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Ask HN: Is there a video game dev alternative to HN?

37 points by eezurr ↗ HN
That mirrors the collective expertise and lower noise ratio that exists here. Subreddits like /r/gamedev are mostly novice posts and people venting. gamedev.net mostly exists for posting questions. VFX/game art subreddits are really cool, though mostly exist to show off. It's good all of these places exist, and I'm not complaining about them. It's just that it splits the community into individual secs and there's little crossover (that I can tell).

There are many disciplines that coalesce together to create a video game, and there are around 300,000 people working in the field. Where is the central meeting point?

15 comments

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avignome
I’m guessing you’d have more success connecting with working engineers on Discord over any website…

Try https://discord.me/unreal

eezurr
Thanks, I've tried a handful of game dev. discords. They are not designed to collect and organize information though, and keeping up with chats is a huge chore.
teucris
I think the game dev community would value this. Could be as simple as an HN clone with images…
WHA8m
At this point someone has to be working on it. It comes up on HN so regular ...
krapp
The problem is, no one here has the credibility to draw a community of game developers worth the effort - so any attempt is bound to wind up as just another failed HN clone unless it's an actual startup with millions of dollars and the SV hype machine behind it. For all its faults, Reddit is still the best option.

/r/truegamedev is supposed to be a better version of /r/gamedev, that might be one option. I keep a list of programming and gamedev subreddits in RES. There's a lot of noise but that seems to be where the conversation is.

Also Twitter. Just about every game developer, from AAA to indie, in every discipline has a Twitter account, and a surprising amount of technical discussion goes on there.

WHA8m
totally understand the point. I guess it's about the expectation. If you're going to "make the HN equivalent for game dev", you're bound to fail. If you're approaching this to "try to make a HN-inspired platform for knowledgable people about game dev", some interesting place could arose. Given you put time and effort into it.
swalls
Retro forums that focus on specific systems (eg, C64 development, NES development, DOS development...) tend to be pretty good as they draw people who are interested in developing for more limited hardware and as such don't mind going deep on technical topics. For more up to date discourse I'm not too sure. Maybe TIGSource forums?
binarynate
I hang out a lot on /r/Unity3D, but you're right, it's mostly novices (actually, one of my reasons for hanging out there is to help newcomers). I think it would be great if someone created a subreddit specifically for experienced / advanced game developers. Moderating for quality would be a challenge, so there would need to be clear rules and a handful of people willing to moderate.
jay_kyburz
There are some large private forums. I've had friends nominate me a few times but.. well, I guess they don't think I have anything to offer :)
jstream67
https://gamedev.net/

This was where I hung out 10ish years ago. It seemed to be the place to be for indy game dev stuff at least. I'm honestly kinda surprised its still around

opyate
Gamedev encompass many different sub fields (design, animation, audio), and developers themselves are at different stages of their careers (just starting out, seasoned indie with 3 titles, 20 year AAA veteran), so I doubt a central forum exists where they all talk together.

Personally, I'm learning mostly about marketing and market research at this stage of my career, so I'm currently on:

- https://gamediscover.co/ (paid membership)

- https://howtomarketagame.com/

In addition to the above, I subscribe to a bunch of newsletters too, like Derek Lieu, SuperJoost, ICO Steam, etc.

I use Godot, so I'm also on the Godot Discord, and I would post on there once every 2 weeks or so when I'm stuck on something in the engine, but not for much else.

I also use Twitter for gamedev-only (thank goodness), and there are some good discussions happening there too every now and then (e.g. this last night: https://twitter.com/ConorMODonovan/status/151362942886108774...)

You can also join IGDA and seek out a SIG (e.g. I'm on the climate SIG) where you talk about the overlap of gamedev with your special interest.

keiranlovett
There's Gamasutra (now renamed to GameDeveloper), there's 80lvl, Twitter - a lot of game devs are just active on twitter, so if you follow a few that intersect your interests you can build up a bubble around that. Discords are great as well, especially for local level communities. Look at GameJams going on online and around you?

There is really no central meeting point that is a constant (except maybe GDC itself). From my experience as organising game developer meetups it is really hard to get devs to talk - BUT when they do its a great experience for all!