Ask HN: Is there a video game dev alternative to HN?

Gamedev encompass many different sub fields (design, animation, audio), and developers themselves are at different stages of their careers (just starting out, seasoned indie with 3 titles, 20 year AAA veteran), so I doubt a central forum exists where they all talk together.

Personally, I'm learning mostly about marketing and market research at this stage of my career, so I'm currently on:

- https://gamediscover.co/ (paid membership)

- https://howtomarketagame.com/

In addition to the above, I subscribe to a bunch of newsletters too, like Derek Lieu, SuperJoost, ICO Steam, etc.

I use Godot, so I'm also on the Godot Discord, and I would post on there once every 2 weeks or so when I'm stuck on something in the engine, but not for much else.

I also use Twitter for gamedev-only (thank goodness), and there are some good discussions happening there too every now and then (e.g. this last night: https://twitter.com/ConorMODonovan/status/151362942886108774...)

You can also join IGDA and seek out a SIG (e.g. I'm on the climate SIG) where you talk about the overlap of gamedev with your special interest.

The problem is, no one here has the credibility to draw a community of game developers worth the effort - so any attempt is bound to wind up as just another failed HN clone unless it's an actual startup with millions of dollars and the SV hype machine behind it. For all its faults, Reddit is still the best option.

/r/truegamedev is supposed to be a better version of /r/gamedev, that might be one option. I keep a list of programming and gamedev subreddits in RES. There's a lot of noise but that seems to be where the conversation is.

Also Twitter. Just about every game developer, from AAA to indie, in every discipline has a Twitter account, and a surprising amount of technical discussion goes on there.

There's Gamasutra (now renamed to GameDeveloper), there's 80lvl, Twitter - a lot of game devs are just active on twitter, so if you follow a few that intersect your interests you can build up a bubble around that. Discords are great as well, especially for local level communities. Look at GameJams going on online and around you?

There is really no central meeting point that is a constant (except maybe GDC itself). From my experience as organising game developer meetups it is really hard to get devs to talk - BUT when they do its a great experience for all!