaped and customized to achieve whatever your needs may be. There isn’t a singular way to approach a problem, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Let your members know when you’re trying something new and are unsure whether it’ll be a good fit, as they’ll likely be excited to try your ideas out and give feedback! 

Make your server a place where anyone can discuss the latest trailer, voice feedback to the development team, and feel acknowledged. It’s where community members can work together to solve a problem or even form light-hearted rivalries between each other. 

Always treat your server as an ever-evolving home that you continue to nurture for tens, hundreds, or thousands of players, rather than something you set up once and maintain passively.

Dos and Don'ts for a Public Community on Discord

Now, let’s review. When launching your official community on Discord, quickly go through the following list to make sure you’re on the right track:

Do

• Start simple — You don’t have to accomplish everything at once when launching your server. Create a core set of starting channels, be clear on your server’s purpose, and listen to and grow with your community.
• Bond within your community — Empower and reward your most supportive and vocal members by sharing exclusive info that they can share with their own communities. Make your community moderators feel they are part of the team, not treated as outsiders.
• Be actionable — Your newest community members should understand what they can do in your server. For example, “Listen to our dev team’s live town hall every Tuesday” or “Share your questions in #town-hall-questions” rather than a simple “Join our server!”
• Brush up on your Discord moderation knowledge — Read through our Safety Center and learn how to automate healthy behavior with bots. 
• Treat your server as an extension of your game — After your server has a solid foundation, stretch your creativity muscles! There are so many ways your server can support your game—from the pre-launch stage onwards.
• Add Discord to your list of social channels — You’ve invested a lot of time into building a community, so don’t forget to promote it alongside your other social channels!

Don't

• Whip up a server without a clear idea of what success looks like for your Discord community.
• Use your server as a one-way form of communication (i.e. a read-only server)
• Use your announcement channels exclusively as a surface to link announcements from other platforms.
• Take a back seat and let your community moderators run your server for you. A truly official server should be owned, operated and managed by your studio.

Launch Checklist

Before you launch (or relaunch) your community for its Early Access phase, work your way through the list below to make sure you’re ready to open the doors to your community: 

• Designate one employee as the de facto server owner, and transfer ownership if needed. Alternatively, create a new Discord account owned by the company intended for server ownership.
• Brush up on your moderation knowledge.
• Setup your #rules channel for new members.
• Confirm your roles are set up to your needs. (Make use of View Server As!)
• If needed, designate your server as a Community to access additional features.
• Develop a consistent formatting style for your announcements and updates.
• Plan and schedule activities for your server in advance.
• Don't forget the custom emojis!