The folks at Overwolf have announced an epic developer challenge sponsored by Twitch to build new types of Extensions with their platform tools. Developers are invited to join the challenge and compete for glory and riches — there are some amazing prizes! Submissions will be open until September 22. Afterwards, a team of judges from Overwolf and Twitch will select the winners.
Overwolf’s mission is improving competitive gaming experiences for gamers worldwide through useful, effective in-game apps and tools. They enable new game features and overlays to be implemented effectively and swiftly, bringing new value to millions of players. Given these goals, Twitch Extensions and Overwolf’s tools are a great match to create ingenious real-time interactivity.
Using Overwolf’s technology, developers can create in-game experiences for a stream based on in-game events. Create an extension that allows subscribers to engage in playful antics with their favorite streamer. For example, choosing a streamer’s jumping spot in PUBG, or using spell detection in League of Legends to trigger requests for viewer reactions.
Visit Overwolf’s Twitch Extensions Dev Challenge page for detailed information about prizes, registration, and guidelines. The sky’s the limit and we look forward to your innovative ideas demonstrating how in-game events can influence and communicate with Twitch streams. Ready? Set? Code!
Next Thursday, August 2: the Eternal Collector’s Bounty comes to Twitch Prime!
Twitch Prime members who link their Eternal account will walk off with a dragon’s hoard of free, sweet stuff. The Eternal Collector’s Bounty contains over $40 of in-game content, including:
● The Twitch Pack Bundle! 32 card packs from The Empty Throne and one Legendary pack from The Fall of Argenport.
● Premium Card Back: Helpful Doorbot! Your favorite grenadin’ buddy is here to add some bling to your deck!
Premium Avatar: Ashara, Deadly Companion! You should never turn your back on Ashara…and with her right in your sights on the playmat, you won’t have to!
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a new premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly in-game loot, ad-free viewing on Twitch, a channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of being a prime member. See all the Twitch Prime benefits here.
Check out the full list of Amazon Prime benefits in: US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain. You can try it for free for 30 days right here, and when you do, you get all the Twitch Prime benefits instantly just by linking your Twitch account to your Amazon account.
Prime Now One and two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items from Amazon and local stores. Check out Prime Now.
Our third annual #CreateforKids charity drive kicks off this month, and we’re calling all streamers to join. Last year we partnered with Tiltify and raised over $56,000 with matching for Save the Children. This year we’re doing it again from August 10–20, so let’s beat it!
What is this?
Create for Kids is an event that celebrates the creativity and charity of the Twitch community by helping children in need around the world through Creative streams. Participants can set up a fundraising campaign on Tiltify and stream their content to Twitch. If you want to stream to Creative but aren’t sure what to do, you can try a cooking broadcast, knitting a hat, painting along with Bob Ross, designing a coloring book page, or even performing an interpretive dance. The possibilities are endless!
Speaking of coloring books, for this event, we are taking submissions for a custom coloring book that will be included as a thank you perk to donors. Donors will receive a digital copy as a thank you gift for giving $20 or more, and a physical copy for $50 or more.
I’m on board. How do I start?
Create your campaign on their Tiltify page and download Save the Children graphics to add to your stream. Then, decide a fundraising goal, donor perks, and milestones. If you have any questions or need some help getting started, contact digitalchampions@savechildren.org.
Don’t forget to send Save the Children your coloring book pages! They’re accepting coloring book submissions from now until August 21, and there’s no limit to the number of pages you can submit. Check out last year’s book for inspiration.
This is an incredible opportunity to show what a powerful force for good the Creative community on Twitch can be, to help children in need around the world, and to bring new viewers into your communities. Funds raised are matched dollar per dollar by a generous anonymous donor (yes, really, and yes, we know it’s awesome), up to $40,000. Plus, Elgato Gaming has generously donated fundraising rewards to those who raise over $1,000, including a Stream Deck, Cam Link, or Green Screen
It all starts August 10. We hope you’ll join us to #CreateForKids on Twitch.
ABOUT SAVE THE CHILDREN:
Save the Children invests in childhood — every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.
In 2018, we are focused on delivering the tools developers need to build, monetize, and grow their Twitch Extensions. We recently announced Bits-in-Extensions and several updates to the Developer Rig that will make it easier for developers to build Extensions that can create revenue on Twitch.
Today, we’re announcing Extensions Developer Analytics V2. With this update, we’re providing more powerful and actionable insights about a Twitch Extension’s lifecycle. This insight gives developers a full-spectrum view of its performance, so that they can identify potential bottlenecks in the funnel and make data-driven product decisions that keeps streamers and viewers coming back for more.
What’s New
In addition to the 13 install, activation, and engagement data metrics available with our last release, V2 delivers 34 new metrics for developers to improve the performance of a published Twitch Extension. These new metrics will allow developers to track if new features, or updates, increase interactivity with their Extensions on a live stream and help with streamer and viewer retention.
The new data columns fall into the following categories.
Historical data starting at January 31, 2018 for your released Extensions (expanded beyond 90 days).
Last 7 day and last 30 day rolling uniques will help you understand your Extension’s trends and the Twitch Community’s response to new updates beyond daily uniques.
Acquisition. Analyze deeper top of the funnel metrics like Extensions details page visits and identity linking.
Interactivity. Unpack how users are interacting with your Extension by digging into mouseenters and minimization rates.
Bits-in-Extensions. For Bits-enabled Extensions, measure your revenue, # of Bits used, # of Bits transactions, and Unique Bits Users.
Twitch Extensions developers are using the current version of Extensions Developer Analytics to update and improve their products based on the reported data. For instance, Porcupine uses Extension Analytics to understand if interaction rates increase after they release an Extension update.
“We pride ourselves on building highly interactive live experiences, and it is measurements like Interaction Rate that help back up our claim, and more importantly — continuously improve our products,” said Ido Tal, Co-founder and CEO of Porcupine. “Recently, Porcupine was able to use Extension Developer Analytics to determine that Live Pets’ Interaction Rate doubled to 21.13% following a single update Porcupine released earlier this year, according to Tal.
For both contracted developers and those working on their own projects, like Barry Carlyon, Extension Analytics helps shed light on what broadcasters and viewers want.
“Extension analytics help me, as a developer, to see how new updates to my published Extensions change how people use my Extensions”, said contracted developer and streamer, Barry Carlyon. “The last release (coinciding with the components launch) saw a near 50% increase in clicks per interaction. I can now compare my versions and see what people want quantitatively, where I lack qualitative feedback.”
Developers can start using Extensions Developer Analytics today either through the Developer Dashboard of via the Twitch API. Here’s how:
Getting Started
There are two ways to access Extension Analytics: the Twitch API or your Extensions dashboard.
Extension Analytics API: Read more in the documentation.
Click Export CSV Data to download performance data for your Extension.
Download Extension analytics straight from your dashboard
We’d love to hear what insights your team find useful to your product roadmap and what else would you like to see? Please keep your feedback coming in the Insights forum or contact the Twitch Insights team at insights@twitch.tv.
Starting August 17th, Twitch Prime members can get their hands on the Jungle Crate — the third set of exclusive PUBG crates available only with Twitch Prime. Just click here.
Take down your enemies whilst fashionably blending in to the wild savagery of the jungle — even battle royale survivors have to look good! The Jungle Crate contains 8 items, including two weapon skins: Croc Bite for the M16A4 and Bengal Blade for the SCAR-L.
The full list of items in the Jungle Crate:
Explorer Hat
Tiger Print Bandana
Explorer Coat
Leopard Print Vest
Explorer Knickers
Leather Boots
Croc Bite Weapon Skin
Bengal Blade Weapon Skin
Go ahead and get out there and sashay down the wild jungle runway starting August 17th!
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly in-game loot, a channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of being a Prime member. See all the Twitch Prime benefits here.
Starting today through September 14th, Twitch Prime members can get a Gear Bundle for Warframe that includes 50 Platinum (non-tradeable) to use towards new equipment, a 7-Day Affinity Booster to double the rate in which players upgrade their equipment, and a 7-Day Resource Booster to double the amount of Resources players get from pickups.
To take advantage of this offer on PC, PS4, or Xbox One, link your Warframe and Twitch accounts. If you’re not a Twitch Prime member, you can sign up for a free trial here.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly in-game loot, a channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of being a Prime member.
Looking for something interesting to attend on August 30 — between PAX Dev and PAX West? Join TwitchDev, GameSparks, and Amazon Web Services to learn how to grow your game community and use analytics to expand even faster.
Here are a few reasons to join us:
1. Grow your community
You want people to learn about your game and Twitch is one of the best ways to make it happen. But this isn’t going to happen on its own.
At this event, learn how to bring your game to the top of the pile for your community. Take advantage of Twitch Extensions and the Twitch API to make the experience as immersive as possible and produce data about your game and engaged viewers.
2. Build better games
As your community grows, wouldn’t you like to understand how to increase the fun? Or the areas people like to play, a pinch point in the game play that frustrates newer players, or even understanding the demographics of your audience?
At this event, you’ll hear how harnessing the power of AWS can help you ingest player data on the fly via GameSparks or your own Business Intelligence (BI) tools for reporting stats on what is really happening in your game. Use these insights to develop games that resonate better with your core audience.
3. Connect with your peers
Not only will you hear from experts in the gaming industry, but you’ll also be able to have your questions answered, meet other developers, and get help with your specific use cases.
The TwitchDev team is heading to Cologne this weekend! We are going to DevCom! Will we see you there?
DevCom is a game developer conference hosted prior to the massive GamesCom conference later in the week.
Be sure to attend the DevCom keynote given by Ethan Evans — EVP Commerce, Developers and Twitch Prime — on Monday, August 20 at 11:00am.
You can also stop by Booth #9 to talk with our Twitch advocates and engineers to learn more and get all your questions answered.
We are excited to meeting up with developers at this year’s DevCom! If you want to schedule a meeting with us at either DevCom or GamesCom, email: developer_support@justin.tv
Catch TwitchDev at DevCom was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Fortnite fans, rejoice! We’re excited to announce Twitch Rivals will be featuring Fortnite as one of its games for this month, with $2 million in tournament prizes at stake.
The events span across four days, two events per day, with the first on August 17. Each will be a part of Epic Games’ ongoing Fortnite Summer Skirmish Series, including 49 duo teams from EU or NA competing for $260,000 in their respective regions.
The first event in the four-event series starts Friday, August 17 with the European tournament at 9 AM PT followed by the North American tournament at 2 PM PT. You can catch all of the action on twitch.tv/TwitchRivals or watch some of the streamers’ perspectives on their own channels:
When we launched Twitch Prime, we were determined to give streamers and their viewers the best value in gaming. And since then we’ve seen the Twitch community take advantage of Twitch Prime perks like monthly channel subscriptions to support favorite streamers, Free Games with Prime, and in-game loot for games like Fortnite, PUBG, Hearthstone, and more. On top of everything you get through Amazon Prime, this year alone we’ve offered members more than $1,000 worth of games and loot.
As we have continued to add value to Twitch Prime, we have also re-evaluated some of the existing Twitch Prime benefits. As a result, universal ad-free viewing will no longer be part of Twitch Prime for new members, starting on September 14.
Twitch Prime members with monthly subscriptions will continue to get ad-free viewing until October 15. If you already have an annual subscription, or if you upgrade to an annual subscription before September 14, you will continue with ad-free viewing until your next renewal date.
All other Twitch Prime benefits, like monthly channel subs, monthly games and loot, and chat badges are not changing.
But…why?
Advertising is an important source of support for the creators who make Twitch possible. This change will strengthen and expand that advertising opportunity for creators so they can get more support from their viewers for doing what they love. We want Twitch to remain a place where anyone can enjoy one-of-a-kind interactive entertainment, and ads allow us to continue making Twitch the best place for creators to build communities around the things they love and make money doing it.
Is ad-free viewing still possible on Twitch?
An ad-free viewing experience is still possible! All Twitch viewers can get ad-free viewing across all channels by subscribing to Twitch Turbo (read about Turbo right here). Additionally, Twitch Prime subscribers can still get channel-specific ad-free viewing as part of Prime by using your monthly subscription token on a channel that has ad-free viewing for subscribers turned on.
More of what matters
Twitch Prime is still, and will always be, packed with premium benefits you can’t get anywhere else. We’re just getting started, and the community can continue to expect more and better free games with Prime and in-game loot every month, monthly channel subscriptions, exclusive badges, along with new benefits and surprises. And with your Twitch Prime membership you can still take advantage of all the other Amazon Prime benefits, like free two-day shipping and access to Prime Video and Prime Music¹.
Thanks to every Twitch Prime member for supporting Twitch and your favorite streamers. We’ll see you in chat.
¹ Amazon Prime benefits vary by marketplace.
Changes to Twitch Prime was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
One of the strangest anime of all time is live now on Twitch! Head on over to twitch.tv/viz to watch the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Marathon with tons of other anime fans.
Not sure what’s going on? That’s fair. Basically, the brave Joestar family battles armies of evil and one super evil guy in particular, Lord DIO! You’ll catch on soon. TLDR: This is your chance to watch it with thousands of other fans and spam “It was me, DIO!” in the chat field until everybody tells you to SHUUUTTT UPPPPPP!!!
Viz is streaming nine episodes twice a day all the way through August 25, when they’ll air the last episode of Diamond is Unbreakable.
Here’s the schedule!
Phantom Blood: August 13 Battle Tendency: August 14–15 Stardust Crusaders: August 16–21 Diamond is Unbreakable: August 21–25
Twitch has an incredible, thriving community. In 2017, we had over 355 billion minutes watched, 2+ million unique monthly broadcasters, and 15+ million unique daily visitors. As a game developer, you might be wondering about the streamers, viewers, and players that make up your game’s Twitch community.
Listing your game on Twitch is the first step in becoming a part of the Twitch community, but growing and engaging your audience takes a little more planning. That’s why Twitch continues to build the tools game developers and publishers need to launch, grow, and keep their game buzzworthy.
Products like Bits, Cheering, Drops, and Extensions help increase adoption, engagement, and monetization. To help you understand your Twitch community and make the most of Twitch products and integrations, today we’re announcing Quarterly Twitch Insights for our game developers.
After we launched Game Developer Analytics, we received feedback that developers wanted to understand the Twitch community around their game so they can continue to grow their audience and optimize their game’s performance. Additionally, we heard that developers want intuitive access to the tools they need to keep their game growing. We designed Quarterly Twitch Insights to provide vital game metrics and re-engagement opportunities, so that you can deploy strategies to accelerate growth.
What’s in Quarterly Twitch Insights?
For games with more than 300 broadcast minutes, Quarterly Twitch Insights will show developers overall viewership and broadcast metrics for each of their games listed on Twitch. Developers will see the quarterly comparisons for the following metrics:
# of hours watched
# of unique viewers
# of viewing sessions
# of hours broadcast
# of unique broadcasters
# of broadcasting sessions
In addition to viewership, developers will see relevant data that can help them grow their game audience by investing in the right broadcasters with the right Twitch products. For instance, Quarterly Twitch Insights provide developers a view of broadcasters who are trending on a game title, how active a community is during the streams, what other content the community is watching, game growth by geography, and opportunities to re-engage streamers through Twitch services like Bounty Board.
Say you noticed that a your game is getting a lot of streams over a quarter, but there isn’t much engagement in the channel. What can you do? Enterprising developers can learn about growth and re-engagement features like Drops and start creating campaigns to reward viewers with in-game items to generate some buzz.
Quarterly Twitch Insights highlight popular Extensions used in games and also show developers how to get started with Extensions — in case they have a great idea to create a new engagement mechanism tailored specifically to their community. More than just data, Quarterly Twitch Insights harnesses all that Twitch offers to create increasingly awesome experiences.
How It Works
Once you log into the Twitch games dashboard, navigate to the Games tab and you will see all your listed games. You can view Quarterly Insights and also download our existing Daily Overview Report for your game. When you view your game’s quarterly insights, it will default to insights for the most recent quarter available. As of today, you will see your games’ Q2 2018 metrics. Moving forward, you’ll receive a new report each quarter and continue to see quarter-over-quarter performance.
Games with over 300 minutes broadcast will receive custom analytics unique to their game, along with recommendations for Drops campaigns and Extensions that you can deploy in your game. For games with fewer than 300 minutes of broadcast time, developers will receive insights about the Twitch Community at large, along with Drops success stories and other recommendations to help them get started on Twitch.
We’d love to hear what insights your team is looking for to make data-driven decisions about building and growing your Twitch community and what else you would like to see. Please keep your feedback coming in the Insights forum or contact the Twitch Insights team at insights@twitch.tv.
The Horde and Alliance are once again adversaries with the launch of Battle for Azeroth! We want showcase both factions with a whirlwind of front page features of some of your favorite World of Warcraft players. We will also showcase the talents of some of our resident cosplayers who are currently working on some new costumes from the World of Warcraft Universe.
If you’re looking to see some gameplay and check up on the new dungeons and quests, check out these featured streamers:
Looking to check out something on the creative side? How about checking out HokuProps, AndyRaeCosplay, or EggSisters working on Bolvar Lich King, Jaina Proudmoore, and a Troll huntress, respectively.
Can’t wait to get back and see Darnas… oh. To ashes you say? And Undercity? To rubble you say? Warmode is serious business.
Return to Azeroth on Twitch was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
In the first episode of the Pokémon TV show, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town overslept on the very first morning of his Pokémon journey. His rivals claimed Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur, so he was left with the feisty Mouse Pokémon whose face would become an icon for an entire generation of anime fans.
Their adventures are legendary. And now, we’re reliving those adventures together on Twitch.
The Twitch Pokémon Marathon kicks off August 27 at 10 AM PT. Tune in to /twitchpresents with thousands of fans for 19 seasons of the beloved TV show (932 episodes!) and 16 Pokémon movie parties, streamed all around the world in six languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese). Want to hear Pikachu speak in French? We got you.
If you think you have what it takes to become a Pokémon Master, prove it with the Twitch Presents: Pokémon Badge Collector extension. When Pokémon appear on stream, catch them to earn points and compete with other viewers. Stay vigilant and you may even capture a rare Pokémon or two…
We’ll stream the first-run of episodes every Monday through Thursday, with reruns on Friday and Saturday over on the /twitchpresents2 channel. Then, join us every Sunday again on /twitchpresents at 10 AM PT for a Pokémon movie party.
This is just the beginning of a 10-month celebration of Pokémon. Look out for more news around the 2018 holiday season. It’s all blasting off August 27 at 10 AM PT. Until then, follow /twitchpresents for all the latest updates.
TwitchCon 2018 is only two months away and with everyone and everything that makes Twitch special part of this show, the hype is real. Since TwitchCon is your party, we figured you should help decide what we’ll be doing together in San Jose. So once again we asked for the best and brightest ideas for TwitchCon. And, once again, the community delivered.
From brand building to PC builds and from networking to wrestling, this year’s batch of community submitted panels have it all covered. Let’s take a look at some of what you can expect in San Jose.
We’re featuring 57 community submitted sessions featuring 280 speakers and that’s just the tip of the TwitchCon iceberg. A lot more will be added to the schedule as we get closer to October, such as Twitch-led panels, Glitch Main Stage Content, competitions, showcases, exhibitors, and even some surprises .
To make it easy for you to plan your weekend we’re organizing things into tracks based on what you’re most interested in: Education, Community, Entertainment, and Lifestyle. We’re even featuring community submitted panels in our brand new Twitch Creator Camp panel room. So no matter what you’re hoping to do at TwitchCon, we’ve got you covered.
The current schedule and all panel information is live right now at TwitchCon.com for you to explore.
If you still haven’t picked up your ticket to TwitchCon, what are you waiting for? It won’t be the same without you.
As the Overwatch League All-Star players go head-to-head this weekend, we hope you’ll join us in funneling that energy and excitement towards an important cause: supporting children’s hospitals. 100% of your Cheers this weekend on /OverwatchLeague and regional channels will support Child’s Play*, a charity that provides games, toys, and electronic entertainment to over 160 Children’s Hospitals worldwide and 100 domestic violence shelters across the US. Through the support of the community, Child’s Play is able to have an impact on the lives of over 1 million children per year.
About Child’s Play
Since 2003, Child’s Play set up and organized numerous game industry events dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in their network of over 160 hospitals worldwide. They have funded eight gaming and technology specialists in the hospital whose job is to be on the cutting edge of therapeutic gaming, bringing VR and AR bedside, and educating on how to use games as a part of the healing process. They have worked closely with EEDAR to develop a Therapeutic Video Game Guide that helps explain how games like Overwatch can be used as a way to help the healing process.
Q&A
Q. When does the donation campaign begin and end?
We’ll begin August 25, 2018 at 12:01 AM PST and end on August 26, 2018 at 11:59 PM PST. Cheering while the channel is offline still counts!
Q. What channels can I Cheer on?
You can cheer on any of the Overwatch League channels — English, French, Korean, Chinese Mandarin, or Mandarin Taiwanese.
Q. Do small amounts of Bits count?
Yes. All Bits will be counted towards the total.
Q. Do Cheermotes count? Can I use OWLFLA1000, OWLNYE500, OWLPHI1 etc.?
Yes. All Bits, including any Cheermote, will be counted towards the total.
Q. Do I need to use a hashtag or any way of marking the donation?
No. All Bits Cheered will be counted towards the total.
Q. Do I still unlock emotes and rewards when I cheer during the donation campaign?
Yes, you still unlock the /OverwatchLeague rewards.
Not every Twitch Extension is made by a whole team of people. Sometimes, like in the case of Sounds Alerts, all it takes is one person looking to improve the Twitch experience.
James (aka Altoar) is a video producer, hobbyist programmer, and longtime esports fan from Germany. With the announcement of Extensions, he decided to put his hobbies to the test. “I got super excited, because I could combine both of my hobbies and create Extensions that help viewers and broadcasters for a platform that I use myself every day,” said Altoar. “I like to create innovative and helpful stuff and see it used by a lot of people.”
Altoar released his first Extension, World of Warcraft Armory, late last year. This panel Extension, which provides a wide variety of information about the streamer’s World of Warcraft character, is active on nearly 20,000 Twitch channels. Less than a year after the Extensions release, Altoar revealed his second Extension, a Bits-enabled soundboard known as Sound Alerts.
“Sound Alerts is a tool where broadcasters can upload their own sounds or select top sounds from other streamers and assign them to buttons which viewers can press to play the Sound Alert on the stream,” Altoar explained. “Streamers with Bits-enabled channels can also set a Bits amount that viewers must use for each sound button, so they can monetize their use of the Extension.” The Extension includes a leaderboard where viewers can see which sounds are most popular on each stream. Additionally, once a viewer initiates a sound on the stream, the Extension triggers a chatbot message and overlay notification to the streamer. Both elements have been crucial in driving viewer engagement and participation with the Extension.
Sound Alerts was an immediate hit, with thousands of installs on its first day. “Sound Alerts released about three months ago, and today streamers have already uploaded tens of thousands of different sound effects. There are streamers who have earned thousands of dollars in revenue share with Twitch through only Sound Alerts,” says Altoar. “Streamers reach out to me, giving me feedback and saying how much they like this Extension. That’s absolutely incredible.”
What was even more special for Altoar, however, was seeing the unique ways streamers decided to implement his Extension, a few of which he never imagined during development. “For example,” Altoar said, “/abootgaming, one of the first streamers who installed this Extension, is streaming a lot of PUBG and they added fake gunshot sounds to their Sound Alerts. Viewers can use Bits to trigger those sounds, distracting them and making them think someone in the game is shooting at them. The imagination is endless.”
Because of Bits-in-Extensions, Sounds Alert became a financial success for Altoar as well, allowing Extension development to become more than just a hobby. “With the Bits-in-Extensions feature, I recently started my own business building Twitch Extensions,” says Altoar. “I absolutely want to build more Extensions in the future, especially simple tools which enhance the user experience for everyone.” To date, Sound Alerts has been installed on over 12,000 channels and has steady month-over-month revenue growth.
Altoar is already hard at work on his next Extension, Vote Now, an overlay for esports tournaments that will allow viewers to make predictions about in-progress matches and view the results in real time. “I see streamers creating polls on a different website, pasting the link into the chat or using a chatbot, which makes chat conversations unreadable because everyone is writing the vote command into the chat,” says Altoar. “With this Extension, I want to avoid this and improve user experience for every viewer by simply integrating polls directly into the stream as a video overlay component where viewers just have to click to vote.” Although Vote Now isn’t officially released yet, it already made its debut during the StarCraft II HomeStory Cup.
With two successful Extension launches under his belt, Altoar has a few tips for any fledgling developers hoping to create Extensions of their own.
“Test your Extension enough to make sure there are no bugs when you release it to the public. Before I release a new Extension, I send the first version to whitelisted broadcasters only and ask friends to test the Extension on their streams first,” says Altoar. “Also, visit the developer forums and don’t hesitate to ask for help. The Twitch developer community is very friendly and is there to help.”
“I see a lot of potential in Extensions for the future,” Altoar said. “This is just the beginning, and it’s awesome to see how the Twitch team is working hard to make the Extensions experience better and better.”
Twitch is Seattle-bound once again for another PAX West! From August 31 through September 3, we’re setting up shop in the Washington State Convention Center, and we want you to join us.
From the Twitch Booth to PAX Arena and beyond, here’s the lowdown on everything we’ve got planned for you.
The Twitch Booth (#1909)
Merch store: Call us fashionably late, but for the first time ever, we’re selling official Twitch merch at PAX! Drop by the store for new releases, classic best-sellers like our tees and hoodies, and a limited edition PAX West tee, available while supplies last.
Meet and Greets: Come meet some of your favorite streamers! So far, the Partners listed below are ready to hang out, but many more are on the way. Swing by the booth to find the full Meet and Greet schedule during the show.
Partner Lounge: Partners, come take a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the show floor in our Partner Lounge. We’ll have refreshments and power outlets aplenty, plus, all Partners who check in will receive the “Rosy Glitch” Pinny Arcade pin (while supplies last).
Game Zone: Stop by the Game Zone to get your hands on Rend by Frostkeep Studios. Inspired by Nordic myth, Rend mixes team-based survival and fantasy adventure, so come check it out! You might be able to walk away with some epic Twitch loot while playing the game by participating in the Twitch Pin pass!
Twitch 101: If you’re interested in learning how to make your channel better, or if you just want more out of your Twitch experience, Twitch 101 is a quick way to do that. Get hands-on demos with Extensions, which you can use to improve your own streams for your community, and also check out Twitch Prime, which offers you in-game loot for tons of games every month.
Pinny Arcade: It wouldn’t be a Penny Arcade Expo without Pinny Arcade pins. To claim your very own and very fancy Rosy Glitch pin, you can either attend the Twitch Town Hall panel (more on that below), OR you can grab a Twitch Pin Pass at our booth and complete three quick activities. Easy peasy.
Twitch Town Hall
Want to know what we’re working on? Join us for the Twitch Town Hall where Twitch staffers shine light on our products, community, and the future of Twitch. It’s a great chance to stay informed.
The Twitch Town Hall starts Friday, August 31 from 10:30–11:30 AM at the Wyvern Theater, located inside The Westin Seattle.
Broadcaster Royale
Our very own PUBG tournament, Broadcaster Royale, culminates with its first-ever grand finals at PAX West’s Paramount Theater. 160 streamers (80 duos teams) from all around the world have qualified to face off in a 3-day finals event spanning Friday through Sunday, with a total prize pool of $300,000. To celebrate, we’re shutting down 9th Avenue and giving it a PUBG makeover with environmental items, a special transport truck, pyrotechnics, and more.
PUBG Play Zone
Once Broadcaster Royale is over, stick around and play PUBG with streamers and other PAX attendees until 8:00 PM PT.
Meet and watch your favorite duo teams from each competing region, including:
Need even more competitive games and speedruns? Then PAX Arena is the place for you. Nickelodeon is bringing you The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Speedrun Showdown to see just how fast the classic 1989 NES TMNT game can be beat. Army Entertainment Esports is also finishing up its Street Fighter V circuit, with eight qualifying soldiers competing in the championship. Plus, stay tuned for a special surprise segment coming on Friday, thanks to Alienware.
PAX West kicks off Friday, August 31. We’ll see you there!
September is almost upon us and that means another round of Free Games with Prime. Only this time we’re giving them to you a little early! Starting August 30th you’ll be able to claim and play all of September’s free games and once you claim a game, they’re yours to keep forever. Those games are:
The Adventure Pals Venture into an action-packed platformer all about exploration and friendship… oh and riding your giraffe. You’ll slash and leap your way through crazy levels filled with traps, treasure and so much more.
Guild of Dungeoneering In a world where you’re the dungeon master, you will need to coax your heroes through their adventures as you attempt to restore glory to your guild. In this turn-based dungeon crawler, you will create the dungeon around your hero using cards to lay down monsters, rooms and even treasure! Will your hero have what it takes to navigate your creation?
Gunpoint Sneak your way into this cleverly designed puzzle game. You’ll play as a freelance spy tasked with breaking into high security buildings. Rewire traps and security cameras to navigate your way through and complete your mission!
The Original Strife: Considered by many to be one of the original FPS-RPG games, this game is a fun tried and true testament to the credit of the Doom 3D Engine.
Pumped BMX Originally developed by a single game developer, Pumped BMX is a game full of stunts and trick combos that span over 500 challenging levels.
Twitch Prime is a new premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly in-game loot, ad-free viewing on Twitch, a channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of being a prime member. See all the Twitch Prime benefits here.
Check out the full list of Amazon Prime benefits in: US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain. You can try it for free for 30 days right here, and when you do, you get all the Twitch Prime benefits instantly just by linking your Twitch account to your Amazon account.
Prime Now One and two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items from Amazon and local stores. Check out Prime Now.
When you think of interacting with your favorite streamers on Twitch, you probably think of the energy in Twitch Chat. This is where all the action happens. It is where streamers and viewers interact with each other; where you cheer your favorite streamers with Bits and where memories are created.
Beyond Twitch Chat, Twitch Extensions allow developers to create experiences that increase the level of engagement in a channel by exposing opportunities to interact in new and exciting ways, so that viewers and streamers can connect like never before. Bridging the power of Extensions with the visibility of Chat in real time would give everyone in the channel an opportunity to be an active participant in the live stream.
Today we’re announcing the first of a series of features focused on providing developers with tools for increasing channel interaction, Extensions-in-Chat.
What is Extensions-in-Chat?
The premise behind Extensions-in-Chat is fairly straightforward. By providing Extensions with direct access to Chat, developers can create even more powerful experiences for streamers and viewers to enjoy. Many Extensions are already doing this by connecting through IRC. By now leveraging the Send Extension Chat Message API, we’re able to bridge the functionality of an Extension with the visibility of a chat message — and utilize a single set of standardized interfaces. For instance, an Extension can now send an alert to Chat when the streamer achieves a new World of Warcraft all-time high Arena rating without the need to create an IRC bot.
To use Extensions-in-Chat, a developer can utilize the Send Extension Chat Message API, and with a few lines of code, enable their new or existing Extension to communicate with Chat.
Enabling Extensions-in-Chat
We want developers to focus on building great experiences through Extensions — not the technology stack. For this reason, Extensions-in-Chat is an option in the developer’s Extension dashboard that can be enabled with a flag. Once this flag is enabled, minimal coding is needed to start communicating with Chat. Similarly, we’re providing streamers with an easy opt-out mechanism so that they can manage the Extensions with access to their Chat.
Update the Extension description with new features
With this release, developers enable streamers to post messages and notifications in the desktop channel chat so that everyone in the channel can see and interact with content in real time. We are currently working on mobile support for this feature.
Also Available: Pop-out Extensions
In addition to Extensions-in-Chat, Pop-out Extensions are now available. For developers, this means that their responsive Extensions can now be undocked from the channel page much like the Twitch Chat pop-out. This gives developers much more real estate in the Extension to deliver messaging and experiences when a viewer chooses to undock it. Viewers and streamers can pop out panel and live config Extensions.
We’d love to hear what you think of Extensions-in-Chat V1 and are excited to see how you use this new feature to create increased interaction on streamers’ channels. Connect with us via @TwitchDev on Twitter or the Developer forums.
