The best business and marketing talks at GDC

gamedeveloper.com:

The Game Developer crew covered a number of business and marketing (and community management!) focused talks at GDC 2023, with practical advice for developers of all sizes. We learned contract tips for indies from "Game Lawyer" Kellen Voyer, secrets of strong, healthy community management from the creators of Blaseball, how to use "no one cares about your game" to your advantage, how to keep a marketing plan going strong even long after a game's release from the folks who created indie darling Unpacking, and much more. We also included a couple of interviews here from our Road to IGF and Alt.Ctrl.GDC games, some of whom had very unique promotional approaches or messages about the game business itself.

The Game Band community director Bria Davis breaks down the challenges of modern fandom and how to foster proactive community management in her GDC presentation.

"Davis was bullish on the need to create a space that is anti-racist, and shouted out using a consulting agency (she recommended Sweet Baby) for specific tips and guidance on creating a space that is safer for users of color, and does not just cater to white comfort."

"If you are prioritizing a kind of tone, specifically low conflict and tenderness, you are prioritizing the comfort of people who are already comfortable. So why is this a problem? [Well], if we are only building our communities through shared feelings, any minority experience, regardless of what that minority is, is going to be seen as an attack on the majority experience, which is usually going to be white and "default" if that's the kind of space that you have already built. If you are not intentionally building a space to contradict the default, you are setting up the people of color in your space