[Part 1] Product Case Study: Encouraging Roblox Creators to Adopt Guilded

When Roblox bought Guilded in 2021, it seemed like a big deal. But when I talked to Roblox creators, I found something surprising:

80% of them don’t even use Guilded 😲

This made me really curious, prompting me to explore why Guilded wasn’t their preferred choice and how we could encourage a transition away from Discord.

The Three-Part Exploration

We’ll navigate through three critical areas on how we get them to switch from Discord:

Part 1: Understanding Developers’ Hesitation & Addressing Their Needs

Part 2: Enhancing Guilded’s Visibility

Part 3: Strategies for Achieving 10x Growth for Guilded

In this article, we will delve into Part 1, where I will share insights gained from conversations with creators and explore ideas to boost Guilded’s popularity.

What is Guilded?

Guilded, much like Discord, offers communication tools. However, it caters more to gaming communities, providing specialized features for growing their gaming tribes.

Stakeholder Segments of Guilded

• 🎮 Gamers: Roblox enthusiasts who want a place for gaming, chatting, and hanging out.
• 🛠️ Developers: Game creators seeking tools to connect with followers, share updates, and monetize their content.

Prioritizing: Developers

To encourage users to migrate from Discord to Guilded, it makes sense to target developers first.

Why? Gamers often follow creators to new platforms for exciting content and connections. It’s about harnessing creators’ influence to build new trends. However, we must be mindful of potential challenges, as illustrated by Ninja’s experience, where a platform shift led to a significant drop in his followers. (Source)

Why are Developers Hesitant to Shift to Guilded?

A survey of 20 experienced Roblox creators highlighted three main reasons for sticking with Discord:

1. Familiarity with Discord (41.7%):

They prefer what they know, including Discord’s interface and features.

2. Larger User Base on Discord (33%):

Discord’s larger and extensive user base provides more interaction and engagement opportunities.

3. Established Communities and Connections on Discord (16.7%):

They’ve built robust communities on Discord and don’t want to risk losing them by moving to a different platform.

What Would Encourage Developers to Switch to Guilded?

To attract developers to Guilded, it’s crucial to understand their needs.

2 Developer Sub-Groups:

• New Developers: Beginners in game development and Roblox community building.
• Existing Developers: Experienced Roblox users with established communities.

Challenges for New Developers in the Roblox Community

Let’s meet Alex, a new Roblox developer who represents the struggles of many newcomers. He faces challenges such as:

• Attracting Members: How do you gather a group of fans for your game? Should you start building this community alone or find help? And what’s the best spot to gather your fans — maybe somewhere like Discord or the Guilded?
• Perfecting the Game: What’s the secret to a hit game? Is it the idea, gameplay, story, or graphics? And how do you balance quality with resource constraints?
• Community Management: How do you establish rules, allocate resources, and manage finances?
• Marketing Challenges: How can you promote your game without a big wallet, especially when most players might not have much to spend?
• Safety Concerns: How can I build a safe environment for my community? What are spam, explicit links, or abuse scenarios I should be aware of?

For Seasoned Developers, the challenges evolve to include:

• Community Engagement: How do you keep your game interesting for your community when there’s so much competition out there?
• Sustaining Community Engagement: What are tips to get creative in using updates and events to maintain active engagement?
• Expanding Influence: How do you upgrade your marketing to include things like influencer partnerships, and how do you execute these strategies effectively?
• Safety and Privacy: Difficulty enforcing privacy & adhering to Community guidelines as the community grows bigger.
• Feedback Integration: Continuously adapting to feedback from a diverse community.
• Time Management: How do you balance your time between developing your game and advertising them, making sure they don’t compromise on quality?
• Standing out: What unique community aspects can you introduce to make your games stand out in a crowded marketplace?

Why Focus on New Developers?

Focusing on New Developers is strategic for several reasons:

1. Easier Transition: New Developers often have smaller communities, making it simpler for them to switch to Guilded. This allows us to assist them in making Guilded their preferred platform.
2. Loyalty Building: By supporting New Developers early in their journey, we foster loyalty. As they build their communities on Guilded, it contributes to Guilded’s growth.
3. Future Growth: New Developers represent the future of community building. By investing in their success, we ensure they grow alongside Guilded, securing long-term platform growth.

With these insights, let’s explore how Guilded can effectively address the needs of New Developers.

Competitive Analysis between Discord & Guilded

Let’s compare the tools for starting and growing a community on both Discord and Guilded:

Source: Giphy

If you’re feeling lost, hang in there! I dove into a YouTube rabbit hole to craft that table. Let me simplify it for you 😇

Let’s look at how Guilded can meet the unmet needs of developers that Discord doesn’t:

Imagine a new game developer, Alex, who just started creating on Roblox. He’s excited but also a bit overwhelmed.

He needs to build a community but isn’t sure where to start.

👋 Meet Alex

Enter Guilded. Unlike Discord, Guilded offers a bunch of tools that can help you set up your community…

The problem?

Guilded offers great tools for community set up, but it lacks user-friendly guides that take your server from 0 to 1 based on their needs.

Recap on Unmet Needs of New Developers

Tackling the Top Pain Point — Learning How to Use Roblox Tools

The primary challenge we’re tackling is the lack of easy-to-understand guides or resources for using Roblox’s tools and features effectively. This is crucial because it lays the foundation for new developers like Alex to confidently build and manage their communities.

Additionally, this aligns with the top concern shared by creators who are just starting out — how to kickstart and grow their communities.

Strategies to make it easier to set up your server

1. Simplified Server Setup:

1. 🤖 Auto-Setup Bot: Choose the auto-setup option. The bot will automatically set up a generic server for you, putting in the generic categories and role permission for you as a foundational base.
2. 📋 Pre-Defined Server Templates: Inspired by platforms like Notion and Miro, offer a variety of server templates tailored for different game genres and community types. This includes predefined categories and channels, customizable theme settings, role setups, and initial content.
3. 🎨 AI-Powered Customization Suggestions: An AI tool that analyzes server activity and offers customization suggestions, enhancing user experience based on individual behavior and preferences.

2. Enhanced Onboarding and Inspiration:

4. 🏆 Community Showcase: Present a gallery of well-designed servers for inspiration, offering tangible examples for new creators.

5. 🎮 Interactive Roblox Game Onboarding: An engaging game that guides creators on using Guilded effectively, with incentives like badges or rewards for completing tutorials or milestones.

• + 🏅 BONUS: Incorporate gamification elements into the learning modules, such as leaderboards, and rewards for completing educational content in the game!! See Below 👇👇👇

Game: +1 Fat Every Second

3. Getting Feedback on your Server

6. 👩‍🏫 Expert Office Hours: Host monthly sessions with notable game developers who review and offer feedback on servers. This unique feature, unlike Discord, ensures consistent, expert guidance. Picture the thrill of having a developer from a hit game like “Don’t Starve Together” personally review your server, providing invaluable tips for improvement and growth.

7. 🥽 Virtual Reality Room: Develop VR-based meeting and interaction spaces for Roblox communities to onboard and get feedback on your Server.

Using the Value-Complexity Matrix to prioritize feature development.

NOW, NEXT, LATER ROADMAP — Focus on Pre-Defined Server Templates

Given our priorities, I’ll focus on 📋 Pre-Defined Server Templates.

Focusing on 📋 Pre-Defined Server Templates aligns with our priorities, simplifying setup for developers like Alex. With ready-made templates, Alex can quickly configure his server, making server management accessible for newcomers. This complements Roblox’s existing template database, fostering adoption.

While there’s a risk that the communities might start to look too similar and less interesting over time, my proposed counter-solution is to update the templates regularly to keep things fresh.

Conclusion

In this first part, we discussed why many developers prefer Discord and our strategy to attract new developers to Guilded. While I’d love to delve deeper into Guilded’s potential for improved safety features compared to Discord, that’s a topic for MAYBE article 4!

Still interested?

Next, we’ll explore strategies to expand Guilded’s audience reach. Click here for PART 2!