Game communities are inevitable – in fact, they’re one of the main features of a game. How can our online interactions be better, kinder, more productive conversations? How can community managers design online spaces with inherent kindness in mind and create places that encourage member growth and engagement? This book provides a step-by-step strategy for creating long-term, sustainable, and intentional online spaces that matter – ones that care, grow, and connect. Using real-world experience in multiple genres of games, this book covers the fundamental concepts of designing an online community from the core basics of what it is, and then the journey from pre-launch to post-launch. With a deep dive into the practical framework for building stronger communities, it reveals the advantages and reasons why positive, cohesive, and unified spaces are more productive than their less structured counterparts. Additional engagement tips, and why these positive communities drive both business and ethical value, will be explored as an extremely relevant topic for our ever-increasing online world. The content will focus mainly on game communities and independent games, but lessons may be applied to larger studios and industries. Consumers are more inundated with typical marketing schemes than ever, and social media has only become a more powerful, yet chaotic tool over the years. Leave the high-level concepts behind to dig deep and see how community managers can tackle ever-changing algorithms and an entirely digital world. The theories and summaries will also help the book remain timeless – no matter how much social media tools or the internet applications may change, the values and core ways people understand each other and feel belonging will not. Pre-launch to post-launch guide – specifically directed towards activities and strategies for each stage of development. Review activities in key sections to help readers reflect and actively engage with the material. Case studies, step-by-step infrastructure, and background theory will help solidify the framework more practically.

The first lesson Eilean MacAlistair learned in blacksmithing: First, you harden, and then you temper.Otherwise, your metal will break.The same is true with life.A few years back, Eilean didn’t temper herself, and she broke someone. Badly. Hospital badly. Her family had to flee Scotland because of her, but now they’ve returned, and 17-year-old Eilean’s life feels like a forge with the temperature rising around her. Mamó is sick, her family is straining at the seams, and magic is real! An Otherworld has been calling to her from beneath Loch Lomond. When she answers, Eilean discovers a world of blacksmiths in ballgowns, cruel cyclopses, and chronically critical kelpies. Because she didn't have enough problems to deal with already. Will Eilean be able to temper herself against everything in this strange new world, and withstand the weight of her past? Or will she break once again? Find out in the first adventure of Eilean in the Otherworld, The Spiral of Life, a young adult fantasy inspired by Celtic folklore.

Seven students are avoiding going to school, hiding in their darkened bedrooms, unable to face their family and friends, until the moment they discover a portal into another world that offers temporary escape from their stressful lives. Passing through a glowing mirror, they gather in a magnificent castle which becomes their playground and refuge during school hours. The students are tasked with locating a key, hidden somewhere in the castle, that will allow whoever finds it to be granted one wish. At this moment, the castle will vanish, along with all memories they may have of their adventure. If they fail to leave the castle by 5 pm every afternoon, they will be eaten by the keeper of the castle, an easily provoked and shrill creature named the Wolf Queen. Delving into their emotional lives with sympathy and a generous warmth, Lonely Castle in the Mirror shows the unexpected rewards of reaching out to others. Exploring vivid human stories with a twisty and puzzle-like plot, this heart-warming novel is full of joy and hope for anyone touched by sadness and vulnerability.

From the National Book Award finalist and author of Pet comes a novel set in a magical West African world, about a teen girl who must save her missing twin while learning to navigate her own terrifying new powers. Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other's sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike's powers enchant, Somadina's cause fear to ripple through her town. Always an outsider, Somadina now faces blatant--and dangerous--hostility. And things go from bad to worse when her brother—the one person she trusted—vanishes. Somadina knows that no matter the dangers, she must track him down. Even if it means entering the Sacred Forest. Even if it means grueling, otherworldly travel she may not survive. Even if it means finding the hidden places where those closest to the spirit world don't dare to go. Does Somadina have the strength --within both her body and her soul -- for the trying journey ahead? National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi masterfully weaves a tale of family, identity, and the power of the past, in a world where the extraordinary is ordinary.

Fry bread is food. It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate. Fry bread is time. It brings families together for meals and new memories. Fry bread is nation. It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond. Fry bread is us. It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference.