At Pocket Gamer Connects Summit  Montréal on November 10th, Discord senior developer advocate Anthony Tešija will be offering key insights on how developers and publishers can harness the platform in a session titled 'Building Your Discord Server Through Every Stage Of Game Development'.

Ahead of his talk, we caught up with Tešija to talk about what a server should actually do for a studio, when to open one and what keeps it alive once launch hype fades.

Tešija's starting point is that a server is a development tool and not just a community.

"The developers who get the most out of Discord treat their server as an extension of the game experience," he says. "That means the developers go beyond announcements and patch notes by showing up consistently, engaging in direct conversations, running playtests and listening to feedback.

"During a beta or a major update, the server becomes a live signal. A spike in message volume suggests something might need attention, and a drop after a fix confirms it landed. That's feedback developers don't have to go looking for."

Feedback channels can also feed bug trackers and project management tools directly. "That closes the gap between what players experience and what the team acts on."

"You don't need a playable build to open a server, but you do need something for people to talk about and a team that is ready to show up consistently.

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