Game studio comms organization

[cinder atlas]

Hi guys. We currently have a discord server that is a mess
First it's named after the project. Then we started working on other projects and just combined the comms for that in this server
Then we have game jam and where do we put those game jam specific ones. We also had to accomodate the game jammers in our server
Throughout all this time we're basically not sure whether to organize contents based on project, or the type of dev (art, coding, similar to how this discord is organized). Game dev is a very multi-medial project indeed
To top this off, we're also including events that happens in our local community, since this project will relate a lot with local stuff too (events, playtesting, endorsement virtual goods)

Now we wanna change the name of this server into our studio's name, thus justifies the multi-project of this server's function
We only have 3 current active devs and like 50 friends/audience/jammers

To start with a simple question: is it ok to change our mind with the title of the discord server? It's not a hard "NO" to rename a discord server, forum name, a whole reddit/stackoverflow/ category, right?

Cheers

[devout berry]

It's very common to rename a game's discord to the name of the studio, so no, it's not at all a cardinal sin

[cinder atlas]

Cheers
Is it also common to have both a studio server and a per project server?

For a studio server, any advice on how to organize the channels, where to use forums, which one should be public, which internal, which is a internal but more with a b2b guest?

[placid bear]

We are using per project discord and a studio discord. (Project are usually between 6-12 months)
Client have their own mean of communication, Skype, Basecamp, Discord, etc.
No particular architecture, pretty much free for all.

[magic cave]

I would keep internal development separate from external users to avoid leaking unannounced stuff through the Discord API. I believe at least channel names, topics and members are accessible to any user that is on the server.

[tepid atlas]

We do public and private in the same discord no issues. Encourages the team to share their favorite music with our fans etc.

Where they are less likely with dual discords

[cinder atlas]

@molten vapor

[rapid ferry]

We have a single internal discord with both general category channels such as art animation coding and per project channels. We do a separate discord server per game.

[cinder atlas]

Where would u use "forum", where'd u use "channel"?
If i'd make the "studio" disco, i'll make the art, coding, etc as forums

If u use channel, for what kind? And how would u utilize the "threads" of that (if it's even recommended/enforced at all)
And tbh in general i dont see the point of channel threads anymore..

[cinder atlas]

What's an example of a game's feature discussion being in public or in internal?

Would u have an internal of, say, "Christmas campaign game content", u'd also make a public counterpart of that?
If the public wanna make a topic about something specific, they can make the thing themselves. And if that public something specific is important enough, u'd bring it to internals, which u'd make a new post for it? Or link that in a corresponding, say, "art" internal channel?

[rapid ferry]

We dont use forums just channels where people can talk problem solve etc

[tepid atlas]

We have a red iron internal section. Those channels all start with ril-general for example and are in a internal category.

We keep our internal projects in forum style. The team works on 8-10 projects a month, so those discussions happen in the project folder. It helps keep micro updates on track per project.

User side we have separate channels for our games (I.e. muffin-fight). But everyone just talks in general unless there is a competition going or bets test.

[cinder atlas]

8-10 projects a month? Is a project a whole game? Or more like client project/task?

I wanna send screenshot of my understanding of how u do but can't post img here?

Projects (category for internal)
+ Project-1 (forum)
 -- Player Controls
+ Project-2 (forum)
-- Skill for player
-- Skill for boss lv 1
-- Skill for boss lv 2
-- Story intro dialogue

My next question is: how do u guys deal with "archived channels"?
Or do u try to organize everything abstract enough to never produce any archived? Then use forum post tags to mark post which project it belongs to?

[tepid atlas]

A whole game or experience. But the team posts their high level tasks into the thread, so it's easier to gather updates. And gives us a good history on their questions.

Just to add though, some projects run for a week/month/year. So we may be working on 10 projects, but 3 would be like a year long. I'm trying to keep it to a max of 6 or so at a time this year, as much as possible.

[tepid atlas]

I wish I could post pictures here hah but essentially it's more like this

corporate:

ril-general
ril-projects (forum)
- Battle Birds
- Muffin Fight
- Neuro RecoVR (stroke care)
- CareGiVR (dementia care)
- ...

public:

resources (forum)
grants (forum)
general
muffin-fight
battle-birds
get-help
...

There isn't really a need to archive anything. As the projects you don't update automatically go lower in the forum.

Most of our projects aren't for the public, so we don't worry about that much. And just create very specific channels for our B2C projects.

We are in a weird space though as we get a lot of other small devs, clients, or gamers in the channel. So we moderate pretty closely.

[cinder atlas]

What's grants channel?

What happens if u need to work on say.. UI works of Muffin Fight? It just goes to Muffin Fight post as a single message?

[tepid atlas]

Yup! Anything internal goes into Projects > Project Name. If we want players to weigh in, it'll go into the public muffin fight.

We have a lot of channels, so I only copied a handful. But we get a lot of indie devs in our discord, so we have channels to discuss grants, resources, game-engines etc.

Our grants for example has any current grants our bizdev team came across that other studios could apply for etc.

I wouldn't over think it too much though. You can always change it if you aren't happy

But yeah, ours will be different. We have medical, industrial, education, and games. But we also teach at post secondaries, and run training programs. And sometimes it's products of ours (our stroke stuff) or products of theirs. So our community is different than I'd expect for most groups.

[cinder atlas]

From what i've gathered, in general, and especially for a small starting studio, we should assume to only have 1, and should focus on maintaining only 1 public discord
If we have multiple games, it'll be easier from a consumer POV, to possibly refer to other games (in relevance to the studio), in this 1 single disco

Having more, per project disco, for internal purpose only, will keep the studio disco free from details of the work
The studio disco will be the one and only point for customers, b2b, and public in general