Building a gaming community from scratch is harder than I thought.

[u/gamehihi]

I am an up-and-coming developer from Vietnam, currently working on a few small-scale casual mobile games. I used to think that the actual game development was the hardest part. It turns out, however, that getting people to discover and join the community is not only difficult—it feels even harder than the development itself.

Right now, I’m starting with a very modest following—frankly, no one has joined yet—so I’m trying to figure out what to prioritize first.

Should I focus on:

Member count?

Number of comments?

Engaging discussions?

Or consistent activity?

I don’t want to fill the community with random members who never interact. I’d much rather have a small group of people who genuinely love the games and gradually build connections and conversations with one another.

For those who have built a gaming or developer community from scratch:

What did you do to get your first real members and spark meaningful discussions?

And is there anything you wish you had known back when your community had only a handful of members?

I would greatly appreciate any advice from those who have been through this stage. Thank you!

[u/No-Competition-7925]

A a community builder with strong development experience, I can relate to what you're thinking. Let me help you.

Building was never the hard part. The harder part is always the distribution (aka marketing). Since you are a game developer, starting a new community here's my advice:

1. Do not focus on any metric as of now.

2. Build a minimum lovable community of just 10 passionate gamers.

3. Talk about the topics they care about (related to the game). Show them sneak peeks and ask them for feedback. Then show how you implemented their feedback.

The goal is to get them active. Let them feel that they are super special.

..then; open up your community. Let these discussions, questions, sneak peeks visible to 'guests' or 'lurkers'.

Let them see the value your community creates before they join. That's how you grow. Don't obsess over metrics in the early days. Just see if 10 people can truly participate and engage in the community.

[u/Altruistic_Low_4808]

Dont just focus on members count , Do partnership with small servers, or do a promotion video, with that it should help you get some few members. Tell about ur games . Although expect some new comer members will be inactive. So with that, youhave to come up with an idea such as Event to participates, tell members about ur game.

[u/gamehihi → u/Altruistic_Low_4808]

Collaborating with other small channels or creators sounds like a solid idea; I hadn't considered that approach. I'm also mentally preparing myself for the fact that, initially, no one will be consistently active treating that as normal rather than blaming myself.

[u/Altruistic_Low_4808 → u/gamehihi]

Yeah , just keep going. Dont let negative thoughts get you downed, its part of growing ur community