Video Game Design/Developers

I used to be an avid Twitter user, I started in 2009 but I have cut way back since Elon bought it, and now in the current climate, I won't be using it anymore. I thought about Blue Sky or Threads but I really don't need another social media app to distract me so I'm not joining. I think I can better leverage what I'm already using.

I decided since I'm already here, I'd try to be more active in here since I really just want to connect with other teachers of Game Design, Games companies, and indie game devs on social media. They often become community partners and Zoom into my classes and present to my students or are Capstone mentors. Even though we are a small group, you all do mostly what I do exactly so there's less parsing though who are these people, what do they teach, could it even apply to me. I'll try to keep my posts shorter though, some this week were long.

I have used Voxer for joining groups who communicate by voice messages and have loved it, but there's almost no one in any of my groups doing what I do, so it's a lot less useful to me. I like the talking and listening format, it works well for me on dog walks, but the app is a little wonky, and Discord has voice features too so . . .

Since I'm going to be Open to Work for next school year, not in a rush to leave, but not super happy where I am, I will dip my toes back into Linked In and see how that goes. Godot has a robust community there, and a community partner W4Games is very active there surrounding Godot development so that will probably work for me.

I quit Facebook in 2016 after the election and never looked back, I hope that's how it goes with Twitter. I tried Mastodon for awhile, but I wasn't finding the folks like me, so I let my account languish.

I am in a bunch of Discord groups and that works well for me, except it's blocked at my school, so when I run into issues in class that I can't solve for my students, I can't look it up in class and show them how I do it to get help. I can use my phone on my data and sometimes I do, but if I need screenshots or a quick video, not so much. I think because I use Discord in a really targeted way, I avoid some of the drama/harassment. I tell my students about the Discord groups they could join to get help/inspiration in all the areas of Game Design, but honestly almost all my female students say they tried Discord in the past but had so much harassment they won't try it again.

Anything else you are using that you find super useful?

I am on linked in a little bit and on facebook because a lot of my family still is.

But as I am ramping up getting ready for my game getting released, I am starting to build up a presence on Blue Sky. It seems like a viable twitter alternative for now and the Game Dev scene seems pretty lively at the moment.,

I also was on Twitter a lot, but ever since it became X my time has been declining and likely I won't return. I have tried BlueSky, and it is better than current Twitter, but I don't think we'll ever get the glory days of Twitter back so I have resigned myself to appreciating what we had and lamenting its loss. I'll pop onto Instagram every once in awhile to see what friends are up to but rarely post. I have a LinkedIn I rarely use and a Facebook I never use, so my social media presence is approaching zero. I have never been able to jump on the Discord wagon.

I set out to be a more active contributor here this year but I have been slacking, so I'll be working on that.

Honestly bluesky has been better for me than twitter was, but I maybe missed the golden days of twitter at it's peak.

I caved and joined BlueSky and it has been pleasantly helpful. I really like the follow feeds function. I almost don't feel I need to follow people since what I'm most interested in is following game dev topics and seeing resources, all of which can be done in the feeds. I started Twitter in 2009 so I lived through a very useful time on it, but now it's not at all useful so BlueSky is working well for me. Already been invited to the Godot Barn where they are gathering libraries of code and project snippets to demo certain aspects of Game Dev, so far so good.

I eliminated all of my "social media" presence about 4 years ago.  I use Discord but not in a social media since.  I'm a part of a couple board game communities where discussion is mostly about board games and then friend private channels for essential voice chat.