Welcome back to Part 2 of our blog series on building a Discord. In Part 1, we covered what Discord is and the benefits of using it for game development. In this installment, we’ll be going over how to make the most of your Discord and personnel action plans - specifically, what your action plan should consist of, and why you should use one.

Actions Plans - Why, What, and How

An action plan is exactly what it sounds like - it’s a roadmap of the tasks you need to perform. In this case, that roadmap leads to a thriving Discord server. But why do you need an action plan? There are several reasons.

First and foremost, it helps put everything in perspective. The organization is key when it comes to setting up large scale projects such as this, so it’s important to make sure your objectives are crystal clear and carefully thought out.

Action plans also create a clear timetable for when tasks need to be completed, and who needs to complete them. In some cases it may be necessary to break tasks up among multiple people, depending on their specific skill set or area of expertise. For example, one member of your team may be great at finding ways to promote your game through various marketing efforts, whereas another member may excel at using the Discord app itself.

Creating your action plan is also a great time for brainstorming. Your peers may have ideas that you may not have thought of. If they are valuable enough, they can be added to the action plan as tasks.

An Action Plan...in Action

Your action plan should include a multitude of things, namely: questions that need answers, existing implemented features that could be improved, and a table for things that need to be done, as well as who will be in charge of completing said tasks.

Below is an example of how the table can be set up, listed with tasks, and who is assigned to completing them. Here, we can see a list of several names: Kyle, Bobby, Nate F, and James. Each of these members has a different skill set and has thus been given tasks that pertain to them.

Kyle is skilled at using the Discord app, so has been charged with tasks that specifically involve setting up the server itself. Bobby is great at things like wikis, so he has been tasked with setting up two wikis for our game. Nate is a coder, so he’s been assigned with getting Rich Presence up and running in the server. James is our marketing guy, so he’s in charge of setting up a giveaway as well as setting up any other outside marketing to get people into the server.

Action plans will vary from server-to-server. A server based on a whole studio with many games will have a different action plan than a server centered around a single game, for example. In our server, we have channels set up for each of our games, and different tasks pertaining to each one. A server for a single game will have different needs, and all tasks will end up pertaining to that game.

Plan to Win

Having a well thought-out action plan will greatly increase your chances of success in creating your server. Once everything is clearly laid out and planned, it will give you and other members of your team a much clearer perspective on what needs to be done, and who needs to complete the tasks. Although an action plan is vital to making sure everything that’s necessary for setting up your server is completed, it’s just the beginning - the first piece in an otherwise much larger project.

Think of your action plan as the box of a jigsaw puzzle, whereas setting up your server is the jigsaw puzzle itself. The box shows you exactly what it’s supposed to look like in the end, but it’s still up to you and your team to put the pieces together to complete the puzzle. Without the box, you have no idea what your puzzle is supposed to look like, and it’s only after you’ve begun putting it together that you’re able to figure out whether or not you’re missing any pieces. Hopefully, in the end, your puzzle will match the box.

Be sure to join us next time, where we’ll be discussing the different ways you can add some flare and polish to your server.

 

Want to see the action for yourself? Join the Mega Cat Discord here!

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