“When you set up a community, you should always set up the idea that one day you won’t need to be so involved, because the community will run itself,” said Playstack community manager Emma Smith-Bodie in a recent talk at Develop:Brighton.

The idea is to build the foundations of a respectful, engaged community on platforms like Discord and Reddit, with the ultimate aim of stepping back.

“Having a community that runs itself gives players more say in it, more investment in that community, and consequently, more investment in the game,” noted Smith-Bodie, who has been involved in managing the communities of Playstack titles like Balatro and Abiotic Factor.

So, where do you start?

The bedrock of a community

“You want to think about your aims for the community,” said Smith-Bodie. “What do you want the community to do for you?”

The main aim for any online community is to build hype for a game, she notes, but they can also provide valuable feedback on games in development, among other things. “Bear in mind that what you want for the community will morph over time, and the community will have its own ideas too. The idea here is to make a start and then adapt it along the way.”

The most important thing is to establish rules and set the tone right from the beginning. Setting rules about things like appropriate photos and nicknames on Discord is paramount. “This isn’t about censorship,” said Smith-Bodie. “This is about respect.”

“It can be really hard to pull a community back from a certain way of behaving”

Emma Smith-Bodie, Playstack

“Think about the tone and personality of your community. This is set somewhat by your aims and rules and, of course, by your game and you. If you’re making a cosy game, it makes sense for a community to be more cosy, cute, and friendly. If you’re making a horror game, are you going to be more edgy or aloof?”

“Remember, you’re setting the tone for the future, and your personality will attract like-minded personalities. If you’re a douchebag, even if that fits your game, then you’ll attract douchebags. And it can be really hard to pull a community back from a certain way of behaving if they’ve gotten used to a space being a particular way.”

There can also be issues with opinionated, prolific posters taking over communities. Smith-Bodie said she has sent direct messages to such people in the past, saying: “Look, I really appreciate your passion, but you are being very loud and dominating the conversation.”

“I’m not going to pander to people who feel like their opinion is worth more just because they’re shouting louder,” she said. “But obviously, if they are really passionate, encourage them to share that passion and enthusiasm and listen to other people in the community.”

Engagement

Smith-Bodie noted that there are a number of simple things that a community manager can do to engage players and increase exposure.

“Steam settings and news posts are a good start. Your Steam store page has the functionality to add external links, so link out to your Discord, your Reddit, your social media profiles. It gives players somewhere else to go to talk.”

In terms of the kind of content to post on social media and messaging platforms, Smith-Bodie said that behind-the-scenes news, quizzes, polls, competitions, and challenges like riddles all tend to go down well, with the aim of starting conversations.

With things like fan-art competitions, however, she warned to set rules around generative AI to make clear whether it’s encouraged or not. “In my previous role, we ran competitions to make Discord icons,” she recalled. “We didn’t think people would use AI – but people used AI, and the community were not happy. So from the next time we did it, we had a clear rule that said, ‘We do not accept AI generated [art] because the community doesn’t want it’.”

But what if you can’t talk about your game, perhaps because it’s still very early in development? In that case, Smith-Bodie suggested starting discussions about the wider genre or theme of the title. She gave an example from the community for Lorn Vale, a post-apocalyptic survival sandbox RPG.

“We have a ‘post-apo’ channel,” she said, where users are encouraged to discuss various post-apocalyptic games and their TV adaptations, such as The Last of Us. “I’ve even put my art historian hat on for this channel, sharing some 1850s apocalyptic art.”

She emphasised the importance of using data to evaluate the success of various community engagement efforts. “You might find spreadsheets boring, but you’ll want to track that quantitative data: how many people engaged, and how they engaged, whether that’s by reacting, voting, taking part, submitting content, that kind of thing. Then you can compare activities and see how engagement is trending.”

“If you’ve done an activity that got no engagement, you can file it away and return to it, look at it again later. Could it be improved, or are you just lacking the numbers to engage with it?”

Self-sustaining

So, how do you know when your community is running itself? There are a few telltale signs, said Smith-Bodie.

“Firstly, the community shares your news for you.” Engaged community members will write up news posts about the game, so all the community manager has to do is highlight them.

“Secondly, the community entertains themselves,” she added. “You’ll know you’ve been successful at building a community that runs itself when they create the activities for you.” She gave an example where the Balatro community began creating discussions around the best strategies to use for specific combinations of Jokers and poker hands.

“Thirdly, the community has good suggestions for you to implement, from new channels and improved infrastructure to ideas for activities .[…] When players are coming up with ways to improve their experience, and you don’t have to constantly ask them, then the community is on its way to being led by them.”

“Fourth, and finally, your moderation team doesn’t need you any more. If you’ve built a moderation team from within the community and they are able to resolve issues without your input or intervention, then the team is ready to spread its wings and stand on its own two feet.”

Smith-Bodie suggested appointing head moderators and splitting responsibilities with the newly independent moderation team. “Be careful who you choose for head moderators,” she warned. “You don’t need people going on a power trip.”

“Always discuss it with them first, don’t just give them the role. And make sure you’re on the same page about what you expect from them and what they can expect from you.”

Letting go

Factors that might influence the decision to let the community run itself include whether the game is out of Early Access and is content complete, and whether there are other games within the publisher that are ramping up and need more attention.

But Smith-Bodie noted that it can be a difficult choice. “You’ve nurtured this community, and it can be hard to let go. You can still be around, but make sure the lines are clear on what the community should expect from you.”

She said that Playstack relinquished control of the Balatro community on Reddit in March this year, at which point it had 363,000 members. Now, it’s at over 500,000.

“For all intents and purposes, that subreddit was already a community running itself: daily discussion, posts, ongoing conversations, an insane amount of content. It just kept growing, and we weren’t pushing anywhere.”

“Having Playstack present in the community gave the sense that we approved of all the content and conversation shared there. But how could we possibly do that when there were hundreds of posts a day?”

She noted that the publisher was put in tricky positions, where the community seized on perceived errors by moderators or politicised issues and demanded that Playstack do something and come down on one side or the other.

“To be seen as moderation overlords was never our intention at Playstack,” said Smith-Bodie, adding that this perception took away the core idea of the community being for the players – hence the decision to pull back.

“I worked with the existing moderators to ensure they understood why we were doing it and what to expect. I was able to provide them with resources they might need, and we coordinated an exit time.”

She added that she still checks in with the moderator, but Playstack no longer actively moderates the Balatro Reddit community.

“Moderation is only a part of the story of building and running a community, but it can easily become the biggest talking point,” she said. “And this is an example of when we should have pulled out sooner.”

When it comes to an online community that you have carefully nurtured, perhaps for years, she concluded that it’s important to be able to let go in the end. And if you’re not ready, “they’re probably ready.”