Rapidly-growing chat software specialist Discord has pulled back the curtain on GameBridge, a new program that gives devs the tools to integrate voice and text chat into their projects.
The new program means developers will have the ability to connect their games directly with Discord's base of 25 million registered users, giving devs a new venue to cultivate and connect with online communities.
The GameBridge SDK is completely free, and allows developers to use the entirety of Discord's feature set to build tailored UIs that match the design of their game.
Developers could use the SDK in a variety of ways, such as auto-matching players in voice rooms and extending guild chats beyond a game itself. However, Discord says the GameBridge SDK isn't just for in-game communication.
"Devs can use Discord to help build, grow, and engage game communities for players to participate in when they are at their computer or via mobile devices even when they are away from their PC," explained the company.
Eleven notable companies have already signed-up for the GameBridge program, including Boss Key Productions, Trion Worlds, Pocketwatch Games, and Archetype Studios.
Discord CMO, Eros Resmini, says the GameBridge integration process will vary depending on how a dev hopes to utilize it, but that simplicity was the company's number one priority.
"[Integration] will depend on what features a dev wants to add to their game, with voice or text chat being one type of integration and connecting with their game community being another. In all cases, the features are provided as a fairly straightforward dev toolkit," said Resmini.
"GameBridge is starting in private beta, so we’ll take a look at people who are interested and start granting access to those special snowflakes we see. Eventually, we’ll open the whole thing up as we have with our previous API which any dev can take advantage of today."
For more information on Discord's latest venture, head on over to the official GameBridge website.