The current mod of c/gamedev hasn't been publicly active just under a year. I tried messaging them months ago about joining, and more recently about taking it over if they weren't interested in trying to develop it. So now I'm asking here, with the assumption that they're just not that into it.
Figured I'd ask now in case you wanted to look into the person making such a request. If granted I'd probably start putting a little work into it the weekend after this one.
Step one is more posting. Keep it on people's feeds. Do that enough and then you reach out to others who were looking for this and know it. Disenchanted Reddit users, like how some Twitter users went to Mastodon. (Mastodon.gamedev.place and PeopleMaking.Games being two off the top of my head.) And Discord servers.
Try to get enough of a community to keep it visible and alive. That's the goal at this point.
Then you try to get the people who are looking for this and don't know it. Now, this isn't some giant Silicon Valley investment you expect to blow up. You build in the long-term, based on reputation and access. When people want something new, you have to be there. And when people get annoyed with the status quo, you have to be there.
As for the day to day, if we get to the point of what we can call a community, I'd like a few themed posts a week. Indies, game-tangential series (YouTube channels or podcasts,) maybe Q&As. At that point it's really about the attention we can garner as a community, both the numbers and the specific people.
But let's be reasonable. That's several months down the line at best, given my assumption that many of the thousands of subscribers no longer use Lemmy at all. It'll be an uphill battle. And worst case, if I did nothing, I'm no different than the current moderator. (Not a slam. Just saying.)