Key Takeaways
- Accelerated Development: Omeda used the integration to power their social layer, enabling them to launch in-game voice chat and a unified friends list in just a few months, freeing their team to focus on building Predecessor itself.
- Seamless Immersion: Players can message, join parties, and manage friends through Discord-powered social features, without ever leaving the game.
- Organic Growth: Effortless friend invites and built-in social connections naturally boosted referrals and new player acquisition.
- Platform Consistency: Omeda ensured their integration ran smoothly across PC and console, delivering reliable voice chat and core features for players on both platforms.
Background: Predecessor and the Team
Predecessor is a third-person MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) from Omeda Studios that mixes classic lane-and-hero strategy with action-driven combat. For a game that depends on fast coordination, a seamless social layer is essential.
Robbie Singh, the studio’s founder and CEO, already knew the value of Discord from growing his own creator community, so he brought that same approach directly into Omeda’s workflows. The team now relies on Discord for daily voice calls, low-latency Unreal Engine screen sharing, and internal test servers—making it a core part of development.
Challenge: Balancing Core Gameplay with Social Demands
As an indie studio, Omeda prioritized building a great game that players would love. Players loved the game experience so much that they quickly started asking for more, especially voice chat and richer social features. Omeda wanted those features too, but building a full communication stack from scratch would have required time and engineering resources they simply didn’t have.
Opportunity: Partnership and Seamless Integration
After a successful Discord Quest campaign, Omeda saw a clear win-win in adopting the Discord as their primary social layer: they could deliver the robust social features their players were asking for without sacrificing the studio’s development schedule.
The integration delivered:
- In-Game Voice Chat: The same clear, reliable voice calling that players expect from Discord, directly inside Predecessor.
- Unified Friends List and Messaging: Players can message friends while in-game—no need to tab out.
- Easy Grouping: Players can send party invites straight from the game to Discord, letting friends jump into Predecessor with a single click.
- Account Linking: Ensuring players can stay connected before, during, and after play time within Discord.
As an early partner, Omeda worked closely with the Discord team to ensure both the PC and console experiences were on par, making crossplay seamless for users no matter where they play.
Integrating Discord’s technology allowed these social features–that had been entirely absent from the yearly roadmap–to be delivered and shipped in a few months. For Predecessor, this allowed Omeda to put their development focus back on gameplay.
Results: Deeper Connections and Business Growth
Predecessor surprised players by debuting the in-game voice chat during a live Twitch development stream. As Singh noted, "the chat went crazy", and players responded well in the game as soon as it was available.
Voice instantly changed how players interacted. It helped people connect with teammates they might never have spoken to, and the impact on both the community and the business has been significant:
- Community Bonds: By simplifying friend connections across Predecessor and Discord, the integration helped the community grow. As Singh stated, the voice integration "creates a relationship that lasts beyond the match experience." This deepened the sense of belonging that keeps players coming back.
- Business Longevity: The studio knew Predecessor is “very sticky when played with friends,” which made strong social features a direct driver of long-term retention and overall business health.
- Acquisition Lift: Simpler friend invites led to a clear uptick in player referrals. As Singh mentioned, “We've seen that over the period of time since the Discord integration was introduced that the amount of people referring people in our game has increased.” This turned everyday social behavior into a reliable engine for organic growth.
Integrating Discord as their social layer gave Omeda the ability to deepen player connection and support the game’s continued growth, all while delivering a better, more social gaming experience.
Ready to grow your game’s success?
Whether you are looking for a strategic partnership or ready to start building, we have the resources to help you scale:
- Partner with us: To discuss how Discord can serve as your game’s social layer and drive business growth, contact our Business Development team.
- Explore our solutions: Visit our developer home to see the full suite of tools Discord offers to help games build and grow.
- Technical deep-dive: Ready to see how it works under the hood? Review our technical documentation for a look at the implementation process.
