Starting December 13, 2018, Twitch Prime members can both claim each Free Game with Prime for themselves, and send one copy as a gift to a friend — even if they don’t have Twitch Prime!
Twitch Prime members can find Free Games with Prime on the Prime Loot page. If the game is eligible for gifting, a “Send as Gift” button appears next to the “Claim” button. To send the game as a gift, the Twitch Prime member can select the “Send as Gift” button and send the gift to their friend’s Twitch.tv account.
The recipient is notified of the gifted game via both an email and a push notification. They can claim their new game from the Prime Loot page. The recipient does not have to link an Amazon account with Twitch in order to claim the gift.
Just make sure your friend claims their Free Games with Prime before the game’s offer expires, otherwise the recipient loses access to claim their game.
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.
As Twitch has grown and evolved, so has our approach to ensuring that the community has tools to stay safe. One of our earliest efforts was the Global Moderator program, a group of dedicated community members who helped monitor the site and report unacceptable behavior across channels on Twitch.
As any OG Twitch fan can tell you, we’ve been growing. The number of channels and the number of viewers tuning in has exploded in recent years. To empower the growing community, we’ve invested in building tools like Automod and the upcoming Moderator Tools in chat that help streamers and their channel mods safeguard their own channels. We also encourage streamers and viewers alike to use the site-wide reporting tools to alert us of behavior that goes against our community guidelines. To support this, we’ve also expanded our internal moderation team, a group of employees across the world who review and act on your reports 24/7.
As a result of these investments, we no longer rely on Global Moderators the way we did when the program started. Today, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the current group of 16 Global Moderators, and all of our past Global Moderators, as we announce the end of the Global Moderator program. We look forward to continuing the legacy of their contributions and the spirit of the program through the investments we’ve made in new tools to support all channel moderators within the community and our internal moderation team at Twitch.
We also want to thank everyone in the Twitch community who makes Twitch the best place to enjoy live, interactive entertainment. Whether you’re a Channel Moderator who spends hours monitoring chat or just someone who took the time to send us a report, we remain committed to supporting your efforts to improve the Twitch community.
Thank You, Global Moderators was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Summary: VP9 will soon help Twitch offer a better viewing experience for premium esports and partner channels
Video compression is the key to successful delivery of digital video across various applications like broadcast, teleconference, surveillance, and online streaming services. Since 2003 (i.e., 15 years ago), H.264 has been the state-of-the-art video compression format and has enabled HDTV, Blu-ray Disc, Internet video websites (e.g., YouTube, Twitch), and so on. Nevertheless, according to Twitch’s recent analysis, H.264 has reached its compression performance limit, particularly for real-time encoding of gaming content at the HD resolution (1080p60). On the other hand, newer-generation video standards, namely VP9, HEVC, and AV1, show significant compression gain, which can bring considerable commercial benefits to content platforms (e.g., offering viewers better video quality, reducing the video loading time and the buffering rate, increasing the customer reach, decreasing the IP transit cost).
Currently, although decoding and playback of VP9 video are widely supported on devices and browsers used by Twitch’s audience, encoding gaming video content with a high efficiency and real-time performance is a substantial challenge due to the high complexity of VP9. Through a rigorous feasibility study, we have eventually selected FPGA as the hardware platform for real-time VP9 encoding and are deploying it to broadcast our premium eSports and partner channels in the near future (please watch the presentation given by Twitch’s Principal Research Engineer, Dr. Yueshi Shen and Xilinx’s CEO, Victor Peng, during the keynote talk of Xilinx Developer Forum 2018).
Twitch’s Principal Research Engineer, Dr. Yueshi Shen, and Xilinx’s CEO, Victor Peng, speaking at Xilinx Developer Forum 2018
In this article, we will show that the FPGA-based real-time VP9 encoding can deliver at least 25% bitrate savings compared to the highest-quality H.264 encoders deployed in Twitch’s production today. Also, we will deep dive into VP9’s compression tools to explain how these features are used in the encoder implementation to realize the compression performance improvement promised by the simulations during the standardization process.
VP9’s Compression Efficiency for Live 1080p60 Encoding: We Can Achieve At Least 25% Bitrate Savings
In the following study, we are not running an academic evaluation of the VP9 compression standard, but comparing a practical 1080p60 real-time VP9 encoder implementation against a commercial state-of-the-art real-time H.264 encoder.
H.264 Anchor
For the anchor, we picked the open-source x264 encoder running on Intel Xeon E5–2697 V4 (18 cores, 2.3GHz, 145W) CPU. The configuration of x264 is:
medium preset,
high profile,
constant bitrate (CBR) mode,
GOPs of 2 seconds,
lookahead of 1 second, and
VBV buffer of 1 second.
Based on our knowledge on encoder’s performance and Twitch’s content/operational point (i.e., resolution, frame rate, bitrate), we find the above x264 configuration can deliver a comparable or even higher video quality, compared to most professional broadcast quality video encoders in the market. Furthermore, running a higher quality x264 preset (like slow, veryslow) can neither hit the 25% bitrate saving goal nor achieve the real-time encoding (see our experiment result below).
Video quality and encoding speed of x264 at various presets
Test Content
In our comparison, we used the following five 1080p60 gaming clips:
EuroTruckSimulator 2,
Rust,
Witcher 3,
CSGO, and
Fallout 4.
The uncompressed raw video can be downloaded from the official webpage of the Alliance for Open Media (AOM)’s test sequences (search “Twitch”). These five titles cover a wide set of content characteristics (e.g., fast motion, high texture, saturated colors, and large contrast) and are very challenging for video encoding, in fact, much harder than camera-filmed video. Below is a screenshot from the game Witcher 3, and you can find the picture has high contrast, sharp edges, and a lot of details.
A screenshot from the game Witcher 3
Subjective and Object Test Results
With a subjective viewing test at Twitch’s operational point, we concluded that VP9 can deliver the same or better video quality than H.264 at 6Mbps while only using 4.5Mbps. Below is a screenshot of H.264 6Mbps (left) vs. VP9 4.5Mbps (right). The VP9 has a cleaner road surface and has less mosquito noise around the edge of the text, but the H.264 has slightly more texture on the tree and the grass.
Video quality comparison of H.264 6Mbps (left) vs. VP9 4.5Mbps (right)
You can download the demo video of 1080p60 H.264 6Mbps vs. VP9 4.5Mbps here.
For the objective analysis, we use both PSNR and VMAF and the video bitrate are swept from 2Mbps to 12Mbps. The average PSNR and VMAF values over the 5 titles are provided in the table below. Both metrics show that in the 4Mbps to 6Mbps range, VP9 provides a bitrate savings of approximately 25% over H.264. Additionally, VP9 maintains significant compression efficiency advantage over H.264 for all bitrates.
VP9 bitrate savings against H.264 based on PSNR or VMAF, at various reference H.264 bitrates
Here are the PSNR and VMAF curves for x264 and NGCodec VP9.
Average PSNR comparison of H.264 vs. VP9Average VMAF comparison of H.264 vs. VP9
Using VMAF, at a score of 80 or higher, Twitch’s video quality is comparable to broadcast quality video. Some analysis suggests that in general, a score of 90 or higher indicates a high video quality. However, due to the high texture nature of gaming content (as explained in the previous section of “Test Content”), the score of 80 indeed reflects a very good quality for Twitch’s titles.
Deep Dive into the VP9 Features: New Compression Tools Require Effective Implementations and Exhaustive Search (Enabled by FPGA) to Deliver the Bitrate Savings
The compression gain claimed in the previous section stems from a number of new or improved coding tools defined in the VP9 standard. In this section, we will demonstrate the effect of these new tools that have been implemented in our FPGA VP9 encoder through sophisticated video compression algorithms.
Wider Choice of Larger Prediction Block Sizes
VP9 divides a picture into 64x64 regions known as superblocks that can be further subdivided in a quadtree structure into smaller regions down to 4x4 for prediction. Rectangular partitions such as 32x16 or 4x8 are also supported. Larger prediction block sizes are particularly useful for saving inter-frame bits on predictable content (e.g., flat area). By minimizing signaling overhead, larger block sizes also provide good compression efficiency for higher resolution content.
As can be seen below for a sample frame in the EurotruckSimulator clip, the VP9 encoder uses larger block sizes for relatively flat areas like the sky, roads and pavements and smaller block sizes in highly textured areas to preserve fine details. While H.264 uses 16x16 macroblock for the entire picture, which wastes bits in flat areas and sacrifices video quality in highly textured areas.
Larger block sizes up to 64x64 used in the VP9 encoderSmaller block sizes up to 16x16 used in the H.264 Encoder
Wider Choice of Larger Transform Sizes
Along with larger prediction block sizes, VP9 also supports transform sizes up to the prediction block size or 32x32, whichever is less. Therefore, the transform size can be 4x4, 8x8, 16x16 and 32x32. In comparison, H.264 only supports 4x4 transform throughout (8x8 transform in High Profile only), and a special two-step transform for 16x16 intra prediction. The figure 3a below shows the transform sizes using a blue grid from the EurotruckSimulator clip. Larger transform sizes reaching 32x32 lead to better preservation of detail in the smooth areas such as the sky and regular textures such as the road. On the other hand, smaller transform sizes are better able to capture the fine details of the road, lampposts, and building in the distance, as well as the changing reflections on the side of the truck.
Complexity-based transform sizes up to 32x32 used in the VP9 encoderFixed transform sizes of either 4x4 or 8x8 used in the H.264 encoder
Full Mode Search for Rate Distortion Optimization (RDO)
In order to fully take advantage of larger prediction and transform sizes, the VP9 encoder uses dedicated hardware FPGA acceleration to compute the most optimal RDO mode decision through evaluating the options of all intra modes and a comprehensive list of inter mode candidates, as well as all prediction and transform block sizes.
The exhaustive RDO evaluation ensures that the best prediction and transform modes are selected, which directly accounts for the video compression efficiency gain described in the previous section of “Subjective and Object Test Results”. For example, in the figure below, the VP9 output is consistently sharper on the road surface because of the large prediction and transform sizes, and has finer details on the side of the truck because of a mix of large and small transform sizes. All of these mode decisions are optimally chosen through the exhaustive RDO mode search, which is only made possible by FPGA.
VP9 encoder shown on the left produces higher fidelity in difficult regions than H.264 encoder, due to its optimal mode decisions using the full RDO search
Rate Control Optimizations: Smart Algorithms Know Where to Spend or Save Bits
Besides finding the most efficient way to predict pixels, another key aspect of improving encoder compression is to plan and execute the bit expenditure in a smart way, e.g., to give more bits to areas that human eyes are more sensitive to, to avoid video quality fluctuation that can be annoying to viewers. In this section, we show two powerful implementations in the NGCodec VP9 encoder that budgets and controls the bit allocation among blocks within a frame and across multiple frames in a video sequence.
Enhanced Adaptive Quantization (AQ)
The NGCodec VP9 encoder has advanced spatial and temporal AQ algorithms coupled with a dual-pass process for scene content and lighting condition analysis. These technologies help to calculate and optimally allocate the bits at the block level, based on scene complexity. In the example illustrated below, flat areas like the sky or the side of the truck do not cost as many bits as complex areas like the road, wall, or building. However, these areas can exhibit blocking artifacts that human eyes are more sensitive to, particularly when they are not allocated with sufficient bits.
A scene that has both flat areas (sky, truck) and complex areas (road, building)Heat map of block quant showing the VP9 encoder can accurately identify the flat and the complex areas
In VP9, quant offsets are mapped to one of eight segments which allow a balanced spatial quality throughout the picture. The AQ mapping is depicted in the above figure, where the segment values are mapped to a luma heat map. As explained above, flatter areas like the sky and the truck (shown in a lighter shade) are given more bits with a negative quant offset, avoiding visual artifact. On the other hand, higher textured areas like the logos and the side of the building (shown in a darker shade) are given positive quant offsets.
Advanced Rate Control
Aside from the block-level adaptive quantization within a frame, bit allocation across multiple frames are even more critical for achieving decent compression performance. The goal of a rate control algorithm is to avoid violating the Video Buffer Verifier (VBV) model and to maximize the overall quality of a video sequence by allocating the proper amount of bits to different video frames (e.g., reference/non-reference frames, frames at scene changes). In other words, VBV is the mathematical model that defines how the bitrate of a video sequence can be regarded as constant.
The NGCodec VP9 encoder’s robust rate control system uses Machine-Learning techniques to realize more consistent video quality than x264, especially after scene changes, the most challenging situation for rate control. The algorithm has been validated on a wide range of content and encoding parameters and is particularly optimized for gaming content.
NGCodec VP9 encoder demonstrates more stable video quality (i.e., average frame quantization parameter) than x264x264’s poor VBV buffer management causes high QP (i.e., poor video quality) after frame 35
The two figures above show the NGCodec VP9 encoder’s and x264’s average frame quantization parameter (QP) and their corresponding VBV buffer level, during a scene change situation in the video sequence of Witchers 3. Note that the VP9 quantizer levels are mapped to the equivalent H.264 QP values in the first diagram above. We can see that around frame 35, the x264’s rate control unnecessarily panics which pushes its QP 51 leading to very poor visual quality (see the left side of the figure below). On the other hand, the NGCodec VP9 encoder’s rate control chooses to keep the QP stable and avoid the VBV buffer level hitting 0% (i.e., buffer underflow).
Left: x264 results in artifacts due to its rate control’s poor performance at a scene change; Right: NGCodec VP9 encoder delivers consistent visual quality at the scene change
The holidays are here and Devolver Digital is bringing a slew of awesome PC games to Twitch Prime members. Starting today, you’ll be able to claim and play all of the games within the Devolver Digital Holiday Pack. As always, once you claim a game, it’s yours to keep forever.
Here’s the lineup:
Broforce: Deliver your own brand of shock and awe with dozens of bros each with their own unique weaponry and special attacks designed to dispatch freedom across the world.
Hotline Miami: A high-octane action game overflowing with raw brutality, hard-boiled gunplay and skull crushing close combat.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number: The brutal conclusion to the Hotline Miami saga, set against a backdrop of escalating violence and retribution over spilled blood in the original game.
The Messenger: As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan’s survival
STRAFE: A roguelike first-person shooter that generates unique, full levels every time you play.
Crossing Souls: An action-adventure set in a California suburb in the midst of a supernatural event that rocks the small community as grand forces siege the town.
The Swords of Ditto: A roguelite action RPG that creates a unique adventure for each new hero of legend in the relentless fight against the evil Mormo.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly in-game loot, free games every month, 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.
War Chest: Katowice 2019 brings two brand-new features to StarCraft II and Twitch alike.
First, each race in StarCraft II is receiving a full suite of custom building skins. By purchasing this season’s War Chest, you’ll be able to complete your transformation with the Simulant Zerg, Terran Special Forces, and Protoss Forged sets.
Second, Blizzard is adding even more ways to earn War Chest XP. Now, not only can you earn War Chest XP by playing StarCraft II, you’ll also be able to earn War Chest XP by watching StarCraft II on Twitch. For this entire War Chest period, spend time with your favorite StarCraft II broadcasters & earn experience towards this season’s War Chest loot.
Any and all broadcasters can help their fellow RTS fans gain experience for their Katowice 2019 War Chest simply by streaming StarCraft II and activating the StarCraft II War Chest Extension.
Phase I unlocks: December 20
Phase II unlocks: January 17
Phase III unlocks: February 14
Double XP begins: March 14
War Chest concludes: April 11
Here’s how to earn experience for your War Chest by watching StarCraft II on Twitch:
StarCraft II streams on the official StarCraft II channel will always be eligible to provide War Chest XP. Other channels that stream StarCraft II will have the opportunity to provide War Chest XP to viewers, as well, so long as the War Chest extension is activated. You can check to see if the War Chest extension is available on a particular channel by looking for the extension icon near the edges of the Twitch video player.
Want to take all the guesswork out of finding eligible channels? We’ve got you covered. We’ve partnered with several streamers from around the world (listed here) to ensure they are ready to provide XP-unlocking entertainment starting today and continuing throughout the entire War Chest period! If and when these channels are streaming StarCraft II, they will be eligible to provide War Chest XP.
Once you find a StarCraft II stream to enjoy, the War Chest extension activated on their channel will serve as your guide, keeping you up-to-date on your eligibility and progress.
After watching for about 20 minutes, you should unlock your first War Chest XP reward and the extension will notify you that you have War Chest XP to claim. You must click the “Claim XP” button to redeem it in-game on your linked account. Clicking this button will also allow you to continue earning XP on Twitch. Please note thatyou cannot earn any additional experience if have pending experience to claim. The War Chest extension will let you know once you’ve earned enough XP to unlock all War Chest items currently available; however, any time you want to see exactly where you stand, you can always log into StarCraft II to verify your earnings.
Once the War Chest extension is installed and activated, just stream StarCraft II like normal and you’ll help your viewers unlock those sweet building skins, plus a variety of other in-game items as well!
The Spoils of War Await
You are now armed and ready to begin your War Chest: Katowice 2019 campaign. Get comfy and then get to watching your favorite StarCraft II streams. For even more details about this program, please review the FAQ here. GLHF!
With over 60 percent of Partners and Affiliates already using Extensions, they’re quickly becoming one of the best ways for creators to connect with fans and support their channels.
For developers, it’s good to know that themed Extensions around events and holidays are something that streamers love to use to engage their community and customize their channels.
Check out how these Extensions are helping them do it during this holiday season.
This Christmas Extension helps streamers engage their community and even give has a new way of monetization. Viewers can choose among different Christmas tree decorations and even leave a message on every decoration.
The Christmas tree will be displayed on the stream, but the viewers have always the option to hide it. If a tree gets too full with decorations, viewers will also be able to add new trees.
This Extensions allows streamers to automatically import an Amazon Wishlist and show the items in their channel. This let’s fans see what streamers want and maybe they’ll do their part to help their favorite streamers get these items.
‘Tis the season! The Tiltify Donation Extension makes it easier than ever to fundraise for charity. At a glance, viewers will know who a streamer is fundraising for, what the fundraising goal is, how much has been raised, and an on-page donate button to take audience engagement to the next level.
Hopefully these Extensions will inspire you to think about the possibilities for other big experiences that streamers come together for like New Year’s Eve, major sporting events, or other seasonal celebrations.
Twitch Prime membership included access to epic in-game loot for 20 blockbuster games, more than 70 Free Games with Prime, a free subscription to their favorite Twitch broadcaster every 30 days, plus all the benefits of Amazon Prime
In 2018, Twitch Prime members in more than 200 countries enjoyed the Best of Prime with:
· More than $3,000 in gaming goodness — including free in-game loot, free games, and free subscriptions to their favorite Twitch broadcasters.
· Over 70 great games. As part of Free Games with Prime, members received critically-acclaimed titles including 85+ rated Metacritic favorites like Civilization IV, Pillars of Eternity, Psychonauts, Gone Home, SteamWorld Dig 2, Tales from the Borderlands, Shadow Tactics, and System Shock.
· Over 1,000 hours of entertainment. If a member played through every Free Game with Prime, it would add up to more than 1,100 hours of gameplay– the equivalent of watching every episode ever created of The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Office, 30 Rock, Family Guy, Friends, and Parks and Recreation back-to-back — with enough time left over to watch all the Harry Potter movies (including Fantastic Beasts!)
· Tons of in-game Loot. Twitch Prime members made their favorite games even better with free epic loot in 20 of the world’s biggest blockbusters across every platform. Members racked up perks like a legendary skin shard in League of Legends, celebrated Prime Day with exclusive deadmau5 skins in PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS, a Golden Classic Card Pack for Hearthstone, and of course an exclusive skin, emote, pickaxe, glider, and back bling in Fortnite.
· Free Twitch Channel Subscriptions. Twitch Prime members hit that subscribe button like crazy and stepped up to support Twitch’s vibrant community of passionate creators. Members helped hundreds of thousands of broadcasters grow their channels by using their free subscription credit every 30 days.
· Members also enjoyed all the benefits of Prime* at no additional cost, including unlimited access to critically-acclaimed movies and TV episodes like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with Prime Video; ad-free access to more than two million songs and over one thousand playlists and stations on Prime Music; more than a thousand books, magazines and comics with Prime Reading; deep discounts on select popular products at Whole Foods Markets; and unlimited fast, free shipping on more than 100 million items.
And Twitch Prime is just getting started … there are lots of surprises in store for next year, with content on the horizon from some of the biggest hits from this holiday season. What would you like to see in Twitch Prime this year? Hit us up on Twitter @twitchprime. We’re listening!
We caught up with Steve Filby, Marketing Manager at Motion Twin, an indie game studio based in Bordeaux, France, to talk about their wildly popular game Dead Cells and its integration with Twitch.
Dead Cells had one of the most innovative Twitch game integrations in 2018. Leveraging Chat, Dead Cells uses chat commands that let game viewers play an active role in the outcome of the game for the streamer.
TwitchDev: Tell us a little about your company, goals, and experience with Twitch. Filby: Our goals with Twitch have always been about reaching new players and engaging with them. We’re acutely aware of the cult status that Twitch has developed among gamers and the way that’s changed the landscape in terms of how to get noticed. These days, there are literally hundreds of games coming out each week (even if you’re only competing against the five good ones), as well as many, many esports and F2P games that command a huge share of the audience at all times, so you really have to be thinking about how to break in and get some eyeballs on your new title.
Our experience has been that if you pay attention to the most important discoverability platform on the internet and build a strategy around it, as well as make an exceptional — good is no longer enough — game, then you can break through the noise.
TwitchDev: Can you tell us a little about the Dead Cells integration and where the idea came from? Filby: Well, the idea really came from trying to work out how to get streamers to cover our game a second time, given that we launched into early access and a lot of people had already played the game. We needed to offer them something that was built for them and took their needs into account, so we talked to a bunch of them and asked what they needed as streamers.
Overwhelmingly, they told us that new, exciting ways to engage with their audience was really what was missing. They often referenced the few “good” integrations that they had seen (Choice Chamber, etc.) and encouraged us to do something like that. So we did.
TwitchDev: Who did you build this integration for? We built it for streamers, particularly our friends who have followed and pushed the game since early access. They worked with us giving us ideas, beta testing for us, and generally helping us to build something that they could use to engage their audience.
Obviously, to engage the audience, the thing needs to be fun for the viewers too, so we built the platforms as much for the viewers as for the streamer, perhaps a little more so in terms of the gameplay. Chat can really give the streamer hell if they want!
TwitchDev: What does the integration contribute to the Twitch community? The integration is really meant to create a new type of hybrid gameplay, where a kind of hive mind collective of people (Chat) are all playing with or against the streamer. This really makes the viewers feel like they’re part of the game — because they literally are. Chat will literally replace some of the algorithms of the game, replacing the Random Number Generator (RNG) with ChatNG and allowing for bargaining between the streamer and the game; you can’t beg your game to give you good RNG, but you sure can beg Chat.
We’ve noticed that the integration is seen as a kind of extra value by the streamers in that they use it complimentary with their standard runs of the game. It provides a new way of interaction with the fans and an entirely new way of playing the game, kind of like an NG+.
TwitchDev: Can you talk about any events you’ve done in conjunction with the integration? Our launch (PC 1.0 and console) was built entirely around our Twitch strategy and the integration was a core part of our “second” launch. Basically, we used the integration to build buzz among bigger streamers. About three weeks before launch, we were distributing the integration to hand-picked friends and key people. This piqued the interest of certain bigger guys, so when it was time for our PR team to reach out and hustle for reviews and coverage, we already had a decent amount of inbound requests for access. This allowed us to reach a huge audience during the launch week.
In fact, it was something that really, really surprised us in terms of impact. We pretty much doubled our all-time minutes watched count in a month…
With the Twitch integration, Motion Twin almost doubled their Dead Cells all-time minutes watched count in a month.
TwitchDev: What results and community response have you seen so far? As I mentioned above, we pretty much doubled our all-time minutes watched count in a month.
Since then, we’ve seen a baseline pickup in the amount of people continuing to stream the game after an initial playthrough and our base audience numbers have gone up. It’s just been across the board a success.
TwitchDev: What are your future plans or considerations? What else would you like to build? We’re actually in the process of building an influence program; the idea being to reward streamers and viewers alike for playing, watching, and generally liking our game. So we’re thinking about ways that we can include some kind of non-abusive incentive program in the integration.
Outside of that, we’ve got a bunch of ideas about how to improve the actual gameplay. We’d like to consider an actual Extension, but right now we’re holding out for an official game SDK. Basically anything that we can do to reduce latency will allow us to include a bunch more real-time stuff, things where the player and the viewer can work together in a much more direct way.
I’d really like to see a more custom version of the game available, too. For example, Chat could choose from all of the known levels in the game and put them in any order they wanted for the streamer to playthrough. Really giving the keys to the community when it comes to creating challenges for the streamer.
For more information on Dead Cells or Motion Twin, visit motion-twin.com.
We heard you when you said you want more Twitch Rivals, so this year, we’re bringing you more weekly events and making all of them even better. Get ready for the biggest names on Twitch, top prizing, fun formats, and your favorite games — Twitch Rivals kicks off on January 15, 2019 with a League of Legends Qualifier Challenge and continues with 100+ events on Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout the year.
The first Rivals event took place on February 28th, 2018, and as of now, 38 events have been produced featuring approximately 800 different Twitch partners & affiliates. The 38 events included seven different games and a ton of cool formats. And when all was said and done, we learned that for streamers, Twitch Rivals is an amazing way to grow a community while also earning revenue by playing with fellow Twitch streamers. And for viewers, Twitch Rivals events provide an easily discoverable stage where the brightest streaming stars compete in the most popular games on Twitch.
In 2019, all 100+ Twitch Rivals events will be available from the /TwitchRivals channel complete with an anchored studio show to provide coverage and spotlight participating Partners & Affiliates.
Ready to watch? Go to /TwitchRivals and hit that Follow button to get a notification whenever Twitch Rivals goes live!
Starting today, January 15th, Twitch Prime members can join in on the celebration of the launch of Neverwinter’s latest major update, The Heart of Fire, with a special bundle which includes 30 days of in-game VIP status, an Intern Companion, Bonding Runestones, and more! Head over to this page and follow the account linking and claiming instructions for the Elite Intern Bundle, which includes:
Intern Companion
Fierce Holy Icon of the Companion +4
Fierce Sword Knot of the Companion +4
Fierce Talisman of the Companion +4
30 days in-game VIP
3x Rank 8 Bonding Runestone
1x Runic Bag of Holding
This bundle can be claimed on the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 versions of Neverwinter and will be available until 2/13/2019. All items are Bind on Pickup. Rewards can only be claimed on one character per account.
This is the first of three bundles, so be sure to check back next month for the next!
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly in-game loot, free games every month, 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.
Starting January 17th through February 18th, Twitch Prime members can get Gear Bundle #2 for Warframe that includes 50 Platinum (non-tradeable) to use towards new equipment, a 7-Day Affinity Booster to double the rate in which players upgrade their equipment, and a 7-Day Resource Booster to double the amount of Resources players get from pickups.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription 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.
From January 21st through January 23rd, Twitch Prime members will be able to claim and own Devolver Digital’s latest quirky title, Pikuniku, for free before it’s on sale everywhere else! Be one of the first to check out this absurd puzzle-exploration game in which you set out on a single mission: to make people happy.
Help the townsfolk face their fears, uncover a deep state conspiracy, and rebuild a cheerful community in a delightful dystopian adventure.
Claim the offer by heading here and keep the game forever.
After the exclusive early access period is over, Twitch Prime members will still be able to claim the offer through February 28th.
Also, don’t forget to claim the Devolver Digital Holiday Pack, which includes Broforce, Hotline Miami, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, The Messenger, STRAFE, Crossing Souls, and The Swords of Ditto.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription 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.
We dove into Twitch chat during the Pokémon Marathon, and found key moments when viewers sing, cry, and laugh together. Sometimes, weirdly, all three happen at the same time.
Context and dataset
Twitch ran a marathon of all Pokémon episodes and movies. The first 13 episodes aired on August 27, from 10am to 4pm PST. While watching Pokémon, we noticed a lot of meming and spamming in chat, even by Twitch standards. So we decided to dive into it.
Our dataset has two tables. One consists of all 269k messages posted by viewers during these 6 hours. The messages are lowercased for convenience. The second table consists of emotes usage, it’s also indexed on message id, and has one row per emote use.
Twitch chat likes emotes: 61% of chat messages have at least one. Twitch chat also likes to spam emotes: a total of 359k emotes were used, i.e. chatters use on average 2 per message with an emote.
Gotta Catch ’Em All
Each of the 13 episodes opens and concludes with the Pokémon theme song, “Pokémon, gotta catch ’em all”. It is a catchy song written in common meter with classic anime lyrics. Its most frequent non-stopword token is “pokemon”, appearing in 14 out of the 45 lines of the theme song.
Throughout all 13 episodes, viewers sing along in chat to the theme song, during both the intro and outro. While the average 10-second window during the marathon sees 1.5% of chat messages with the token “pokemon”, this can reach up to 18% during the theme song.
The graph below shows a heartbeat-like pattern in the proportion of chat messages with the “pokemon” token. Since each episode is 22 minutes, and intermissions between episodes 4 minutes, this proportion spikes twice every 26 minutes.
The proportion of chat messages with the “pokemon” token spikes when the theme song plays.
Text memes: “never seen again” and “pity badge”
Throughout his adventures, protagonist Ash encounters various characters whom he leaves but promises to see again. Twitch chat, in disbelief, spams “never seen again”. This goodbye meme started modestly in episode 4, peaked at episode 8 at 17% of chat messages in a 10s window, and dwindled in the following episodes played that day.
However, another raw-text meme stayed strong after episode 7. When Ash challenges the three Cerulean Gym leaders, they tell him their Pokémon are exhausted and forfeit their Cascade badge to him without a fight. This prompted chat to spam “pity badge”. This meme peaked at 25% of chat messages during episode 13, when Ash showed his badges proudly.
The proportion of chat messages like “never seen again” and “pity badge” spike at different moments.
We’d like to explore trends involving both emotes and raw text throughout the day. Moreover, in Pokémon, the scenario moves quickly: one minute is slapstick running-around, with chat laughing, and the next tearful melodrama, with chat crying. LDA seems appropriate.
We first remove stop words (“the”, “is”, “are”, etc.), then treat each minute of chat as a document for LDA. LDA then treats each minute of chat as a mixture of topics, and outputs the top words for these topics. A topic is an assignment of a weight to each word, for example {‘pokemon’:0.9, ‘sourpls’:0.8, …}. All words appear in all topics, but the topic’s top words enable us humans to interpret it. We played around with the number of topics, and ended at 11, a local minimum. The resulting topics are displayed below.
Let’s deep dive into 2 of these topics: the sad topic, and the Team Rocket topic.
The sad topic
The BibleThump emote
Topic 9 is about the sad moments in Pokémon. It loads heavily on tokens like “biblethump”, which is a tearful Twitch emote expressing commiseration, sometimes used sarcastically. It also loads heavily on words related to the Pokémon Charmander.
Topic 9 covers the sad moments in Pokémon.
We believe that words related to Charmander are prominent in topic 9 because of episode 11, in which Ash meets Charmander, and a very sad and melodramatic story unfolds. Chat was ready to react. Here’s a close-up of episode 11’s BibleThump-ness.
While the episode is very melodramatic in the beginning, it quickly turns around, and chat spams PogChamp, an emote indicating amazement.
These flip-flopping emotions remind us of the 6 shapes of story arcs. In our case, Twitch chat lets us analyze these story arcs via the audience’s reactions.
Prepare for Trouble Make it double To protect the world from devastation To unite all people within our nation To denounce the evils of truth and love To extend our reach to the stars above Jessie James Team Rocket Blast off at the speed of light Surrender now or prepare to fight Meowth, that’s Right!
Starting with the Team Rocket’s first appearance in episode 2, and every time they appear thereafter, chat just spams the villains’ motto.
Topic 10 tracks with Team Rocket appearances.
Wrapping up
This article dove into chat during the first day of the Pokémon marathon on Twitch. Pokémon brought viewers together in chat, via memes involving raw text, emotes, or both. LDA helped us discover that the most intense memes stem from silly plot elements, melodramatic moments, and catchy theme songs and mottos.
This article was co-written by Thomas Debeauvais, Sanjay Kairam, and Brendan Rocks.
Celebrating a new year is one of the few events in which almost every culture in the world takes part in some way shape or form. And while it’s always exciting to be at an event IRL, there is something particularly new and exciting about celebrating online in a shared real-time experience with a global community.
Many streamers ring in the new year with their own communities, and this year — in partnership with Red Bull — Ninja (Twitch’s most followed streamer) brought in the new year with his global community at one of the world’s most iconic NYE parties, Times Square in New York City. It was a fitting end to a wild year for Ninja, his loyal viewers, Twitch, and the gaming industry as a whole.
Ninja and friends ring in the new year in Times Square.
To enhance the viewing experience in true Twitch form, the Ninja New Year’s Eve broadcast featured an interactive Trivia Extension that presented a series of questions to viewers. Guessing correctly resulted in a bounty for viewers: free Bits. Throughout the New Year’s Eve event, Twitchmade available an unprecedented pool of 10 million Bits across Ninja’s and his co-hosts’ channels.
The Extension featured Ninja and Fortnite-related trivia questions. (Disclaimer: This Extension is not endorsed by Epic and does not use any game or player data.)
This event and the Extension execution was a stellar example of how to execute a highly engaging and entertaining, shared real-time experience on Twitch.
While not every event and Extension will have access to the elements that went into the Ninja NYE broadcast, here are a few key learnings and best practices any live event that includes an Extension on Twitch should consider:
Outline Extension Value to Both Viewers AND Streamers: Prior to development, put yourself in the shoes of all who will engage with the Extension and make sure it’s not overtly geared to providing value to only the streamer or the viewer, but properly enhances the experience for all involved. Twitch viewers are eager to not just watch but also engage and interact via desktop or mobile, and conversely, streamers are eager for new ways to level up their live stream experience.
Make Sure You Scope and Scenario Plan, and Then Do It Again: Once aligned on the primary goals of the Extension, rigorously prioritize. Scenario plan for both positive and negative outcomes as much as time will allow, beginning with the end of the stream and working backward to the event kick-off. Outline a run-of-show document not just for the stream itself, but also for the content of the Extension and different stages of audience interaction. Anticipate large spikes and dips in interaction and engagement as viewers flow in and out of the stream.
Have a Real-time Communication Strategy: There are often many fluid elements and stakeholders, so the project or team lead should be well defined and ensure that other relevant team members are informed of all progress and notified about how each element could affect them. Ensure there is an on-call team to troubleshoot Extension issues, monitor Twitter chatter, and anticipate and resolve any speed bumps that that may arise during the event itself.
Watch a full walkthrough of the Ninja NYE Extension in action.
Behind every live event Extension, there’s a hidden hero — the developer, of course. For the Ninja NYE Trivia Extension, that hero was Muxy, a company with a solid Extension portfolio that develops a range of high-performing streamer tools, including a comprehensive back-end solution for extension development called the MEDKit. We talked with Muxy CEO, Peter Bonnani, about how they built the Extension and some of the lessons they learned.
Q&A with Peter Bonnani, CEO of Muxy
Can you tell us why you’re excited about this Extension?
The idea that we could manage determinations about how to award a pool of Bits to viewers via the Extension appealed to us. It’s something many of our clients have asked for in the past but has not been something we’ve been able to do up until this point. The other exciting thing was the fact that the stream itself was ambitious and live from Time Square with Ninja.
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.
The development process for this Extension was very rushed. We were contacted just a couple days before Christmas and already had some staff out of office visiting their families for the holidays. Myself and the remaining team in Austin had to work quickly with Twitch to determine the scope of what could be delivered on this timeframe. Luckily, we already had our MEDKit platform to do most of the heavy lifting on the backend.
In this particular case, we were able to leverage many things that were built into the MEDKit APIs to deliver the trivia experience and had to do a little magic on the backend; viewers had the opportunity to obtain Bits through the Extension and Twitch fulfilled the winning viewers. Since we didn’t know the size of the potential audience, we worked with Twitch engineers to load test the backend system at 1.2 million trivia answers in the 90-second timeframe. The first few iterations revealed some minor bottlenecks that we were able to fix before show time.
Describe the technology behind this Extension (i.e., MEDKit).
All of the more than 20 Extensions we’ve built since Extensions launched in 2017 have run on our Muxy Cloud backend and are built using our MEDKit Extension framework. It allows us and any developer who uses it to not have to rely on building their own Extension Backend Service (EBS), which dramatically shortens development time. We also don’t typically have to worry about load issues when using our framework as we’ve designed and hardened it over the last two years and offer it as a service to other developers.
We were able to make use of existing endpoints for polling that we recently augmented with trivia support. Everything went very well with the Extension from a technical standpoint, and we didn’t seem to need all the hardening we did to the Muxy Cloud backend; however, that hardening is now available to any developer wishing to build an Extension using our backend. If you’re more of a frontend person and looking to build an Extension, please check out our services and let us take care of the backend while you focus on your product.
What learnings or best practices would you share about developing Extensions for large, live events?
Twitch traffic is bursty. We’ve designed MEDKit to be able to handle this type of load at affordable pricing. If you’re trying to build your own backend, do extensive load testing with very high bursts of traffic versus moderate traffic over a sustained period of time. Also, whenever you’re doing an Extension that is coupled to the event’s run of show, don’t be tempted to make planned events timed, because the run of show always seems to slip. To combat this for high-profile installs, we have all events that are pushed out to the Extension controlled from a single admin panel, so that they can make adjustments on the fly.
When the 2019 Overwatch League seasons kicks off on February 14, there’s only one way to experience the very best of the action: the newly updated All-Access Pass, available only on Twitch.
Watching esports doesn’t have to be the same for everyone. With this year’s Pass, you’ll have the power to view League games your way with several viewing options. Watch in first-person from any pro player’s point of view OR from any role. Or, choose from a slew of various multi-view options, including first-person and overhead views, alongside the main broadcast to see the action from every angle. Start your free 48-hour trial at the beginning of every Overwatch League Stage on twitch.tv/overwatchleague.
The All-Access Pass also includes a ton of other benefits for Twitch viewers:
200 Overwatch League Tokens ($9.99 value) to use on 100+ Overwatch League Hero skins. 100 tokens gets you a Hero’s home and away team skins.
20% off all Overwatch League merch to sport your team’s gear IRL*
Ad-free viewing on all Overwatch League Twitch channels
Passholder-only chat to talk with others who are just as into the game as you are
Participate in Q&A’s with Overwatch Pros for extra tips and insight
2 exclusive chat badges to show off your fandom in any Twitch channel
3 team-themed emotes to show your colors in chat
500 bonus Bits for Twitch Prime members (membership must be active at time of purchase)
The Overwatch League All-Access Pass is available now for $14.99. Grab yours today, gear up, and we’ll see you in chat for the first game of the season when the Philadelphia Fusion takes on the London Spitfire February 14 at 4PM PT on twitch.tv/overwatchleague.
For more on the 2019 Overwatch League season and how to use all the features and benefits of the All-Access Pass, see our in-depth FAQ here.
2019 All-Access Pass Terms & Conditions:
Benefits will be available until October 31, 2019 unless otherwise specified.
*Discount codes for merchandise on shop.overwatchleague.com will be available from January 31, 2019 to October 31, 2019. The discount code will be delivered by email within 14 days after purchase. Offer good for one-time use. Your purchase and enjoyment of some benefits such as the merchandise discount and Overwatch tokens may be subject to additional third-party legal terms. You are bound by such third-party legal terms and we encourage you to read them.
For Twitch Prime benefits, ensure your account is linked with Amazon prior to purchase. The Bits will be credited to your account within 1 day. This is a limited time offer available to Twitch Prime members only. Offer good while supplies last. Twitch reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time. Offer is non-transferable and may not be resold. If you violate any of these terms, the offer will be invalid. Offer limited to one per customer and account. Redemption of Bits is subject to the Bits Acceptable Use Policy found here. Offer void where prohibited and limited to one per customer and account.
Value of the Overwatch League Tokens is calculated based on price of tokens in USD.
Once you have selected your three team based emotes available as a subscriber, you will not be able to change your selection.
The work you do — from moderating chat to helping new viewers get up to speed with a channel — plays a crucial role in making Twitch a more welcoming place. We see you and everything you do to support the communities you love.
Your skills are top notch, but we want to give you the support you deserve to do your jobs even better and more easily. Today we’re doing that by introducing new moderator tools built right into chat. You might remember that we announced this at last year’s TwitchCon — and it’s available now! On your channel, or on channels you moderate, you’ll now see channel-specific details about each user in chat that will help you make more informed moderation decisions without leaving Twitch.
How Does It Work?
Starting today, you can click a username in chat or use the new /user chat command to open a person’s profile card. From there, you’ll be able to:
Share channel-specific comments about your moderation choices: you can explain why you did or didn’t take a moderation action and collaborate with your fellow mods without leaving Twitch.
See when they made their account: you’ll know at a glance if someone has been around for a while or if they’re using a brand new account.
View the user’s channel-specific chat, timeout, and ban history: when you’re on the fence about taking moderation actions, you can check whether someone generally brings a positive or not-so-positive attitude to the channel.
And we’re just getting started. We’re going to continue supporting channel moderators by making updates based on your feedback, so let us know how to make these tools the most useful for you. Last December we updated chat so you can delete a single message without timing out the user who sent it, and earlier this month we put all the settings that channel moderators can control on a single settings page. Keep an eye out for more updates throughout 2019.
We’re inviting the entire Twitch community to join us in thanking all the channel mods who give back to their communities every day. To kick things off, check out what these streamers had to say about their channel mods.
On Twitch we don’t just watch. Everyone and everything from the streamers, viewers, chatters, and the content you stream all play a part in creating an experience that could only happen on Twitch. It’s our shared interests that hold everything together.
Co-streaming is a great way to connect with your community around the things you love besides what you normally stream. With a co-stream, you can put your unique spin on a broadcast other than your own to create a novel experience for everyone.
If you’re interested in co-streaming on your channel, you can read more at Creator Camp, or get detailed directions on how to do it here.
Co-streaming is enabled for many special events and Twitch-licensed content throughout the year, including things like marathons, award shows, and conventions. If you’re ready to give co-streaming a spin, here are some upcoming co-streamable events.
Sports:
NBA G League (Fridays & Saturdays, Jan 25-Mar 23): Twitch has partnered with NBA G League, the NBA’s official minor league, to broadcast 16 games over the course of the season. You can also use the official extension with your community so viewers can earn points for tuning in, predicting player stats, and ruling the leaderboard while repping your community.
Sign-up to get your name in the announcement blog here.
Original broadcast with commentary and full schedule: /nbagleague
Co-streamable broadcast (without commentary) and full schedule: /nbagleaguecostreams
Broadcast not available in China
Impact Wrestling (airing Fridays, Jan 11-Mar 1): Twitch enters the ring every Friday at 7pm PST with the flagship show from Impact Wrestling. Follow every match and add your commentary to the action for a truly Twitch experience with your community.
Broadcast not available in Sub Saraha Africa, UK, and Mexico.
Award shows:
Crunchyroll Anime Awards (airing Feb 16): Crunchyroll is bringing their annual Anime Awards to Twitch. This year it will be in San Francisco and you and your community can play the extension to predict winners to increase your channel’s score, with a leaderboard tracking the highest scoring communities.
Sign-up to get your name in the announcement blog here.
Inspector Gadget (airing Jan 26-Feb 3): A rebroadcast of Season 1’s 1980s animated TV series about a famous cyborg police inspector, his niece, dog, and their crime solving antics.
Shaw Brothers Kung Fu Marathon (airing Feb 4–9): Shaw Brothers, a film production company with iconic hits like Five Deadly Venoms, Crippled Avengers, and King Boxer, is bringing 44 classic kung fu movies from the 70s to Twitch.
Co-streamable broadcast and full schedule: /gammaray_tv
There will be more events co-streamed throughout the year, so check back for more. Happy co-streaming!
Co-streaming on Twitch was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
A huge part of what makes Twitch special are the diverse voices that make up our community. In honor of Black History Month, this February, we’re doubling down on celebrating black creators and their communities by featuring tons of streams on the homepage. We’d love for you to join us.
We’re also honoring Black History Month by working with the community to help raise money for Code2040, an organization that’s closing the access gap for Black and Latinx engineering talent in tech. Plus we’re hosting a Black History Month trivia night at Twitch HQ and much, much more.
Ready to get involved? Here’s how you can join in:
Watch Highlighted Streams
Check out the front page to see a different featured streamer every day, starting right now. You can find the full schedule below. Just double check the start time (they’re all in PT), jump into chat, and say HeyGuys.
All month long, we’re working with Tiltify to raise money for Code2040, an organization dedicated to empowering Black and Latinx people in the tech industry. You can donate or start fundraising yourself right here: https://tiltify.com/code2040.
If you can’t donate, you can still show your support by sharing the link above on social, telling people in your community, or asking your favorite streamer to start their own campaign. Every little bit helps.
Share Your Story
What does Black History Month mean to you? If you’ve got a story, we want to hear it! Tell us your story on social media using #TwitchUnity and #BlackHistoryMonth. We’ll share some of our favorites with all of you on Twitch Weekly, every Friday in February at 1PM PT on /twitch.
Black History Month at Twitch
We’re pulling out all the stops to celebrate Black History Month at Twitch HQ, and one that you can participate in is our Black History Month trivia night! Join us on February 22nd from 5–6PM PT on /twitchoffice.
Yes, I understand the title is a little dry and not very interesting; however, let’s focus on the task at hand.
Let’s remove as many dependencies on non-Twitch services as we can!
Top Clip — Remastered
Me, yes, ME!
Some know who I am, but for those who don’t, let me run a quick introduction. I’m LuckyNoS7evin (Lucky Number Slevin) or Andy in real life. I’m a developer and have been since I was eight, professionally it’s been 14 years. I have worked primarily in the web development field and for the past two years have been streaming on Twitch while doing extra development.
So what do I know about Twitch Extensions? Well, that’s a long story which starts in September/October 2017 when Extensions were first released and runs through several TwitchDev associated streams, speaking at TwitchCon Developer Day 2018, judging the TwitchCon 2018 Extension Hackathon, and now guest writing for the TwitchDev blog. I have two live Extensions, there are two to three in the pipeline, and I have consulted on several other Twitch Extension projects.
Enough about me, let’s get on with why you’re here: learning how to remove as many of the dependencies on other services as you can when building a Twitch Extension.
The Request
In July 2018, I was asked if I wanted to take over the administration and development of the Top Clip Twitch Extension. At the time, I was busy and didn’t really need more projects, but ended up taking it on anyway. The original developer couldn’t spend the time he wanted on the Extension, as a child was incoming and a major bug in the EBS (what Twitch calls server side code or Extension Backend Service) was creating a memory leak. The idea was simple; investigate the issue in the EBS, get the Extension up and running, create new artwork, and then release to the world.
The Bug — A Memory Leak
The memory leak ended up being an issue in the way the video URL was being retrieved from Twitch. A Chromium instance was run using Puppeteer, the clip embed URL was loaded into memory and the video “src” attribute was then scraped from the final in-memory render of the page. This on a Twitch scale is impossible to do at a cost suitable for a free Extension, making it a non-viable option to keep running the Extension in this way. I managed to find a fix for this with an easier way to get the source video.
Initial Re-release
Once a solution was found to the memory leak, it was time to get everything up and running, which went smoothly and worked as expected. I could have at this point stopped…however, that’s not me.
Version 2.0
After the initial re-release, the Extension was being rendered around 100,000 times a day, and the EC2.micro instance was never spiking above the 10 percent mark. I soon realized that this would never change — and me being the guy who tries to find a bargain in everything — started to investigate a way of further reducing the cost. To nothing!
Around the same time as the re-release of Top Clip, the Configuration Service was released by Twitch. This gave me the ability to save settings that the broadcaster selects on a service Twitch provides and something Top Clip was handling itself.
A combination of storing the settings using the Twitch Configuration Service and calling the Twitch API from the viewer’s browser meant I could remove the dependency on my EC2.micro instance completely. I hear people shouting at their screen now, asking themselves how to call Twitch API locally from the users browser? The answer is simple: create a Twitch Application from the development dashboard and use that ClientId in your API calls from the client side. As only two API calls are made on load with no further calls after that point we are good to go.
So there we have it: an Extension re-written to have no dependency on external services not provided by Twitch!
What Now?
As of the 4th Jan 2019, Top Clip is completely independent of any external services that are not supplied by Twitch and the cost to the developer (me) is now — nothing.
A new feature was added during the redevelopment called “Broadcaster Choice” where, alongside the Top Clip, a broadcaster can now choose one of their own clips to be displayed. I have further changes in the pipeline with improvements, fixes, and adding more to the Extension. At every point, I’m going to be thinking, “Do I really need an EBS for this or can I do without?”
Final Word
Although I have told you the story of the evolution of the Top Clip Extension, I hope that you can take away from this that there are several factors that are important when developing a Twitch Extension.
The first and most important is Scale: make sure your Extension can handle thousands of renders a day/minute/second in random bursts.
Cost: don’t be caught out by how much running an Extension may cost. There are programs run by Twitch which allow you to apply for Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits. Think outside of your normal thought patterns. Where you think you need to add services, think hard about if that is completely necessary.
Finally, have fun creating what you want and what you think streamers and viewer want; you may fail in your first attempts, but something will click.
RuneScape, the epic MMO that just celebrated its 18th birthday, has teamed up with Twitch Prime this Valentine’s Day to offer you complimentary access to an adventure like no other. Starting today, February 5th, Twitch Prime members will have access to a free 14-day membership to RuneScape and Old School RuneScape featuring more quests, more skills, and more loot!
In addition to the 14 days of membership to both games, the Twitch Prime Valentine’s Pack offers you access to everything in RuneScape, plus:
Exclusive Amara Outfit
Exclusive Chinchompa Plushie
2 Umbral Chests (guaranteed super-rare prizes)
15 Treasure Hunter Keys
40 Hearts of Ice
200 RuneCoins
Start your adventure today by claiming this offer here.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription 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.
