How to share your startup on r/gamedev
TL;DR
r/gamedev is a free subreddit with about 2.07 million members (September 2026) for discussion of game development: programming, design, writing, art, game jams, postmortems and marketing. Its rules ban project showcases and link-only self-promotion, so a game studio or tool startup gets in through a postmortem, analytics, a survey with published results or a technical lesson. It suits game founders and tool makers who can teach something.
How we checked: we read these rules through public subreddit trackers in October 2026. Read the sidebar and the pinned posts before you post, since moderators update the rules.
What is r/gamedev?
r/gamedev gathers professional and hobbyist game developers. A postmortem in this world is a write-up after a game ships that covers what worked, what failed and the numbers behind it: sales, wishlists, budget.
The subreddit has eight rules, and four of them decide what a founder can post:
- Rule 3, no project showcases: you may not show off your project or artwork at any stage. The rule sends those posts to r/indiegames, r/playmygame, r/gamedevscreens or the subreddit's Discord.
- Rule 4, no blatant self-promotion: "Posts with only a link to social media, game pages, or similar will result in a ban." Links are allowed when they serve a purpose: a postmortem, analytics, a game jam, a survey with published results, discussion or learning.
- Rule 5: no looking for staff or collaborators, paid or unpaid. Use r/INAT or r/gameDevClassifieds.
- Rule 6: shared resources must be free, properly licensed and credited. Paid assets and content are out, and so are giveaways and temporary 100% off sales.
Rule 8 also requires English in posts and comments.
Who should post on r/gamedev?
Good fit:
- Indie studio founders with a postmortem: sales, wishlists, marketing spend, what failed.
- Makers of free tools, plugins or open-source libraries for game developers, presented through a technical write-up.
- Founders running a survey of developers who will publish the results.
Skip it:
- If you sell a paid asset, tool or course: rule 6 limits shared resources to free ones.
- If you want SEO: links in Reddit posts carry nofollow, and the DA 95 belongs to reddit.com.
How much does r/gamedev cost?
Posting is free, and the subreddit sells no promotion. Rule 6 bans giveaways, so a campaign of free game copies has no place here either.
How do you share your startup on r/gamedev?
- Open r/gamedev, join, and read the full rules. Build some history first by answering other developers' questions.
- Write a text post that teaches: a postmortem with real figures, an analysis of your store page data, or a technical breakdown of a problem you solved. The post has to deliver its value without a single click.
- Add a link only where it backs up the content (a dataset, the full write-up, the survey), and never post a link on its own, because rule 4 punishes link-only posts with a ban. Write in English and stay to answer comments.
Tips to get more out of r/gamedev
- Publish the numbers: wishlists before launch, first-week sales, refund rate, ad spend. Rule 4 names postmortems and analytics as accepted reasons to link.
- Put the lesson in the title, such as "What 3,000 wishlists gave us on launch day", and keep the game name in the body.
- Send visuals to the right place. Screenshots and trailers belong in r/gamedevscreens or r/indiegames, and r/gamedev gets the story behind them.
- Run a survey and bring the results back. Rule 4 accepts survey links when the results get published.
Our verdict
r/gamedev reaches about two million game developers and rewards founders who teach. Use it to earn credibility with postmortems and data, and take launch posts to the showcase subreddits its own rules name.
More options: see all subreddits for founders. Planning the launch around this listing? The Fe/male Switch startup game walks women founders from idea to first customers.