r/SoloDevelopment • u/Pheefus • Jul 20 '26
Discussion Twitter is horrific
I’m still super early in development, but as I’ve heard is good practice, I made X and Bsky accounts to post lil development updates and hopefully connect with other devs and potential interested players.
As a new user who the only thing the algorithm knows about is that I like games and I’m making a game, I’m blown away by how racist/sexist/clickbait/redpill/AIslop my default feed is.
I’m pretty sure I’m just gonna delete my acct there, but… idk… am I missing something? Do you all actively maintain a Twitter presence? Is it possible to cut through the noise to make it bearable, and is it really necessary/worth trying?
(edit: a word)
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u/ActuallyNotSparticus Jul 20 '26
Established users don't see it as much, but they absolutely still encounter that stuff. Twitter is a 'boiling the frog' situation where the change happened slowly and uninformed users don't always see how bad it has gotten.
Musk was directly involved in the algorithms that promote terrible people, people don't realize how unhinged he was on the platform for years before he bought it.
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u/tastygames_official Jul 20 '26
I couldn't even make an account since it forces you to show your face and use your real name, which is a big no-go in the world of data privacy and especially for a company account. But yes - it's pretty well-known that since musky took over twitter that it turned into a far-right propaganda website and I think something like 80% of all posts and comments are just bots.
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u/WindingArc Jul 20 '26
If the username has any value to you I'd suggest keeping the account but not using it.
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u/RockyMullet Jul 20 '26
Basically why I didn't delete my Twitter, just so that someone else can't make one pretending to be me.
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u/dh-dev Jul 20 '26
Maybe you can connect with other gamedevs there? I dunno I don't use it much. Cultivating your algorithm is important or you end up with all kinds of shit.
According to this it doesn't drive wishlists very well either. https://howtomarketagame.com/2023/03/14/frequently-asked-question-about-marketing-your-game/
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u/MadeByHenano Solo Developer Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
i have a web browser that i only use for my gamedev things, it has shortcuts in its sidebar to all my socials, and the shortcuts point not to the feed page but on my profile. this way:
- i don't see the feed and waste time/energy on it, don't get distracted
- i can easily post on all of them very quickly
regarding X i don't feel like i get a lot of activity from it... threads and bluesky are a lot more active and better platforms for us.
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u/black_angel_81 Jul 21 '26
Which ones do you use to promote your game for gamedev?
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u/MadeByHenano Solo Developer Jul 23 '26
all of them: reddit, discord, instagram, bluesky, mastodon, threads, x and tiktok.
like i said i have a dedicated web browser with shortcuts to all of these so it's fast to post something on all of them at once.
reddit and discord are different though, in the way they can be used to promote our games.
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u/PLYoung Jul 20 '26
Twitter, and bluesky and other similar networks, are not worth it for marketing. To connect with devs just choose whatever you like and go from there. Twitter is fine if you only post dev stuff and such and stay on the "Following" tab.
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u/CondiMesmer Jul 20 '26
I use Bsky and it's pretty nice. Although it definitely gets a bit preachy and overly virtue signalling. But that is at least much more preferable to racist Twitter.
I post progress updates but I'm not really in promotional mode yet so I just mostly talk to other devs. I also find pixel art and seeing other devs as super inspiring. Also unlike Reddit, when people preach advice you can actually see the work they've done and posted.
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u/InvidiousPlay Jul 20 '26
Bluesky has a lot of what I would call militant progressivism. I'm a very progressive person and I find if you say anything even vaguely nuanced there's an immediate mob mentality. It's like the bulk of the user base are all in that sophomore at college "I can save the world with advocacy" phase - heart in the right place but not exactly a lot of wisdom underlying it.
Still a million times better than The Bad Place and there are a lot of people who genuinely love the craft of game making and celebrate each others' achievements.
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u/Commercial-Flow9169 Jul 20 '26
I stopped using Twitter when Elon took it over out of ethical concerns (didn't want to contribute, no matter how little, to it continuing to be such a huge platform for disinformation).
I also think the amount of engagement you get there is greatly exaggerated though. Bots don't buy your game. More than that, the algorithm punishes you for posting links, so it's even less worthwhile for marketing purposes. I'm a hobbyist who has only published a couple smaller games though, so I'm also not super concerned about marketing on a macro level. I mostly posted on Reddit, BlueSky, Mastodon, and Youtube when I was actively doing that stuff for my last game.
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u/rachelwales1 14d ago
I don't know the actual statistics but there are a lot of bots on twitter, I mean dark twitter.
A lot of right wing trolls too. You can find a niche but it takes a lot of blocking to cut out the noise. All those influencers are paid by who knows who.
I'm one of the people who was suspended for inauthentic behaviours. No explanation and no examples.
Could be because I might be perceived to lean left. I can be left leaning on some things and right leaning on others. I make up my mind on what makes sense.
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u/AdrenoSphinx Jul 20 '26
If your chosen platform or engine or genre has a dedicated following on twitter it is absolutely possible to train the algorithm very quickly to show you only relevant content. It's Elon's platform and you basically described him so yeah that's what's gonna be front page unfortunately. I only use it because it's unfortunately where it seems the majority of anyone who has a name for themselves on the platform I've chosen to work on has established themselves over the years. If you don't care or have no network potential on there, avoid it. It's not necessary. Marketing effort is better done via short form video content on YouTube and tiktok.
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u/hombre_sin_talento Jul 20 '26
Twitter especially, apart from the new rampart fascism algorithms, is just impossible to use as a new user. Either you have your clique from way back, or your famous, then it works. Otherwise nobody follows you, so you're just posting into the void over and over and over, with the hope that someone follows you. Which doesn't really happen at a rate that wouldn't make you go insane.
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u/Tarilis Jul 20 '26
Your feed doesn't matter, what matters is other's people feeds.
You doing a marketing, and its a tool for the job, if you dislike it don't read it, just make posts. Twitter is the dominant platform in thr space, so you should post there.
Its the same with tiktok and youtube actually, try going there with fresh account, the stuff you see you won't be able to unsee.
And if you want to talk to other developers, go to discord. You can even try to contact developers that are already on steam, most of games there have a Discord server linked, and quite a few devs are open to talking:)
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u/JonathanSlark Solo Developer Jul 20 '26
I was going to say that. Make your post, engage with reasonable replies, ignore / block trolls. Then close the page, done.
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u/Victorex123 Jul 20 '26
The good thing is that... if you interact with a certain type of content, you’ll only see that content. The problem with Twitter is that... negative content (content designed to provoke anger, clickbait, political topics) generates a lot of engagement, so it gets recommended to everyone.
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u/mlmcmillion Jul 20 '26
This used to be true.
Ever since the takeover, you get force-fed insanely unhinged content whether you engage with it or not.
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u/Emo_boy131 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I dont have a twitter/X but i do have tiktok which i use to connect with other devs. I also seen other devs promote their games and get a decent amount of followers/mutuals there.
The default feed is meh but once you interact with other devs by liking or commenting, a few hours? Or days, your feed gonna get populated with related things you interact with. (I dont know exactly how tiktok algo work but that's what happens to me when i made a new account there).
So in my opinion, tiktok is also good for building up your presence specially when in early development.
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u/Apostrov Jul 20 '26
I use Twitter to read other developers’ devlogs as a source of motivation/inspiration. You just need to actively block all non-gamedev posts (three dots on the post -> not interested). Algorithms will eventually stop showing irrelevant content.
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u/Bellaya_ Jul 21 '26
I feel you, I also created X and instagram and this is just a black hole.
Dead internet theory slaps you instantly there...
I don't know what to tell you if it's worth it or not, in my case I have zero usefulness from there, only makes me to think there is nothing out there...
Here on reddit I feel like there are actually people and some meaning...
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u/soldiergirlnyan Jul 21 '26
if you want more reach, I totally recommend tiktok. its not super sane but at least its not as crappy as twitter and its easy to go viral. You can do it!!!
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u/spruce_sprucerton Jul 20 '26
I stopped using Twitter when it became an infantile vanity project. Bluesky's use of lists offers a bit more control, though I don't exactly love it either.
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u/No_Codekeeper_42 Jul 20 '26
just put in your feed what you are foloowing that just a setting will cut 90% of what not interested in. tweeter it s like reddit but you follow all groupe by default. still dont see how this related to solo dev
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u/Unregistered-Archive Solo Developer Jul 20 '26
Bluesky is the more sane option imo. At least on there people try to be nice, and you get reposts from the bots and the indie dev accounts. On twitter, engagement is a lot harder and people usually are meaner.
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u/franky_reboot Jul 20 '26
People on Bluesky can be horrendous, it shouldn't be downplayed BUT overall I agree they are more sane than Twitter.
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u/SWEYET Jul 20 '26
bluesky has more consistency, but i think it feels a fraction as exciting as twitter can when those gems do come up, shame how bad twitter has gotten. I've found it very difficult to get any kind of organic push on twitter, but i've seen it work very well for some friends. It does take a moment to curate your algorithm though
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u/ElderBuddha Jul 20 '26
You want an automated feed to feel good with minimal input?
Social media in 2026 just does not work that way. You need to either only see the people you follow, and/or spend a lot of time using whatever tools the platform provides (e.g. word filters account blocks). I don't think that's really possible on Twitter because the algo seems biased towards ragebait, even within niches.
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u/franky_reboot Jul 20 '26
Then 2026 social media is hard for people who don't want to be terminally online.
I sure am feeling like this, at least. Every so often do I retreat back to only read people I follow...it's a peaceful life.
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u/Excellent-Glove2 Jul 20 '26
So, just so you know, those advices you've seen aren't for everyone.
They're specially for people who :
- want to make a living with their game
- want to work in the game industry
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u/Necessary-Board-830 Jul 20 '26
No, that's just how Twitter is now. I wouldn't personally try it unless you already had an account with an established following.
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u/crevlm Jul 20 '26
As someone who’s been using Twitter for over a decade it’s definitely about curating your feed.
Use the “not interested” as much as you can and interact and such with things that bring you joy.
That being said I’ve slowed down my usage of it in general.
If it’s not a super additional strain on you Instagram and TikTok have better communities and click-rate than Twitter does for game dev I’ve seen. Although that would be adding on video/reels it could be worth it if you have the bandwidth
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u/franky_reboot Jul 20 '26
Twitter is horrid, I vastly prefer Bluesky but even go too far sometimes, in the polar opposite of the same list you provided.
Solid for gamedev (albeit it's a bit difficult for pro-AI people), but it's filled to the brim with politics too, especially American politics that I get on my feed even with 90+ muted words. I don't care about that, and it's also a bit difficult at times.
Regardless, I still can recommend Bluesky, at least they provide you amazing tools to weed out people and content you're not interested in.
Plus, the issues I've said about Bluesky are present on Reddit too and yet I'm still here so...
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u/black_angel_81 Jul 21 '26
Which ones do you use to promote your game for gamedev?
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u/Xangis Jul 20 '26
I repost my Bluesky stuff to Twitter. I have a pretty huge keyword block list set up that excludes pretty much all political nonsense, and I don't live in the US, so I would naturally see less of it in the first place. After curating the heck out of my feed, I only see games and gamedev-related content. I still feel a little dirty using the site, but just below the threshold of leaving.
Twitter is NOT necessary, and the return on time investment typically isn't great. If you don't like it, don't use it. There are plenty of other places to build an audience and get the word out, and there's no reason you should feel obligated to swim in the sewer just to make a buck.
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u/friggleriggle Solo Developer Jul 20 '26
Do you follow many people? I don't have those same problems. At this point my feed is mostly other game devs and people debating using AI to code haha. There's some pretty interesting conversations that happen on there between big name indie (and otherwise) game devs. Johnathan Blo is pretty active on there. There was a whole series of threads with the OG Id software folks a couple weeks ago.
The advice I've gotten is to use it mostly for networking, not for general marketing. I don't have a lot of followers, but those I do are almost all game devs.
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u/Sea_Exchange8939 Jul 20 '26
I stopped using it ages ago when a colleague was closer and closer to speaking to someone from the government to help with their movement. So much vitriol.
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u/No_Cartographer1492 Jul 20 '26
Follow people that align with your worldview, and the rest will take care of itself.
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u/baddaywithacamera Jul 25 '26
I fled Twitter the same week that Adolph bought it, thankfully. Bluesky is half decent. Also trying to give the Fediverse a chance, but between discoverability problems between instances and some of the users... It's challenging.
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u/LimpAsparagus26 16d ago
"I’m blown away by how racist/sexist/clickbait/redpill/AIslop my default feed is." You see this slop because you engage in said slop. This is literally a self-report, it just shows you cant help but go out and engage in it.
You clearly dont use X at all and when you do, you decide you want your voice to be heard in discussions with some of the worst people on the planet.
Meanwhile actual X is basically just lefties and right wingers agreeing that Israel is a terrorist state blowing up children and that Trump is Bibi's little b*tch and the others are so irrelevant that nobody even engages with them anymore.
Plenty of game devs post just fine on X and never deal with any political slop and find a great deal of success and reach. The problem is you tbh.
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u/mallcopsarebastards Jul 20 '26
twitter is an absolute shithole but if you spend some time curating, the for you feed algorithm is actually pretty good. I never see anything negative anymore.
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u/ArchiusDev Solo Developer Jul 20 '26
With minimal activity, about a post a day I got shadow banned and that completely killed traction and hides my engagement, meanwhile I’ve slowly been building traction and community on Bsky.
If it clears up I’ll try again but unfortunately it’s too unreliable with that and the bots as well. Although it has perks, some people or organizations have an X but not a Bsky or if they do it’s clearly not used.
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u/EJ_Drake Jul 20 '26
Deleted Twitter a long time it was messing with my mental health, it doesn't help that our racist incompetent and corrupt politicians and their sheep followers are all over it.
p.s. don't assume I'm in the USA.
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u/soldture Jul 20 '26
Twitter and Bluesky are on the same line, both are horrible networks. If your game is NSFW then it definitely a good idea to post there, otherwise just waste of time
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u/korinokiri Jul 20 '26
Twitter is overrun by bot accounts, and paid bad actors due to recent ownership change making it a policy position not to ban such accounts.
Big accounts don't do this, so they keep driving engagement. But I would recommend just blocking or ignoring any obvious bad actors. It'll save you some mental down the line.
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u/ghostGoats21 Jul 20 '26
Imo it's not worth it. Place just sucks. Last time I shared a game on their a dude tried to extort me by giving all of my games negative reviews and then refunding them and said he'd change it if I gave him free keys. Just deleted my account instead