Calling all heroes of Overwatch — Blizzard Entertainment is excited to announce that we’re partnering with Twitch and Amazon to bring you a Golden Loot Box* for Overwatch! From September 4 — October 8, Overwatch players who link their Amazon Prime account to their Twitch account can claim a Golden Loot Box that contains at least one legendary item!

Of course, you’ll also enjoy all the benefits that come with Prime, from monthly channel subscriptions to support your favorite streamers, fast, free delivery on over 100 million items, streaming movies and TV shows, and more.

Must own Overwatch to claim. Loot Boxes do not include seasonal event items. Contents of Loot Boxes are random. Each Blizzard account may only claim one code per promotional item.

Not a Twitch Prime member? Click here to activate your account or start a FREE 30-day trial!

Link Your Accounts
GETTING STARTED

Link Your Twitch and Blizzard Accounts:

Step 1: If you don’t already have a Twitch account, create one here.
Step 2: Log in to your Twitch account.
Step 3: If you don’t already have a Blizzard account, create one here.
Step 4: Navigate to the Twitch Connections page in the Settings menu.
Step 5: Locate the Blizzard Battle.net section and chose your gameplay region.
Step 6: Log in to the Blizzard account you wish to link and click Log in to Blizzard.

(Console Only) Link Your Console and Blizzard Accounts:

Step 7: Link your PlayStation Network or Xbox Live account to your Blizzard account.
Step 8: Success! You are ready to claim your Overwatch offers.

Before linking your Twitch and Blizzard accounts, check to see that you’re not logged into any other Blizzard accounts at the same time in the same browser, as this could cause complications. For the best results, complete the process in “private browsing” or “incognito” mode.

How to Claim Your TWITCH PRIME REWARDS
Offer Redemption Instructions

Claim Your Twitch Prime Offer:

Step 1: Visit the Overwatch Twitch Prime Rewards page.
Step 2: Log in to your Twitch account and authorize.
Step 3: Click to claim your loot on Blizzard Account
Step 4: Success! You are ready to claim your items in the game.

Claim Your Rewards In-Game:

Step 5: Launch Overwatch on PC, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One.
Step 6: Click on the Loot Boxes menu option.
Step 7: Locate your loot boxes and open them to see what you unlocked!

Once you claim an Overwatch reward, all future rewards in the campaign will be automatically applied to the same Blizzard account as long as you remain an active Twitch Prime member and cannot be transferred. Be sure that your preferred Blizzard account is connected to your Twitch account at the time of enrolling!

Need more info? Click here to visit the Twitch Prime FAQ for more details.

A Golden Loot Box Awaits members in Overwatch! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Twitch Prime and Ubisoft are teaming up to bring Twitch Prime members exclusive items in Rainbow 6 Siege starting September 6th through December 31st.

At the beginning of the promotion Twitch Prime members will receive eight Twitch Prime packs containing exclusive items for Hibana, Finka, Ela or Bandit. In the following months, Twitch Prime members will receive an additional four Twitch Prime packs in the months of October and November, all of which are guaranteed to exclude any duplicates! Make sure you collect all 16 packs to complete all 4 skins!

Not only that, but no matter when you take part in the promotion, you will also receive a legendary Chibi Charm as well.

We have a ton of awesome stuff coming your way for you and your operators, so get in and get your skins and get into the action!

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, 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.

Get exclusive monthly loot in Rainbow 6 Siege with your Twitch Prime membership! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Few entertainment franchises have achieved global success in the same way Pokémon has. Last week, Twitch and The Pokémon Company International kicked off Pokémon: The Series extravaganza featuring 16 movies and 900+ episodes to be live-streamed in several different marathons spanning into 2019. This will be the single longest programmatic viewing event to stream on Twitch.

Another aspect we’re particularly excited about is the Pokémon Badge Collector Extension. This super-slick and engaging, interactive overlay allows viewers to virtually collect Pokémon badges while they watch.

To activate the Extension, viewers click on the Poké Ball overlay and start collecting Pokémon badges. That’s not all, though; the Extension is feature packed including:

• Achievements — track lifetime stats, such as points and total badges collected over the course of the entire marathon
• Inventory — review and search through all the Pokémon you’ve caught
• Leaderboard — see how you rank with friends and other Pokémon fans who are also watching and playing along
• Bonuses — complete individual and global community goals to earn special bonuses and rewards

We caught up with the creative folks over at Stink Studios to learn more about what went into building such a unique and innovative Extension for Twitch.

TwitchDev: Why are you excited about this program and Extension?

Stink Studios: Twitch is the only major live streaming platform that offers a way for developers to create interactive applications that exist over the content. Plus, anyone can build an Extension and distribute it to broadcasters, truly democratizing this platform’s feature.

Here at Stink Studios, we’ve contextualized this as a sort-of augmented reality: an Extension acts as that heads-up display to live content. There is a lot of talk about the merging of technology and content; Twitch Extensions do this.

TwitchDev: Is this the first Extension you’ve built for Twitch? If yes, where did you start?

Stink Studios: This is our first Extension that we’ve built for Twitch. When building for a new platform, the very first place we start is the documentation. Fortunately, Twitch Extensions has written pretty thorough information to get developers started, but leaves it pretty open-ended so developers can customize their codebase to suit their needs. The next step we did was to do a general audit of the landscape, combing through pre-existing Extensions and searching Github for publicly available codebases. Finally, we prototyped typical network relation strategies — 1:1, 1:N, N:N, and N:1 — within the Twitch Developer Rig since these patterns would be the foundation to our extension.

TwitchDev: Can you briefly describe your development process, including how you came up with the idea, how long it took, what you did to test or troubleshoot, etc.?

Stink Studios: Here at Stink Studios, creative and technical teams work closely together to come up with new concepts for clients. We iterated a lot of ideas together in what we call a “grab-bag deck.” One idea that stuck out was collecting badges throughout a stream’s duration. In particular, how can we reward viewers for active watching? Twitch told us that they think Pokémon would be a great content partner for this concept, and we did another round where we tied the technical concept with the content.

From there, we created UX documentation about how the Extension works, such as user flows and game mechanics, which flowed into creative designs that gave the Extension a look and feel that is consistent with both the Twitch and Pokémon universes. These first two phases (UX and design with technical R&D) took about four weeks.

Finally, we went into our coding process, where we began to actually build the Extension from the ground up. Since this was a new platform for us, we had to vet out how the Extension works across different screen sizes, as well as how to handle about 100,000 concurrent users within this context. Then, we created an overall backend systems architecture and split out the visual components to be built out on the front end. We divided and conquered over about six quick sprints, which took us about five weeks to build. However, now that we have a lot of the infrastructure encapsulated as reusable components, we can have the foundation to build any future extensions efficiently.

TwitchDev: Describe the tech behind this Extension? Any hurdles you had to overcome?

Stink Studios: For the front end of this project, we used React and Redux since they are battle-tested and production-ready libraries that have a lot of community support. We sometimes use Vue on other projects, but since the Twitch Developer Rig is already built with React for the front end, so we decided to align with that.

For the back end of this project, we used a serverless architecture, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Serverless architecture is a relatively new backend paradigm, where the server only exists when data is transmitted to it, rather than having a box that is “always-on.” In particular, we used AWS API Gateway and Lambda to both handle our users and their badge collections, which are stored on an Aurora database. In order to alleviate stress on the database when a lot of users collected a badge simultaneously, we needed a way to slow down all the requests. To accommodate this, we used AWS’s SQS as a virtual conveyor belt. Interestingly enough, SQS is actually one of the oldest services on AWS. In combination with all of the relatively new services we have used, it served as a good contrast in our architecture.

Finally, to be incredibly reactive to viewers, we leaned into optimistic updates with eventual consistency model. That is to say, viewers would immediately see their badge and stat updates after a collection without having to wait for the server to return any information. Once the server processed all the information in bulk, it would validate their collection and tell the front end, which would either retain the collection or rollback the change. Using these principles allows for viewers to have immediate gratification without sacrificing the verification of their actions.

TwitchDev: The Extension initially had some outages due to significantly higher usage than expected, can you describe how you optimized and scaled to keep up with demand?

Stink Studios: This outage affected primarily our Users API. In particular, viewers entering the stream were not able to access the Extension. If you were in the stream before the outage occurred, you could actually keep collecting Pokémon badges. Our primary issue was bottlenecks with the database. We made a lot of optimizations to our AWS Lambda functions to pool and reuse database connections, but ultimately, pivoted away from using a serverless architecture to a more typical server-based setup on AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Fortunately, we were using a framework that made the transition relatively painless. Although our Collect API is still a serverless microservice, it makes more sense for our Users API to use a more typical pattern for accessing and writing user information. Most of the time, the tried-and-true solutions work the best!

Watch and collect Pokémon badges over on the TwitchPresents channel and dubbed on its companion channels in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Interested in building your own Extension? Start here!

Behind the Development: The Pokémon Badge Collector Extension was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Partners and Affiliates do so much to build amazing communities on Twitch, and a huge part of growing those audiences is getting subscribers who consistently watch, chat, spam emotes, make Clips, and more.

With Gifted Subs and Community Gifting, we gave viewers the power to help out their favorite streamers by inviting new friends to the party. This SUBtember, we’re making it easier than ever to keep the Sub train going with a great month-long deal: continue a gifted subscription for 80% off!

This deal applies to Tier 1 subscriptions, meaning you can turn any Tier of your gifted Sub into a recurring Tier 1 Sub for just $1 (final price may vary by region, see FAQ below). And yes, streamers will still get the full amount from the Sub. To take advantage of this 80% off promotion, you need to have an active gifted subscription during 9/10–9/30 and commit to a paid subscription during this time.

If you’ve already set up your subscription to renew between 9/10 and 9/30, you can still take advantage of SUBTember pricing. To obtain the promotional price, you’ll need to cancel the Sub continuation at your subscriptions management page and then choose to continue the gift sub again between 9/10 and 9/30 .

Ready to support your favorite streams and keep access to all those custom badges and emotes? Below are the two ways to continue your subscription, and please note that this promotion is only available if you sign-up on a desktop web browser.

1. Visit the Streamer’s channel and click “Continue” on the top of the video player

2. Visit your subscriptions management page and click on the “Gift Subscriptions” tab. Then find the streamer’s panel and click “Continue.”

Got more questions? We’ve got answers.

Q: I had a gift sub that was set to expire before 9/10 and I renewed it at the regular Tier 1 price. Can I retroactively get the promotional price?

No, your subscription renewal must fall between 9/10 and 9/30 in order to get the promotional price.

Q: What exactly do I need to do to take advantage of this promotion?

Visit either the Streamer’s channel, or your Subscriptions Management Page. Click “Continue”, select a Tier 1 sub at the discounted price and complete your checkout.

Q: What is the discount if I continue my gifted sub as a Tier 1?

Tier 1 is discounted at a whopping 80% off, which is just $1 before taxes and fees. Your final price may vary based on region.

Q: Is there a limit to how many times I can do this?

As long as you have an active gift sub to a channel, you can take advantage of this! The discounted price only applies to the first month of the Tier 1 paid sub. After the first month, it will return to the normal price.

Q: What channels does this apply to?

Any Partner and Affiliate channel as long as they offer a recurring subscription.

Q: Does this apply to all Tiers of subscription?

The discount only applies to Tier 1 paid subscriptions. If you currently have a gifted subscription at Tier 2 or 3, you can continue to a paid subscription at the same Tier for the regular price or continue at Tier 1 for the discounted price.

Q: How long will the paid subscription be discounted for?

Only the first month of the gift-to-paid subscription will be discounted. After one month, the subscription will return to normal price.

Q: When am I charged for the paid subscription?

Your paid subscription will start when your gifted subscription ends.

Q: What about tax and VAT?

The discount is on the base price of the subscription before any taxes/VAT are applied.

Q: When exactly is this happening?

Starting 12:00PM PDT September 10th and ending 11:59PM PDT September 30th

Q: Does this work on the Android or iOS Twitch Apps?

No, to take advantage of this discounted price you’ll have to visit twitch.tv/subscriptions or the streamer’s channel in a desktop web browser.

Q: If I receive a gift sub to a channel I’ve never subbed to before, and after the gifted month I decide to continue the sub, does my tenure start at month one or month two?

Your tenure would continue as month two, because gifted subs count toward sub tenure. Don’t forget to share your resub notification in the channel.

Q: I want to buy a multi-month bundle (i.e. 3 months or 6 months). Do these qualify for the promotion?

The 3 and 6 month Subscription bundles do not qualify for this promotion.

Q: I committed to continue my subscription already, will I also get the promotional price?

If you previously committed to renew your subscription between 9/10 and 9/30 you will need to cancel your continuation at your subscriptions management page and continue the gift sub again to obtain the promotional price. For more details, please check the email associated with your Twitch account.

Q: My gift sub continuation will hit in October, will I still get the promotional price?

You must commit to renew between 9/10 and 9/30 to qualify for the promotion price. If you already committed to a renewal date past 10/1 prior to the promotion start date, you will need to cancel your continuation at your subscriptions management page and continue the gift sub again to obtain the promotional price

SUBtember is back! Continue a gift subscription for 80% off was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hearthstone Global Games (HGG) is heating up and the top 16 countries and regions in the world have been decided. On the road to the playoffs at BlizzCon®, join the community in celebrating the journey with HGG Cheer — a new program that lets you Cheer with Bits for your favorite teams on Twitch using custom Cheermotes — all while unlocking sweet loot along the way.

Every Cheer from Sept. 17 through Nov. 4 on /playhearthstone brings you and the entire community closer to unlocking Cheering goals, which include in-game items like card packs and a card back, and exclusive Twitch emotes. Even better: a portion of the revenue from Bits you Cheer goes directly to the team you’re supporting.

Right below the video player on /playhearthstone, you can track team-specific and global community Cheering progress; check out your individual goals, and see leaderboards that highlight each team’s biggest superfan. HGG teams will not only feel the love from your Cheers, they’ll get to see themselves represented on Twitch and within Hearthstone on unlockable team-branded items!

How it works:

• Be sure to link your Blizzard account to your Twitch account so you can claim loot when items become available.
• Cheer for your favorite teams on /playhearthstone (or any of the international channels) during HGG events by clicking on the Bits gem at the bottom of chat, selecting the team’s logo, adding the number of Bits and a custom message to cheer them on.
• Once Cheering goals are reached, items will be automatically deposited in your Hearthstone account as long as you have your account linked with your Twitch account.

Support your team in the Hearthstone Global Games beginning on September 17 and follow them as they chase the trophy at BlizzCon. For more details on the HGG Schedule, click here. Follow the Hearthstone channel to be notified when events go live.

FAQ

Q. How much revenue does a team receive when Bits are Cheered for them?

A. For each Bit Cheered for a team, that team and Blizzard (as the tournament organizer) receive the same amount of revenue share.

Q. How do I Cheer for a team?

A. Click on the Bits gem at the bottom of the chat window, select the team’s logo, add the number of Bits you want to use and a custom message to cheer them on.

Q. Can I use the regular Cheer command (e.g. cheer100) during HGG?

A. No, regular Cheers won’t work on the PlayHearthstone channel during HGG. You can Cheer for any or all of the teams competing in HGG using the team-themed Cheermotes.

Q. I forgot to link my Battle.net account before Cheering…Can I still get the items?

A. Yes! First, go ahead and link your Blizzard account to your Twitch account. Then, return to the PlayHearthstone channel. You’ll see that a “Redeem All” button has appeared. Hit that button to claim your items! Going forward, the items will be deposited directly into your account.

Q. Where can I watch HGG in my native language?

A. You can view HGG in English, Russian, French, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, and Thai.

Watch and Cheer During Hearthstone Global Games to Support Teams and Unlock Loot! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Do you like developing awesome tools to make Twitch better for everyone? Wait, let us rephrase…

Do you like developing awesome tools to make Twitch better for everyone while a big clock ticks down to 0:00 like you’re in an action movie? If you’re up for a fun and rewarding challenge, you should join us Saturday, October 27 for our 24-hour TwitchCon Hackathon.

Here’s how it works: Partnered streamers will approach us with ideas for new and useful extensions. Our expert staff will vet their ideas, and then teams of up to four hackers (that’s you!) will race to create prototypes of those extensions by the end of the Hackathon.

The TwitchCon Hackathon will begin Saturday morning, with the list of hackable extension concepts being revealed. Each team will pick one streamer’s project to work on from the list. After the opening session, hacking begins! Food will be provided; sleep will be optional. 24 hours later we’ll demo the projects. Entries will be judged based on functionality, design, and other criteria, and prizes will be awarded for top extensions. Winners will receive trophies, blog recognition, and a featured extension slot.

Want to learn about Twitch Extensions before you join the TwitchCon Hackathon 2018? Request a ticket for Developer Day on Thursday, October 25 for a deep dive into the technologies that power Extensions.

All participants will have TwitchCon access on Saturday and Sunday (but not Friday) and will receive exclusive TwitchCon Hackathon 2018 swag. Check out the full event rules and the FAQ below. When you’re ready to hack, register here!

Event rules:

• All participants must be at least 18 years of age.
• Teams must be no more than four members and can be formed before or at the start of the event.
• Each participant may only work on one project.
• A project may not have any code dedicated to it until hacking begins on the Saturday of the event. Setting up your development environment with SDKs in advance is fine (and recommended).
• Projects must be Twitch extensions and must be built as close to the chosen extension concept as possible.
• Projects must be submitted by the time hacking ends on the Sunday of the event. After that, presentation materials may be worked on but no more design/development can be done on the submission.
• Submissions will be judged on creativity, utility, presentation, and that special “Twitch” factor.

FAQ

What is a hackathon?
Think “hack” in the sloppy-creation sense of “hacking” a project together. Think “marathon” in the sense of “you’ll be doing it nonstop for a while”. A hackathon is a software development contest that gives you 24 hours to create a project following certain restrictions. They are spaces for passion, innovation, and they are great opportunities to learn new technologies and meet other builders.

Who can participate?
This hackathon is open to anyone who is at least 18 years of age.

What should I bring?
All of your work gear, and maybe a few items to make your stay more comfortable. We recommend a laptop, charger, headphones, light sweater, and hygiene products to stay fresh.

Can I hack with a team?
Yes! You will be hacking alongside a team of 4 other members. Team creation is informal, so feel free to build an alliance beforehand or at the event, however all team members must apply and be selected to participate individually. We will hold a team-building session at the beginning of the event for anyone who is still LFG.

Can I submit a project I’ve worked on in the past?
Out of fairness to other participants, all submissions must have no work dedicated to them before hacking begins.

Where can I read the full rules?
The complete rules are right here.

Introducing: TwitchCon Hackathon 2018 was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Get skins from hundreds of your favorite PUBG streamers. A portion of the revenue of every skin you purchase goes directly to supporting the streamer for whom it was created.

PUBG and Twitch Streamers go together like winners and chicken dinners. And now we’re excited to announce that we’re bringing them together in an awesome new way with PUBG in-game Twitch streamer skins.

Twitch is partnering with PUBG to create limited edition in-game items featuring your favorite streamers, putting tons of new skins in your hands and adding a new way for you to support your favorite streamers by purchasing them.

Skins will gradually become available over the next few months, and Twitch Prime members will also find free items available exclusively to them now (grab them here!). There are skins featuring streamers from all over the world including:

• Shroud
• JennaJulien
• Zerator
• SPYGEA
• Kate
• SkipNho
• xChocoBars
• Zerator
• WackyJacky101

How to Purchase

You can purchase everything currently available and see some of the items that are coming soon at www.twitch.tv/pubg. You can also buy skins via the Extension on participating streamer channels or Steam. Simply roll your mouse over the video player on the channel and click the PUBG logo overlaid on the player. If the streamer is offline, click on the PUBG Contraband panel below the video player. Then follow the In-Extension Purchase flow to complete the purchase. Please note: in-game items will only be claimable on PC.

How to Claim

To claim your exclusive skins, ON PC ONLY, link PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS to your Twitch account:

1. Enter the game lobby and click on the Twitch icon next to your account name to link accounts. Once confirmed, the items will be sent to your PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS account.
2. Then go to Store > Inventory to access your loot crate that contains your new skins.

FAQ

Q: Who can install the Extension?

A: Any revenue-earning Partner or Affiliate can install the extension and sell these streamer in-game items. Items sold on your channel will generate revenue for you.

Q: Can I claim the items on my XBOX account?

A: No, skins can only be claimed on the PC version of PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS.

Q: How long will the skins be available for sale?

A: Each skin is available for a limited time and the availability varies between skins. Make sure to check www.twitch.tv/pubg to find details on how long a specific skin will be available for.

Q: In which countries will these crates be available?

A: The crates containing weapon skins will be available for purchase for users in all countries.

Q: Can I purchase more than one of each skin or crate?

A: Nope. Each account is limited to one purchase of each item.

Q: Will there be more partnerships like this with more streamers in the future?

A: We’re working with PUBG to create more interesting ways for fans to get exclusive in-game items and support streamers. So stay tuned for more to come!

Get PUBG Skins Featuring 200+ of Your Favorite Streamers was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Starting September 18th through October 17th, Twitch Prime members can ride into the danger zone with the PUBG Pilot Crate, featuring 6 skin items and 1 parachute skin.

The crate includes:

• Captain’s Hat
• Uniform Shirt
• Loafers
• Uniform Slacks
• Golden Aviator Glasses
• B-3 Bomber Jacket
• Purple Ace Parachute Skin

Be sure to grab it before it disappears!

Twitch Prime Members: Fly into Battle with the PUBG Pilot Crate! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As the Twitch community grows, we want to make it easy for anyone to discover streamers they’ll love. In July, we added personalized recommendations to the homepage based on viewers’ interests to help everyone find new channels to watch and follow. Now, it’s time for the next step.

Today we’re releasing Tags, which are a new way for streamers to describe their live stream in more detail, as well as new Categories that replace and expand on IRL and Creative to make non-gaming streams easier to find. Along with these changes, we’re discontinuing the Communities feature. We shared this update with the streamer community in August, and these new features will begin rolling out on twitch.tv today, with mobile coming later this year. Let’s jump in to the details.

Tags: When you visit the Browse directory to find a new stream, you’ll now see a new option to use Tags when filtering results for Categories or Live Channels. Filtering by Tags can help you narrow in on a specific genre of game, but, for example, you can also be as specific as ‘Hero: Ana’ or ‘Competitive’ if you want to narrow down your options when browsing Overwatch streams.

Like a stream’s title, Tags are set by the streamer who can add as many as five tags to a stream directly from the Live Dashboard. These Tags will appear alongside the video thumbnail, stream title, and the game or category anytime a video is seen on Twitch. To learn more about how to apply tags, visit here.

Tags will also help us recommend streams based on their past viewing. For example, someone who has watched a lot of streams tagged as ‘Competitive’ may see recommendations for more streams using that Tag.

New Categories: The Creative and IRL categories have exploded in growth since they were introduced in 2015 and 2016, respectively. We’ve heard from many viewers that these categories have such a wide variety of content that it’s difficult for them to find streamers around the topics they’re interested in. Starting today, we’re replacing IRL and Creative with 10 new categories designed to help viewers find streamers around things they love from Art, to Science & Technology, to Talk Shows and Podcasts, and beyond. These new Categories will appear in the Browse directory, which shows gaming and non-gaming in a single view as well as in search results.

Streamers who previously streamed under IRL or Creative will need to select a new category when they broadcast in order to appear in the Browse directory and in search results. To learn more about the categories streamers can choose, please visit the Discovery Updates Site.

We know that introducing Tags, replacing IRL and Creative with new Categories, and discontinuing Communities impacts streamers and their workflow. We’ve received a lot of feedback since we announced these changes in early August. Based on those conversations, we’ve broadened the Tags available in this first release, included descriptions with Tags to make them clearer for streamers, and renamed the ”Hobbies & Crafts” category to “Makers & Crafting” to better reflect our professional makers. We also recognize that streamers were using our Communities feature to find others who shared their identity and interests, and we are working with those communities to build solutions for them.

Our plan is to continue to adapt these tools to ensure that Tags and Categories work for everyone on Twitch. If you have feedback for us, please let us know here. We’re continuing to invest in new ways to improve discovery, and if you want to follow along, visit the Discovery Updates Site.

Introducing Tags and New Categories: New Ways to Discover Streamers on Twitch was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Are you ready for some sportsball?

The 2018 NFL season is underway and starting tonight at 8:20pm ET, when the Vikings visit the Rams, you can catch every Thursday Night Football matchup live on Twitch. We’ve saved you a seat on the world’s largest couch (Twitch Chat), so tune in, cheer with thousands of other fans in chat, and experience the game of football in a whole new way.

As any fan knows, repping your favorite team is of the utmost importance. So to help you let chat know who you’re pulling for, each week the NFL teams’ playing in the Thursday Night game will have their logos available as global emotes. We’ve also added a few new emotes just for fun. So get out there and let the world know you truly believe the Browns will win it all this year.

The first game on Twitch is Vikings at the Rams this Thursday with kick-off at 8:20pm ET on twitch.tv/primevideo (available on web and mobile apps). And to celebrate sportsball returning to Twitch, one of the Twitchverse’s biggest sports fans, GoldGlove, will be co-streaming the game live. So tune in to twitch.tv/goldglove during the broadcast to check out his live commentary and takes on the game.

Follow twitch.tv/primevideo for alerts when games are starting and to take a look at the full Thursday Night Football schedule. We’ll see you tonight!

Thursday Night Football returns to Twitch was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We hope you’re getting excited for our second-annual TwitchCon Developer Day; where developers can learn how to create the best interactive experiences on Twitch! Whether you’re looking to get started building with Twitch or grow the technology you have already, we’ll have two tracks and a workshop for you to explore.

Build Track

If you’re new to Twitch development and are excited to start building, you’ll definitely want to check out our first track. We have a full menu of sessions to help you with your first Extension and spark ideas for all the interactions you might want to build. Panels, overlays, components, and even chatbots; the sky’s the limit when it comes to creating innovative, new experiences for the Twitch community.

Grow Track

For those of you who are game devs or are deeper into Extensions development, our second track is perfect to tune your skills. With a focus on discovery, monetization, engagement, and analytics, this track will take your ideas to the next level.

Workshops

And if you haven’t dipped your toe into the waters of Extensions yet, our 90-minute workshop will get you up and running, even if all you know is a little JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. You won’t need experience with Extensions, but you’ll definitely need a creative spirit…and a laptop.

Party!

After everything is done, relax your brain and your coding muscles with our after-party, featuring drinks, food, music, and plenty of high fives from your fellow developers!

Have a look: the session schedule is posted now!

If you can’t make it in person, Developer Day will be streaming on twitch.tv/twitchdev.

We also encourage you to follow and use #TwitchDevDay on Twitter.

See you soon!

Announcing the TwitchCon Developer Day Sessions for 2018 was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One thing is for certain, the Twitch community loves games. Nothing speaks to that magnetic appeal more than our Games in Extensions category. It showcases dozens of Extensions that creators can choose to provide their viewers with a playable experience while they watch — or more importantly while creators are AFK.

This month, we’re highlighting some games that are sure to keep Twitch viewers engaged and entertained. Here are a few Extensions included in the Fresh New Games featured category.

Hex FRVR

This casual puzzler has players placing hexagonal shapes on a hexagon grid to earn points. With no time limits, this engaging game will keep people playing long after a stream ends! Create and destroy full lines on the screen in any of the primary three directions by dragging and dropping blocks to the screen and get combo bonuses by destroying multiple lines at the same time.

Hungry Piggies

Stack adorable pigs on top of each other and watch your score climb along with them. If it all falls down, players can use Bits to pick up where they left off, or start a new game.

Twisty Arrow

A tap-action physics puzzle game where you shoot at moving targets. With over 100 levels, viewers keep coming back to beat their best scores.

We hope you are inspired by these examples and start making your own Extensions today!

Level Up With Fresh, New Games in Extensions was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Developer Rig concept is a cornerstone of Twitch’s developer outreach. Our vision for building Extensions on Twitch requires that we provide the tools that developers need to build and test Extensions quickly and intuitively. Since we launched the Developer Rig, we have made consistent improvements to start times, online and local capabilities and product management features. Lowering the barrier to entry for developers who to build for Twitch is our number one priority.

As part of our product planning cycle, we conducted research to gauge how well we’re hitting our own goals. What we’ve heard from our community is that the Developer Rig needs some love. The major obstacles we’ve heard from you are that it’s challenging to get started, some of the user experience is unclear and the documentation is hard to grok.

Thanks to your feedback, today, we’re releasing a rebuilt and redesigned Developer Rig. The new Developer Rig is available now.

To improve the Developer Rig experience, we spent a lot of time thinking about how to get developers started as quickly, intuitively, and efficiently as possible in a stable and reliable environment.

Reduced start time

When you download the Rig, you just need to invoke a simple script to install dependencies and configure your dev machine. After that, type `yarn start` to launch the Rig and you’re in. We now drop a user directly in an Extensions building experience without having to manually enter commands. On the first-run experience, you can create your own project or use a Twitch-provided sample. If you already have Extension Projects in the Rig, it pre-populates them for you. Finally, in order to start up front and back-end services, you simply click two buttons.

Intuitive workflow

We are also introducing the concept of an Extension Project — this is a combination of the Extension manifest you create on our dev site, along with your code. You can use the Rig to create an Extension Project, including your own code or samples created by Twitch. We’re also releasing a brand new React-based boilerplate sample that you can easily add to your Extension Projects. With an Extension Project, it will make running your Extension in the Rig a lot simpler with pre-populated commands that you need to run the Rig and contextually relevant tutorials and documentation for when you need them.

Improved documentation

Due to popular demand, we’ve reworked the Rig documentation. We streamlined the README file (getting started info) and created a new document to focus on the Rig. In addition, a new Rig UI leverages the Rig itself to provide the contextual information you need. Developers can now rely on technical documentation for getting started or when they are stuck.

From you desktop machine, download the new Developer Rig here.

Let us know what you think by connecting with us @twitchdev on Twitter or in the developer forums. Have fun building with the new Rig. We can’t wait to see your Extension on Twitch!

Welcome to a new, more intuitive Developer Rig was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

October is finally here! This means yet another batch of Free Games with Prime. In honor of Halloween, we decided to go a little scarier this time around. Starting today, you’ll be able to claim and play all of October’s free games; and once you claim a game, it’s yours to keep forever. October’s games are:

· Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Embark on an epic quest in this moody hack and slash puzzle game. Tricked by the forces of evil into prematurely bringing about the Apocalypse, War — one of 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse — is accused of inciting a war between the high heavens and the burning hells.

· SOMA
The creators of Amnesia: The Dark Descent bring you this sci-fi horror game. Journey below the waves of the Atlantic Ocean inside the underwater facility of PATHOS-II as you struggle to survive a hostile world that will make you question your entire existence.

· Sanitarium
A timeless point and click horror game. You play as an amnesiac pushed into a creepy and morbid universe. After a terrible accident, you are awakened and find yourself inside an old asylum. Who are you? Why are you here? These are all questions you will need to solve as you struggle to regain your sanity.

· System Shock
A creepy first person fight to the death in the depths of space. You play as a famous computer hacker who has awakened from a coma in the aftermath of a terrible disaster. Where is everyone? Why is the space station in such shambles? You will need to use every bit of your wits to battle the mindless cyborgs and robots that serve the station’s ruthless A.I.

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, 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.

Treat yourself in October with Free Games with Prime was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Whether you were finding the perfect response on Twitter or just goofing around on Slack, you’ve probably used GIPHY for your urgent GIF needs. The app has long been a staple of online interactions, and now it’s made the move to Twitch.

Nick Santaniello is a senior product engineer at GIPHY and retro gaming fan who loves to watch speedruns on Twitch. Seeing all the different ways streamers worked to integrate visuals onto their streams inspired him to bring the simple, yet powerful GIPHY toolset to Twitch.

“Our goal was to bring the fast-paced, witty, reference and meme-laden back-and-forth banter that GIPHY excels at to the world of Twitch streamers and their viewers, followers, and subscribers,” said Santaniello.

To that point, GIPHY is incredibly simple and intuitive to use. Once installed on your stream, simply select a section of screen to display GIFs on, and then the Extension pretty much does the rest. “If you’ve used GIPHY on Slack or elsewhere on the web, GIPHY for Twitch works in much the same way except with a slim, graphical interface,” explained Santaniello. “Viewers can insert a term and GIPHY will ‘automagically’ deliver the perfect GIF for that term and layer it atop a broadcaster’s stream for all of the audience to see.”

Unlike other Extensions which use donations or subscriptions, Santaniello hopes GIPHY’s simplicity and low barrier of entry will lead more streamers to install and more viewers to get involved. “We built this Extension for broadcasters who want to give their viewers the ability to participate in the stream and interact with other viewers via GIFs,” said Santaniello. “For fans of GIPHY, the Extension presents another huge arena in which to use GIFs to communicate with friends and strangers.”

It might sound chaotic, but Santaniello says GIPHY has worked out the kinks to create a smooth and enjoyable experience. “Have you ever requested a song in a popular jukebox only to end up waiting forever, not knowing when your song would play, or if it would even play at all? The same problem could occur with our Extension on Twitch if too many GIFs are queued on a given stream,” GIPHY explains on their blog. “We solved this problem in our frontend by shortening the duration of GIFs as the queue grows. This ensures that all GIFs are played in a timely manner, shortly after they were initially requested.”

Streamers can install the GIPHY Extension on their channels right now, but Santaniello says more features are already in the works.

“Some ideas we had for future features include allowing a broadcaster to choose who can request GIFs (whether it be followers, subscribers, or any viewer, etc.) as well as more configuration options,” he said. “One possible new feature would consist of allowing users to choose a GIF from search results when following or subscribing to a channel.”

When asked what advice he would give to other developers looking to get into building Twitch Extensions, Santaniello had one suggestion: don’t go it alone. “I encourage Extension developers to leverage Twitch’s awesome developer community by leaving questions and comments in their forum to help improve the Developer Rig and other tools even further,” he said. “We’re looking forward to hearing users’ feedback and responses to the Extension and ways we can make it even more useful and fun for Twitch streamers and viewers in the future.”

Questions? Tweet us over @TwitchDev!

Get started building your own Extension today!

Bring GIF magic to any Twitch channel with the GIPHY Extension was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Claim the Aegean Pirate Pack for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with your Twitch Prime membership! Embody the ruthless qualities of the Aegean Sea Pirates and plunder at will, from October 2nd — December 5th 2018.

The packs contain a rare gear set, the Atoll Horse Mount, a unique pirate ship design, and a pirate crew theme.

- Aegean Pirate Gear Set: Like the waves themselves, pirates surge forth, strike fiercely and escape swiftly. Embody the ruthless qualities of the Aegean Pirate with this gear set.

- Aegean Atoll: This mount somehow enjoys being on rocking boats as much as running on dry land.

- Aegean Ship Design: The mythical creature motifs on this ship cause most merchants to quickly surrender.

- Aegean Crew Theme: For most people, the mention of pirates brings the image of savage men on the seas.

AEGEAN PIRATE PACK CLAIM INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1: LOG IN TO YOUR TWITCH PRIME ACCOUNT

Visit twitch.tv/prime and claim the Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey offer at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: LINK YOUR TWITCH PRIME ACCOUNT AND UPLAY ACCOUNT

Follow the link in the claim instructions to navigate to the Ubisoft website where you’ll be prompted to link your Twitch and Ubisoft accounts.

Step 3: CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORM AND CLAIM YOUR PACK

Select the platform on which you play Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. If you did not link that platform to your Ubisoft Account yet, you can do it from here by clicking on the corresponding button.

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. See all active Twitch Prime offers here.

Check out the full list of Amazon Prime benefits in: US, UK, Canada,Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Australia, Japan, and Singapore. 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.

Get the Aegean Pirate Pack with Twitch Prime! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Last week thousands of you tuned in to watch the season debut of Thursday Night Football on Twitch*. Chat was fired up, the team emotes were flying, and we hear the game was pretty good too.

Now we’re excited to announce a new way to let your voice be heard with the TNF Live Extension, two legendary co-streaming Partners who are broadcasting this week’s matchup, and a way to give to charity while also supporting your favorite teams in chat. Let’s get into it.

The TNF Live Extension

This season Twitch’s NFL coverage includes a brand new Extension on twitch.tv/primevideo that lets you project how drives will end, who will win, and more. Make the right calls and you can rule the leaderboard and prove that you should be on the sidelines calling the shots. Or at least hold one of those clipboards.

The Extension also lets you access team stats that are updated live as the game progresses.

Legendary Co-Streamers

Last week GoldGlove co-streamed our inaugural broadcast and put his unique spin on the game. This week, we’ve got two more incredible co-streamers lined up.

First, Hall of Famer and three time Super Bowl champion Shannon Sharpe is bringing his takes to Twitch for his first live NFL co-stream!

And our very own Twitch legend, TimTheTatman, will also be adding commentary on his own co-stream.

Cheer for charity

Cheering for your favorite team, whether you’re in the stands, or yelling at your screen is one of the best parts about being a fan. Now it can also be a way to show support of a good cause. This October, during all our Thursday Night Football broadcasts, for every 100 bits cheered on twitch.tv/primevideo, Twitch will donate $1 to the American Cancer Society. So make your voice heard and cheer like crazy for whoever you’re supporting.

Check out the TNF Live Extension and legendary co-streamers this week when the Colts visit the Patriots tomorrow at 8:20pm ET.**

*Also available on FOX, NFL Network, and Prime Video on Thursdays at 8:20pm ET.

**Availability subject to blackout

The NFL on Twitch just got better was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Good news Tenno!

Starting Oct. 16, Twitch Prime members can instantly unlock Prime Weapons to help you dominate in Warframe. Get Vectis Prime, Fang Prime, and an exclusive Prime Sugatra with your Twitch Prime membership! Claim the offer here to get the following items:

• Vectis Prime + Weapon Slot: A semi-automatic sniper rifle designed with high damage and fire rate making it powerful for destroying enemies at a distance.
• Fang Prime + Weapon Slot: Dual daggers with fast attack speed that can unleash a flurry of multi-hit attacks.
• Exclusive Prime Sugatra: Adorn any Melee Weapon with a flash of exclusive style. Prime Sugatras are rare Weapon Cosmetics and this one will only be available with Twitch Prime.

For those of you who are new to Warframe; a Prime Warframe, Weapon, Sentinel, or Accessory represents technology as it was during the height of the Orokin Era. A Prime Warframe will often have enhanced stats and “modability” compared to the non-Prime version; also, Prime weapons will boast superior performance or other advantages over their counterparts. Due to its rarity, Prime technology is coveted throughout the Origin System.

To take advantage of this offer on PC, PS4, or Xbox One, you must be a Twitch Prime member and link your Warframe and Twitch accounts. If you’re not a Twitch Prime member, you can sign up for a free trial on the Twitch Prime page.

Also, we’ve extended the availability of the Trinity Prime Bundle, which is included with your Twitch Prime membership! Match your new Prime Weapons and Exclusive Sugatra with a vital Support Warframe and matching Syandana!

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.

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.

Twitch Prime Members: Get Even More Prime Weapons in Warframe! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In one week, Hearthstone’s Dual Class Arena mode, The Hallow’s End, will return for a two week limited time special event!

Hallow’s End, in case you missed it before, is a spin on the classic Hearthstone Arena formula where you can pick two classes and fuse them for ultimate drafting synergy. To celebrate, we’re inviting all broadcasters around the tavern to a good ol’ fashion Gold Rush speed challenge on Twitch.

Starting on October 17 worldwide, the event will be unlocked and playable to every Hearthstone account, for free. The only two requirements to sign up are:

1. Make a brand new Battle.Net / Hearthstone account
2. Register that new Battle.net account over at the Smash.GG portal (https://www.smash.gg/hsgoldrush)

The Gold Rush challenge is a race to obtain 5000 Hearthstone in-game gold.. You can participate and play co-op together with friends, but no “Challenge A Friend” quests for 80 gold! Tavern Brawl is also off limit, but Constructed or Arena are fair game. Can you figure out the fastest way to reach 5000 gold?

And of course, using real money to buy anything is forbidden! For those focusing on the Hallow’s End Dual Class Arena, you can only use gold to pay for your Arena entry tickets. If you run out of gold — you bust. However, you have up to three attempts on your registered account due to the three server access regions (Americas, Europe, and Asia). If you bust on all 3 servers, you’re out for good.

The Gold Rush challenge features over $25,000 in prizes at stake and is open to anyone.. Pre-registration at smash.gg/hsgoldrush is mandatory, so if you forget to sign up, your submission won’t count!

Hallow’s End run from October 17–31. Submissions sent before or after those dates will be invalid. No cheating.

Note: You are allowed to complete the game’s tutorial and play all the classes to level 10 in Solo Adventure before the Challenge begins. However, you are not allowed to play any other game mode outside of Solo Adventure or start accumulating gold until Hallow’s End has officially started. Failure to abide by these prerequisites may invalidate your submission. You’ve been warned.

Prizes ($25,000 in total)
1st — $15,000

2nd — $7,000

3rd — $3,000

If nobody is able to cross the 5000 gold mark, the highest *current* gold holders will be selected as the winners.

Once you’ve completed your Arena run, grab the VOD and go to the smash.gg portal for submission. Winners will have their accounts verified and later announced at the conclusion of the event.

Finally, to all participants who are joining us for this epic challenge, while the event has no broadcast length limitations, please take extra care to ensure your own health and safety. Stay hydrated, eat well, take breaks, get lots of sleep, and most importantly, have lots of fun.

How do I participate?

To participate, simply use your Twitch account to broadcast the entirety of your submission under the “Twitch Rivals: Hearthstone Eerie-na Challenge” Tag.

If you do not have a Twitch account, signing up is free and easy. For all the details, read the official ruleset here and ask any questions in the Discord to the admins.

FAQ

• When does the Challenge begin and end?

October 17 is when Hallow’s End starts. October 31 is the last day of the event. If your submission contains non-Hallow’s End content, it will not be eligible.

• I finished! How do I submit to verify if I have won anything?

Log onto smash.gg portal page (https://www.smash.gg/hsgoldrush) and click “Submit my run”.

• What if I disconnect halfway or my stream goes down?

You are responsible for your own internet connection. Triple check your settings and test stability before you start. Any partial runs will be reviewed for authenticity, so submit chopped up VODs at your own risk.

• I accidentally didn’t stream some games on the account halfway through. Will this invalidate my run?

You must stream the event in its entirety. Gaining gold off-stream can be grounds for disqualification based on on the admin’s discretion. Accidents do happen, but do your due diligence to ensure your hard work isn’t jeopardized!

• I lost pretty quickly. Can I still participate if I bust out of gold early?

You may create a new submission by starting fresh on a different server of the Battle.net account that you registered on Smash.gg. However, if you bust out and are unable to purchase an arena ticket with in-game gold on any server (Americas, Europe, Asia), you are effectively eliminated from competition.

• Can I play on multiple accounts on the same time?

Each valid submission must show only 1 account being played at a time. Playing multiple servers or multiple accounts simultaneously will invalidate your run.

• I finished the 5000 gold, but I did not stream some of it. Can I claim the prize?

Unfortunately, if you did not stream the completion of the challenge in its entirety, you are not eligible to win. However, if you recorded locally on your computer, you may broadcast the missing part as a VOD on Twitch. However, you must the run must be streamed in its entirety (at normal 1x speed) before officially claiming the prize. Don’t forget to turn on your stream before you start/continue your runs!

• Can I have a friend on call or next to me?

Absolutely. The challenge can be a team effort, but we will credit it to the official owner (by email account) of the stream. However, you may not compete in the challenge on multiple channels, so if you compete on a friend’s stream, you may not submit your own individual run on your personal channel or help another broadcaster with their runs.

Twitch Rivals presents: the Hearthstone Gold Rush challenge was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Store persistent data and reduce traffic with the Configuration Service

Building Extensions for Twitch keeps getting faster and easier. We recently announced the new and improved Developer Rig that helps developers build Extensions more quickly and intuitively. Today we’re announcing the Twitch Configuration Service.

Configuration Service removes the burden of writing a back-end to store persistent channel- and Extension-specific data. It then provides this data on Extension load, eliminating the need for your back-end to handle traffic from end users for this scenario. This means that developers only need to focus on creating amazing experiences, not on building complex back-ends. In short, with Configuration Service, we’re unlocking a developers ability to build better Extensions faster.

Let’s take a look at two common use cases that will benefit from Configuration Service immediately. We’ll use our Bot Commander and Animal Facts example Extensions for reference.

Build a simple Extension without building a back-end.

Developers can build simple front-end-only Extensions that let streamers configure the Extension to provide unique experiences for their viewers. For instance, a streamer may want to configure a list of Chat commands to use in their channel that viewers can see. In this scenario, the Extension’s front-end will validate the input and call a method to store it in the Configuration Service. On the viewer side, on start up, the Extension is provided an object containing the stored information seen below.

Using a callback function from the Extension Helper Library, the Extension is notified when data has been delivered.

The front-end can then use data stored in the Configuration Service to load the object, which means the viewer will be able to see and react to the Chat. All this happens without needing to build a back-end.

Reduce development and operational costs as part of your Extension back-end service.

For Extensions that do require a back-end, the Configuration Service can support scenarios that require the ability to persist channel specific data. For example, with data-driven Extensions, the Configuration Service lets the streamer store the configuration needed to call the appropriate APIs. The Extension back-end can query from Configuration Service to get the needed data. When the viewer loads the Extension, they will receive content relevant to the streamer’s channel. See the data below which is from our Animal Facts code example.

If this streamer’s specific data is needed when the Extension loads, the Configuration Service can also provide that data without exposing the rest of the back-end to viewer traffic, reducing the scaling needs for developers.

Configuration Service opens the door for more developers to build on Twitch by empowering them to spend more time on the user experience for their idea, rather than building the back-end. Most Extension scenarios require a developer to persist channel specific data and retrieve it on Extension load to hydrate the experience. This required developers to support this in their back-end, even for simple scenarios, taking time away from building the best possible experience for streamers and their viewers.

Developers who have already built Extensions can start using Configuration Service immediately, either to add new functionality to their experience, or to replace the way they persist data on their back-end. New devs, can either build their back-end around Configuration Service, or just use Configuration Service to support their Extension scenario. All this is provided with love, by Twitch, with no additional cost to developers.

We believe that streamers and viewers will benefit greatly (and use Extensions more) from the increased functionality and stability that Configuration Services provides them. For developers, we hope this will motivate them to build more Extensions knowing that they can do so faster and easier than before without having to worry about investing in and building this aspect of their back-end.

There are many ways to learn and get started with Configuration Service.

You can get started with Twitch Configuration Service samples on GitHub:

• Bot Commander
• Animal Facts

From your desktop machine, download or update the Developer Rig.

Watch the Configuration Service 101 video tutorial to learn more.

Let us know what you think by connecting with us @twitchdev on Twitter or in the Developer forums. We can’t wait to see what you’ll build.

Store persistent data and reduce traffic with the Twitch Configuration Service was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.