This week, we’re thrilled to be joining thousands of fellow game industry professionals at the annual Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. While the industry continues to face hard challenges, GDC stays strong as a place where the most passionate, creative minds from across the world come together and connect over their love of games. 

That’s why today, I’m proud to announce that our new Discord Social SDK is now available at no cost for all game developers to download and start implementing in their games today.

This SDK allows developers of all sizes to bring Discord directly into their games to help empower players to connect and enhance their multiplayer experiences.  

Players on Discord can chat with their in-game friends and teammates to coordinate and share their gameplay experience, and in-game players can talk with Discord users — even if they don’t have a Discord account themselves.

How the Discord Social SDK works

The Discord Social SDK is available for games built using C++, Unreal Engine, and Unity, and currently supports Windows 11+ and macOS, with support for console and mobile coming soon. By leveraging the SDK, developers can power their game’s social features with the same robust solutions trusted by over 200M monthly active users across Discord, including:

• Unified Friends List:
  Players can access their Discord friends list in-game and their in-game friends list in Discord, enabling players to stay connected in and out of game. 
• Deeplink Game Invites:
  Players can send invites directly from their in-game unified friends list to their Discord friends that drop them into the exact party/lobby/session, increasing player retention and engagement.
• Rich Presence:
  Players spread the word about a game just by playing it. Now available for PC, console, and mobile, rich presence lets a player surface their gaming activity in Discord as they are playing and can be configured to enable one-click game joins from player profiles. This leads to more discovery and exposure for the game, as well as more multiplayer gaming sessions.
• Flexible Account Requirements:
  A Discord account is not required for players to enjoy a unified social experience within the game, but account linking is available for those who wish to connect their in-game experience to their Discord for an even more engaging experience that keeps the conversation around the game going even when they are not actively playing.

All of the features above are fully available off the shelf, and we’ve been working on even more ways Discord can help game developers connect their players together with our powerful communication tools. These features, currently available to all developers but with limited access, can be fully unlocked by joining our closed beta: 

Cross-Platform Messaging allows players to communicate seamlessly both in-game and through Discord, even without a Discord account. This further allows direct messages between users that can persist in the game as well as within Discord.

Linked Channels make it possible for players to link their in-game chat to specific Discord channels in their servers, providing a space for guilds, groups, and squads of all sizes that’s persistent across both in-game and Discord.

Discord Voice Chat brings some of the highest quality audio chat for players today directly into your game, utilizing the same Discord voice tools used by our client. This means real time conversations for your guilds, matches, and in-game lobbies all benefit from the same voice chat that has made Discord the gold standard for video game comms.

Interested in fully unlocking the closed beta features of the Discord Social SDK? Fill out an application for our closed beta for additional features: 

See the Discord Social SDK action

The Social SDK is meant to enhance connectivity and bring the power of Discord directly into your favorite games. Through early partnerships with our fellow game developers, we’ve been able to ensure the integration is smooth and the player experience seamless.

RUST

“Integrating the Discord SDK into the project was a smooth and straightforward process. The included Unity sample was incredibly helpful, as it covered the majority of the steps we needed to take to get the SDK up and running. The sample provided clear examples of how to use the core features, and we were able to replicate these examples and customize them for Rust’s specific needs.” Rohan Singh, Senior Specialist Programmer, Facepunch Studios.

Through these early integrations, we've optimized our SDK from partner feedback, like ensuring that players can control who sees them online playing their games, and troubleshooting provisional accounts to ensure players without Discord accounts have the same, consistent experience.

Despite these games acting as a testing ground for Discord’s latest innovation, we have already seen real results driven by eager players taking advantage of this supercharged social experience.

SUPERVIVE

"The Discord SDK makes social features like direct messaging, lobbies, and session invites easy. Provisional accounts help us deliver this value to all of our players." Andrew Johnston, Staff Software Engineer, Theorycraft Games.

From the first few weeks of integrating the Discord Social SDK in SUPERVIVE by Theorycraft Games, they found that their players who linked their Discord accounts show a marked increase in playtime, exceeding those who haven't linked their accounts by over 65%. Additionally, these connected players had a nearly 25% higher frequency of active days in the game, further highlighting the SDK's potential to have a positive impact in creating a more connected and immersive gaming experience. That’s the kind of player-to-player influence we believe is unique to Discord: where excitement can turn into action, and social connections can drive deeper engagement.

Want to learn more about SUPERVIVE’s success? Check out the case study! Theorycraft Games Deepens SUPERVIVE's Discord-Driven Development Strategy.

PAX DEI

“Pax Dei is at heart a social sandbox. Our collaboration to put Discord at the heart of our MMO makes that deep social vision a reality, offering a world where you can find your friends and deepen those connections both in and outside our game.” Thor Gunnarsson, Co-founder & CEO, Mainframe Industries

The team at Mainframe Industries have rolled out one of the most ambitious MMOs seen in a generation, with stunning graphics at a massive scale. Because social connection can be crucial to successfully slain foes and beautifully crafted abodes in the medieval fantasy world, the Discord Social SDK plays a vital role in keeping players connected, both in-game and out.  

Discord’s Developer-Focused Future

We’ve spent the past year building on how we work with developers and expanding our offerings for them.

Developers can build, launch, distribute, get discovered, and monetize natively on the Discord client through Discord Activities. We established platform foundations to increase the visibility of Activities with features like the App Launcher on desktop and mobile, added the ability to launch Activities from text channels, and more.

We’ll continue to invest in helping developers drive discovery and get people in their games, including through Quests, our innovative advertising format. Within the first year of launch, we've delivered tremendous results to developers of all sizes, from Blizzard’s MMO powerhouse World of Warcraft, to Hoyoverse’s international hit Genshin Impact, and the indie shooter from FRVR, Krunker Strike.

And now, the next step in our journey is bringing all the value of Discord directly into games with our Social SDK, offering developers tools to build, grow, and engage with players at every stage of their journey.

Get Started Today

To learn more about the Discord Social SDK, access user documentation, and download the SDK to start implementing it into your own game, check it out at the page below: