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Community Building & Discord Management Guide

Building a community around your game is about creating a space where players feel welcome, valued, and excited to participate. This guide covers setting up a Discord server, managing difficult situations, celebrating your best community members, and avoiding burnout while keeping your community healthy and engaged.

Core Philosophy: You're not building an audience — you're building a community. The difference? Audiences consume content passively. Communities participate, contribute, and advocate for your game because they feel ownership and belonging.

Table of Contents

  1. Getting Started: Do You Need a Discord?
  2. Discord Server Setup
  3. Building Engagement Without Burnout
  4. Handling Difficult People & PR Issues
  5. Celebrating Your Community Champions
  6. Growing Your Community Organically
  7. Common Mistakes to Avoid

Getting Started: Do You Need a Discord?

Not every game needs a Discord server. Before you create one, ask yourself:

You Probably SHOULD Create a Discord If:

You Probably DON'T Need a Discord If:

The "Soft Launch" Approach

Start with a simple Discord server and grow it gradually. Don't overthink the setup. Begin with 5-6 basic channels and add more as your community needs them. It's easier to add channels than to remove unused ones later.

Discord Server Setup

Here's a minimal, functional Discord setup that works for most indie game communities:

Essential Channels (Start Here)

Optional Channels (Add Later If Needed)

Roles & Permissions

Keep it simple at first:

Don't Over-Complicate Roles

Avoid creating 15 different role tiers, special VIP roles, or complex leveling systems. These create hierarchy and exclusivity that harm community vibes. Keep it simple and welcoming.

Server Rules (Keep Them Simple)

Post these in your #welcome channel:

  1. Be respectful: No harassment, hate speech, or personal attacks
  2. Stay on topic: Use appropriate channels (off-topic stuff goes in #off-topic)
  3. No spam: Don't flood channels, no self-promotion without asking first
  4. Spoilers: Use spoiler tags or move to #spoilers channel
  5. Listen to mods: If asked to stop something, stop

That's it. Don't write a legal document — keep it friendly and clear.

Building Engagement Without Burnout

The biggest mistake indie devs make: treating their Discord like a 24/7 customer service job. You'll burn out fast. Here's how to stay engaged without losing your mind:

Set Boundaries Early

Easy Ways to Stay Engaged

The "Office Hours" Approach

Some devs set specific "office hours" — e.g., Tuesdays 7-9pm — where they're guaranteed to be active and answer questions. Outside those hours, they're offline. This trains your community to expect presence at certain times without demanding 24/7 availability.

Let the Community Self-Moderate

As your server grows, veteran members will naturally start answering new player questions, sharing tips, and helping each other. Let this happen. Don't feel like YOU have to answer everything. In fact, when community members answer questions, thank them publicly — it reinforces helpful behavior.

Handling Difficult People & PR Issues

Every community eventually deals with drama, trolls, entitled demands, or negative feedback that feels personal. Here's how to handle it without losing your cool.

Types of Difficult People & How to Handle Them

1. The Entitled Demander

Behavior: "You NEED to add [feature] or this game will fail!" / "Why isn't [thing] fixed yet? This is unacceptable!"

How to Handle:

2. The Chronic Complainer

Behavior: Every message is negative. Nothing is ever good enough. Constant comparisons to other games.

How to Handle:

3. The Troll / Provocateur

Behavior: Posts inflammatory messages to get reactions. Insults other members. Deliberate rule-breaking.

How to Handle:

4. The Overly Attached Fan

Behavior: Messages you constantly, overshares personal info, gets upset if you don't respond immediately, crosses boundaries.

How to Handle:

5. The Backseat Developer

Behavior: "You should use Unreal instead of Unity" / "Just add multiplayer, it's easy" / Unsolicited design lectures.

How to Handle:

The "One Warning" Rule

For most rule-breaking behavior: Warn once, ban on second offense. Don't give trolls 5 chances. Protect your community's vibe by removing people who consistently make it worse. You're not running a rehabilitation program — you're building a game.

Handling PR Crises

Sometimes a controversy erupts — a bad patch, a controversial design decision, a miscommunication that blows up. Here's how to handle it:

  1. Take a breath before responding: Don't fire off a defensive message in the heat of the moment. Wait 30 minutes.
  2. Acknowledge the issue clearly: "I understand people are upset about [thing]. Here's what happened..."
  3. Explain your reasoning (if appropriate): Help people understand the context or constraints
  4. Outline what you're doing to fix it: If it's a bug, when's the patch? If it's a design choice, are you reconsidering?
  5. Thank people for their patience: Even when they're angry, acknowledge their investment in your game
  6. Move on: Don't keep relitigating the issue. Make your statement, take action, and move forward.

Example Crisis Response (Good)

"Hey everyone, I know the latest patch broke saves for some players. This wasn't caught in testing and I'm really sorry. I'm working on a hotfix right now and it'll be out within 24 hours. If your save is corrupted, DM me and I'll help you manually recover it. Thanks for your patience — I'll do better on testing next time."

Why this works: Acknowledges the problem, takes responsibility, provides a timeline, offers help, doesn't make excuses.

Celebrating Your Community Champions

Your best community members — the ones who answer questions, share your game, create content, and keep the vibes positive — deserve recognition. Here's how to celebrate them without creating toxic competition:

Simple Ways to Celebrate Good Community Members

Creating a "Hall of Fame" Channel

Some servers have a #community-highlights or #hall-of-fame channel where they showcase:

This creates a positive, celebratory culture where people feel valued.

Avoid Creating Hierarchies

Don't create 10 tiers of "VIP" roles that people have to grind for. This creates FOMO, resentment, and clique behavior. Instead, celebrate individuals authentically when they do something cool — not because they hit an arbitrary metric.

Celebrating Milestones Together

When your game or community hits a milestone, celebrate WITH your community, not just FOR them:

Make them feel like they're part of the journey, not just spectators.

Growing Your Community Organically

You don't need 10,000 members to have a great community. A small, engaged group is better than a massive, dead server. That said, here's how to grow naturally:

Where to Promote Your Discord

What Makes People Want to Join?

Quality Over Quantity

100 active, engaged members who chat regularly and care about your game are infinitely more valuable than 10,000 lurkers who joined and never came back. Focus on creating a space people WANT to participate in, not just join.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: Creating a Discord Too Early

Problem: You create a server when you have 5 followers and nothing to show. It sits empty for months.

Why it fails: Dead servers feel depressing and give the impression your project is dead too.

Fix: Wait until you have at least 50-100 interested people (wishlists, followers, etc.) before launching a Discord.

Mistake 2: Over-Moderating or Under-Moderating

Over-moderating: Deleting every off-topic message, warning people for minor stuff, creating tons of restrictive rules.

Under-moderating: Letting trolls run wild, ignoring harassment, allowing spam because you don't want to be "mean".

Fix: Find the balance. Let conversation flow naturally, but step in when someone is harming the community vibe.

Mistake 3: Treating Feedback as Demands

Problem: Someone suggests a feature and you immediately feel obligated to add it (or defensive about why you won't).

Why it fails: You lose creative control and burn out trying to please everyone.

Fix: Thank people for feedback, consider it genuinely, but remember: YOU are making the game. Not a committee.

Mistake 4: Neglecting the Server After Launch

Problem: You're active pre-launch, then disappear once the game is out.

Why it fails: Community feels abandoned. Mod support dies. Players lose interest.

Fix: Plan for post-launch engagement. Even just a monthly update or occasional visit keeps things alive.

Mistake 5: Taking Everything Personally

Problem: Negative feedback feels like a personal attack. You argue with critics or spiral into self-doubt.

Why it fails: You burn out emotionally and damage relationships with your community.

Fix: Separate your self-worth from your game's reception. Not everyone will like what you make — that's okay. Focus on the people who DO care.

Final Thoughts

Remember

Your community is made up of real people who genuinely care about your game. They're not metrics, not "engagement numbers," not customers to be managed. Treat them like human beings — be authentic, be kind, set boundaries, and celebrate the good ones.

Building a community takes time. You won't have 1,000 members overnight, and that's fine. Start small, stay consistent, and create a space where people feel welcome. The rest will follow naturally.

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