﻿Have you ever felt alone as a game developer? Well, you don't have to be. There are plenty of
communities out there filled with thousands of game developers. We've gathered some of
the biggest, the most classic, and the most useful game development communities that are
currently active. When you join a game development community, not only can you solve problems and
obstacles with the help of experienced devs but you can also make friends and great partnerships
along the way. There are many different types of communities. Some are focused on programming, some
are focused on business and marketing, some are focused on art and aesthetics, and so on...
In this video, we'll showcase several types of game dev communities. We at Ask Gamedev are
very inspired by the strength and activity of our own community on Discord, Youtube,
TikTok, and other platforms, and we really want for you to go out there and find as many game
development communities as you can... the more, the merrier! So without further ado...
We are Ask Gamedev and these are The Best Game Development
Communities for Indie Developers in 2022 Welcome back! We make videos on how to elevate
your game development and inspire others. If after watching this video you want to continue
the gamedev conversation, check the video description for a link to our Discord server.
We are now making fresh Ask Gamedev content on all of the major social networks,
so be sure to check us out there too. Let's kick off this list with Reddit and
the one and only gamedev subreddit aka r slash gamedev or r gamedev. This community includes
more than 700k enthusiasts from all around the world and hosts all topics regarding game
development such as programming, math, art, music, business, marketing and more.
In a Reddit community, or subreddit, you'll be able to post, read other users' posts, comment,
and vote (via upvotes and downvotes) on both posts and comments. At the top of the sub,
you'll find a pinned post explaining the main rules on interacting with the community.
Among the rules, users cannot show off or promote their creations, solicit employment,
or post paid assets. r/gamedev is designed for users to post questions and discussions about your
game development or the industry in general, and share useful articles, books, resources, and more.
The best way to know how and what to post is by looking at what different flairs people
tag their posts with. Some of the most popular flairs are:
Question: many community members join r/gamedev to ask for help from devs with more experience.
This is one of the best places to get some really good answers to questions you may have.
Tutorial: there are many members who join the r/gamedev community to share their knowledge.
Check out this flare to find content that may help you in your game dev journey, or even post
your own tutorials if you're up for it. Discussion: Want to share your thoughts or
just talk about anything that piques your curiosity about game dev? Check out the
"discussion" flare to create or join in on great conversations among fellow developers and, maybe,
make some new acquaintances along the way. To join the community, all you have to do
is head to reddit.com/r/gamedev and join with your Reddit account.
Moving on to another subreddit, we've got r/IndieGames. This is the perfect
complement to the first community we listed. In the IndieGames subreddit, the number 1 rule is to
show off footage or images about the game that you're posting about. That means you can post
whatever you want about your game and promote it all you want within this community. r/IndieGames
gathers not only developers, but also indie game fans, game curators, streamers, and everyone
interested in learning about hidden indie gems and their ongoing development cycles.
r/IndieGames also gives users the option to tag their posts with flairs, including:
Need Feedback: With this flair, you can solicit impressions and feedback. You’d
be surprised with how many people step up and use their free time to comment and
help improve the work of indie devs. Devlog: Learn from other devs by reading
or watching their devlogs. Also, creating a devlog that follows your own development
journey is not only a great way to document your growth, but also a great strategy to
nurture a solid fan base that will stick with you through your launch and onwards.
Public Game Test: use this flair if you want to let players into
your game early on in your development. To join this community, head to Reddit's search
bar and type in IndieGames. Then, just as in the last community, press the join button.
Now we're moving to Facebook, with Indie Game Developers
IGD, a community boasting more than 120,000 members. Indie Game Developers is a great place
for game devs that want to share resources and information with fellow developers on Facebook.
This community is a little similar to r/gamedev, as members can openly ask and
discuss anything they want about game development in general. Members can also post videos and pics
showing off their creations, and solicit feedback from the community. Additionally,
posts can contain a wide variety of file types, including .zip and .rar files. This means you can
share files, assets, documents, game demos, and more directly through your posts.
The most popular topic in Indie Game Developers IGD is #screenshotsaturday: a hashtag with which
devs can show off their latest work through still images or videos every Saturday. Some great games
we’ve seen in this community include: * The highly anticipated indie game
Planet of Lana, by Wishfully Studios. * Fashion Police Squad, by Mopeful Games,
a game that was featured last year in the Ask Gamedev Community Game Showcase.
* and Slow Mole Jr, by Erik Rosenlund. A game created with the Pico-8 game engine.
To find this group, look for "Indie Game Developers IGD" on Facebook.
Next up, we've got the TIGForums from TIGSource. Remember Derek Yu from our past videos?
This awesome indie dev, better known for creating Spelunky, is all about community.
Derek’s also partly responsible, alongside a group of other indie devs, for the creation
of TIGSource - one of the most emblematic indie game dev sites of the last two decades.
TIGSource, The Independent Games Source, was originally founded
by developer Jordan Magnuson in 2005 and was later taken over by Derek Yu.
Now, almost 20 years later, its forums are still active on a daily basis with new
and veteran devs engaging in all types of conversations about their game dev journeys.
The TIGForums are Divided into 4 main sections. * First there’s the Community section. This
contains a Townhall thread which is a great starting place for those new to the forum.
There’s also a Devlogs thread for those who want to document their game dev experiences.
And finally, there’s a place to post and get informed about upcoming events and game jams.
* Next, you'll find a Developer section, where you can discuss all things gamedev.
* Additionally, there's a Jobs section for those looking to hire, to collab,
or even to showcase yourself for potential work. * Finally, a Player section to chat about video
games, table top games, and everything in between.
You can browse through all the content on TIGForums without an account. If you want
to join the community and start posting and commenting you can register for free.
Some cool games we’ve spotted in the forums are:
* Hyperlight Drifter by Heart Machine - whose devs presented their Kickstarter
to the community in September 2013. * Brigador by Stellar Jockeys - an isometric
cyberpunk gem that currently sits with a 95% overwhelmingly positive rating on Steam.
* Monster Garden by Zack Wood - a clever RPG adventure game that was
featured in our 2018 RPG Maker showcase. Following up with another classic Indie community,
we've got Indie DB. Indie DB was founded in 2010 as a spin-off website of Mod DB - a gigantic video
game modding community that was established back in 2002 by Scott "INtense!" Reismanis.
As many modders are, or eventually become, devs themselves, Indie DB was born to house
all the ideas, conversations, and realizations that were spawning throughout the community.
Because of this, Indie DB quickly became one of the all-time favorite indie communities
for both game creators and players. Indie DB serves as a repository for assets,
articles, devlogs, prototypes, demos, and even full games created by its community members.
Additionally, the site hosts a forum where aspiring and experienced devs can interact to keep
the indie movement going forward. In these forums, you'll find thousands of posts that document
all types of topics that surround game development and you'll be able to find information on events,
game jams, job recruitment, and more. If you want to browse around, Indie DB is
completely open to visitors. If you decide to join the community all you have to do is register an
account and make your way to the devs of this awesome community. Every year, Indie DB hosts a
competition called the Indie of the Year Awards. This competition has seen mythical titles start
their journey. Some of these games include: * Minecraft by Mojang - which won the Best Single
Player Indie award in 2010 one year before it was fully released. You can also find
Mojang's devlogs and comments from the early development days documented on IndieDB.
* Enter the Gungeon by Dodge Roll games - Best Single Player Indie in 2016.
* and Outer Wilds by Mobius Digital - Best Single Player Indie in 2019.
Going even further into the past, let's take a look at a community that has been alive
since the year 1999: GameDev.net. GameDev.net was established by several indie devs with the idea
of a one-stop destination for, as their original slogan said: "all your game development needs".
It all started when 8 devs, lead by Kevin Hawkins, decided to join forces and redirect
all the traffic from their 90's era websites to a place they could pioneer one of the first
communities in the game dev scene. Fast forward to 2022 and GameDev.net is still one of the go-to
sources for any rookie or veteran creator. Their main focus, as of now, is hosting one
of the biggest game development blog repositories where countless devs share their knowledge with
this ever-growing community. Among these blogs, we can find some interesting topics such as:
* Adding Machine Learning NPCs in video games * Imagining only the weapons,
the aggressive/combat side of the opponent * Game Dev Digest Issue #142 - Put
Your Name On Your Game * C# Code Optimization 2:
Prevent the Unnecessary Increase in Mono Memory * And How to get the most out of your game's
voice actors
And last but definitely not least, we have a place that will most likely have answers to all
of your burning gamedev questions: Stack Exchange - specifically the
gamedev section. Stack Exchange is much more than just one community.
It's one of the biggest sources of collective software development knowledge on the web.
It’s also known for being one of the biggest Q&A ecosystems out there.
The project started out as a simple computer programming Q&A site created by Jeff Atwood
and Joel Spolsky back in 2008. With time, the site has branched out into numerous sub-topics,
spawning countless sub-communities where people can ask and also answer
all types of questions related to the specific topic of each community. Among these topics,
we can find very specific communities like: * ARQADE: a site for passionate
videogamers on all platforms. * Code Golf & coding challenges: a site for
programming puzzle enthusiasts and code golfers. * Science Fiction & Fantasy: a site for science
fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. * Blender Stack Exchange: a site
for people who use Blender to create 3D graphics, animations, or games.
* Worldbuilding: a site for writers/artists using science, geography, and culture to construct
imaginary worlds and settings. * Ask Ubuntu:
a site for Ubuntu users and developers. * and Puzzling Stack Exchange: a site for
those who create, solve, and study puzzles. Among these communities, there's one dedicated to
Game Development where you can browse and post every question that pops into your mind. While
you may ask about any topic related to gamedev, make sure to take a look at the tags tabs to see
what topics are the most common in this community. As of this writing, the most popular tags in the
Game Development Stack Exchange include Unity, C#, open GL, c++, java, 2D, xna, collision-detection,
libgdx, physics, android, 3D, mathematics, shaders, game-design, and textures.
Thanks for watching! For more Ask Gamedev check out this video about The Best Game Dev