Launch HN: Gather.Town (YC S19) – Spatial video chat for remote teams

I've used Gather for several conferences, and I've found it to be surprisingly effective at recreating some of the benefits of in-person gatherings.

In particular, since there's no formalism around creating or scheduling meetings, it makes it extremely easy to walk up to people you know, chat for a few seconds, and then step away. Or for impromptu meetings to break out, where two people are chatting, and then another person joins, and soon there are 5-10 people in a larger discussion.

What it hasn't been able to resolve (at least for me) is the awkwardness of starting conversations with strangers. This is already awkward enough in person, where you kind of have to edge your way in to an existing conversation and wait for a lull to join in. Starting a cold 1-on-1 without reading body language is just not possible for me.

Remotely, there's no way to get over the step function of "in the conversation" where your face just pops up. For me, that lack of a gradient makes it very difficult to break the ice when meeting new people.

I think the physicality of Gather does help a bit, because (for example) you might sit at a "let's talk" table to indicate you're open to meeting new people, but that still basically translates to "extroverts go here". I'm not sure how to solve it long term, but I think tools like there are definitely a step in the right direction.

This is awesome! Love the idea of builder mode being integrated with regular game mode, like Minecraft.

I'm not sure what you guys are using for the engine, but the primary feedback I have is that it feels too sluggish. For a second-home virtual space, it'd need to feel really good moving around in it.

Right now on my 2019 Macbook, in a one person blank room, I have frame rate drops moving around where my character will skip spaces. And in the HN room going to a different place (e.g. to swimming pool), I was walking around in darkness for 5 seconds about to exit thinking there was a bug before it finally rendered. Would recommend you guys really nail constant FPS as a priority.

My boss got excited about this a few weeks back, but none of the rest of the office wanted to really use it (and we had some issues with video/audio feeds). I don't really get the idea: what problem does this solve that Slack/Zoom/etc don't? The whiteboard seems OK but no software can solve the problem that drawing with a touchpad sucks. Am I going to have to schedule meeting rooms again? Forget finding the right Zoom link, I now have to find the right room too? Stand around the water cooler when I'm on a break, except that then I won't be at my computer and so I can't actually use that? It's easy to talk to coworkers, but Slack is even easier. It's easy to start a meeting, but Zoom is no harder - and easier for people outside your organization. "How's the cafeteria?" is what one of my coworkers asked, jokingly, but I think that captures my feeling of it. Sure it's got a cafeteria, but that cafeteria doesn't solve any of the problems that a real cafeteria solves.

Then again, I'm also of the opinion that video calls provide little value beyond phone calls, so maybe I'm just a grump.

It sounds like you want Discord.

We tried this out for a few social events. It worked pretty well, but the choppy world movement makes me a little sick. :( Any chance of a smooth camera/movement option?