Game Development Writing graduate builds career in community management

For Liam Gregory, studying Game Development: Writing BA(Hons) at Falmouth opened the door to far more than script writing for games: it helped him discover the collaborative side of game development, sharpen his communication skills and gain confidence working across departments. Those soft skills proved vital when he moved into community management, a role that blends writing, problem solving and player support.

Now working at Secret Mode, Liam returned to the Games Academy to speak with students about his journey and to share what he wishes he had known when he started out. We caught up with him to discuss his time at Falmouth, his fascinating corner of the games industry and the key takeaways from his recent guest lecture.

How did you find the Game Development: Writing course at Falmouth?

I loved it. In terms of skills, soft skills such as teamwork and communication are by far the most useful. They have allowed me to slot into teams seamlessly as well as take the lead on projects when needed. Knowing what each department does and what they need to thrive has helped me predict blockers and work on solutions before they even appear. Presentation skills have also been a big plus for me because they have helped me produce reports and presentations on things the community are requesting or struggling with.

I miss being near the beach. It was a great place to relax or think about a difficult piece of work and it gave me plenty of inspiration.

How did the Games Academy help you build confidence in writing for different audiences and working collaboratively?

The writing modules tackled different angles, perspectives and types of writing that I had not considered before. They challenge you to think differently and creatively, which often leads to better work in the long run. I often found that less is more, especially when it came to dialogue, and I would often shift into more of a narrative design mindset. Thinking about the world as a whole helped me work better with the designers and artists to build more immersive spaces. There is a stigma that writers work alone and that is far from the case.

I miss being near the beach. It was a great place to relax or think about a difficult piece of work and it gave me plenty of inspiration.

Several lecturers helped me tackle different problems, many of which were not even writing related. For writing specifically, I found Hannah Wood’s advice key in script refinement and Jeff Howard helped a lot with problem solving and made Monday 9am lectures incredibly fun. A big shout out to Terry Greer, Brian McDonald, Nick Dixon and Doug Brown for their support throughout my time at Falmouth. They also helped me manage some unique circumstances in my third year when I secured a remote job in the industry while still studying.

Can you tell us a bit about your career since leaving Falmouth and how you found your way into community management?

I decided to go into community management during my second year at Falmouth rather than afterwards. I was struggling with my personal life and had a rethink. I remember watching a livestream from the official RuneScape account (a game I still play to this day) and the main Community Manager at the time, Shaun Akerman, was hosting it. Jagex had announced a big change to a piece of content in a blog a few hours before and the community were ballistic, spamming the chat even though the stream was unrelated. Shaun paused the stream to address it and said he had seen the feedback and was organising an emergency meeting the next day. For some reason, when I heard that, my brain went: I could do that.

Shortly after, I was promoted to moderator for a League of Legends Twitch streamer, which meant moderating Discord and Twitch chats, creating content and doing analysis.

During my third year at Falmouth, I was lucky to get a Junior Community Manager role at a startup called Panivox, owned by the Oliver Twins. I spent two and a half years there, fully remote, and I did a bit of everything including community management, business to business communications and outreach, design, writing, copywriting, visual scripting, video tutorials and QA. Unfortunately, I was hit by layoffs in spring 2023 but the Oliver Twins supported me with a letter of recommendation, which helped me secure an interview at Kwalee for a community manager role in their PC and Console division. I landed the job and my boss later admitted that one of the main factors was my idea to run a fanfiction competition for the community based on my own experiences.

The writing modules tackled different angles, perspectives and types of writing that I had not considered before.

I moved to Leamington Spa to take up the role and worked on Wildmender, Robobeat and The Precinct. I learned a lot about PC and console publishing, balancing projects, writing Steam blogs, creating events and competitions and even exhibiting at EGX where I showed off The Precinct to the world for the first time. Sadly, I was hit by layoffs again ten months later.

I got very lucky because on the same day: a new community manager job was posted at Secret Mode, also in Leamington. I applied and once again it was my writing skills that helped me stand out. The team were impressed with the blogs I had written at Kwalee. I am still here today and have worked on DEATHSPRINT 66, Parcel Corps and a horror game called Still Wakes the Deep that won three BAFTAs.

Does the genre or tone of a game change how fans behave?

It depends. Some communities look like they will be intense from the outside but end up being the most relaxed. Inside jokes often appear out of nowhere and if you embrace them, the community becomes a joy to manage. For example, the Robobeat community were obsessed with crocodiles, while the DEATHSPRINT 66 community loved the in-game advert for Big Beef. Still Wakes the Deep has its own little ecosystem and it is adorable. You would not expect it from a horror game but many of the players love to draw, write and roleplay as the cast.

 In terms of skills, soft skills such as teamwork and communication are by far the most useful. They have allowed me to slot into teams seamlessly as well as take the lead on projects when needed. 

We create something called a Tone of Voice document for every game. It is basically a guide for how we communicate with players and we only break it if we need to switch to a more formal tone. For DEATHSPRINT 66, we acted as the promoters for the Bachman Media Network, a corporation who care more about profits and entertainment than morals. For Robobeat, I wrote as the main character Ace, a cocky, self-obsessed joker who never takes himself too seriously. In a football management game I am working on called NUTMEG!, we refer to players as ‘Gaffers’ and use emotive language when asking for feedback to show how important they are in the process.

You recently gave a guest lecture for Games Academy students. What were your key takeaways?

Outside of the fact the students were incredible and I talk too much, the key takeaway was that community management is still a relatively unknown field. I had students reach out afterwards to thank me and say that some of the things I mentioned were completely new to them. There are resources out there to learn about community management and adjacent roles but they are spread around the internet and often behind paywalls, so it can be hard to piece everything together. Community managers like Victoria Tran at Innersloth are trying to change this, though.

What games are you playing at the moment?

I have always loved MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online), first person shooters and Pokémon. So I am playing RuneScape 3, Final Fantasy XIV, Overwatch 2 and Pokémon Legends: Z-A at the moment. I also need to find time to play Hades 1 and 2, Doom 2016 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

External links

https://x.com/Liam__Gregory
https://bsky.app/profile/liamgregory.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-gregory-0a0476a7/