How one developer is connecting thousands of game creators on Bluesky

A new digital home: Quietly creating Bluesky's game developer network, one label at a time.

Social network Bluesky has become a digital refuge for many over the past twelve months, increasingly being seen as a much-welcomed Twitter alternative. Bluesky has grown to over 30 million users in recent months — a surge so notable even Zuckerberg and Mosseri have started borrowing features for their rival Threads platform. But, as with any shift to a new online home, comes the struggle of finding your people amongst the noise — a problem many in the gaming industry are facing.

A notable crowd of developers, publishers, indie creators, commentators, journalists, and media types have now flocked to the burgeoning platform. But one clear issue with starting anew anywhere is restoring the various connections made from over a decade-plus of Twitter usage. Did your favourite Twitter-buddy change their username? Have they got a new profile picture?

Twitter has gone to shit. Gamers, you should move to Bluesky already

The social network is ready for prime time.

overkillChris Brandrick

Well, Trezy a long-time U.S. based programmer, dev-ex lead, and game developer is shaping just how game industry professionals find and support each other on Bluesky — thanks to his novel 'Game Industry Labeler'.

We spoke with Trezy about this community effort, along with his future goals for the project, the unique challenges of building a new home for game devs in the wake of Twitter’s decline — and how, as a result of his work, he's become something of a quiet, yet guiding light in Bluesky gaming circles.

Over the years Twitter became a location of vital importance to the gaming industry at large — acting not only as a valuable networking tool for individuals, but also as a place for new game announcements to be made, a destination where developers could speak directly to their fans, and a platform where journalists could share their work. It remains a vital marketing platform for many to this day.

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As Twitter (or X) unraveled and users started to flee from the decaying bird site in sizeable numbers, Trezy — a self-confessed "chronic community organiser" — saw an opportunity to help game industry professionals reconnect and rebuild the community on the growing Bluesky platform.

"The gradual death of Twitter is a major blow for indie devs as it was previously such an important marketing tool, especially for those that didn’t have any PR assistance. As someone running an indie studio myself, I've personally felt that hit from Twitter."

"I think Bluesky is ready to pick up the torch, but realistically it’ll be some time before we’ll see anything like the marketing potential that Twitter was able to provide."

His solution: The Games Industry Labeler, a clever networking tool that repurposes one of Bluesky's core moderation tools, transforming it into a helpful, ever present resource for game industry professionals.

"When I joined Bluesky in April '23, there was no game dev community to speak of. I found a couple of other people that listed game dev in their bios, but there were no more than 10 of us on the whole platform."

The project started simply enough, with Trezy creating an 'orientation pack' of sorts as a means to help onboard game industry folks onto the then new social network. In addition, he created a chronological collection of all game development posts found across the site, bringing together related chatter into one, algorithm-free feed.

But it was Trezy's "absolutely a hack" utilisation of Bluesky's aforementioned unique labelling system (which he started working on in September, 2024), that became the breakthrough — quietly becoming one of the platform's most useful networking tools for game devs.

"The Games Industry Labeler makes it easy for people in the industry to find their peers all across Bluesky".

At its core his labeller is a tagging system that helps game developers and industry folks easily identify each other across Bluesky.

Here’s how it currently works:

• Anyone in the game industry, whether a developer, journalist, publisher, researcher, or community organiser, can request a label to be added to their Bluesky profile.
• Once approved, small labels such as “Game Dev”, “Games Journalist”, or “Game Studio” will appear alongside usernames — making it easy to spot other industry members in replies, feeds, and discussions.
• Other users of the labeller will then see these tags — helping bridge that discovery gap by making industry professionals instantly recognisable in the feed and across the wider site.

Trezy notes that his tool is helping accelerate the growth of the gaming microcosm on Bluesky, adding that his hope is "that we’ll eventually see a larger and more interconnected community of game devs supporting each other on Bluesky than we ever saw on Twitter".

Originally designed as a moderation tool, Bluesky’s system was intended solely as a way to allow users to flag content and apply custom moderation rules — but Trezy spotted it being used in other, more unique ways:

"I saw others abusing labels for non-moderation tasks — displaying pronouns or astrological signs, or even playing games — I thought it might be helpful for people in the industry to be able to identify each other."

"It turned out I was so right. I never expected it would blow up like it did." 

Within a few months, thousands of industry professionals had signed up, getting a tag of their own — in turn building out a new, professional network layer of sorts that works on top of the underlying core social features of Bluesky — with each tagged user displaying an unobtrusive, clear label, which ultimately acts as something of a handy signal to others using the tool.

"From the early days of Bluesky, I saw its potential. I saw communities starting to gather and serendipitous new connections being made, and I thought, 'This feels like home'."

But what's the overall goal here? Well, in an effort to build such a new home on the social web, Trezy, via this labeller, aims to bring those working in the gaming industry together and help foster a community of like-minded folks:

"With the continued and accelerating downhill slide of Twitter as a platform for game devs, I think we need a new home where we can meet, share, and support each other. My hope is that I can play some small role in making Bluesky that place."

To date, Trezy has now labelled several thousand Bluesky users, categorising them into various, clearly defined groups. Those tagged now include over 5,000 developers, hundreds of verified journalists, along with media organisations, educators, publishers, studios, and more.

Most of the work on the labeller is carried out by Trezy himself, particularly on the development side, but he notes that he does now have some help with handling label requests. At the start, this was all manual — it was slow, but it worked. Over time as things have scaled, this has been refined so now some tags are automated. However, in order to maintain the integrity of the system, certain groups are still manually verified.

Certain groups, such as journalists and publishers have to go through additional , manual verification processes, and for good cause — to stop impersonation. Trezy explains:

"I don’t want to accidentally prop up a fraudulent account. The last thing I want is people to believe that @superjournalist69 really represents a prolific games journalist because the Games Industry Labeler gave them a label."

Trezy notes that the open network of Bluesky has a shown a penchant for adapting its features based on how users are leveraging them and actually using them on the platform. He hopes that this embrace of the community will extend to labellers: "Those of us running labelers already have a laundry list of feature requests to support what we’ve dubbed 'positive labelers'".

The open and self-moderating culture that's developing on Bluesky hasn’t just been appealing to Trezy — it’s clearly been a key reason as to why he’s been willing to dedicate this time and effort into developing the labeller on the growing platform. He highlighted how Bluesky’s ongoing approach to handling bad actors is helping shape a healthier, more sustainable community:

"One of my absolute favourite things about Bluesky is the mentality of 'block, do not engage'. We latched onto and pushed that idea as a community across the platform from the very early days, and it’s made a huge impact on trolling and hate speech on the platform. It’s so difficult to get a rise from somebody because even if they engage initially, there will often be a Bluesky Elder that comes along to remind them, “just block them; you don’t owe this person your time.”

"The trolling, hate speech, and death threats that we’ve endured (and, frankly, perpetrated) as a community over the past decade has been awful. I think that mentality will be a major salve for the community."

With the Games Industry Labeler now connecting thousands of game professionals, and with Bluesky continuing to evolve and grow, it’s clear that Trezy’s work is more than just a quiet networking tool — it's a valuable guide to navigating the internet's new water cooler.

Curious to learn more about the Games Industry Labeler? Here's the Bluesky profile for the project.

Finally, beyond just maintaining and improving the labeller, Trezy also foots the bill for its servers. He currently accepts donations via Ko-Fi to help cover these costs.

Trezy, and his Birbhouse Games studio, is currently working on two games — a Tetris and Sokoban inspired puzzler called Debug, and a narrative survival horror adventure called The Inn at Nightfall. You can find Trezy on Bluesky here.

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