42 comments

  • Ix TechauIx Techau, almost 8 years ago

    To be fair, Slack looks like every chat client in the last 20 years. There's only so much you can do when it comes to chat.

    28 points
    • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, almost 8 years ago

      I'm too tired of the ownership that internet always grow, too.

      4 points
    • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 8 years ago

      It's hard to place but the typography, layout and visual style are all very similar. I'm using it currently and it works very well for it's purpose and this type of app is great for this use case too. However I think it's fair to say they heavily lifted the style from Slack.

      9 points
    • Nathan HueningNathan Huening, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

      Disagree. Campfire and Hipchat look like every other chat client in the last 20 years. Slack is immediately recognizable and it's shameful the Discord designers couldn't be bothered to create an original design.

      "There's only so much you can do with a song / a typeface / smartphone". Reductive and misleading.

      16 points
    • Andrew HartAndrew Hart, almost 8 years ago

      Disagree. The #channelname right at the top, the channels listed there in the darkened sidebar, the chat having a persons avatar in a circle, then their name in bold, then the text of when the message was sent, then the message in plain text below, so no chat bubbles. Messages from the same person grouped. Messages from different people separated with a separator, and, a date in the middle, if it's been a bit of time. I could go on for much much longer about all the finer details that are exactly the same.

      I'm making a messaging app at the moment, and there's an awful lot of small decisions you have to make. Chat bubbles or not? How wide do you make them? Do you display avatars? For both users? Do your own messages go to the left or the right? How big is the spacing between messages? Does that change over longer periods of time? So so many little things.

      This is a clone of Slack.

      12 points
      • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago

        I'd disagree though I am a bit bias.

        I'd be a liar if I said we haven't been influenced by Slack. We use Slack every day at work. We've witnessed how a great communication app has changed our lives and some of that spills over to how we are looking to improve communication or gamers. In fact, some of the stuff we use is open sourced by Slack themselves like their text view controller.

        The idea behind Discord was IRC+Flowdock+Mumble (we used Flowdock at the time), and the early design was heavily influenced by email apps, specifically Sparrow.

        5 points
  • Marko VuleticMarko Vuletic, almost 8 years ago

    This really looks a lot like Slack.

    12 points
  • Ryan AndersonRyan Anderson, almost 8 years ago

    I could see this catching on, It definitely looks like a mix between Slack and Twitch. I don't think they overstepped, they found their niche and created a better experience for it.

    11 points
  • Rick LanceeRick Lancee, almost 8 years ago

    Is it a problem that it looks like slack?

    11 points
  • Some DesignerSome Designer, almost 8 years ago

    Did you guys notice how easy the registration process? I just wondered entered 2 inputs bam. I'm inside the app. No downloads necessary no email authentications bullshit. Also using channel icons on left is not registered to slack. People used 1000 times before that attitude before then slack. Also the target is much different then slack. Gamers always suffered communication for years. This might be a nice thing (if they don't sell their soul for money in future)

    Also most of the gamers are probably not even aware of slack. On a second thought discord is hardly a rival app for slack.

    7 points
  • Sam SmallSam Small, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

    If this is a first release of this product then you can’t deny that it looks very slick. Obviously, much of that can be attributed to Slack’s design. As product designers I’m sure the first priority was to ship a working product to get it tested in the gaming community. With this in mind, it makes sense that they would take tried and tested user interface patterns from successful communication tools like Slack whilst making modifications to suit their specific users’ needs.

    I’m interested to see how the product evolves in the future, if it gains traction with the gaming community then no doubt the UI will require more unique solutions to be designed/developed as the product designers begin to understand their users’ needs better.

    4 points
    • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago

      While the UI is adapting and evolving to fit the specific needs of gamers (badges, multiple and connected accounts, etc), it's not the only thing setting us apart. Discord was built for a completely difference purpose, which brings in a widely different feature set. Moderation tools, tiered roles, connected Twitch subs, great and integrated VoIP, game overlays, DDoS Protection and many more.

      You're only seeing the base with this early preview.

      1 point
  • Martin Knoll HaakanssonMartin Knoll Haakansson, almost 8 years ago

    Looks rather slick though. Interested to see how well the voice com works.

    2 points
  • Joey Di Nardo, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

    Would be very interested to know if this was also developed using Github's Electron as was Slack...

    http://electron.atom.io/

    1 point
    • Tim GabrielTim Gabriel, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

      That looks like Electron to me. Discord

      1 point
    • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago

      It is.

      4 points
      • Pete LadaPete Lada, almost 8 years ago

        Mike did you work on this? Looks great btw, congrats on the launch.

        1 point
        • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago

          Thanks -- yeah, I'm part of a small team who has been building this.

          0 points
          • Tom GantzerTom Gantzer, almost 8 years ago

            Me and some friends have been using it all day. Despite borrowing too heavily from look and feel of Slack, I can't deny that it works well for this use case and I can see how you ended up at this conclusion. I stress tested switching between desktop and mobile app while chatting with friends, and it handles perfectly, far superior to the Skype experience, and now we finally have a sensible place to spam our Dota news. Great job, Mike!

            0 points
            • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

              Thanks!

              The product is still very early -- in technical alpha. We aren't even feature complete with our MVP. As new features are added the design will very quickly diverge more into something unique and even more its own. The market is very different and that brings in a feature set of its own: friends lists, in-game overlays, moderation tools, auto matching, etc.

              What's there now is just the start.

              Edit:

              Also, a lot of Reddit communities have been picking it up, /r/dota2 for example. Here is a link: https://discordapp.com/invite/0Pj5D1QKnY91mwRd

              0 points
              • Steven Chen, almost 8 years ago

                Wow Mike! I barely comment on DN but Discord got me very excited so I just have to blurb about it.

                First, this is an awesome product with great direction and I know you guys will go really far with it!

                As a gamer and a developer, I've visioned the need of this app ever since Slack was launched. I saw the potential of Slack which could easily replace mIRC but I know that is not their priority and company vision. However, one major epiphany that I had was there are tons of big communities right now that deserve their own specialized platform for communication and gaming is absolutely one.

                I love how you guys filled the missing pieces from current VoIP and social apps for gaming. I believe that Discord can unite all the users on Reddit, Steam, Origin and in-game mediums into a single platform. What makes Discord special is that it enables the people who play multiples games from multiple vendors to socialize and communicate on a one platform with ease.

                One suggestion for improvement is to make a better interface and user experience. Not purely for aesthetic purposes but more for user flows and functionalities which I believe there are rooms for innovation in that aspect. Like many other commenters on DN have mentioned, the current UI looks like Slack which in my humble opinion, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

                I have one question which is, have you thought about showing a list of available and existing channels to the users instead of having them to get invited? Two things that make Slack a hassle is 1) the wait time to get approved to join a channel and 2) the inability to see what channels exist and that I would find interesting and wanting to join. Perhaps there are problems that can come with functionalities like that such as, flooding or more likelihood of spam, but I'm interested in hearing about your opinion.

                On the last note, what's the stack behind Discord? I see you guys use Erlang for backend?

                Anyways, sorry for such a long comment and again - congrats on the launch!!

                0 points
                • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

                  Thanks! That's awesome to hear.

                  Your thoughts were ours exactly. When working on Fates we witnessed first hand how our community was using a bunch of scattered apps: LINE, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and others to coordinate and message each other outside of the game. Mix that with being a team of hardcore gamers and our experience with dated tools like TeamSpeak and Mumble Discord seemed like the natural evolution -- a platform with modern technology to bring these groups together. A single app that filled both needs: superior voice with a modern text layer.

                  I've stated it a few times, but what you see here which I will admit has aspects of Slack (which I don't think is a bad thing) is just the base. We have only just started tackling many of the game specific features which will differentiate us even more.

                  In response to your two questions:

                  1 - The original idea for Discord was to replace apps like Teamspeak and Mumble, which are a little different. The invite link was meant to be a frictionless representation of sending someone your server IP and password each time you would want to add a new member. By making each invite link based we could also attach features to it, like having the links expire or attaching permissions to them.

                  As more and more Reddit communities and streamers have picked it up, we are now looking into ways to expose these groups. A list of/way to discover public servers like you mentioned is something we are exploring. The app itself has no problems handling these communities either. Some server with 1,000+ members. /r/speedrun had 280+ people connected to a single voice channel the other week to stress test without issue.

                  2 - The short answer is a lot: Java, Javascript, C++, Erlang, Elixir, Objective-C, we use Electron, React and more.

                  Edit: stupid markdown formatting

                  0 points
  • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, almost 8 years ago

    http://www.mattermost.org/ also exists.

    0 points
  • Joe Blau, almost 8 years ago

    Didn't Slack start off as a gaming communication engine?

    0 points
    • Mike ArndtMike Arndt, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

      The Slack team and ours are pretty similar stories, actually. I believe Slack started making an MMO then Slack. We started as a games studio, making Fates Forever, the first MOBA for iOS and shifted to Discord after seeing how our users were using scattered, dated tools to communicate with each other.

      Edit: spelling

      2 points
    • Nathan HueningNathan Huening, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

      Sort of. It started off as Glitch, an in-browser Flash-based massive multiplayer. They couldn't make a business out of it and so open-sourced the whole thing, including the gigabytes of custom illustrations, which are gorgeous. Then the team went on to turn the chat software they used internally to make Slack which, much like this gaming chat outfit, many will go on to shamelessly rip off.

      0 points
  • Andrew-David JahchanAndrew-David Jahchan, almost 8 years ago

    Wow.

    0 points
  • Ariel VerberAriel Verber, almost 8 years ago

    This is a really great landing page, design & message. Very straightforward and honest, I'm sold

    0 points
  • Marcel ChristianisMarcel Christianis, almost 8 years ago

    What's wrong with steam

    0 points
  • Tim GabrielTim Gabriel, almost 8 years ago (edited almost 8 years ago )

    The avatars on the left makes me think of Youtube Gaming.

    0 points
  • Ed AdamsEd Adams, almost 8 years ago

    Hum! Undeniably very similar, but hopefully it's different enough to not matter.

    0 points
  • Joel Sinnott, almost 8 years ago

    https://discord.gg/0TJfIqD4XFJgbrqU

    Is this thing on?

    0 points