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

by eezurr on 4/11/22, 7:12 PM with 14 comments

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?

  • by jstream67 on 4/11/22, 9:59 PM

    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

  • by opyate on 4/12/22, 9:23 AM

    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.

  • by jay_kyburz on 4/11/22, 9:46 PM

    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 :)

  • by keiranlovett on 4/12/22, 2:13 PM

    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!

  • by binarynate on 4/11/22, 8:53 PM

    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.

  • by swalls on 4/11/22, 8:29 PM

    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?

  • by avignome on 4/11/22, 7:50 PM

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

    Try https://discord.me/unreal

  • by mc4ndr3 on 4/11/22, 9:02 PM

    The itch.io community.