Available now with Twitch Prime: NFL legend Jim Brown in Madden NFL 20
Twitch Prime and EA Sports have teamed up to bring Jim Brown, one of the greatest NFL players of all time, to the Madden NFL 20 Ultimate Team. And he’s only available for Prime members.
In only nine years in the NFL, Jim Brown was named to the Pro Bowl every year, was an 8x First Team All-Pro, a 3x NFL MVP, and an NFL Champion. He totaled over 12,300 yards in those 9 seasons and many still consider him to be the greatest player who ever touched a football. Yeah, you want this guy on your team
Be sure to link your Prime and Twitch accounts to claim Jim Brown and add him to your Ultimate Team today! This content will only be available to claim through September 8th so be sure to get yours now.
Head on over here to get more information and claim your Madden NFL 20 content. There will be additional content coming in early September so be sure to come back to find out more.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is the Amazon Prime home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
Streamers are at the core of every community on Twitch. When new streamers want to go live for the first time and start sharing their passions with the world, they should be able to do so with our full support. From setting up your stream to building your community, we saw an opportunity to simplify things for streamers who are just getting started.
Today we’ve opened up beta testing for Twitch Studio: an all-in-one streaming app for new streamers that cuts down on the guesswork to setup a quality stream and makes it easier to engage with your community.
Guided setup to help find your optimal settings, including connecting your mic and webcamCustomizable templates to get your stream looking just how you want itBuilt-in activity feed, alerts, and chat to help you engage with your community while you stream
To make sure it’s just right, we’re releasing a beta with limited features to a group of streamers to give it a spin, report any bugs, and share their feedback. Want to help? Sign up HERE. We can’t accept everyone right away, but we’re opening up more spots over time, so keep an eye out for an email!
We’re excited to announce the inaugural Twitch Research Fellowship program!
If you’re a doctoral student pursuing innovative research in fields relevant to Twitch, you can apply for a $10,000 award prize and a paid visit to present your research at Twitch HQ for our Science Team and CEO, Emmett Shear. In addition, Fellows eligible for employment at Twitch will be invited to participate in a 10-to-12 week paid internship with Twitch Science in San Francisco.
We believe in fostering a diverse, global community, so we highly encourage students from traditionally under-represented minority groups to apply.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must be full-time PhD students currently enrolled in an accredited university.
Students must be enrolled and involved in ongoing research during the academic year in which the Fellowship is awarded.
Students’ work should be related to one or more of the research areas listed below.
Students should not be current or former employees of Twitch and should disclose if they have a close relative currently employed at Twitch.
Application Materials
Applications will be evaluated based on the strength of the student’s research statement, publication record, and recommendation letters.
Applications must include the following:
250- to 500-word research summary which clearly identifies the area of focus of the research activities to which this award will be applied. This summary should highlight not only the importance to the field, but also the applicability to Twitch.
Resume or CV with email, phone and mailing address, and applicable coursework.
Two letters of recommendation; please provide reference email addresses. One reference should be from a current academic advisor.
Research Areas
Applied Statistics. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, causal inference, anomaly detection, forecasting and time series analysis, optimization, regression, classification, clustering, and experimentation.
Computational Social Science. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, information diffusion and influence, community norms and safety, computer-mediated communication, well-being, and social support.
Computer Vision. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, image and video recognition (classification, detection, and segmentation), human understanding (face, gesture, and pose identification), scene analysis and understanding, and methods for large-scale streaming video analysis.
Information Retrieval. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, search and ranking, document categorization and clustering, domain-specific applications, conversational search systems, human factors, and evaluation.
Machine Learning. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, deep learning, and optimization.
Natural Language Processing & Speech. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, machine translation, multilingual learning, acoustic event detection, speech recognition and synthesis, methods for analyzing short message text, summarization, and sentiment analysis.
Recommender Systems. Areas of research may include, but are not limited to, preference elicitation, algorithmic scalability and implementation, context-aware recommendations, interfaces and evaluation, user modeling, algorithmic bias, and ethics of recommender systems.
Additional Research Areas. We encourage applications from students working in areas outside those highlighted above, as long as they are relevant to Twitch.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I apply?
Applications will be open starting on September 1, 2019. You can apply by emailing the application materials listed above to fellowship-apps-2020@twitch.tv. Please ensure that your application contains all of the materials listed above, and please include your name and institution in the title of your email. We ask applicants to submit only once, so please ensure that your materials are completed and finalized before submitting.
What are the important dates for this program?
September 1, 2019: Application submissions are opened
October 1, 2019: Applications submissions are closed
December 1, 2019: Fellowship awards announced
Summer or Fall, 2020: Eligible awardees participate at Twitch as research interns with mentors.
Am I still eligible if I already have research funding?
Yes. However, if you are selected to receive the award, it is your responsibility to check with your existing funding source(s) to ensure that accepting the award will not impact your current support. In addition, it is your responsibility to ensure that accepting this award will not conflict with any of the rules or regulations of your university or local government.
Are there restrictions on how funds can be used?
Funds will be disbursed as an unrestricted gift to the student or the student’s current academic advisor. Applications should provide some explanation of how funds will be used to support the research activities described in the application. While this clearly includes costs associated with hardware, software, and data collection, we encourage applicants to consider other ways in which this funding could support their research, including conference travel, publication expenses, and childcare costs.
Will Twitch provide data to awarded students?
Twitch will not provide external access to data. Any data collected by students for external research activities must comply with both Twitch’s terms and policies and the institution’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). During the period of a Twitch internship, however, interns may be granted access to internal data sources. Researchers can, of course, make use of Twitch’s APIs to collect data as long as data collection complies with Twitch’s terms and policies, including the Developer Agreement.
How many Fellowships will Twitch award?
Twitch does not have a predetermined number of Fellowships that it intends to give out. Each application will be considered based on the novelty of the research, its relevance to Twitch and its business, and confidence that the proposed research can be completed.
Is participating in an internship required to accept the Fellowship?
We strongly encourage Fellows, where possible, to join us for an internship at Twitch, where they will have the opportunity to apply their research to solving large-scale problems in a fast-paced, industry environment. We recognize that some students may have constraints, such as concerns about work authorization, which may prohibit them from participating in an internship. As such, we do not strictly require students to commit to an internship in order to accept the Fellowship award.
What if I have questions about the Fellowship that aren’t answered here?
For any questions about the Fellowship or other research programs at Twitch, please send us an email at research-program-support@twitch.tv.
Octane’s dipped into the trust fund and put his own personal twist on Kings Canyon: a stadium full of jump pads and fire where every Legend can unleash their inner daredevil. Now, you can show up dressed for the grand opening with the Whiplash Octane skin, free with your Prime membership.
Whiplash Octane is available August 13 — September 13. Visit twitch.amazon.com/apexlegends to claim your Apex Legends content.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is Amazon Prime’s home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
Introducing a Community Resource Directory for Twitch Developers
The Twitch Developer community has created some incredible, open source projects that help developers get started on Twitch. These resources — as well as our own coding projects — are scattered across different sites like GitHub, Glitch, and the documentation. In order to centralize these resources, and showcase the code samples, tutorials, blog posts, and other content the community has created, we are launching the first iteration of https://dev.twitch.tv/code.
This will continue to be our destination to make educational resources and examples more discoverable for experienced Twitch developers as well as those just getting started. We appreciate all of the feedback on the Request For Comments and will use it as we continue developing and refining the page.
We are launching the code page with content from twelve community members. Developers who would like their content considered for this page can submit it for review. We are looking for great writing comprehension, code consistency and clarity, spelling and grammar, and repository descriptions that clearly define the function of the project. For GitHub projects, feel free to also add a topic to your repository with “TwitchDev” which will make it easier for us to proactively find great examples to share.
If your content meets the above requirements, or as soon as you’ve made necessary updates, submit it for review at https://link.twitch.tv/devsubmit! We look forward to your submissions, highlighting the awesome content the community creates, and hearing your feedback on this new resource.
It’s always a good time for fireworks! And fireworks are even better when they’re digital and in a Twitch Extension. Recently we published a new sample Extension on the GitHub, which allows viewers to exchange Bits for an immaculate fireworks display in a video overlay. It leverages several of our Bits-in-Extension APIs, the Extension Configuration Service, and a lightweight Extension Backend Service. If you’re interested in how we built this Extension, and want to learn more about what tools Twitch offers to enable you to build a similar Extension yourself, you’re in the right place.
Bits in Extensions
Bits in Extensions enable you to build and manage a catalog of items and experiences in which viewers can exchange Bits. We provide a helper function to prompt the Bits transaction flow, and our callbacks allow your Extension to react accordingly to a transaction. The first step to manage your catalog of offerings for viewers is setting up the SKUs that will be included in your catalog. SKUs can be setup using the Developer Rig. After creating a new project or opening an existing project in the Developer Rig, you can navigate to the “Monetization” section on the left, and then click the “Live Products” tab. Here you can add new products as well as manage items after they’ve been created. In this example we’ve created two items — a Small Fireworks item at an amount of 10 Bits, and a Large Fireworks item at an amount of 100 Bits.
Configuration Service
Another useful feature utilized in this sample is the Configuration Service. This service enables developers to store Extension-specific and channel-specific data. In our fireworks example, we allow broadcasters to select one of two items they would like to be available to exchange for Bits — either Small Fireworks, or Large Fireworks. Upon selection, the configuration page saves that selection into the broadcaster configuration service segment. This choice ultimately determines what SKU will be presented to viewers. The Extension retrieves this broadcaster configuration and displays a button allowing viewers to exchange Bits for the selected SKU. While simple, this is an example of how easy it can be to empower broadcasters to tailor the Extension experience to their liking within your predetermined boundaries.
function saveSettings() { var radioBtns = document.getElementsByName('firework');
for (var i = 0, length = radioBtns.length; i < length; i++) { if (radioBtns[i].checked) { twitch.configuration.set("broadcaster", "", radioBtns[i].id); log("saveSettings() fired, broadcaster-selected sku set to: " + radioBtns[i].id); break; } } }
The Extension Helper and Transaction Flow
We’ve set up our SKUs, we’ve implemented the Configuration Service to manage our catalog per broadcaster, now we’re ready for viewers to actually exchange their Bits for some digital fireworks. There are a variety of APIs and callbacks available through the Extension Helper relevant to the Bits transaction flow. In our sample, our overlay presents a very simple interface which presents a button to the viewer that reads “Launch Fireworks!”. When a viewer clicks this button, we call the useBits(SKU) method from the Twitch helper. This method kicks off the Bits transaction flow for the specified SKU from your catalog. If the viewer does not have enough Bits in their account, they’ll be led to the Bits purchasing interface, giving the viewer an opportunity to purchase more Bits and move forward with the transaction. Assuming the viewer already does have enough Bits or has just purchased enough, they’ll be prompted with a confirmation dialog box.
useBits = function () { if (sku == "") { log("no sku received from the configuration svc"); return; } twitch.bits.useBits(sku); }
In our example, if the viewer selected Small Fireworks, they will be asked to confirm exchanging 10 of their Bits. If the viewer selected Large Fireworks, they will be asked to confirm exchanging 100 of their Bits. At this point the user will either confirm or cancel the transaction. Both options invoke callbacks from the Twitch helper so you can handle their decision accordingly. We only care about handling the scenario where the user has successfully confirmed exchanging their Bits for (digital) fireworks. When the user completes this transaction, the onTransactionComplete(transaction) callback function is invoked.
twitch.bits.onTransactionComplete(function (transaction) { log("onTransactionComplete() fired, received transactionReceipt: " + transaction.transactionReceipt);
twitch.listen('broadcast', function (topic, contentType, sku) { log("listen() fired, received sku via PubSub: " + sku + ". Shooting Fireworks!"); launchFireworks(sku); });
Here we do a quick validation with our backend (more on that later), which eventually invokes the listen() callback via PubSub. Now we can finally shoot off our beautiful display of pixelated fireworks on the overlay. Bits transaction complete!
Extension Backend Service
While the interface of the Extension and the fireworks themselves are the more exciting parts, the dirty work still has to be done somewhere. This is where our Extension Backend Service comes into play (EBS for short). Most (but not all) Extensions require some sort of backend to operate. In this sample, our EBS verifies the validity of a Bits transaction by verifying its Javascript Web Token (JWT), then sends out the purchased Bits SKU via PubSub.
Verifying a JWT with Go
We chose to write our EBS in Go, as Go is a very lightweight way of quickly spinning up a backend. Our Go server must be running before our frontend can interact with it. Once it is, you can see our frontend routes our request to the API endpoint we’ve configured at https://localhost:8080/api/fireworks. This endpoint requires a Bearer Token as an Authorization Header (which will come from the transaction receipt field), as well as a channelId (the broadcaster’s Twitch user id). Our EBS uses a JWT library to parse the token we received from the transaction to ensure this request is coming from our Extension on Twitch. If it arrives at that confirmation, we respond with a 200 status and continue.
Using PubSub with our own JWT
We now need to create our own signed JWT, so when we send our PubSub message, Twitch knows it is coming from us. We can do this easily as seen in the newJWT(channelID string)function, by again utilizing the JWT library (most languages have solid JWT libraries that will make your life easier). After generating our own token, we can broadcast a message through PubSub by hitting the messages endpoint, and specifying what channel the message should be sent to. Using PubSub allows us to send a message to all Extension client instances in a specified channel all at once. This is what ultimately triggers the listen() method from the Twitch Helper on the frontend, and will shoot off our fireworks.
// newJWT creates an EBS-signed JWT func (s *service) newJWT(channelID string) string { var expiration = time.Now().Add(time.Minute * 3).Unix()
Our Extension Backend Service has now validated the JWT from the incoming request to verify it was coming from our frontend, it has created its own JWT to send back to Twitch, and it has sent a PubSub message to the channel the request originally came from. Our EBS’s work here is done.
Conclusion
Hopefully this Extension sample can help kickstart your Bits-enabled Extension development. Extensions come in many different flavors, so for more examples using other frameworks and languages, check out TwitchDev on GitHub. Visit the Twitch Developer site to begin developing your Twitch Extension. Happy building!
Twitch Extensions empower new interactions and collaborations between streamers and viewers. Our friends at Amazon Games explored this with their experimental top-down shooter The Collaborative.
The Collaborative is both a game and a Twitch Extension. While the streamers are playing the game, the viewers are using the Twitch Extension. While the streamers are strafing and shooting deadly robots, the viewers are stamping the world with pixel art to ward off the deadly robots.
Let’s take a look at the Twitch video player and how it appears to the viewers.
What is happening here? Each of those lasers is a pixely stamp being sent from a viewer’s browser into the streamer’s game.
As a viewer, you can use the canvas on the right to design your stamp, and once you’re satisfied, you click anywhere on the stream to place it in the game world. Click on the wall, drop a stamp on the wall. Click on the floor, drop a stamp on the floor.
From the comfort of your browser, you can graffiti the game with your stamps by clicking anywhere in the game. And once it is in the game, the streamer can find it, play with it, and share it with the rest of the stream!
But how?
With the magic of Twitch Extensions! From within a video overlay Extension, we listen for the viewer to click anywhere on the stream. When clicked, we capture the position, time, stamp, and username. We send all this data to the streamer’s game.
From within the game, we fire a raycast from the camera’s position.
The biggest problem with this approach is that the player and the camera move over time, and a Twitch stream has some latency. If we naively raycast from where the camera is currently positioned, it’ll appear a few seconds ahead of where we wanted to stamp it. Each and every viewer has a variable amount of latency!
In this example (seen below), the viewers are always two seconds behind the streamer: When the streamer is interacting with the new Purple 6, the viewers are still interacting with the old Green 4!
Fortunately for us, we can check their viewer latency in the Twitch Extension Helper’s onContext method. The `hlsLatencyBroadcaster` is the amount of seconds between the viewer and the streamer.
So to account for the latency between streamer and viewers, we instruct the game to maintain a history of all the previous camera positions for the last 30 seconds. We then have the Extension include their latency with each stamp they send. When the game receives the stamp, it rewinds the camera position to account for the latency and performs the raycast.
Also, because our timeline between the viewer and streamer is lagging, it means viewers don’t see their stamp dropped into the world right away. Even though the game has updated almost immediately with the stamp, the viewers won’t see it until the stream has caught up. So to ensure the viewer that their stamp is working, we render a loading bar. We run this loading bar long enough to account for the `hlsLatencyBroadcaster`.
And just like that, we have an end-to-end interactive Twitch experience. Viewers can interact directly with the streamer through Twitch!
Basketball history is filled with incredible duos. Jordan and Pippen. Stockton and Malone. Shaq and Kobe. And now, USA Basketball and Twitch.
We’re excited to announce that USA Basketball is bringing their talents to Twitch for the run up to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and we’ve saved courtside seats for you.
Twitch will be Team USA’s home for everything from player camps and practices, exhibition games against other national teams, and even a first look at the new 3 on 3 format coming to the Olympics next year. It’s all going down on /NBA, but everyone is also invited to co-stream everything with your communities.
The first featured exhibition game is against Team Australia on August 22 at 7:30PM PT. Make sure to follow /NBA to get reminders before Team USA goes live.
There’s almost nothing greater than watching a channel hit Partnership, and the path to Partner is certain a journey for every streamer. We interviewed freshly Partnered streamers CurtisRyan_, GetMeowth, and benjamin_wheeler about their path to Partnership and what it took to get that coveted purple check mark. As they reflected back to the moment they found out they got partnered live on stream, they offered some great advice to up-and-coming streamers.
Getting Partnered isn’t just exciting for the Partner, it’s a momentous occasion for the whole community — staff included! Discovering they’ve hit their goal live on air is heartwarming, emotional, and an epic ton of Pog.
We’re excited to share some of these captured live moments with you, as well as give you insight into some of these newly Partnered channels. You can check them on our front page over the next week, as well as click through below to visit their channels. Congrats on achieving another #bleedpurplestep in streaming on Twitch.
New Partner Hype! was originally published in Twitch Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Since SUBtember was introduced in 2017, the amount of support and love you have shown for your favorite streamers during the annual month-long celebration has continued to blow us away.
Today, we’re happy to announce the third annual SUBtember, which is bigger and better than ever thanks to our partner Subway® restaurants.
Beginning September 3 through September 24, in partnership with Subway, we’re offering 50% off new Tier 1 subscriptions made on a web browser or our desktop app, so you can support even more of the streamers you follow on Twitch! Any new Tier 1 subscription (not including gifted subs) on web or desktop app is eligible for this promotion unless you cancel a subscription in that channel after September 3. If you have any active gift subs or Twitch Prime subs, you can also continue your subscriptions for 50% off.
As in prior years, streamers will continue to receive the full value of a subscription, and there is no limit on the number of times you can subscribe using the SUBtember half-off promotion.
As a subscriber, depending on the channel, you get cool stuff like:
Access to custom emotes that you can use across all of Twitch
Subscriber badge that changes the longer you stay subscribed
Ad-free viewing (with limited exceptions)
Exclusive subscriber content, such as a sub-only games, sub-only streaming, Q&A, sub-only chat rooms, and other benefits that streamers may offer only for subscribers
Get the discount by logging into Twitch and clicking the Subscribe button on your favorite streamers’ channel pages. As always, there is no minimum commitment and you can cancel your subscription at any time by visiting the Subscription Management Page.
But wait. We said this SUBtember would be the biggest and best one ever, and we weren’t kidding. We’re leveling up SUBtember with Subway and offering even more benefits. Make sure to keep a lookout for:
Bonus Bits! Subway is throwing in 10% more Bits when you Cheer 10 or more in any Affiliate or Partner channel. There’s even a limited-time sub sandwich Cheermote you can cheer with.
Sub Gifting! Subway will be gifting subscriptions in various channels — make sure to tune in throughout September.
Subway on Twitch! Tune in when Subway launches their very own Twitch channel to livestream with their favorite streamers.
We look forward to seeing all the fun ways the community celebrates SUBtember this year!
Note: SUBtember is a limited time offer and subject to all Twitch terms and policies, including the Bits Acceptable Use Policy. Promotions will go live at 01:00PM PT on 9/3/19 and will run through 11:59PM PT on 9/24/19. The 50% subscription discount is only available through a web browser (twitch.tv or subs.twitch.tv) and the desktop app, but not on the Twitch Mobile Apps. This Promotion is only available for new Tier 1 subscriptions (excluding gifted subs), unless your existing recurring subscription to the channel ends between September 3, 2019 to September 24, 2019. Promotion is not applicable for team subscriptions and custom subscriptions. After one month, the subscription will renew at the normal price. Twitch reserves the right to modify or cancel the offer at any time. Total Bonus Bits will be awarded up to a maximum of 25 million Bits.
This summer, I had the pleasure of interning on the Developer Relations (DevRel) team at Twitch in San Francisco. Being a DevRel intern is a unique experience, as many companies don’t offer internships (or even junior roles for that matter) in this space. I’m humbled that I received this opportunity at Twitch and was a part of the inaugural intern cohort #BleedPurple.
Outside of Twitch, I’ve also had an incredible experience being in the Bay Area and constantly being surrounded by so many smart and passionate people working to build impactful technology. I loved meeting these people at local tech meet-ups and conferences and learning about all the various projects they were working on.
However, while introducing myself at these events, I was consistently met with the same confusion and questions: “You’re a what?” “You mean you’re not a software engineering intern?” “Wait, so what do you do?” I realized that because a DevRel internship is so rare, many people don’t understand what it is. Fortunately, I’m here to answer some of those questions.
But first: how did I get here?
Let’s start from the beginning. Once upon a time, I was in high school. To learn computer science skills, I did two things 1. I enrolled in community college classes at the age of fourteen to study computer science 2. I went to hackathons. Hackathons were cool and fun, and I learned a lot! I didn’t try to win anything or even demo my projects, but I went to workshops and picked up skills.
Fast forward to college. I stopped going to hackathons, but I still wanted to be involved in the hackathon community. I found the perfect way to do this by being a Coach at Major League Hacking (MLH) where I could truly give back to the community that had supported me for many years. Through this role, I was able to mentor hackers and support organizers at various hackathons across the country. I loved being able to teach and empower students to continue to learn, build, and share their passion for technology.
My introduction into the wonderful world of DevRel
While coaching at hackathons, I began to interact with the sponsor representatives from different companies who introduced themselves as “Developer Advocates” or “Tech Evangelists.” Underneath these mysterious titles, I soon learned that these representatives were full-time community advocates. Their main purpose was to empower developers to create new technologies and equip them with the right toolkit to do so (usually through their company’s developer tools and resources).
It essentially was what I was doing in my part-time job of coaching at hackathons but on a whole new scale. It wasn’t just helping out hackers one weekend a month; it was thinking about how to help developers all day, every day. And it extended way beyond hackathons. It included creating good documentation, speaking at conferences and leading technical workshops, relaying user feedback to respective product teams, and interacting with the developer community through hackathons, meetups, and even online forums. But at the end of the day, I loved how the sole focus of this type of job was to help community developers, and I wanted to experience this role first hand.
Hey, you over there, can you open the door into DevRel for me please?
While researching ways to break into the DevRel space, especially as an intern, I was met with futile Google searches and zero job postings. It seemed like the only way to get into DevRel was to start as a software engineer, become an experienced developer, and then move into DevRel.
While my job prospects in DevRel were not looking good, I still continued to send cold-call emails to companies who had DevRel teams and talk to people in the field. Just when I started to consider software engineering opportunities, I got an email from a Developer Advocate at Twitch (who eventually became my manager) explaining a new DevRel internship they were setting up. I was ecstatic about the potential opportunity to spend the entire summer learning about DevRel — and a month later, after loads of interviews, I accepted an offer as a summer intern on the DevRel team at Twitch! (Side note: Applications are now open for Summer 2020 internships at Twitch.)
Presenting at Intern Capstone Presentations
So what did I actually do as a DevRel intern at Twitch?
During the first couple days in my internship, I quickly realized that this would be a fantastic experience. This summer would be my first time working in Developer Relations, working for a company as big as Twitch, and working in the live streaming and gaming industry. As a non-gamer and non-streamer, I definitely felt a bit intimidated by the huge learning curve. However, I believe I brought fresh eyes that were able to empathize with new developers, understand their pain points when using Twitch products, and relay this information to respective teams.
By attending DevRel Con SF in June, I got a crash course in all things DevRel and learned how differently each company treats DevRel. At Twitch, developer advocacy’s mission is to educate developers about Twitch developer products and act as liaison for long-tail users or third-party developers. I began to think of advocacy as bringing awareness of products to developers, enabling them to build on the developer platforms, and making them feel successful — while also sharing in that success.
As an intern, my work focused on Extensions, one of the Twitch developer products. Extensions are live apps that provide more engaging and interactive experiences for both streamers and viewers. Specifically, my project focused on creating an “Extension Education Journey.” I built technical tutorials to create a better onboarding experience for developers and teach them how to build Extensions. This work involved interacting with the developer community to better understand their needs, and then figuring out how to address these needs by working cross-functionally across many internal teams, including developer advocacy, solutions architecture, technical documentation, design, and product management.
The only thing I loved more than the work I was doing was interacting with all the various office puppers that provided me with endless love and support. Fun fact: Twitch is very dog-friendly 🐕
Milo and Gracie, two of my favorite Twitch puppers!
And that’s a wrap!
I hope I answered all your burning questions about my journey into Developer Relations and my experience at Twitch. I only touched upon a few of things as part of my experience — if you would like to learn more, feel free to reach out to me at @sonia_sachar on Twitter. However, to be honest, I don’t actually tweet: I just use Twitter to learn more about the world and communicate with people.
Also, that content that I created? The Extension Education Journey? Yeah, that’s coming out very soon 👀 I don’t want to unveil too many details yet, but stay tuned for announcements!
What to learn more about Twitch internships? Go here!
Twitch is home to an amazingly diverse set of creators and communities and, this September in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re shining the spotlight on some of our favorite Hispanic and Latino streamers. Join the celebration!
No matter what kind of stream you’re looking for, from competitive gaming to creative arts, our featured Hispanic and Latino streamers will be doing what they do best all throughout the month on the front page. Tune in to your favorites or check out a new stream for the first time! Here’s a full schedule of who we’re featuring and when:
Sept. 1st, AndrewArcade, 12–2PM
Sept. 2nd, Tocata, 1–3PM
Sept. 3rd, Marielitai, 12–2PM
Sept. 4th, Katykoart, 3–5PM
Sept. 5th, TheMexicanRunner, 10AM-12PM
Sept. 6th, hotted89, 9–11AM
Sept. 7th, SavinTheBees, 8–10PM
Sept. 8th, Unrooolie, 2–4PM
Sept. 9th, Selenityy, 10AM-12PM
Sept. 10th, Angels_piano, 8–10AM
Sept. 11th, Lulaboo, 1–3PM
Sept. 12th, DeerNadia, 6–8PM
Sept. 13th, Nikatine, 9–11AM
Sept. 14th, Kitanya, 10AM-12PM
Sept. 15th, JeffBrutlag, 2–4PM
Sept. 16th, YourPrincess, 1–3PM
Sept. 17th, MarDCaos, 2–4PM
Sept. 18th, SleepyMia, 8–10AM
Sept. 19th, ChicaLive, 2–4PM
Sept. 20th, Elix9, 6–8PM
Sept. 21st, AlfredoPlays, 4–6PM
Sept. 22nd, SimpleFlips, 4–6PM
Sept. 23rd, Towelliee, 6–8AM
Sept. 24th, Fedmyster, 6–8PM
Sept. 25th, gabyspartz, 2–4PM
Sept. 26th, Castro_1021, 9–11AM
We’re featuring streamers just ahead of the official start of National Hispanic Heritage, as the end of September brings a strong focus on TwitchCon San Diego. We wanted to ensure our featured creators and their communities are given the full length of time to celebrate their content, so we’ve opted to use the full month of September for National Hispanic Heritage Month on Twitch.
Twitch Prime and EA Sports are teaming up to bring an exciting Twitch Prime Crown Cup event to the NFL 2019 season kickoff on September 5th in Grant Park, Chicago. The event will be live streamed at twitch.tv/twitchprime and will begin around 3:45pm ET (2:45pm CT). Fans attending the NFL kickoff festivities in Chicago can stop by and watch NFL greats like Chad Johnson, music superstars Lil Yachty and Juice Wrld and top Twitch streamers compete. The athletes, musicians and streamers will also team up with a few lucky fans to see who can reign as the kings of the gridiron.
Be sure to tune in on September 12th, 19th, and 26th for continued Twitch Prime Crown Cup streams leading into each of the Thursday Night Football games at twitch.tv/twitchprime.
More Twitch Prime Content
Starting on September 3rd, Twitch Prime members can get their second content drop for Madden NFL 20. Claim today to get an Elite Player pack and an exclusive uniform. The legendary Jim Brown content is also still available to Prime members to claim through 9/8. Get your content today and dominate the gridiron here!
New Madden Mode
Madden NFL 20 will also be releasing a major new mode on September 3rd. This mode is called ‘Superstar KO’, which is a new and fun way to play Madden. Players can pick their coach, uniform, draft their superstars, and then compete in a 5–10 minute game experience that has unique rules and lots of fun moments. You can play on your own our team up with friends.
Madden Free-To-Play Weekend
Want to play Madden for FREE? Starting on 9/5 and lasting through the weekend, Madden NFL 20 will be available to play for FREE! Be sure to try it out here.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is the Amazon Prime home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
Get ready to experience the NFL in a whole new way, because Thursday Night Football is returning to Twitch. And this season, we’re bringing more of your favorite streamers along to co-stream than ever before.
Starting September 26 when the Eagles visit the Packers, every Thursday night game will be broadcast live, and for free, on /primevideo. So get ready to metaphorically scream your lungs out for whoever you root for, it’s gonna be a wild season indeed.
Here are the games we’ll be featuring this season:
You can catch the official stream on /primevideo, but if you’re looking for a more unique spin on the broadcasts, we’ve got all sorts of co-streams lined up. Here’s who’s lined up to co-stream this season:
Who watches the man that no one can see? Time to find out when you grab these exclusive Mirage and Kraber skins, free with your Prime membership. Mirage has trouble written all over him in his electric-blue Holo Man skin (that’s only kind of a joke), and by the time the enemy spots your Night Watch Kraber skin, they’ll already be dead.
Holo Man Mirage and Night Watch Kraber are available September 9 — October 9. Visit twitch.amazon.com/apexlegends to claim your Apex Legends content.
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is Amazon Prime’s home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
Prime members, you’ve just received a major upgrade to your Amazon Prime membership.
You can now share select Twitch Prime loot with the community on Twitch and give viewers who aren’t yet Prime a sneak peek of some of the awesome content they can expect to get from Twitch Prime.
Starting today, Prime members can gift up to 3 extra copies of Dauntless loot, which unlocks the complete Desperado armor set, a purple dye, the “Outlaw” title, and a helpful supply pack with 30 Patrol Chests. Be on the lookout for additional loot to gift in upcoming weeks, including World of Tanks, Rainbow Six Siege, and more.
So, how do you share the joy of Twitch Prime loot? See below for instructions in English.
Instructions for other languages can be found in the links here:
Step 1: Keep an eye out for the Community Gift Chest widget on Twitch streams When you’re watching your favorite streamer on Twitch, keep an eye out for the Community Gift Chest widget above chat (see image below). Streamers will have to activate this feature in order for it to appear. For more information about the streamer experience, please see the Streamer FAQs section further down in this blog.
Step 2: Click on “Gift” in the new Gifting Center Once the Community Gift Chest widget is visible, Prime members watching the stream will see the following announcement in chat which allows them to gift Twitch Prime loot. Click on “Gift” up to 3 times to contribute Twitch Prime loot to the Gift Chest.
Step 3: Watch as other Prime members in chat gift their Twitch Prime loot too Other Prime members in chat can also gift during this time, and you can watch the total number of gifts in the Community Gift Chest grow.
Step 4: Gift Distribution by the Twitch Streamer The streamer will then decide when there are enough gifts and will push the “Distribute Gifts” button on their dashboard. This will release all the gifts randomly to members of their Twitch community that are tuning in. Viewers are eligible to receive a gift as long as they’re logged into their Twitch account, not a current Prime member, and haven’t already received one before.
Step 5: How to Redeem Twitch Prime Gift Loot Gift recipients are notified when they receive a gift and can redeem their gifts by following instructions that can be found via email (an email will be sent to the account associated with their Twitch username). More detailed instructions will be found in this email, and in the FAQ below.
Mini FAQs for Prime Members
What can Prime members put in a Gift Chest? A. Members will be able to share up to 3 extra copies of select Twitch Prime loot that is gifting-eligible. Since these are extra copies of loot, you will still be able to claim the content for yourself.
Can Free Trial members use this? A. Unfortunately, no. Loot Gifting is a benefit for paid members only.
When can I gift content? A. When a streamer enables Loot Gifting, you will see a Community Gift Chest widget above chat. A button at the bottom of chat will also appear, allowing you to gift up to 3 extra copies of select Twitch Prime loot to the Gift Chest.
How will Prime members know they have gifts to contribute? A. Whenever Prime members are in a Twitch channel with an active Gift Chest, they will see a private announcement at the bottom of chat showing the content they have to gift. The private announcement also has a button that allows members to contribute gifts with a single click.
How often will Prime members receive new gifts to contribute? A. Usually gifts are better as a surprise. But since you asked, we’re expecting to have new giftable loot about every two weeks.
Will people see if I have gifted Prime loot? A. Yes, the Community Gift Chest widget above chat will show the Twitch username of the last viewer who donated a gift.
Will all Prime members have the same gifts to share with their communities each period? A. Yes.
Mini FAQs for Twitch Streamers
What happens if I have more gifts collected than eligible recipients? A. Any leftover gifts that don’t get distributed are automatically carried over to the next Gift Chest that you open.
What happens when gifts are distributed? A. There will be a celebration in chat! Up to 100 messages will be sent out, highlighting the Twitch usernames of your viewers that donated a gift and received a gift.
Why should I try this? A. Because unless you’re the Grinch, giving gifts is fun! And the members of your community that aren’t yet Prime members will be able to get a sneak peek of Twitch Prime loot without even needing a credit card.
How do I activate a Gift Chest? A. In the Creator Dashboard under the Live tab, you will see the Community Gift chest widget (image below). Click “Start Collecting Gifts” to enable the feature.
When can streamers distribute gifts? A. Streamers choose whenever they want to distribute gifts. They are able to distribute with as little as one gift in the Community Gift Chest and can distribute until the end of the gifting window (shown in the Community Gift Chest widget in your Creator Dashboard).
Can a mod/editor release the chest for me? A. Not at the moment, but you’re not the first person to ask! We love hearing feedback and will look into incorporating it into future improvements.
Can I schedule a Gift Chest to be opened in advance? A. Not at the moment. We recommend creating a chatbot command that notifies chat of when they can expect the Gift Chest to be opened.
Can I choose my gift recipients when gifting to the community? A. Not at the moment, but you’re not the first person to ask! We love hearing feedback and will look into incorporating it into future improvements.
Mini FAQs for Gift Recipients
How and when can I redeem a gift? A. If you received a gift, you will receive a redemption email (the one that is associated with your Twitch account) that includes a redeem by date, and a button that links to the Twitch Prime website to collect the gift.
You will need to either sign in with or sign up for a free Amazon account (Amazon Prime is not required). In addition, you may also be prompted to link the Amazon account to your Twitch account, and your Twitch account to your game account.
What is Twitch Prime? A. Twitch Prime is the Amazon Prime home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
Starting today Amazon Prime members will now be able to get free mobile game content in addition to all the great Twitch Prime benefits already available for PC and console gamers (you can read more about Twitch Prime at the end of this blog), beginning with in-game items for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile (PUBG Mobile), the battle royale sensation from Tencent Games.
Take down enemies in style with this exclusive offer. Prime members can claim the Infiltrator Jacket, Infiltrator Pants, and Infiltrator Shoes to complete the Prime exclusive set, plus the Black Magma Parachute and brand new Blood Oath — Karabiner 98K.
PUBG Mobile loot schedule:
Drop 1, 9/20/19–10/3/19: Infiltrator Mask (permanent item)
Drop 2, 10/04/19–10/17/19: Infiltrator Jacket (permanent item)
Drop 3, 10/18/19–10/31/19: Infiltrator Shoes (permanent item)
Drop 4, 11/01/19–11/14/19: Infiltrator Pants (permanent item)
Drop 5, 11/15/19–11/28/19: Epic Level Gun, Blood Oath — Kar98 (30-day use token)
Drop 6, 11/29/19–12/12/19: Epic Level Black Magma Parachute (30-day use token)
*Please note, this content is not available in China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or embargoed countries.
Mobile loot content can only be claimed in-game. If you have PUBG Mobile installed on your mobile device, please make sure that it is updated to the latest game version and then launch the game. Once you’re in PUBG Mobile, you will see a banner showcasing this offer that you can tap to claim. If you do not see this banner, go to ‘Events’ and tap on the Amazon Prime promotion to claim.
If you do not have the game installed on your mobile device, please visit the App Store (iOS) or Google Play Store (Android) to download the game. Once you have the game on your device, launch the game to claim PUBG Mobile loot.
You will need an Amazon Prime subscription to claim this offer. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, simply start PUBG Mobile on your mobile device to claim this content. If you do not have an Amazon Prime subscription, simply click the “Start your free 30-day trial” and begin your free trial, once you have completed this step you can claim the current offer in PUBG Mobile.
To learn more about PUBG Mobile and this exclusive Prime offer, please visit www.amazon.com/pubgm.
More about Twitch Prime
Twitch Prime is Amazon Prime’s home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
iAmLucyMae will host a Q&A with Executive Producer Nobuya Nakazato who has been part of CONTRA’s legacy for over 20 years! Then watch our 8 streamers go head to head in PVP battles and a timed race to take down a new challenge in a world premier boss battle in Contra Rogue Corps. Featuring:
CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS is a twin stick, third-person action game drawing upon its roots in fast and focused combat developed for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC (STEAM). From the director of CONTRA III: THE ALIEN WARS and CONTRA: HARD CORPS, Nobuya Nakazato instils more than 25 years of franchise pedigree into CONTRA: ROGUE CORPS with enormous crazed enemies, over-the-top violence, and a cast of diverse playable characters that add to the irreverent tone of the game.
Last year, Twitch invited a handful of merchandise vendors and charity donation platforms to build Twitch Extensions, powered mainly by Amazon Pay checkout, as part of a Commerce in Extension pilot program. These experiences entitled Twitch streamers to sell shirts and raise funds for charity.
The pilot program developers raised almost $1M for charity and sold thousands of shirts, hats, mugs, and plushies to fans on Twitch streams. For a first-time experiment, it’s a positive financial result, but more meaningful is how these experiences made Twitch a more fun place to stream and watch.
Here are a few examples of awesome moments brought to you by Commerce in Extensions:
Teespring: Sub-only Merch and Buying Sprees
Longtime Twitch partner Teespring knows more than anyone about what people love about merch. Joining us for the Commerce pilot, they innovated on the concept of subscriber-exclusive goods creators can sell on their channels. While not the right choice for every channel, Teesprings knows creators need more than one way to build their brand and connect with their viewers.
One of the best ways to forge that connection is through creating moments. Whether it’s in a game, in the Chat, or happening IRL on stream, creators and viewers thrive on the moments they make together.
To make that creating moments a part of merch, Teespring tested a new overlay alert system that shouts out the fans supporting the stream through merch purchases. The slick new on-stream shoutouts were a hit with Janellwheeler’s channel, causing a spontaneous mug-buying spree:
DonorDrive: Charity for one and all
Supporting a charity is always rewarding, but charity streaming on Twitch takes it to a new level. In the last 10 months alone, we’ve seen streams drive $1.5M to charities through the pilot.
DonorDrive built a suite of Extensions to power charitable donations live on stream. Their flagship Extension, Extra Life Charity Fundraising, has been used by over 16,000 Twitch creators since launch. Creators and viewers can see donation updates from the Extension in real time — and creators are even able to shout out individual followers who donate.
“They might get a shout out from the broadcaster, but undoubtedly, [it’s] the personal satisfaction of doing something good that powers the experience,” says Ben Clayton, Integration Developer at DonorDrive.
DonorDrive has already partnered with ASFP, Doctors Without Borders, Wounded Warrior, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Stack Up, Mercy Corps, and American Association for Cancer Research, with more to come. They are excited to help build the presence of charities in the Twitch Extension library by giving nonprofits their own Extension that displays on creators’ streams and profiles.
Fnatic: Limited-edition Drops
Last year, esports organization Fnatic debuted a limited-edition hoodie collaboration with Champions to celebrate their second-place win in the League of Legends 2018 World Championship tournament held in Seoul, South Korea. Based on fans’ enthusiasm for this iconic hoodie, Fnatic brought back 500 of them for sale exclusively through Twitch.
Rather than just offer them up, Fnatic created mini-games fans had to play for a chance to buy the hoodie. Earning a high score won them the right to buy the hoodie while supplies lasted.
“For limited-edition items, you usually enter a raffle to be allowed to buy, or you need to be the fastest to click when it goes on sale,” says Benoit Pagotto, Brand Manager for Fnatic. Coming from French street fashion boutique Colette, Pagotto explains the psychology of streetwear and how he adapted it to a native Twitch experience. “[We] wanted people to compete to be allowed to buy the hoodie. It was based more on skill than luck or randomness.”
Under the hood, the mini-game is a straightforward click-reaction game: Clickable icons of different sizes and values spawned on stream over time. The more (and bigger) icons you click, the more points you score. Winning a minimum of 5,000 points unlocked the hoodie for purchase with a special access link. To prevent cheating, Fnatic disabled link sharing in Chat and canceled purchases for anyone caught distributing the link.
Skill speaks volumes. In just onehour, Fnatic drove 3.5x more revenue than the next-nearest by revenue merchandise Extension drove in the entire month of July.
These are just a few examples of successful Commerce in Extension pilots. If you’re interested in learning more about Commerce in Extensions or have an idea for your own, fill out this form and our team will get back to you.
Get Twitch Prime IRL Benefits & Watch Our Livestream @ TwitchCon this weekend!
TwitchCon is almost here, and we’re happy to announce that Twitch Prime will be there to give you IRL benefits at the show along with a live show each day from our booth, hosted by Lucy Mae.
Those of you attending TwitchCon that have registered as Prime members can stop by our booth (#600) and check out the following:
Free $10 Food & Drink Voucher and $10 Loot Cave Voucher: Show us the crown icon on your badge (indicating that you are a Prime member) and we’ll give you a Prime Quest Book containing $20 total in vouchers for you to spend on food & drinks and at the Loot Cave on official Twitch merch.
Exclusive Quest: Grab a Prime Quest Book and finish all assignments to get an exclusive Twitch Prime shirt. Plus, you have the chance to get other prizes as well.
Streaming Schedule: We will be broadcasting from 11AM-1PM PT Friday through Sunday on twitch.tv/twitchprime . Tune in for panels, competitive play, Let’s Play segments, and more from developers including Rockstar, Psyonix, Tencent Games, and Wargaming. You won’t want to miss our special announcement with Psyonix on Friday. Be sure to follow us on social media (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) for the most up-to-date programming schedule.
Ask Me Bar: Twitch Partners will be available to answer any questions that you may have about all-things streaming and how Prime can enhance your streaming experience.
Play Rocket League, PUBG Mobile, and World of Tanks: Our booth will include dedicated play areas for these titles. Plus, learn about Social Club x Twitch Prime benefits, and look out for Rockstar t-shirt giveaways while supplies last!
More about Twitch Prime
Twitch Prime is Amazon Prime’s home for gamers, and is included with Prime. Benefits include in-game loot, free games, a free monthly channel subscription on Twitch AND all the benefits of being a Prime member — including unlimited access to award-winning movies and TV episodes with Prime Video; unlimited access to Prime Music, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos; early access to select Lightning Deals, one free pre-released book a month with Amazon First Reads, deep discounts at Whole Foods Market, and unlimited free two-day shipping on more than 100 million items.
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.
