Community
Connecting games, people, and the teams behind them.
Experiences
The community work I've done and my role in it.
Community Manager
Fonts LLC was an app developed for smart-phones with one idea in mind: Allow the users to fully customize and configure the fonts of not only everything in their device, but also outgoing content;
Be creative, Be expressive, Be yourself.
Note: Visual assets from this project are no longer available. The application was subsequently sold to another company, and the original team/assets are no longer accessible to me.
The Product
Fonts LLC was a mobile application that allowed users to customize the typography used across their device by selecting from a wide range of fonts.
The app initially launched with a relatively small selection, but expanded over time as we introduced new typefaces, features, and customization based on user demand and feedback.
The app grew into a successful product, reaching 70+ million unique downloads, becoming the top-ranked app in more than 30 countries, and reaching top 200 apps worldwide.
My Role
I worked as the Lead Community Manager and UI/UX designer for the project.
My primary responsibility was managing our social media presence and maintaining a positive, ongoing relationship with the user community. I also acted as an important link between the users and the development team, gathering feedback and translating community requests into actionable ideas.
I organized social media activities, challenges, polls, and feedback forms that allowed users to directly influence the development of the app.
I then analyzed the results, picked the most popular requests, created mock-ups and early-stage prototype where appropriate, and presented these ideas to the project leads togher with suggestions for how they could be implemented
The Community
The community consisted of a broad range of users with very different needs. This included younger users looking to personalize the appearance of their mobile devices, as well as older users who benefited from larger, more readable fonts.
We maintained a presence across several platforms and channels, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the App-store ecosystem. We also worked with other app developers, helping them incorporate our tools and features into their own products.
This variety meant that communication had to be adapted depending on audience, platform, and purpose.
Communication
My primary communication channels were our social media accounts, the project's support email, and direct communication with active community members, influential users, and other development teams.
I created social media posts, competitions, polls, and other community activities designed both to encourage engagement and to gather useful feedback.
For example, we ran campaigns where users could vote on which new fonts should be added to the application. We also offered premium access as rewards for participating in challenges, providing suggestions, or creating content that could subsequently be shared through our social channels
These activities server two purposes: Building engagement with the community while also giving the dev team a better understanding of what users actually wanted.
What I learned
This was my first large-scale project where I worked as the dedicated Community lead. I had previously worked for communities, such as through QA or Technical support roles, but being responsible for the primary outward-facing relationship between a product and its users was a very different experience.
The role taught me how much goes into maintaining a healthy community around a product. I learned to adapt communication to different audiences and cultures, work around languages barriers, manage expectations, and translate user feedback into usable information for the designers and developers to act upon.
Working closely with the development team also taught me how to balance the community requests with technical limitations and the wider goal of the product.
I also gained a lot of experience presenting ideas, leading discussions, and hosting team meetings - experiences that could be both challenging and rewarding, particularly when bringing community feedback directly into the development process.
Problem Solving
As one of the primary outward-facing members of the project, I was also responsible for handling user support and feedback.
I responded to support requests through email and social media, resolving straightforward issues directly whenever possible before escalating it to the appropriate developers.
For example, if a particular font caused the application to crash, I would collect information from the affected users, identify any common factors, document the issue, and provide the development team with the information needed to investigate it.
I also used community feedback to identify broader product issues and opportunities. Through polls, questionnaires, and discussions, we could identify which features users valued, which needed improvement, and which additions they would most like to see in future updates
Stunlock Studios
Events & Player Engagement
I worked with Stunlock Studios at several major gaming conventions, including IEM Katowice and Dreamhack, supporting the public presentation and player experience for Battlerite.
My role combined event coordination, player support, game demonstration, and direct community interaction. I worked on the booth throughout the events, helping new and rteturning players experience the game while representing Stunlock and answering quetions about its current and upcoming content.
Event Coordination
Beyond the regular booth experience, I assisted with larger activities taking place during the events, including competitive matches involving esports players from other games.
This required coordinating players and attendees, helping ensure that the systems and play areas were ready, and assisting with the smooth running of the event.
I was also involved in the practical setup of the booth and its gaming systems, ensuring that the equipment was ready for attendees and that issues could be addressed when they occurred.
Community & Player interaction
Because I was directly representing the game to attendees, I handled a wide range of questions and conversations about Battlerite.
This included questions about the games current state, its development and future plans, as well as general gameplay and player experience.
I also helped maintain interest around the booth by engaging with attendees, answering questions, directing people toward the available playtests, and heling them get the most out of the time with the game.
The role gave me first-hand experience of communicating with players at different levels of familiarity with a game - from people discovering Battlerite for the first time to more experienced players interested in its competitive aspects.
Working with Partners
The booth also required coordination with companies and teams supporting the event.
One such example was Razer, who provided some of the hardware used in the Battlerite playtests. I maintained communication with representatives from partner booths and assisted with the practical coordination required to keep the setup running.
This gave me experience working not only with players and attendees, but also with external partners involved in presenting the game.
The Experience
A large part of my role was helping attendees get from "I've never played this before" to actually playing Battlerite.
I welcomed attendees at the booth, introduced new players to the game, explained the controls and core mechanics, and helped them understand the objective and basic gameplay before they started their first match.
Once players were familiar with the game, I helped organize matches between attendees, provided assistance when needed, and managed the flow of people using the available playtest systems.
This meant constantly adapting my approach for each person in front of me - some players needed a basic introduction to the controls, while others immediately wanted to understand the deeper mechanics or competitive side of the game.
What I learned
Working directly with Battlerite players gave me an early opportunity to see how people would respond to a game before, during, and immediately after playing it.
I learned how to quickly understand what a player would need from an interaction - whether that meant explaining the fundamentals, answering specific questions, helping them overcome some issue, or simply giving them the space needed to discover the game for themselves.
It also taught me how important the person representing a game can be to the players first impression of it. At an event, I wasn't simply explaining how Battlerite worked; I was part of the player's experience with the game and, by extension, their experience with Stunlock Studios.