Built in the Open: We want OpenGames to Have a Community Before It Has a Catalogue
Most studios build the game first and the community after - a Discord bolted on at launch, somewhere to post patch notes at.
We’re doing it in the opposite order. We want OpenGames to have a community before it has a catalogue, and that’s not a marketing decision. It’s a design decision. We think a studio built in front of people, with people, ends up making better games than one that emerges from behind a curtain with a finished product and a press release.
Here’s what that actually means - and what’s in it for you.
The community is part of how we build
We’re a small team on purpose. That’s our strength, but it comes with an honest limitation: a handful of people can’t see everything. What we can do is show our work to a few hundred sharp people who will.
So, our Discord and Telegram aren’t announcement feeds. They’re the studio’s open workshop:
- First looks, before things are final. Art frames, mechanics, math concepts - posted while there’s still time for your reaction to change them.
- Real opinions, actually read. When we’re torn between two symbol styles or two feature directions, we’ll ask. Not as a poll for engagement’s sake - because a room full of people who play, build, or stream these games sees things we don’t.
- Feedback with a return path. When something we shared gets better because of what the community said, we’ll say so. You should be able to point at a shipped game and know which part you nudged.
We won’t pretend every decision goes to a vote - it doesn’t, and you wouldn’t want it to. One vision, held tightly, is the whole point of how we run. But a tight vision sharpened by honest outside eyes beats one formed in an echo chamber, every time.
Help us find the people
We hire by watching people build, not by reading CVs - public game jams, engine challenges, math puzzles, judged on the work. The community is where those land first, and it’s also our best scouting network.
Know someone who builds slot mechanics for fun? Reverse-engineers paytables out of curiosity? Ships little PixiJS toys nobody asked for? Send them our way, or just tag them when a challenge drops. Every opening we have lands first in #careers, before any job board sees it. Some of the best hires in this industry were never “looking” - they were recommended by someone who knew what great looks like.
If that person is you: even better. Show up, say something smart in #math-and-mechanics or #dev-talk, and we’ll notice. We built this place partly so we could.
What we ask of you
Not much, but it matters:
- Be honest. Polite applause teaches us nothing. “This symbol reads badly at small sizes” is worth a hundred fire emojis.
- Be specific. “I don’t like it” is a mood; “the anticipation before the bonus feels too short” is something we can act on.
- Respect the room. We’re an 18+ community, we don’t do gambling promotion of any kind, and everyone here - first-time lurker or veteran dev - gets treated with respect. The full rules are pinned; they’re short.
What you get back
- A front-row seat to a studio being built from zero - the math, the art, the code, the mistakes.
- Real influence on real games, while they’re still soft enough to shape.
- First access to everything: previews, challenges, openings, milestones.
- And a claim, later, when these titles are out in the world: I was there when this was ten people and a Discord server.
Come in
The door’s open. Introduce yourself in #introductions - tell us what you play, what you build, or what you’re curious about. Lurk for a while if that’s more your speed; that counts as showing up too.