Discord’s Social SDK (software development kit) lets developers add friend lists, cross-platform messaging, voice chat, and other messaging features to their projects. Players don’t need a Discord account to use these features, it says.
Discord’s Social SDK (software development kit) lets developers add friend lists, cross-platform messaging, voice chat, and other messaging features to their projects. Players don’t need a Discord account to use these features, it says.
The company hopes this will help developers increase player engagement and retention by adding social features and access to the Discord ecosystem, which has over 200 million monthly active users.
The press release notes that Theorycraft Games, Facepunch Studios, 1047 Games, Scopely, Mainframe Industries, Elodie Games, and Tencent Games are already using the new Social SDK. The developer toolset is compatible with C++, both Unreal Engine and Unity, and supports Windows 11+ and macOS. Support for consoles and mobile devices will be coming soon.
«For game creators from indie to AAA, Discord is the place to connect with the largest and most engaged community of players in the world to drive the development of your game before, during, and after launch. Game discovery and engagement has never been more important, and we’re excited to help developers grow their projects by reaching gamers where they are,» commented Stanislav Vyshnevsky, Co-Founder and CTO of Discord.
The Discord Social SDK offers a set of features that improve player communication and engagement, including:
It is noted that a Discord account is not required for players to experience a «shared social experience in the game».
Additionally, Discord is releasing closed beta features to support in-game communication, including cross-platform messaging (between PC, consoles, and mobile), the ability to tie in-game chat to a specific Discord server, and adding voice chat based on Discord’s voice tools.
