Starting today, October 18th, Twitch Prime members can live out their own Wild West fantasy in PUBG with the Gunslinger Crate featuring 5 clothing skin items and 2 weapon skins.
The Gunslinger crate includes:
Gunslinger’s Formal Hat
Gunslinger’s Formal Jacket
Gunslinger’s Formal Shirt & Vest
Gunslinger’s Formal Pants
Gunslinger’s Formal Boots
Engraved R45
Engraved S686
Grab your crate before it’s gone for good!
Note: If you linked your Twitch account with your PUBG account prior to 10/10/2018 you will need to re-link your accounts through PUBG’s updated Global Account system to continue to receive loot. Follow the in-game prompts to complete account re-linking.
Keynote: Join Emmett Shear, Twitch CEO, and Amir Shevat, VP of Developer Experience, to hear our vision, how Twitch builds for developers and shared success, a look back at our product launches, and what’s coming up.
Streamer Panel: A candid discussion — where streamers discuss a range of Extension-related topics to help developers grow and optimize current Extensions or be inspired to create new ones — is immediately following the Keynote and will be moderated by Ethan Evans, EVP of Commerce and Developers at Twitch.
Sessions: Developer Day features 12 sessions on two tracks. The Grow track showcases new product launches, product benefits, and industry Q&A sessions. The Build track is more technical and features deep dives into products and features.
Workshop: Build a Twitch Extension from start to finish in a 90 minute hands-on workshop led by our Solutions Architect team. The workshop is for people who are proficient with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Don’t forget to bring your laptop!
Showcases: Six showcase pods offer you the opportunity to get to know more about our products and offerings. Come see how you can use Drops, Extensions, Mods, the Twitch API, Insights, and Amazon Game Tech to amp up your games.
Roadmap Feedback Board: Give us feedback on our roadmap. Get creative with stickers, post-its, and more as you engage with Twitch Developers staff on features you’d like to see in the future.
“This will be my first Developer Day at TwitchCon. I’m super excited to meet the Twitch team and developers in person and learn from them about their Twitch development experiences, especially everything about Twitch Extensions. Also, I can’t wait to see all new products and improvements Twitch will announce for their developers.”
— James van Eden (Altoar), Developer of Sound Alerts
Join Altoar and Jeff Chow, Product Manager of Monetization @ Twitch for their session: Monetize your Extension One Bit at a Time
“The second Developer Day is coming! Last year I attended, met, and spoke with my fellow developers. This year, I get to speak and share my knowledge and experience with them. If last year is anything to go by, it’s going to be an exciting day exchanging thoughts and ideas, and hopefully planing some collaborations with my fellow third-party Twitch developers. Furthermore, I’m looking forward to seeing what Twitch has coming for us in the coming year, and how I can improve the viewer experience for the broadcasters I work with! And, I hope my live coding does not go wrong!”
— Barry Carlyon (BarryCarlyon), CohhCarnage Infrastructure Engineer and OPG Consultant
Join Barry and Kristin Chen, Senior Product Manager of Insights @ Twitch during their session: Using Insights to Build Better Products and Grow on Twitch
“The past year and a half has been fantastic for me on Twitch. This led to being invited to speak at Developer Day. What am I excited about? Everything Developer Day has to offer…except standing up and speaking in front of a crowd.”
Hear Greg Humphries, Senior Software Engineer @ Twitch, and LuckyNoS7evin talk about Twitch Extensions 101!
Follow all of the Developer Day action on Twitter @TwitchDev and with #TwitchDevDay. And for friends who can’t join in person, have them catch the entire day on our TwitchDev channel page.
Twitch Prime members, World of Tanks: Care Package Alpha is now available
Today,announces the availability of the World of Tanks PC: Care Package Alpha loot included with your Twitch Prime membership starting on October 25th through November 30th, 2018.
Included in the loot drop are:
• An elite recruit, Charlotte Wells, armed to the teeth with 3 perks, who is certain to boost your tank Crew performance
• An exclusive emblem to make your combat vehicle stand out among others
• A special “Beyond the Service Call” medal to herald your personal record
• Get hands-on with 4 Premium tanks available for a free 10-day rental period
• Special battle missions, consumables, and more stuff to lighten up your experience
All Twitch Prime members are eligible to receive the Care Package Alpha loot upon connecting your Twitch Prime and World of Tanks accounts.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime benefits include free games, in-game loot and a Twitch channel subscription every month PLUS all the benefits of being an Amazon 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 unlock access to all Twitch Prime benefits just by linking your Twitch account to your Amazon Prime account.
Pokimane making it rain Bits with the Bit Storm custom Snap lens!
We at Twitch are on a mission to enable creators to make a living educating and entertaining fans. This TwitchCon, we’re excited to announce a suite of brand new partnerships that bring unique experiences onto Twitch via Extensions.
We’re always excited to integrate new communities and new functionality into Twitch. For years, you’ve asked us for more creativity, animation, and expression in the experience.
Search thousands of lenses in the Snap Camera App, which syncs to a Twitch Extension
Snapchat made history with its marquee camera lenses and magical AR experiences. Guess what? Creators can now use a library of iconic Snap lenses while streaming on Twitch, and viewers can change those lenses by subscribing via the Snapchat Extension.
Viewers can trigger creator avatars using Adobe’s Extension
Adobe has been a leader in art and animation for years, and we are announcing a unique integration between Adobe Character Animator and Twitch via an Extension.
Creators can fly in rocket ships, shoot virtual lasers from their hands, and even animate their entire persona (yes, just like Ready Player One) via Character Animator. Viewers can set off actions using the Character Trigger Extension.
A new shopping experience on Twitch created by Design by HumansThe FaZe Clan store is now available on Twitch
Before today, fans had to open up new tabs to snag their favorite hoodies and jerseys. Now, viewers can shop as they watch creators win chicken dinners.
“By building an Extension, we were able to embed a full ecommerce experience, from product discovery to checkout, all while keeping our fans where they wanted to be in the first place — watching livestreams on Twitch. Twitch Extensions are a creative way to allow developers and broadcasters to enhance their streams, and we look forward to seeing the full potential of this exciting technology for the Twitch community.” — Ben Sack, CTO @ FaZe Clan
Design by Humans and FaZe Clan are releasing their own storefronts via Extensions on Twitch, and more brands are coming soon!
Tiltify Donations
Donate on Twitch through the Tiltify Extension
Tiltify is no doubt a fundraising force on Twitch and is already working with many top creators. Now, viewers don’t have to miss a beat while donating, because they can give to their favorite charities right on Twitch through an Extension.
“Twitch has been an outstanding partner for Tiltify and some of our largest campaigns. We built this Extension to provide creators the ability to activate Tiltify’s live fundraising tools directly into their broadcasts and to allow donors to seamlessly donate to their favorite causes.” — Michael Wasserman, CEO @ Tiltify
The Twitch community raised approximately $30 million for charities in 2017, and we’re excited to make donations on Twitch even easier.
Popular battle royale, Surviv.io, is now live through a Twitch Extension
Surviv and Twitch have partnered to break the boundary between player and viewer. Surviv is a popular browser-based game and the first multiplayer battle royale available on Twitch via an Extension. Bleed purple with Twitch creators and viewers in a special Twitch version. Finally, you don’t have to leave your browser — or Twitch — to win a chicken dinner.
“Twitch Extensions are a great opportunity for games like Surviv.io to reach a massive audience we might not otherwise be able to reach. We’re really excited to see creators using the Extension to create new interactions and experiences with their viewers.” — Nick Clark, Co-Creator @ Surviv.io
Viewers will be able to play Dragon’s Lair in the Twitch Arcade Extension
Our next announcement is a retro gamer’s dream come true. Remember Dragon’s Lair, the classic coin-op adventure game? Well, on Tuesday, October 30, it’s coming to Twitch. Twitch creators will be able to host the game on their channels in the freshly updated Twitch Arcade Extension, allowing their viewers to play the full version of Dragon’s Lair, compete for places on leaderboards, and more.
Dragon’s Lair joins a number of Twitch Arcade Extension games and activities already available for creators, including the puzzle game Snap, clicker game Feline Flicker and press-your-luck game Wheel of Noms.
Creators can set up tournaments that engage their community directly from their dashboard
GameOn Tournament Organizer gives creators the tools to build a loyal community through tournaments created directly from their Twitch dashboard. Creators can spin up tournaments in supported games, making it easy for viewers to join and compete.
“I use social media to engage my community, but I haven’t found that perfect way to get them involved in gameplay without taking up tons of time and slowing down the stream. With this Extension, I will be able to keep a constant connection with my viewers.” — FaZe Dirty
Amazon Blacksmith offers creators gear showcases, polling, and Twitch Prime benefits
Gear on Amazon is now revamped as Amazon Blacksmith! Creators can showcase their favorite products and earn revenue from sales through the Amazon Associates program, enable viewers to access Twitch Prime benefits such as subs and loot, and create polls via the Extension.
Viewers can deep dive into D&D with the new Extension
We are also stepping up our game-specific Extensions. Introducing the D&D Beyond Twitch Extension, an interactive addition to your stream overlay that displays on-demand character statistics and status details from D&D Beyond. Watch as hit points are updated and active conditions appear on the screen in real time and click to view full digital character sheets on D&D Beyond!
Signing Off!
2018 has been a whirlwind for Twitch Extensions. Thank you to everyone in the Twitch community, especially creators and developers, for coming up with amazing new experiences and helping build the future of media and entertainment! We’re excited to see what else the community brings to light. Stay tuned for more new experiences soon!
Today we celebrated the streamers and fans that make Twitch unique at Day One of our fourth TwitchCon. We kicked off the morning in San Jose recapping the incredible accomplishments we were all a part of this year and shared our battle plan for how we’re playing support for streamers with new tools designed to help them grow, connect, and thrive.
We also announced the expansion of our esports program, Twitch Rivals, that will more than double in size in 2019 and introduced Twitch Sings, a new category of game built by Twitch with streaming in mind, that will enter closed beta this year.
More people are joining Twitch every day, and once they’re here, they experience what this community has known all along — that together you’ve created something new: Multiplayer Entertainment. You’re not just here for the show; you are the show.
At Twitch, streamers aren’t a sidequest. Making sure creators and their communities are succeeding more than ever is our main goal. Here’s a summary of what we announced today.
Grow
Whatever you stream, we’re making it easier for creators to get discovered.
Squad Stream: Up to four creators will be able to stream together in a single view that viewers discover when they visit any one of their channels. Viewers can watch on desktop and mobile as well as easily follow and subscribe to all channels. Chat is linked to whichever channel a viewer selects as their main view, so they can hang out with their friends or jump over to another community with just a click or a tap. Select streamers will be testing out Squad Stream later this year.
Squad Stream
Highlight Editor updates: Highlight Editor will now allow streamers and editors to stitch together moments from across a video into a single highlight. Look for this update in January.
Highlight Editor updates
New featured sections on the Twitch homepage: Starting later this year we’re rolling out a range of new featured sections like ones highlighting up-and-coming streamers, new Partners and Affiliates, or streamers local to the viewer.
New featured sections on the Twitch homepage
Connect
We’re giving streamers more tools to build stronger communities and relationships with their viewers. Strong communities spread the word about their favorite streamers, support each other in times of need, and welcome new viewers into the fold. Those relationships are part of what makes Twitch so different.
VIP Badges: Streamers will now be able recognize valuable members of their community without requiring them to subscribe or moderate with VIP Badges. VIP members are recognized with a badge and can also chat in slow, sub-only, or follower-only modes. Creators earn 10 badges when they complete the “Build a Community” achievement by reaching 50 followers and 5 unique chatters in a stream and can earn up to 100 badges as their community grows. Look for this in a few weeks.
VIP Badges
New moderator tools in chat: By clicking on someone’s username, mods will be able to see how long that person has been on Twitch and details on their activity in the channel, like chats, number of timeouts, or bans. The update also includes a new comment tool that lets mods work together by leaving notes for each other. These new tools arrive in January.
New moderator tools in chat
Roles management page: Streamers will able to see and change their community members’ roles– from editors, to mods, to VIP from the new roles section on their dashboard. This is coming alongside VIP Badges in a few weeks.
Roles management page
Subscription badges now show total number of months: We heard your feedback loud and clear that subscription badges need to reward consistent supporters, even if they miss a sub one month. Sub badges will now change to show the total number of months a viewer has been subscribed. If a viewer is on an amazing streak, they can still choose to share it when they re-subscribe. This update is coming in January.
Subscription badges now show total number of months
Extensions: As Extensions continue to grow on Twitch, we’re bringing you more ways to interact by teaming up with brands like Adobe, Tiltify, Spotify, as well as our friends at Amazon.
Today at TwitchCon, we showed off Snap Camera, Snap’s brand new standalone desktop app that works with a custom Extension built just for Twitch. Snap Camera lets you use Snapchat’s best Lenses live on your stream with your webcam. With the Snap Camera Extension, viewers can use Snapchat to scan the Snapcode on screen to try on the Lens and streamers can reward subs by activating a custom Lens of the streamer’s choosing when someone subscribes.
We also created custom Lenses for the Twitch community: like a purple, Super Saiyan power-up, for when you take chat’s energy; or a rain of bits to celebrate Cheers. Snap Camera is available now, you can learn more here. To learn more about all the new Extensions that launched at TwitchCon and Developer Day visit the Developer Blog.
Thrive
To make it easier for streamers to find sponsored opportunities that feel authentic and align with their communities’ interests we’re opening Bounty Board to 30 more brands starting in November. Partners and select affiliates in the U.S. and Canada will be able to use Bounty Board to earn even more, and coming in 2019 and we’ll open it to more affiliates and more countries beginning with the UK.
Bounty Board
Twitch Sings
We’re just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible when everyone wants to play together. There are many games and genres that are made better on Twitch, and we believe there’s an opportunity for a new category of game to emerge that’s made to be streamed, where the audience isn’t a ‘nice to have’ — they’re a crucial part of the game experience.
We knew karaoke would be the perfect place to start. It’s live. It’s always entertaining. And when it really gets going, the line between the crowd and the stage disappears completely.
With Twitch Sings, you can sing your heart out, share your performances across Twitch, or perform duets with your community. And being in the crowd is just as much fun as holding the mic — and just as important. In chat you can request songs, give your favorite streamers crazy challenges to tackle, and when you cheer you will see Bits will rain down on the crowd. We’re testing Twitch Sings on the expo floor at TwitchCon and soon with a handful of streamers live on Twitch in closed beta. We can’t wait to hear what you think and you can go here and register if you’re interested in trying it out. More of you will be invited as space opens up.
Riot Games and Twitch Prime have teamed up to bring you the first in a series of free in-game loot in League of Legends for Twitch Prime members. Starting now, Twitch Prime members can receive a Summoner’s Crown Capsule, which contains a random legendary-tier skin shard. Additional loot will be available starting in early 2019.
To claim the Summoner’s Crown Capsule, Twitch Prime members simply link their Twitch Prime and League of Legendsaccounts, then claim their loot at twitchprime.com. If you’re not a Twitch Prime member, you can sign up for a free trial at twitchprime.com.
Twitch Prime members who are attending TwitchCon 2018 can also visit the Twitch Prime LAN area to play and stream League of Legends and meet their favorite broadcasters with a series of meet-and-greet opportunities all weekend long.
On October 28, the TwitchCon esports stage will host “Rumble on the Rift” a League of Legends tournament with some of the game’s biggest streamers in one place. Not able to make it to TwitchCon? You can still catch all the action on Twitch starting at 10:30 AM PST.
Twitch Prime members will also get a leveled-up TwitchCon experience all weekend long, with a free tote bag, a $10 credit at the merch shop (aka The Loot Cave), access to a special members-only lounge, and more.
Look forward to more League loot with Twitch Prime in 2019! Follow Twitch Prime on Twitter and Facebook for updates on all the latest Twitch Prime offerings.
NOTE:LoL loot is accessible starting at Level 3.The Summoner’s Crown capsule loot is available for League of Legends accounts excluding those on the following servers: Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore/Malaysia, Taiwan, and all servers in China.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime at no additional cost. Benefits include free in-game loot for the world’s most popular games, a selection of free games every month, a channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of being a Prime member.
You can try it free right here, and when you do, you get all the Twitch Prime benefits instantly just by linking your Twitch account to your Amazon account.
At TwitchCon Developer Day 2018, we reviewed the many product innovations released in the past year. We also celebrated some of the amazing community contributions that have redefined how streamers and viewers create memorable moments on Twitch.
TwitchCon was a moment to rededicate our commitment to empower developers with the tools and incentives to build Twitch Extensions and game integrations. As such, we announced several product releases and an upcoming roadmap of the products and features that will help developers build, engage, and monetize their products on Twitch.
ICYMI, here’s a quick recap —
Available Now
For developers building Extensions, we announced a new web-based WYSIWYG editor to help you get started building Extensions, as well as an AWS credits program to help you host and scale your Extensions.
Online Sandbox
The Sandbox is a web-based WYSIWYG editor. It makes it easier for developers to build and ship Extensions with robust samples and real-time testing on a live channel.
We’re excited to team up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) again to provide an opportunity to receive up to $1000 of AWS promotional credits and educational resources to creators of promising Extensions for up to a year. These credits can be used to cover the cost of AWS services that will support your initial proof of concept and reduce your burden of building and hosting your own backend to launch Extensions.
We added “username” to the API and webhook payloads by default. This will simplify a developer’s workflow by using one API for user ID and username calls.
Smart Rate Limiting
Smart rate limiting makes sure that Twitch Extensions can scale with user growth, while ensuring reliability for everyone in the Twitch Community. For example, if Ninja adds your Extension, you get more capacity.
Be on the lookout for some new launches in the next few weeks. Here are few that help developers monetize their Extensions and add new functionalities.
Bits-in-Extensions Enablement
Developers will be able to add Bits-enabled functionality to already-existing Extensions, so that a single Extension can serve both monetized and non-monetized channels. This means that Extensions developers can start monetizing their already-existing Extensions without needing to build their user base from scratch.
Bits-in-Extensions Promotion
We heard your feedback that the developer revenue share on Bits used in an Extension may be limiting broadcaster adoption of your Extensions. From November through the end of the year, Twitch will cover the developer revenue share, so that more streamers try Bits-enabled Extensions. We are confident that streamers will love the increased engagement and delight in their channel and will want to continue using these Extensions after the promotion period.
Subscriptions API
The Subscriptions API provides long-term support, reliability, and webhook capability to simplify viewer subscriber status.
Global Emotes API
The Global Emotes API enables developers to build Extensions with a wide variety of Emotes with clear terms of service and policy compliance mechanisms.
Exploring
We’re also excited about our future roadmap. At TwitchCon, we announced a variety of products and services to help you along your product’s lifecycle. We are designing a roadmap that will give developers the power to build, engage, and monetize their products. Here are a few that are in the works.
Extension Cloud Services
We will provide a runtime for you to build your Extension backend, while also providing access to data services. Additionally, we’ll be delivering new Scaling Solutions to help you unlock scenarios like building viewer progression loops, dynamically segmenting your audience, and more. All these experiences will work seamlessly with our toolchain.
Analytics for Streamers
Streamers will get Extension analytics via Channel Analytics and Stream Summary pages so they can see their Extensions’ usage and performance, which will give them insight into how Extensions are helping them engage and grow their communities.
Social Proof for Streamers
We will deliver an Extension’s social proof through ratings and reviews to improve discovery and nurture feedback from streamers.
Insights Dashboard
The Insights Dashboard will offer better segmentation to help developers understand their audience from a regional, device, and preferences perspective. We will also add competitive benchmarking and industry comparisons.
Bits-in-Extensions Entitlement Service
Twitch will handle user in-game items, which will be a secure way to store and retrieve a users’ entitlements and will reduce the requirement to build and maintain a backend for many Bits-enabled Extensions.
Subs-in-Extensions Limited Preview
We will enable Extensions to be aware of the viewer’s subscription status and to trigger the subscription flow. This capability was launched in limited preview with Snap Camera at TwitchCon. We are also working on defining the business model that will enable developers to participate in the value created by Subs-in-Extensions and plan to have a path forward to share with our developer community before the end of the year.
Watching Ads in Extensions Limited Preview
In 2019, we will introduce advertising in Extensions. Our first ads initiative will enable viewers to support streamers and developers by opting into watching ads to access value in an Extension. We are very excited about the potential of ads in Extensions to unlock the power of monetization for a broader audience of developers.
Merchandise in Extensions
We are partnering with Amazon Pay to pilot the sales of merch in Extensions. Designed by Humans and FazeClan merch Extensions were launched at TwitchCon. These trailblazing Extensions will enable viewers to buy streamer merch while watching Twitch. Depending on the results of this pilot, we intend to expand this partnership with Amazon Pay to include more developers and more categories of physical purchases in Extensions.
Our top priority moving forward is to understand and deliver the tools you need to be successful on Twitch. Please let us know how we’re doing. We’re always looking for feedback from developers like you.
Follow our public roadmap here and post comments or ask questions and give feedback on the Developer Forums.
See some VODs of these Developer Day announcements, sessions, commentary, and more onwww.twitch.tv/twitchdev. Check back here next week for more details on how to get all the slides and the rest of the VODs from Developer Day!
November is upon us, which means a new batch of Free Games with Prime. Starting today, you’ll be able to claim and play all of November’s free games. Once you claim a game, it’s yours to keep forever. Here’s the lineup for November:
· Overcooked!: Don your chef hat, prepare your mis-en-place, and remember that the customer is always right! Work solo or as a team (via couch co-op) to cook, serve, and clean up as many dishes as possible in this cooking simulation game from Ghost Town Games.
· Overload: Enjoy this ultimate zero-gravity first-person shooter from the creators of Descent. 6 degrees of freedom movement on the moons of Saturn with hostile robots…what else do you need?
· AER: Memories of Old: A mystic 3rd-person adventure where you can transform into a bird and explore a vibrant world of floating islands in the sky. Developed by Forgotten Key and published by Daedalic Entertainment, players join Auk on her pilgrimage in search of the “Memories of the Past”.
· The Pillars of the Earth: Based on the Ken Follett award-winning novel of the same name, The Pillars of the Earth is a point-and-click adventure game set in 12th century England. Play as three different characters: Jack the outsider, Aliena the noblewoman, and Philip the monk, in the video game adaptation of one of the most successful novels of all-time.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly games and in-game loot, a Twitch channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of Amazon Prime. See all current Twitch Prime offers 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.
There’s no doubt that Twitch Extensions are a great way to increase interactivity between you and your community, but changing your active Extensions based on your stream status (i.e., starting soon, gameplay, AFK etc.) can be clunky and time-consuming.
Well, we’re excited to announce a look into the future of stream status Extension management. The talented folks over at Player.me recently released a streamlined and automated Extensions management experience inside their recently launched desktop application. Now you’ll be able to assign groups of Extensions you’ve installed on your Twitch channel to support specific scenes.
Why is this so cool?
So let’s say I’m a streamer, and I’m ready for a gameplay bio-break; therefore, I don’t need my accompanying live stats Extensions active anymore, I need a new suite of Extensions to keep my viewers entertained and engaged while I’m away from my keyboard.
With Player.me, I can automatically change to my custom AFK scene which can be set up with engaging game Extensions, like the new Twitch Arcade, designed to entertain my audience while I’m AFK, and potentially even grab some Bits in the process.
This particular use case is just one of many potential scenarios leveraging automated Extension activation designed to empower creators to build much more engaging viewer experiences while significantly reducing the transitional workload.
To get started automating the activation of Extensions:
Click the ‘Manage Extensions’ underneath the scene viewer.
Activate Extensions in the modal by adding them into the dotted boxes. You’ll also be able to assign Extensions to activate on different scene types (i.e., Start, In-Game, and Intermission).
Now when you’re streaming with the Player.me desktop app and you switch scenes, your Extensions will automatically update to those assigned to that scene type.
If you have any questions or issues around this Extensions feature in Player.me you can always reach them through their support chat here.
Thanks to everyone who made our second annual TwitchCon Developer Day a success! Over 600 Twitch developers attended, which is 166 percent of last year. We even had over 24,000 concurrent viewers from the Twitch community at the height of our broadcast.
If you missed any of the action or want to relive any part of the day, the VODs and slides from the sessions are now available.
Keynote
In the keynote, we looked back on the year with community achievements, product launches, and the lowdown on multiplayer entertainment — as well as gave you a sneak peek of the product roadmap and some big announcements around building, engaging, and monetizing on Twitch. We welcomed streamers to the stage for the second half of the keynote to share their thoughts on using Extensions and what they’d like to see in the future.
Developer Advocate at Twitch, Jon Bulava, and Chief Technical Evangelist at Amazon Game Tech, Royal O’Brien, doing the live stream throughout the day.
We want to thank everyone who participated! If you are not a member of our developer community, take a few minutes to follow the channel page, follow @TwitchDev on Twitter, join the forums, or get started building an Extension.
At TwitchCon we announced Twitch Sings, a brand new karaoke game built from the ground-up for streaming on Twitch. Last week, we began our closed beta and we can’t wait to hear what the community thinks — you can check out creators playing Twitch Sings right here.
We believe Twitch Sings is an exciting way for creators and their communities to come together over a shared love of music on Twitch. If you’re interested in singing on Twitch, the beta signup is at twitch.tv/sings/download — more people will be invited as space opens up.
As Twitch has grown, we’ve heard questions from many creators about the types of music content that are allowed on Twitch. To help give creators more clarity, we’ve added more detail to our Community Guidelines around music. These now include details around sharing music on Twitch, including what is allowed, what isn’t, and how this plays out across different types of music content (cover songs, instrumentals, karaoke, and more).
Our goal with this update is to make sure creators have access to information that helps them make informed decisions about the kinds of music content they include on their channels. You can read this new update by visiting the Community Guidelines on music here.
This year’s TwitchCon Hackathon saw 70 developers from around the United States come to team up and build Twitch Extensions over the course of just 24 hours. We invited some of Twitch’s partnered broadcasters to participate by offering up challenges for the teams’ Extensions to solve.
And the hacking begins! Photo courtesy of Bernard Marger.
At the end of the hackathon, we had 13 diverse Twitch Extensions to show off from our developer teams. You can check out all of the projects on our Devpost page, but here are a few of our favorites:
A. KnowClips integrates user-generated Twitch clips into an intuitive video overlay Extension to drive viewer engagement and retention in a stream.
Q. How did you come up with the idea?
A. Seung Woo and Nolan initially had the idea to auto-generate Twitch clips from exciting moments in a stream. As a result of technical barriers and time constraints, we realized that would not be feasible. We instead pivoted to an anomaly detection engine that did the opposite: to look for moments of low activity / engagement in the Chat and to recommend Twitch clips to viewers to keep them engaged in the streamer’s content.
Q. What did you manage to get done in 24 hours?
A. We managed to build out the anomaly detection engine on top of a Twitch Chat stream by looking at message volume on a given interval. We also managed to build a UI that overlays Twitch clips on top of a stream and embeds a video within the stream window itself to enable easy clip viewing and interaction.
KnowClips won the grand prize and our partnered broadcaster challenge sponsored by savinthebees: “Build an Extension that gives a viewer the tools they need to promote a streamer’s content.”
A. We were tasked with engaging a viewer within 15 seconds to 30 seconds of them joining a stream. So we asked ourselves, “What’s the most natural way of saying hello in real life?…*pause for effect*…You wave! And with that, HandEmote was born. Our product utilizes a Leap Motion to capture the hand movements of someone watching a stream. With our platform, you can wave hello to your favorite streamer and they’ll be immediately alerted that you’ve joined their stream! Since we’re able to capture every hand configuration possible, we thought: “How can we take this to the next level?” Not only are you able to wave at your favorite streamer, but you can also pat them to reassure them after a bad play or you can high five them to show your approval for something good! We’ve completely removed the need to use a keyboard when interacting with your favorite streamer in order to make the most human, realistic interaction possible.
Q. How did you come up with the idea?
A. We thought about the feeling of everyone doing the wave together at a concert, feeling that collective power to cheer on a band you all love. We knew that many Extensions already existed that let streamers interact with viewers via a hardware hack on the streamer side, but we wanted to give the power back to the people — to team up and cheer on the streamer they love. Another great source of inspiration came from within our team. Having never met each other before, we somehow became best of friends almost instantly; we’re literally memeing on Discord while we collectively write this on a Saturday evening. With this newfound eternal friendship (and lifelong memories), we decided we wanted to spread this love from our community to Twitch’s.
Q. What did you manage to get done in 24 hours?
A. - Learn how to build a Twitch Extension - Set up React applications for the overlay and the live config - Attempt to use Twitch PubSub, fail miserably - Integrate Unity 3D to encode and recognize gestures - Set up REST calls to get gestures from the Unity 3D application and send to the overlay and live config feed - Make tons of people laugh and be surprised by our demo - And most importantly: Be a wholesome, loving team with great synergy, communication, and humor! - Sleep one hour
HandEmote won an honorable mention and our partnered broadcaster challenge sponsored by DJTechLive: “Build an Extension that gives a personalized twist to stream engagement.”
Team HandEmote shows off their work to the judges. Photo courtesy of Bernard Marger.
A. Twiffle streamlines the raffle giveaway process with four unique types of raffle giveaways: “custom,” “trivia,” “boundary,” and “random”!
Q. How did you come up with the idea?
A. Giveaways and raffles should be more common on Twitch, but setting them up is difficult. There are a lot of pieces which need to come together, purchasing the item, setting up the giveaway and conditions, and finally getting the winner’s information in order to receive the prize. Twiffle solves this problem by: allowing to hold an item directly purchased from eBay (or give game keys directly, etc.), set up what type of giveaway you want to have (currently four supported types), and finally collect the necessary information to give the winner their prize. This cuts out two of the most inconvenient current problems when making a giveaway and will promote more giveaways at a higher frequency, allowing for more viewer/streamer interaction.
Q. What did you manage to get done in 24 hours?
A. We managed to get a simple Python 3 backend using the latest async I/O features running in tandem with a Twitch Extension frontend that was built with Javascript and ReactJS. We were able to pull live item listings data from eBay all the way to the checkout process. We chose to use the eBay API instead of the Amazon API as there is an implemented break of endpoints between submitting card details for a card transaction and actually finalizing a transaction. This was necessary for the streamer end, so that they may fulfill billing information and for a stream viewer to “finish” the transaction by placing their shipping address. The Python 3 backend also sported universal multi-processing queue endpoints which allow for fast, in-memory based push/pull event messaging, which supported a lot of real-time events/notifications that need to be made on a granular app/user level for the Extension.
A. Twitchlight is a Twitch Extension (and more!) that allows streamers to interact with their viewers through a physical decor piece: an LED strip light that flashes colors in response to special events like subscriptions and to communicate the winner of streamer-initiated polls. Instead of an overlay on the screen, viewers can control a physical device that sits right beside the streamer and in the camera frame. Twitchlight is also a customized branding tool, for the LED lights can be used to create logos of streamers.
Q. How did you come up with the idea?
A. We searched for a creative way to promote streamer engagement with viewers, but we wanted to something different from a normal overlay. The LED lights were an appealing new challenge to tackle since none of us had solid hardware experience, so we decided to make a “real-life overlay”!
Q. What did you manage to get done in 24 hours?
A. We put together the LED piece by constructing the Twitch logo out of strip lights, which we programmed with Arduino to flash specific colors. Our Node.js Extension listened for special events like subscriptions and donations, flashing the lights to celebrate. Streamers could also administer polls by typing in questions, choices, and their corresponding colors. Within a certain time frame, viewers vote by sending emotes of that specific color, and the color of the winning choice is flashed by the strip lights. We also created an overlay that would assist the LED light in flashing the winning color and communicating the poll questions and event celebrations.
Twitchlight won our partnered broadcaster challenge sponsored by wish: “Build an Extension that helps a streamer celebrate a subscription.”
A. Streamer Trivia is a Family Feud-style quiz Extension that allows viewers to guess what the broadcaster would answer to a multiple choice question and collect points over time by guessing correctly. It’s a great way for for the streamers to bond with their viewers and for viewers to show how well they know a streamer!
The streamer will send out a request for a set number of questions and the first viewers to respond to that question will get to create a short multiple choice question that follows channel guidelines. Once the viewers create questions, the streamer will review and answer them. The streamer can reject any questions that don’t follow channel guidelines. After the streamer answers a question, viewers have a minute to guess what the streamer would answer. Once all the answers are in, the correct answer is revealed and viewers are awarded points based off of how right they are! Scores are tallied in a leaderboard to celebrate viewers who engage and know the streamer.
Q. How did you come up with the idea?
A. Our ideation process was to first learn more about streamers and viewers by exploring TwitchCon and talking with Twitch Staff. Then we thought about different types of viewers and how we wanted to engage them. We identified two different types of interactions we wanted to focus on: how to reward subscribers and how to create ways for lurkers to feel safe enough to engage. A few ideas we had initially were making Twitch Emote heat map, a prize wheel, a rewarding viewers for emote spamming to welcome new subscribers, and subscription based question asking system where new subscribers get to ask a question. We finally decided on a Family Feud-like quiz system that polls viewers for questions and allows viewers to get points.
Q. What did you manage to get done in 24 hours?
A. We managed to get all the front-end functionalities for our Extension up and running, but had troubles making our backend usable in time. We underestimated the amount of time we were actually going to spend at TwitchCon (a lot) which ate into the amount of actual work time we had.
StreamerTrivia won our partnered broadcaster challenge sponsored by SirSlaw: “Build an Extension that lets a streamer engage their audience with a question.”
Congrats to all the winners and wonderful entries! Photo courtesy of Bernard Marger.
As always, we were absolutely blown away by the quality of this year’s submissions. We hope that these Extensions will be fully finished and put on the Twitch Extension store for all streamers to add to their channels!
This event would not have been possible without the support of our partners at Major League Hacking and all of the resources they provided us. We had a blast with everyone in San Jose this year, and we can’t wait to host our next event. See you all in 2019!
This season, get ready to spread plenty of holiday Cheer.
Starting now and continuing through December 27, we’re kicking off the Blizzard of Bits on Twitch — three unique deals where you’ll be able to earn extra Bits and share them with your friends. Or keep them for yourself… Plus, one of the events will help you donate to Direct Relief, a global humanitarian organization, all whileyou support your favorite streamers.
Here’s how the deals work and when you can expect them:
Now through Cyber Monday, November 21–26
From 10 AM PT on November 21 through 11:59PM PT on November 26, Purchase 2500 Bits for a special price of $25 AND earn 200 extra Bits to give to a friend…or keep for yourself. Everyone who takes advantage of this deal will be emailed their Bits redemption code on 11/29, limit one per person.
Twitch Hoodie Sale, December 3
Buy any Twitch hoodie from the Twitch Store on December 3 (12:01AM — 11:59PM PT) and you’ll receive 1500 Bits delivered to your Amazon email address on December 5! This offer is valid for one day only, so don’t miss out! Limit one per person.
Holiday Season of Giving, December 12–27
On any Twitch channel, whenever you use Bits to Cheer with #Charity, or use the custom Charity Cheermote, we’ll donate $.20 for every 100 Bits used to Direct Relief. You’ll also unlock a custom charity chat badge. And yes, the creators you support will still keep all of their normal revenue from Bits! The Season of Giving runs from December 12 at 12:01AM PT and ends on December 27 at 11:59PM PT.
FAQs
Q: Is Santa Claus real?
A: Um. Next question.
Q: What do I need to do to take advantage of each promotion?
A: 11/21 through Cyber Monday: Buy Bits anywhere on Twitch and select the 2500 bits option for $25. You will receive your code via email on November 29th. Limit one purchase per account, additional terms may apply.
Twitch Hoodie Sale: Simply complete your purchase of any Hoodie on our site on December 3rd, and you will receive an email with a unique code on December 5th to redeem your 1500 free Bits. Limit one code per Amazon account, regardless of amount of hoodies purchased.
Holiday Season of Giving: From December 12–27, Cheer on any Twitch Channel with #Charity or use the Charity Cheermote and we’ll donate $.20 for every 100 Bits to Direct Relief, up to $500,000. The Creator you support still receives their full revenue share.
Q: Are these offers available globally?
A: These are available anywhere Twitch and Amazon sites are available.
Q: Is there a limit to how many times I can participate in these promotions?
A: For offers running from 11/21–11/26, you may only purchase one Bits bundle. For the Hoodie deal, the free bundle of 1500 Bits is limited to 1 per Amazon account, regardless of amount of hoodies purchased. For the Charity component running 12/12–12/27 you can participate as often as you’d like! Twitch will donate up to $500k.
Q: What channels does this apply to?
You may use Bits to Cheer on any Partner and Affiliate channel.
Q: I made a purchase, when will I receive my Bits?
A: If you purchased between 11/21 and 11/26, you will receive your Bits code via email on 11/29 to your Twitch email address. If you purchased a Hoodie on 12/3, you will receive your Bits code via email on 12/5 to your Amazon email address.
Q: What about tax and VAT?
A: The discount is on the base price of the Bits before any taxes/VAT are applied.
Q: When exactly is this happening?
A: 11/21 through Cyber Monday: 11/21/2018 at 10 AM PT through 11/26/2018 at 11:59PM PT.
Twitch Hoodie Sale: 12/3/2018 from 12:01 AM PM to 11:59PM PT.
Holiday Season of Giving: 12/12/2018 at 12:01AM PT through 12/27 at 11:59PM PT.
Q: Does this work on purchases and cheers made on Android or iOS Twitch Apps?
A: Yes, all offers are applicable on Android and iOS.
Q: What is Cheering?
A: Cheering with Bits shows support for streamers and celebrates the moments you love with the community, all right in chat. A Cheer is a chat message that uses Bits. Bits emotes can be used one by one, all at once, or anywhere in between. Using many at once shows more support and creates cooler animated emotes.
Q: If I cheer using #Charity, does the streamer still receive the full share they would normally receive?
A: Absolutely, it is the season of giving after all! We’ll be covering the donation to Direct Relief and the streamer you choose to support will receive the full amount.
Q: What is Direct Relief?
A: Direct Relief is a humanitarian aid organization, active in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies — without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay. You can learn more about the organization here.
Q: Where are my promotional Bits?
A: If you purchased between 11/21 and 11/26, you will receive your Bits code via email on 11/29 to your Twitch email address. If you purchased a Hoodie on 12/3, you will receive your Bits code via email on 12/5 to your Amazon email address.
For purchases 11/21–11/26, all emails are sent to the verified Twitch email you have on file. Your email must be verified on day of purchase to receive Bits. To make sure you email address is verified, please follow the steps here. If you provide an incorrect email, we will be unable to credit you promotional Bits.
For hoodie purchases made on 12/3, all emails are sent to the Amazon email you have on file.
Q: Help, the Bits code I received doesn’t work!
A: Please make sure no one else has applied your code as they are one-time use only.
Q: When do the Bits codes expire?
A: Your Bits code expires on 3/31/2019 at 11:59 PM PT. Make sure to enter your code here before that time.
Q: I don’t have the right email on file and I didn’t receive the Bits
A: For purchases made 11/21–11/26 and per the terms and conditions, please make sure you verify your Twitch email on the day of your purchase to ensure you receive the promotional Bits code. For hoodie purchases made on 12/3, the email was sent to your Amazon email address.
Q: Where’s my Charity Badge?
A: Your Charity Badge should be available within seconds of Cheering, but occasionally there may be a short delay. If you don’t see your badge after a few minutes, make sure you have it selected from your available badges.
This is a limited time offer. Twitch reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time. Offer only applies to products and digital content sold by Twitch Inc. (look for “sold by Twitch” on the product or content detail page). Products and digital content sold by third-party sellers or other Amazon entities will not qualify for this offer. Digital content and services are subject to the terms and conditions of the Terms of Sale and the Bits Acceptable Use Policy. Offer good while supplies last. Offer limited to one per customer and account. To receive Bits for the [Bits Black Friday], you will need to verify your email prior to purchase to receive the redemption code.. Offer may not be combined with other offers. Each promotion applies only to qualifying items. If the offer has a minimum purchase requirement, taxes, shipping and handling, and gift wrap charges do not apply when determining the minimum purchase amount. If the offer is for physical goods, the promotional code applies only to items purchased in a single order and shipped at the same speed to a single address. Offer may not be resold. If any of the products or content related to an offer are returned, your refund will equal the amount you paid for the product or content, subject to applicable refund policies. Offer discount will be allocated proportionally among all promotional items in your order. If you violate any of the offer terms, the offer will be invalid. Free products are available only while supplies last. We cannot offer rain checks for promotional items that run out of stock.
Do you want to help build the future of live entertainment, but don’t know where to start? Or have you been wanting to build a Twitch Extension, but just need an extra push? Today, we’re announcing a challenge that might be just the motivation you need.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Twitch are working together to launch the Twitch Extension Challenge powered by AWS. To enter, all you have to do is build a Twitch Extension and integrate with any AWS service!
An Extension is an interactive experience that works as a stream overlay or as a panel on a channel. Streamers activate Extensions to further connect with their viewers and provide new ways to engage, such as leaderboards, mini-games, polls, and much more.
We will be selecting eight winning Extensions based on the criteria outlined below. The grand prize includes cash awards up to $15,000, tickets to TwitchCon 2019, and even meetings with Twitch leadership to talk through your ideas.
The challenge is three months, running until February 26, 2019. While that may seem like plenty of time to submit your Extension, you can get started now! If you’re not already a Twitch developer, check out these five reasons why you should become one today:
Twitch has a large, highly engaged viewership with 15 million daily active users and 355 billion minutes watched in 2017. This means there is a high potential to get a lot of visibility building on Twitch.
With millions of people gathering on Twitch every day, developers have the opportunity to create new ways to consume and contribute to live programming with Twitch Extensions.
We’re seeing lots of enthusiasm for Extensions from our community of viewers and chatters. Since launch, just over a year ago, people have interacted with Extensions over 4.9 BILLION times.
There’s a full set of developer tools for Extensions, enabling developers to build these immersive experiences easily and quickly.
Developers can monetize on Twitch. Bits-in-Extensions enables viewers to show support to the streamer, enhance gameplay, or express themselves. Streamers and developers share the revenue generated from these Bits.
Twitch is partnering with Capitol 360 Innovation Lab as a Founding Member to bring you Capitol Royale, a two-day tech conference and hackathon at the iconic Capitol Records tower in the heart of Hollywood — and we’ll be streaming live for the duration.
The event features a hackathon, partner expo, startup demos, guest speakers, a gaming activation, artist performances, and other activities at the intersection of music, technology, and culture.
Check out the live streams for all the action!
The 24-hour hackathon kicks off at noon on Saturday with hackers competing to build the most innovative products that reimagine the way music and interactive entertainment is consumed and discovered. Participants will be given access to Universal Music Group’s catalog of over 14,000 tracks that have been cleared for streaming, including never-before-seen original content and archival assets.
They’ll be working with APIs from Twitch and other partner companies, including Consensys, Cloudinary, Spotify, TiVo, 7digital, and Qloo.
In addition to all of that, Twitch is issuing an exclusive Twitch Challenge: Build an interactive experience with music, gaming, and live streaming using Twitch Extensions, and the winning team will receive a grand prize of 100,000 Bits.
Then, as a special capstone to the event, Ninja will be making an appearance to stream Fortnite from the famous Capitol Records Studio A, alongside some of today’s biggest Hollywood stars.
None of this would feel complete without an afterparty — and that’s why we’ll be closing out the weekend with an epic party to launch Ninja’s new soundtrack album “NinjaWerks.”
Click the links below to follow these channels and be notified when we go live!
Simple front-end Extension working without a back-end
Technology shouldn’t stifle your creativity. We want you to spend time realizing your great ideas, not on the infrastructure to make them work. Until now, developers had to build out — and scale — all parts of their Extension backend, even for common scenarios like handling channel- and Extension-specific configuration. That’s why we built theConfiguration Service.
The Configuration Service enables you to store persistent per-channel and per-Extension specific data, and have it provided to your front-end on Extension start up. This is a common pattern needed for most Extensions, and in the past, developers would need to build this themselves. With the Config Service, developers can quickly support scenarios like enabling broadcasters to customize your Extension, store UserIDs to call third-party APIs from your Extension back-end service, or save Extension-wide settings. More importantly, you don’t need to expose your backend to the frontend on initial load, reducing your need to scale.
Sample Extensions using Configuration Service and Extension back-end Service
The Config Service is one of the first of our Scaling Solutions and it’s not a panacea, but it does reduce the complexity of building an Extension backend, because developers shouldn’t need to build for and scale a very common scenario. You can focus more on bringing your ideas to life. That’s certainly what Casperr is excited about.
Casperr has been a web developer for six years, but in his free time, he likes to build things that relate to streaming and gaming. He was already using the Twitch API to experiment, so when Extensions were announced, he got right to work.
“I saw Extensions as a way to integrate concepts I was already working on more easily. I wanted to see if it could be helpful for the community.”
That’s where most of Casperr’s Extension ideas come from. “Most of my Extensions are just things that I thought would be useful. My first Extension was for a notification about latest followers. My stream is tiny, so a new follower is a huge deal,” Casperr said.
For Casperr, while generating revenue is a nice bonus, Extensions are about personal development and the fulfillment of creating something that is useful for the Twitch community.
While Extensions and the Twitch API helped Casperr get started bringing his ideas to life, he hit a pretty big roadblock right away. To build a Twitch Extension, developers needed to build and operate the backend. “I’m a full-stack developer, but setting up the backend put me off some of my next ideas.” For instance, Casperr wanted to develop a Twitter feed, but someone would have to approve the handle and he couldn’t do that without building the server and database.
The Configuration Service was built to help developers just like Casperr.
In mid-November, Casperr launched a new Extension implementing the Config Service: Featured Viewer.
“This one was exciting for me, because it was one that I had the idea for all the way back when I first considered building a Bits-enabled Extension, but held off because I wasn’t comfortable doing the back-end work required. Now with Config Service, I was able to build it with no worries!”
The premise of the Extension is that a viewer exchanges Bits to become a “Featured Viewer” on the channel of the streamer with the Extension installed. This could either be as a means to advertise their own channel, or simply to showcase themselves as a super fan. The Featured Viewer is displayed for 10 minutes, so the metadata about that viewer has to be stored somewhere in order to serve it to all the other viewers who are watching the broadcast at the time of the transaction and those who joined the stream sometime during those 10 minutes.
Without the Config Service, Casperr said he would have likely needed to design and build a relational database with multiple tables and records for every single streamer with the Extension installed, write to it on every transaction, and read from it on every single page view. “While this may be a relatively simple database application, it is not an area I have much experience in,” Casperr said.
With the Config Service, Casperr can store a very simple JSON string in the Config Service itself, which is specific to the streamer’s channel so no fiddling with relationships was required. After 10 minutes, rather than delete the data, Casperr simply stops displaying it. When a new Featured Viewer comes along, the config is overwritten and a PubSub message is sent so all viewers current and future will see the new Featured Viewer.
Casperr does still have to use an Extension Backend Service (EBS)to verify the transaction, update the config (as the initiation of config update comes from a viewer as opposed to broadcaster), and send the PubSub message. However, the Config Service took away his personal concerns of database architecting.
Casperr is next planning to upgrade hisLatest Followers Extension to have monetized features and use theConfig Service to give users the option to toggle features on or off, so that feature will use just the JavaScript API without needing to send any calls from the backend.
With Config Service, Casperr is able to bring his ideas to life easier and faster — and you can, too!
There are a few ways that you can get started with the Configuration Service.
December has arrived, which means we’re bringing you a new slate of Free Games with Prime. Starting today, you’ll be able to claim and play all of December’s free games. Once you claim a game, it’s yours to keep forever. Here’s the lineup:
· Hacknet: follow the instructions of a recently deceased hacker in this terminal-based hacking simulator.
· Poi: Explore uncharted lands, compete in challenge levels, meet quirky characters and defeat comical creatures in this 3D platformer featuring two kids on a grand adventure.
· Smoke & Sacrifice: Sachi, a mother forced to give up her son, adventures into a grotesque underworld on a quest that will lead her to a darker truth.
· SNK Bundle: Get 5 games from SNK: Pulstar, Metal Slug 2, Samurai Shodown II, Fatal Fury Special, Baseball Stars 2.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly games and in-game loot, a Twitch channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of Amazon Prime. See all current Twitch Prime offers 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.
Every day, nearly half a million creators stream on Twitch. And at any given moment, a million fans like you are right there with them. Our role is to play support for everyone. Sometimes we do that by building new products or updating old ones. Sometimes we do that by hosting marathons or esports events.
And sometimes we do that by keeping you informed and empowered to act.
Yesterday, we sent a letter to our creators about Article 13, a new proposal to a European Union Directive that could impact streamers’ ability to express themselves and earn a livelihood on Twitch. In it, we asked those who shared our concerns to join us in advocating for free expression on Twitch. We’re sharing that letter here so everyone in the community has the opportunity to lend their voices and support to a cause that could affect us all.
Dear Creators,
By the end of 2018, a new proposal to a European Union Directive might pass that could limit you from sharing content and earning a livelihood — not just on Twitch, but on the internet at large. It’s called Article 13, and even if this is your first time hearing about it, it’s not too late to do something.
You and your communities have worked hard to build this incredible place, and it’s worth protecting. The fallout from Article 13 isn’t limited to creators in the European Union. Everyone stands to lose if content coming out of and going into the region is throttled. So we’re writing to all of you — every creator on Twitch — to make sure you’re informed about what’s happening. If you share our concerns about Article 13, we’re also including a list of ways you can help us fight against it. We know amazing things are possible when Twitch bands together. A little bit more of that magic right now could go a long way.
What’s happened so far?
Recently, the European Parliament voted in favor of an amendment to the Copyright Directive that is intended to limit how copyrighted content is shared across online services. While we support reform and rights holders’ ability to be compensated for their work, we believe Article 13’s approach does needless damage to creators and to free expression on the internet worldwide.
If you’re looking for more, this website provides a thorough rundown of Article 13.
Why are we concerned?
Article 13 changes the dynamic of how services like Twitch have to operate, to the detriment of creators.
Because Article 13 makes Twitch liable for any potential copyright infringement activity with uploaded works, Twitch could be forced to impose filters and monitoring measures on all works uploaded by residents of the EU. This means you would need to provide copyright ownership information, clearances, or take other steps to prove that you comply with thorny and complicated copyright laws. Creators would very likely have to contend with the false positives associated with such measures, and it would also limit what content we can make available to viewers in the EU.
Operating under these constraints means that a variety of content would be much more difficult to publish, including commentary, criticism, fan works, and parodies. Communities and viewers everywhere would also suffer, with fewer viewer options for entertainment, critique, and more.
What can you do?
The European Parliament could finalize the proposal to the Directive within the next several weeks. It’s crucial to lend our voice to this issue, as well as educate the community and empower action today.
At risk are your livelihood and your ability to share your talent and experiences with the world. If you are a resident of the EU or a concerned member of the creator community elsewhere, we ask that you consider the following:
Speak out: inform and educate your community during a broadcast of the issues with the European Union’s approach to copyright law and motivate folks to take an interest on this topic. Be sure to title your streams #Article13.
Although this issue is timely in the European Union, similar conversations are taking place in other countries. Wherever and however this issue arises, we will continue to advocate for you, our creators. We hope you’ll join us.
The growth of Twitch as a targeted developer destination is creating a cottage industry of developers who build custom and off-the-shelf solutions that allow Extensions developers to create powerful experiences.
Still, a common blocker we hear from Developers eager to build Extensions is knowing where to start. While we recommend working backward to solve a specific streamer problem, want, or need — it’s also just as crucial to be aware of the tools and building blocks at your disposal. In other words, there’s little reason at all to go it alone.
The Power of the Genvid SDK
Imagine building new ways for viewers to engage and interact with their favorite streamers and having access to things like multiple camera angles or secure interactions into those games. The Genvid SDK does just that and a whole lot more. Genvid is an interactive streaming engine, but the SDK they created allows game developers to easily pull data from games to power synchronized interactivity. This enables developers to create incredibly powerful Extensions that communicate directly with a wide range of mainstream and indie games.
“Our goal is to enable new, interactive experiences on Twitch for game developers. There are a lot of tools for streamers, but we pride ourselves on having the first developer-grade SDK for interactive streams,” says Jacob Navok of Genvid. “We have support for UE4 and Unity out of the box and a suite of tools to help you deploy on AWS, as well as samples that you can draw upon to create your first experiences in hours.”
Lately, Genvid has been busy powering Twitch Extensions, from fighting games like Omen of Sorrow to the first-person shooters like the Counter-Strike Twitch Premium Pass for their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive FACEIT Majors, as well as arcade games like Killer Queen and even a Japanese 3v3 competitive VR tile called Blitz Freak.
Take a closer look below at how developers have used Genvid to power their Extensions.
CS:GO by STATSHELIX
StatsHelix was founded with the goal of providing the best stats and analytics products to esports games and players. Since then, they have become known for using game data to enhance gaming experiences and delivering tools for broadcasters, pro-gamers, and viewers.
StatsHelix empowers viewers to be more than mere spectators. Their Extension, built on top of Genvid’s datastreaming building blocks, allow users to interact with the live stream in the way they please.Want to know the scores? No need to wait for the broadcaster to bring them up!
“Twitch has a great and diverse community, and not every viewer wants the same experience. These Extensions make the stream more enjoyable for everyone, by letting users decide what’s important to them,” says Moritz Uehling, COO, StatsHelix.
In the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive FACEIT Majors, StatsHelix exposed internal game data to power new experiences for the tournament viewers, and using Genvid’s datacapture and web APIs made those interactive and synchronized to the Twitch video frame.Some of the features that viewers gravitated toward demonstrated the pent up demand for viewers to be a part of the game rather than simply watching a game. Some of these features were a customized UI, which — among other things — allowed viewers to change the weapon’s crosshair view, the ability to call the scoreboard at any point in the game, and a live-updating minimap that showed a more detailed view of the main map, including player positions.
StatsHelix has shared some key learnings from building the CS:GO Extension that will help developers create their own Extensions. First, people love to customize things and will use almost every option you give them. It’s not necessary, of course, but it makes the experience feel so much more complete.
Onboarding matters. Viewers aren’t used to clicking on videos — make sure to teach them well.
Viewers still love the stream! Any Extension you build should enhance the stream, and not distract from it. A feature like the scoreboard is a perfect example; it helps the viewer just when they want.
And most importantly, StatsHelix says they learned that the Twitch community is amazing, and they are eager to provide the feedback that will help you build a better game for them. Don’t pass up this opportunity!
CHKN by KATAPULT
Katapult Studio is an interactive entertainment company committed to developing products for creators. Their game CHKN is an fantasy game where you choose your own adventure. Players can design fantastic animal creatures using “life blocks” that are powered by AI. It’s a toolset for players to create their own stories and characters.
Viewers can interact with a brand new Arena mode for CHKN that exists only through the stream on Twitch and is powered entirely by Genvid + Unity on AWS. Using the Twitch Extension, viewers can vote for the CHKN that will appear, clap, and cheer for their favorite CHKN, and buy items to enhance the CHKN via Bits which Genvid encourages.
“ The interactive Extension allowed us to think about how a larger community of players, streamers, and non-playing viewers could all interact with the world of CHKN. We are still early in our journey with interactive streaming but excited to be learning from our streamers and beta audience,” says Kyra Reppen, CEO of Katapult Studio.
A major part of Katapult’s journey with CHKN has been seeing just how their player community creates unique and extraordinary creature characters — that were as entertaining to watch as they were to build or interact with in-game. The interactive Extension allowed Katapult to think about how a larger community of players, streamers, and non-playing viewers could all interact with the world of CHKN.
“ Working with our Twitch users from the prototype phase, we’re able to focus on making the best experience possible through iteration on features, including balance of the level of viewer interactivity (including viewer control moments), in-game camera behavior during broadcasts, the pacing of the Arena rounds, and even in-Extension UI,” says Reppen. “We see this as the future of entertainment.”
KILLER QUEEN by BUMBLEBEAR
BumbleBear is an independent Brooklyn-based arcade game company focused on multiplayer games set in real-world environments. The flagship product is Killer Queen, a competitive 10-player arcade game. Two new arcade games are in the works, including Black Emperor, a motorcycle endless runner that is based on the teenage bike gangs of Japan called Bosozoku.
Killer Queen is a public game meant to be played in arcades so it has no customization; this is where the Genvid SDK Extension comes in — data normally not accessible became accessible, and games normally only watcheable in arcades could be seen anywhere. The Extension allows spectators to customize characters and add flair and functionality that does not exist in the game, as well as educate players about aspects of the game by allowing them to click on key elements to find out what they mean and how they are useful in the game. In future versions of the Extension, the BumbleBear team plans to integrate more stats that will add new dimensions to the game.
“The response so far has been very positive,” says Nik Mikros, CEO of BumbleBear. “We showed a prototype of the extension at GDC and many of our players came by and checked it out. I think they were all universally excited by what it will grow into.”
BLITZFREAK by ACTEVOLVE
ActEvolve are a startup developing VR content. Blitz Freak is their first title, and it was created to focus on both player and viewer entertainment.
“VR games tend to focus too much on immersive experiences for the players and leave out the people not playing,” says Kei Sato from ActEvolve. “For VR games to develop commercially, and become an esport genre, it has to be appealing to the people watching. As we were searching for ways to make the game more appealing to audiences, we engaged with Genvid Technologies, the developer of the Twitch Extension.”
The Genvid-created Twitch Extension allows the audience to not only see player status as an overlay, but also to actually participate in the match. Extensions were used to add cheer buttons and bomb buttons, which allow the viewers to cheer or bombard chosen players. This gives viewers the ability to affect the outcome of the game through active participation.
A Blitz Freak tournament was held and live streamed on Twitch with the Genvid Extensions in September 2018. Over the course of the two-and-a-half hour live stream, they had an average of 200 viewers and 313 viewers at the peak. There were over 5,000 likes and 1,000 bombs initiated via the Extension.
One learning from the tournament was the difficulty of getting the players to actually use the Extension features and getting them involved in the match. “Since the Extension features are a completely new thing for viewers, they are not used to the viewing experience they provide,” Sato says. “To have viewers constantly using the Extension features to interact with the game, we need to communicate the potential that it has, and show them how it can change the game viewing experience.”
We hope you are inspired by these shining Extension examples and leverage the growing community and powerful tools like Genvid’s SDK to power your next Extension — and you can always reach out to TwitchDev for help through our forums, on Twitter, or during our monthly live streams.
Wowsers! Not only is every episode from Season 1 of Inspector Gadget coming to Twitch, but some very special friends are joining in to make this a one of a kind event you won’t want to miss. If the words “Go Go Gadget” mean anything to you, you may want to sit down.
Beginning December 17 at 10am PT we’ll be airing five hours of Inspector Gadget episodes every day on /twitchpresents through Christmas Eve, December 24. The block will repeat over the course of every day so you can watch them all no matter what time zone you live in.
But this won’t be any ordinary marathon. And here’s why.
Show co-creator Andy Heyward will be joining you in chat every day for an hour to watch along and share stories about the show. Is Inspector Gadget more machine than man? What does Doctor Claw look like? Will he ever get Gadget next time? Watch and you may find out. He’s also teaming up with Kid Genius Channel to have Go Go Gadgets inspired by your usernames sketched out and shared on social media after the show.
Andy will be online 12/17–12/20 from 10:15–11:15am PT and 10:30–11:30 on 12/21.
And finally, have you ever wondered what some of Inspector Gadget’s gadgets would be like in real life? Prepare to find out. The team at Tested.com is going to be building real-world versions of some of his gadgets LIVE on twitch.tv/tested and challenge some of Twitch’s best and brightest builders with the task of making the Gadget Mobile.
Before you ask, yes this marathon is co-streamable and clippable, so go nuts.
It all starts Dec 17 at 10am PT. Don’t forget to follow /twitchpresents so you don’t miss an episode.
