9th March 2025
The game development industry is highly competitive—major companies regularly release blockbuster games and launch large-scale promotional campaigns with every release. Competing with them is challenging but possible—with the help of community management. Mikhail Pyslar, a community management expert who has held key positions in this field at international companies, shares his experience in building a strong community around a game and reveals the secrets to maintaining player interest after launch.
What is the Role of a Community Manager in Modern Game Development? What Areas Do You Oversee, and How Do You Impact a Publisher’s Business?
As a business scales, executives, developers, and publishers often lack the resources to maintain close connections with their core audience. A community manager serves as the bridge between players and developers. This is the person who monitors everything happening in the media landscape surrounding a game: publications, discussions on forums, and social media interactions. For any project, it is crucial that developers understand the current climate and context and receive necessary feedback from players.
This specialist also manages the official accounts of the company or game, represents it in the media space, and oversees information about projects across different platforms. Additionally, the community manager is responsible for creating content that engages and retains the audience around the project. For example, if a game is still in development, it is necessary to continuously fuel interest through publications—so players understand that development is actively progressing and that the game will be released soon.
Another key responsibility of a community manager is responding to all feedback, whether positive or negative, and managing expectations. For instance, demo versions of a project often contain technical issues—such as the absence of save functionality—and players can be highly emotional about such things. The community manager helps to de-escalate discussions, explaining why these issues occur and how they will be addressed.
To promote a project, a community manager encourages opinion leaders and collaborates with influencers. These influencers are not necessarily just streamers on YouTube and Twitch—many major bloggers on other social media platforms can also effectively advertise a game. On the one hand, a community manager needs to be skilled at identifying these influencers, and on the other, they must create compelling opportunities that make influencers want to promote the game or engage in a collaborative project on their own initiative.
To summarize, a community manager impacts the business by increasing audience loyalty, reducing negative sentiment surrounding the project in the media space, and generating both organic advertising within the fan community and paid promotions through influencers. These are the core tasks that I personally focus on.
In a leadership role, additional administrative and strategic responsibilities come into play: creating a community plan and project promotion strategy, organizing influencer collaborations and developer interviews, and forming closed groups for beta testers. My scope of responsibility has expanded—for example, I am now involved in shaping marketing strategy and handling various other administrative tasks.
How Much Do You Personally Play, and Does It Help in Developing Community Engagement Strategies?
I try to play every day to understand the audience, the mechanics of different games, and to stay aware of the context. It’s crucial to keep a finger on the pulse and know what’s happening in the industry. Sometimes, a new project with unique mechanics suddenly takes off, and I analyze it from a gamer’s perspective—what makes it special and why do people love it. At the same time, my community management skills come into play—I immediately consider what made the project successful, how it was promoted on social media, and how it engaged with its audience.
Thanks to my experience and broad knowledge of games, I can quickly assess whether an idea will be successful, in which direction it should be developed, and what should be adjusted in terms of design, audio, gameplay, and other aspects. This allows me to save developers time on initial testing by filtering or approving game hypotheses at an early stage.
This experience also benefits community management. I know how to effectively promote multiplayer games versus single-player ones and what strategies work best for community engagement. Sometimes, I apply successful ideas that have previously worked in growing other gaming communities.
I believe that in any industry, and especially in game development, it’s essential to stay engaged and be deeply involved in the field you work in.
What Strategies Do You Use to Maintain Interest in Projects After Their Release? Do They Differ Depending on the Game?
Of course, work on a project doesn’t end on release day. It’s essential to communicate with the audience, monitor reviews, and gather feedback. There are three main strategies for maintaining interest post-release:
- Thematic Updates. This could include seasonal skin packs for Halloween or expansions and story continuations released on specific dates. Often, we base these updates on user feedback—when players express what they feel is missing from the game.
- Retention Through Content. This involves introducing interactive challenges and new game modes that entertain and engage the audience. Such additions are usually pre-planned in the project roadmap.
- Attracting Players Through Discounts and Collaborations. This includes influencer advertising, partnerships, and bundles. This strategy works for both existing and new players.
Post-release promotion strategies also depend on the game genre. For example, turn-based strategy games focus on competitive updates, while multiplayer projects emphasize player interaction. The approach must be tailored to the specific game.
You have successfully collaborated with celebrities to attract attention to games. Can you share some of the most interesting projects and their outcomes?
When I worked as a Community Director at Ravenage, we had a project called Frozen Flame, and for its promotion, we decided to collaborate with celebrities and well-known streamers. Being a long-time fan of Jason Mewes, famous for his role as Jay in Kevin Smith’s films, I suggested him for the game’s voice acting.
Mewes turned out to be an open-minded and engaging individual who fully immersed himself in the process. We provided him with explanations of in-game terms to help him better understand the context, and the final result was excellent.
We also collaborated with CohhCarnage, a major Twitch streamer, who voiced a character in Frozen Flame. For another game, Heretic’s Fork, we used music from the band Disturbed, with the band members personally approving the usage.
These collaborations are incredibly effective for promotion. When a player’s favorite celebrity is involved in a game’s development, they are far more likely to take interest and purchase it. Users inherently trust a product more if a respected opinion leader is associated with it.
I know that at Ravenage, you organized the Creator Club to attract influencers and the Beta Testers Club to gather feedback from users. Could you tell us more about these projects?
When your business starts growing in publishing, it’s crucial to have a circle of creator-influencers who can help with testing the project. They already have a pool of loyal followers who trust their opinions. So, if you gain the support of an influencer, promoting the game within the gamer community becomes much easier.
It’s important to build a base of these creators—streamers and bloggers. With this, you’ll already have a group of people interested in your product, who will happily test it and share their opinions with their followers. Many businesses face the challenge of spending a lot of time searching for creators and communicating with them.
It’s essential to maintain constant relationships with your creators—informing them about updates in advance, providing keys for reviews and walkthroughs, sharing news, etc. This will save a lot of money on agencies that help businesses find bloggers.
At Ravenage, we managed to gather over 150 influencers in a short time and created the Creator Club. The influencers got access to exclusive chats where we held sessions, discussed marketing plans, and received feedback on projects and insights about promotion. It was important to take an individual approach here because each influencer is interested in different games.
Some creators, more focused on the technical side, chose to be beta testers. This was also very useful for us, as developers value feedback from real users. We encouraged creators to test games, and the most active ones were added to a chat with developers so they could communicate directly with them.
As a result, these clubs had over 1,500 participants who actively tested games, explored updates, and interacted with our team members. These communities are valuable for both developers and users. Gamers become more engaged in the project and are eager to tell their audience about it, while developers receive valuable feedback from professional players.
You likely face negative feedback and challenging situations in communities. What are the main rules for handling such issues?
Criticism can come in many forms. For example, a user might not like the fact that the game has too much red color. They could be dissatisfied with the character’s appearance, or the font on the project’s cover. They might have expected one thing but experienced something else. Or perhaps they noticed something in the trailer that isn’t in the game. In other words, a user might dislike absolutely anything.
The key rule when dealing with negativity is to always remain professional, no matter the circumstances. It’s important to listen to the criticism and understand its source. I strive to give an honest answer without making impossible promises. If a solution is possible, I will address the problem. If not, I explain why it can’t be fixed. It’s crucial to respect the player’s opinion, even if it doesn’t align with your own. And you have to understand that your response will not always satisfy the user.
The community manager’s task is to gather all the feedback, pass it along to the developers, and make updates to resolve the situation. Or use the feedback when planning future projects. I believe that many projects improve because of user feedback.
How can a community manager effectively convey player feedback to developers? And how can they avoid conflicts between player expectations and the team’s actual capabilities?
For a community manager, it’s crucial to have a systematic approach to thinking—understanding how to accomplish tasks step by step. The same applies to feedback. It’s important to be able to organize it, breaking it down into specific categories: what relates to bugs, what’s a non-technical issue, what concerns game balance, audio design, gameplay, etc. Once categorized, the feedback should be prioritized—identifying the issues that are most popular among users.
Afterward, you need to discuss with the team whether these issues can be fixed. If you realize that there are currently no resources to address a particular problem, it’s important to communicate this to the players and explain why it won’t be resolved in the upcoming update. Yes, there will be negativity, but in the game industry, it’s impossible to create a project that satisfies everyone.
What trends in community management are you observing today? How do you think approaches to working with players and communities will evolve in the future?
The main trend today is the use of AI tools for data analysis, moderation, and other routine tasks. However, it’s important to apply these tools for optimization rather than replacing higher-quality human resources. AI still cannot replace a specialist with years of experience in the field.
Another trend is the focus on UGC (user-generated content), which is content created by users. For example, there are people who create mods for games, making the experience even better and more interesting. Other users create gameplay videos to share with their audience. User content greatly helps in promoting games, especially if you have a small indie team with limited resources.
I believe the future lies in the deeper integration of the community into the development process. What’s truly inspiring is when you, as a player, can influence the game you love. There are various community-driven practices, where the community can vote on game mechanics or updates. This significantly engages the audience and makes them feel like they are a part of the product.
