Want to catch up on the latest news and updates, get answers from Twitch Developer experts, just say hi, or make some new friends? Join any or all of our live streams!
New show announcement!
TwitchDev Weekly: Every Thursday at 11am PT
Hang out with the Developer Advocacy team, Matt Auerbach and Jon Bulava, every Thursday at 11am PT to ask your Twitch developer questions! We also use this time for special guests and demonstrating new technical content aimed at helping you get started developing on Twitch faster and easier.
Monthly Developer Update: Every 3rd Tuesday at 10am PT
Every third Tuesday of the month, we do an hour-long show catching you up on product announcements and updates, upcoming events, community shoutouts, and anything else going on in the Twitch Developer world.
$ npm start twitchdev-aws: Every Wednesday at 10am PT
Twitch Developer Advocacy is partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Technical Evangelism to build a Question & Answer Twitch Extension using AWS services during a multi-episode broadcasting series. The series will contain eight broadcasts and walk you through the process of planning to launching a production Extension. The first episode with air on February 27 at 10am PT from the Twitch Studio in San Francisco!
We even have special guest streams like this one, where Jeff Fritz, Program Manager for Microsoft and prolific live coder on Twitch, discussed live streaming software development best practices.
Check it out now!
While we try to maintain the same schedule, some weeks and months are different, so visit our Events page to see what’s coming up and follow our channel for notifications for when we go live!
Back in March 2017, PogDroid was maintained by a very small team of engineers, and covered the most basic functionality of Twitch: browse and watch a stream with Chat.
Old PogDroid, before the big makeover
Mobile, and Android in particular, was getting more and more users, and the company decided it was time for a serious investment in PogDroid. The plan was to give the app a fresh new look, and build up some important features that were missing. The team grew only a little bit, but were tasked to take on this big project.
As with most apps maintained by a very small team, the code structure was a mess. It became clear that such a big redesign compounded with adding new features could not be built cleanly on top of the current foundation. There was no common pattern to build screens, not a single unit test, and a lot of core classes were more than 3,000 lines of code long, with very complex state management, handling everything from network requests to UI rendering.
We all agreed that in order to make PogDroid what we were dreaming of, we first needed to rethink its foundations.
Step 1: Agree on a common architecture pattern
The first thing we did is come up with a common design pattern to build features and screens. We wanted this design pattern to be:
easy to understand
hard to get wrong
flexible enough to be applied to any feature or screen
easy to unit test
We quickly settled on a straightforward MVP pattern that looks like this:
With these layers in mind, it became easy to categorize the type of classes we needed for every feature:
Typical classes living in the Data Layer:
API
Repository
Models
Typical classes living in the Presentation Layer:
Presenter
Tracker
Typical classes living in the View layer:
AdapterBinder (wrapper that manages our RecyclerView adapter)
ViewDelegate (wrapper that inflates and holds our actual Android views)
With this design pattern and injected dependencies (manually, with static create methods for now), writing unit tests for the data and presentation layer became extremely easy, removing any excuse for not testing your code.
The team quickly adopted the pattern and started rewriting all our main screens in this fashion, adding unit tests in the process! It was also easy to onboard new team members to write consistent code with the rest of codebase.
Having a common pattern that everybody agreed on really accelerated the pace of development of new features and screens, and the team got really good at it. In only three months, we had completed the redesign of the app along with big new features, with around 70 percent of our main screens rewritten from scratch, and about 15 percent unit test code coverage. By this point, the team had tripled, but was still quite small.
Nothing makes us happier than seeing your Chat flooded with custom emotes for your community. In fact, we love it so much, we’re making it even easier to unlock them.
Starting today, we’re adding more emote slots to help Affiliates and Partners provide even more benefits to your community and subscribers, and help express what’s unique about your community by nurturing a shared language.
Here’s what’s changing:
AFFILIATE EMOTE UPDATE
We launched the Affiliate program with one emote slot for each subscription tier and we’ve heard consistently that you wanted more emotes. So we’re doing something about it.
Beginning today and rolling out over the next four months, Affiliates can unlock up to five Tier 1 emotes, with one additional emote each for Tier 2 (up to six total) and Tier 3 (up to seven total) subscribers.
You can unlock these additional emote slots by reaching different Subscriber point thresholds. If your Subscriber Point total has decreased over time, fear not. We will calculate your available emote slots by using your maximum Subscriber Point total.
When you meet the threshold over the next few months, we will review new emotes as you submit them.
Stay tuned to @TwitchSupport for exact rollout times for the additional emote slots in March, April, and May.
PARTNER EMOTE UPDATE
We’re also helping Partners provide even more benefits as your communities grow.
Previously, Partners were granted two Tier 1 emotes when they achieved Partner status. Beginning today, we are increasing that number from two to six. That means Partners with 0–64 Subscriber Points will automatically unlock six emote slots. Emote thresholds for 65+ Subscriber Points are unchanged.
Coming right off the best TwitchCon ever in San Jose, we knew it would take something big to make this year’s event ever better. So we went straight to our most powerful and trusted source of information: all of you.
Every year, we survey thousands of TwitchCon attendees about what you liked and what we could work on for next time. And as it turns out, Twitch really loved San Diego, so we’re going back for round two. On September 27–29, join us in the San Diego Convention Center for a TwitchCon 2019 that’ll make TwitchCon 2016 look like an opening act.
San Diego, CA is the perfect city to cover in purple. The convention center is located in San Diego’s beautiful Marina district, and right next to the Gaslamp Quarter — a lively neighborhood with affordable hotels and great food. Did we mention incredible weather? Plus, the Anchorman jokes are just too easy, even if that movie is now 15 years old… :NotLikeThis:
We’re bringing all the good stuff you love about Twitch to life over one unforgettable weekend. You can meet and hang out with with your favorite streamers from chat. You can bond over esports, board games, or new games to play. You can learn how to start streaming or demo new features to try on your own channel. The whole community is invited, and we’d love for you to join us.
If you can’t make it to California, no worries, we’re still streaming the keynote, panels, and much more on Twitch. And there’s plenty of room for everyone in chat.
As we get closer to September, we’ll have plenty to share about the Call for Content, confirmed speakers and activities, ticket sales, and more The best ways to stay informed are to sign up for our newsletter on twitchcon.com and to follow us @TwitchCon on Twitter. If you already know you’re down to attend, we’ve also secured some early deals on hotels that you can book right now. Stay tuned for more soon!
Looking for loot? You’ve come to the right place. Here’s a taste of what Twitch Prime members will be receiving just for being members throughout February.
Apex Legends
Heard about the next evolution in battle royale, Apex Legends? Well, we have a surprise for you! Starting today, Twitch Prime members will have access to an EXCLUSIVE Pathfinder skin and 5 Apex Packs!
For the first time, get exclusive bonus loot in MapleStory 2 with Twitch Prime!
Coming soon, link your Nexon and Twitch Prime accounts to claim some exclusive items in MapleStory 2, including a Flying Fan flying mount, White Rabbit outfit, Tamed Lil Boogie ground mount, and seven days of MapleStory 2 Premium Club!
Vainglory
Coming soon, Twitch Prime members will be able to unlock 6 heroes & 2 emojis to celebrate Vainglory cross-platform launch!
Keep an eye out for other loot coming soon in League of Legends, Neverwinter, The Grand Tour Game and more!
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @TwitchPrime to stay updated on all the in-game loot available to Twitch Prime members and where you can find your favorite streamers checking it out.
And if you missed our recent releases, don’t forget to check out the other exciting offers we have available to Twitch Prime members:
NBA 2K19
For a limited time in NBA 2K19, Twitch Prime members can up their game with 25,000 Virtual Currency and 5 MyTEAM Packs!
Neverwinter Mottled Rage Drake Bundle
Get the Neverwinter Mottled Rage Drake Bundle starting today with your Twitch Prime membership! Bundle includes:
Mottled Rage Drake Mount
30 days in-game VIP
3x Epic Insignia Choice Pack
Rank 13 Enchantment Choice Pack
RuneScape
Twitch Prime members can get a free 14-day RuneScape and Old School RuneScape membership along with exclusive loot:
Exclusive Amara Outfit
Exclusive Chinchompa Plushie
2 Umbral Chests (guaranteed super-rare prizes)
15 Treasure Hunter Keys
40 Hearts of Ice
200 RuneCoins
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Starter Edition
Get the PC version of the FINAL FANTASY® XIV Online Starter Edition free with your Twitch Prime membership until May 3 and begin your journey as the Warrior of Light!
Warframe
Twitch Prime members can get Trinity Prime, Vectis Prime, Fang Prime, an exclusive Prime Sugatra, and the exclusive Spektaka Prime Syandana for free!
Free Games with Prime
March into February with this month’s Free Games with Prime
We’re two months into the new year and that means more Free Games with Prime. In February, Twitch Prime members can claim and play these games:
· The Flame in the Flood A rogue-like river journey through the backwaters of a forgotten post-societal America. Forage, craft, evade predators. From the mind of the Art Director of BioShock and a team of game industry veterans from BioShock, Halo, Guitar Hero, and The Rock Band series comes The Flame in the Flood.
· Dear, Esther Dear Esther immerses you in a stunningly realized world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides. As you step forwards, a voice begins to read fragments of a letter: ‘Dear Esther…’ — and so begins a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years.
· Downwell Downwell is a curious game about a young person venturing down a well in search of untold treasures with only his Gunboots to protect him.
· Draknek & Co Puzzle Collection Includes 3 challenging puzzle games: Sokobond, A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build, and Cosmic Express.
Sokobond is an elegantly designed puzzle game about chemistry.
A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build is an adorable puzzle game about being a monster and making snowmen.
Cosmic Express is a puzzle game about planning the train route for the world’s most awkward space colony.
Once you claim a game, they’re yours to keep forever!
What is Twitch Prime?
Twitch Prime is a premium experience on Twitch that is included with Amazon Prime. Benefits include monthly games and in-game loot, a Twitch channel subscription every 30 days AND all the benefits of Amazon Prime. See all current Twitch Prime offers here.
Check out the full list of Amazon Prime benefits in: US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Spain. You can try it for free for 30 days right here, and when you do, you get all the Twitch Prime benefits instantly just by linking your Twitch account to your Amazon account.
Speedrunning is nothing new to the Twitch community; in fact, it’s a formula that complements the Twitch platform perfectly. If you’re not familiar with speedrunning, it’s where skilled gamers smash through levels in a battle against the clock while viewers get to watch the best-of-the-best gamers flex their chops. It’s a win-win for all involved.
Recently, with the help of an Extension built by Warp World, speedrunning has evolved. Some of the most successful Extensions take the viewing experience from somewhat passive to a new level of dynamic by enabling viewers to join in on the action — and that’s exactly what the Crowd Control Extension does for speedrunning.
When streamers have the Crowd Control Extension enabled, viewers can literally help (or hinder!) the game by dropping in a range of in-game items. For example, while playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, viewers can gift armor, a heart, or Blue Potion refill to assist Link in a time of need.
The Crowd Control Extension allows you to drop in-game items while your favorite streamers are playing.
“The way we see it, audience interactivity is the future of speedrunning and game streaming, so we’re making sure that Crowd Control enables streamers to interact with and connect with their audiences in never-been-done ways,” says Matt (Jaku) Jakubowski, CEO of Warp World.
This might feel risky — to trust that the viewers’ actions will enhance the game versus derail it, so to keep the flow of incoming items manageable and fun for the streamer, viewers exchange Twitch Bits for Crowd Control Coins in order to unlock the different in-game effects. Items which carry a stronger effect on the game require more Coins, which effectively limits over usage.
The Extension adds a “new dimension” to the interaction between the streamers and their audience as well as to the games themselves. When the streamer is using Crowd Control they are no longer just playing the game, but rather playing alongside their community.
The Crowd Control Extension is integrated with a handful of retro speedrunning favorites, including Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link to the Past, but the Warp World team is working hard to get more games and platforms supported, both retro and modern titles.
In fact, today Jaku and team are announcing support for Pokemon Red & Blue in conjunction with a 3-day charity event for Direct Relief, a non-profit organization with a mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies. The Pokethon stream will be the first to showcase the Pokemon integration and will donate their 20% developer share of Bits received to Direct Relief. The GA release for Crowd Control Pokemon support will come immediately after their run.
Watch and support the Pokemon Red & Blue Direct Relief Charity event on https://pokethon.net/
Origin of Warp World
In October 2015, Jaku, CEO of Warp World, was streaming Super Mario Maker, a Mario spin-off which allows players to create and play their own custom Super Mario courses, share them online as well as download and play courses designed by other players, and realized there was not an easy and/or practical way to accept viewer levels via Chat. All “solutions” required users to go to another website, which may or may not have verification that the level they submitted was actually valid.
In turn, Jaku decided to create his own solution, Warp World, a service for streamers to accept Super Mario Maker-level requests from viewers in their Chat. It was geared toward solving multiple problems, but the primary goal was to provide a solution that was easy for both the streamer and viewer alike. It was quickly adopted and embraced by the Super Mario Maker community. It became an essential tool for the Super Mario Maker streamer community and that community is where Jaku recruited many early Warp World staff members like GrandPooBear, xwater and Chudbreeder.
As Jaku’s streaming community grew so did Warp World, but Jaku quickly realized that Warp World needed to expand outside of Super Mario Maker. So the development company started building other tools and services for streamers. At its core, Warp World is a company of streamers and developers. They use their knowledge and insights to bring unique tools and experiences to the Twitch community that you won’t find anywhere else.
Crowd Control IRL
As Crowd Control neared release, Jaku and team decided they wanted to showcase their closed Beta at an event, since at its core, the Extension was made for the crowd. They partnered with recognized Twitch streamers from the Randomizer, Retro and Speedrunning communities to showcase Crowd Control to their communities and viewers. It had an awesome reception, and it kept people hyped for the Open Beta.
Next, they hosted a “Live! from TwitchCon: Crowd Control Showcase” campaign with streamers at Warp World’s TwitchCon booth. Streamers were invited to demo a game on stream with the Extension active and people live at TwitchCon could interact with the game from the booth as well as the viewers who were watching back home.
That same weekend Crowd Control was featured at Mario Master’s Colosseum, a three-day marathon that raised over $100K for Direct Relief.
The Crowd Control Race Feature is still in the works, but they’ve already teamed up with communities like speed gaming and Super Mario World to showcase the feature on crowdfunding events.
“We’ve seen a huge amount of positive responses from viewers and streamers alike. The amount of game ideas, effect ideas, and overall feedback we have been given by users have been tremendous,” Jaku says.
To add icing on the cake, streamers have seen a significant increase in Twitch Bits used on their channel when the Extension is active. Warp World reported that in October 2017, the month they launched, over a million Bits passed through the Crowd Control Extension. This is core to the ongoing growth and momentum the Warp World is riding.
What’s Next?
The Warp World team is heads down focused on adding more games and new features to the Extension, having just shipped mobile compatibility which was a highly requested feature from launch. They are also actively in talks with certain members of game communities to help get more games supported as soon as possible. They have some big plans for some future Extensions on Twitch, because as Jaku says,
“We see them [Extensions] being a crucial part to the growth of the platform and our company in 2019. Our primary goal for this year is to work with new and interested developers to bring additional unique, Twitch game experiences and also see those games with a ‘Supports Crowd Control’ as a listed feature.”
The Fortnite v7.40 update is out in the wild on all major platforms, bringing with it the standard treasure trove of gameplay improvements along with some shiny new content.
However, in what is a slight departure from the norm, developer Epic Games also has a special surprise for fans. Anyone who completes 13 Overtime challenges between now and the 27th February will receive the forthcoming Season 8 Battle Pass completely free.
This grants players automatic access to two exclusive outfits, and up to five more for those who complete the associated challenges. A rather apt promotion, really, given today’s date.
Fortnite v7.40 Update – Battle Royale
Anyway, as far as today’s update concerns Battle Royale, there’s a fair amount going on.
First and foremost, Epic has instituted a brand-new LTM titled Catch! In this rather novel mode, all guns have been removed, leaving players with nothing but grenades and other types of throwable at their disposal.
Gifting returns for a limited time between now and the 22nd February, too. And promises to to help celebrate Valentine’s Day by allowing players to send the Heartspan Glider to one another free of charge until tomorrow.
Additionally, the Infantry Rifle makes its way to the vanilla version of Battle Royale. Alongside a number of changes to existing weapons, the most notable of which sees the Bush consumable given a defensive overhaul – in as much as it can now absorb one instance of damage before it’s destroyed.
Fortnite v7.40 Update – Creative
The biggest change to Fortnite Creative, meanwhile, sees the introduction of two new features: prop resizing and the music sequencer. A rather useful pair of tools that should make it easier than ever before to tinker with your creations.
Elsewhere, Epic has added a new victory condition (Collect Items) to the current list of options, along with two supplementary game options (Join in Progress and Autostart), scoring conditions (the Collect Item Score and Elimination Score Presets), and another batch of prefabs (including Obstacle Course and Arctic Base).
Lastly for Fortnite Creative, Epic has brought back Cupid’s Crossbow for a limited time. Available in Epic rarity, Cupid’s Crossbow deals 79 body and 197 headshot damage, and comes equipped with an infinite supply of bolts.
Fortnite v7.40 Update – Save the World
As always, the arrival of the latest Frostnite Weekly Challenge is the most significant as far as Save the World Players are concerned. This week, it’s number seven, Top It Off.
The storm collapses much faster and deals an increased amount of damage in Top It Off, making it vitally important players keep their burners going for as long as possible. However, with increased challenge comes even greater rewards.
Those who manage to survive for longer than 30 minutes will be rewarded with Love Ranger Jonesy and 1500 Gold, while those who do so on three separate occasions will earn the Week 7 Challenge banner.
Outside of the Weekly Challenge, Save the World receives a brand-new weapon in the form of the Yeoman Sniper Rifle and a returning favourite, the Dragon Fist.
For more information on everything included in this article, as well as a detailed breakdown of the numerous tweaks and gameplay enhancements implemented across the board in today’s patch, head over to the Epic Games Website.
The wait is over. It’s finally time to begin the 2019 Overwatch League season! Day 1 kicks off today at 4PM PST with a rematch of last year’s Grand Finals: the Philadelphia Fusion and London Spitfire, and it’s all going down on the /overwatchleague channel. Catch the action with a limited free trial of the newly updated Command Center.
Command Center is the best part of this year’s Overwatch League All-Access Pass — a feature The Verge called “a robust new spectating tool that should make matches much easier to understand.” Watch your way from the first-person perspective of any pro player, or from the POV of your favorite roles, or from a slew of viewing combinations. You can start your free trial of Command Center, lasting two full match days, directly from the Overwatch League channel.
2019 Passholders also get additional benefits, including 200 Overwatch League tokens, ad-free viewing, team-themed emotes, and more. The cheering has already begun in chat, so get yours now and start participating in solo and community challenges to unlock emotes, badges, and more.
Stage 1 — Week 1 matches are happening every day from Feb 14–17. Join us at /overwatchleague and we’ll see you in chat.
Roses, chocolates, and um, battle royales? Yes, Valentine’s Day is almost here and we’re spreading the love all over Twitch.
Join us on February 14th as we highlight streamers on the Twitch front page who have found love on Twitch or helped others do the same. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Here’s the full Valentine’s schedule:
Awkwards_Travel 5–7am PT
Follow along with Tallulah and Gaspard as they take you with them across the world for a look into the lives of full-time travelers. Always surrounded by a good time, you definitely don’t want to miss the lovely shenanigans these two get into.
ortoPilot 11 am-2 pm PT
Having helped two of his viewers with a proposal during a stream, we could consider Ortopilot our own Twitch cupid. With his trademark sultry voice, he’s here to bring in Valentine’s Day the only way he knows how, by singing. Stop by and experience the musical experience that is Ortopilot.
Geoff 2–4 pm PT
Proposing in a game of Super Monkey Ball 2 isn’t easy, but Geoff managed to pull it off and bring us to tears as MissKaddyKins was taken surprise by his proposal. Come check out the lovely couple as they show the world what kind of love they have to give.
Kickole 6–8 pm PT
Love comes in all forms and Kickole fell in love all over again when her partner proposed in the cutest way possible, with video games! Come watch this lovely duo show you what true love looks like on Twitch.
BizSnes 8–10 pm PT
Being turned into a living video game console can be pretty rough, but with someone by your side it’s a whole lot better. BizSnes showed us what love really is with his beautiful proposal and he’s here to show you that despite his plastic exterior, there really is a heart of gold inside.
JOEYKAOTYK 10 pm — 2 am PT
Traveling the world can be quite the adventure, but with JOEYKAOTYK’s travel streams you’re in for a truly special treat. After proposing to his girlfriend live to his audience, the two have been happy seeing the world together and taking you all along for the ride.
The Twitch Developer team is coming to meet our community of developers and builders across the world this year!
We will kick off the tour in Tel Aviv this April and join the rest of the Twitch community in Berlin during TwitchCon Europe. Then we head to Paris and London — with more cities around the globe being announced soon.
Come learn about why working with Twitch and Twitch technologies like Extensions, Drops, and Twitch Prime make sense for your game, and see how building streamer tools help engage the streamer and viewer communities on Twitch. These technologies are a fundamental part of engaging the Twitch community and creating unique interactive experiences.
You can also meet with the TwitchDev team, share your ideas, give feedback on the product roadmap, and connect with your local Twitch Developer community.
In each city, you will also have the opportunity to hear from special guests and local partners who will dive into what Twitch brings to the table for the entire community.
Spots are limited — secure yours now.
Upcoming Events
Click to learn more and reserve your ticket today.
If there’s one thing Twitch loves almost as much as gaming, it’s anime. And also arguing about anime. That’s why we’re excited to announce that this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards are being exclusively streamed on Twitch. And this time, everyone is invited to co-stream the show with their communities.
The show airs live from San Francisco on Saturday, February 16 at 6pm PT. Tune in to see winners crowned in categories like Best Fight Scene, Best Director, Best Animation, Anime of the Year, and many more. You can even make predictions on who you think will win with the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2019 Extension and rep your community on the leaderboard.
Co-Streaming the Show
The official broadcast will air on /crunchyroll, but many Twitch streamers will be co-streaming the awards and adding their commentary to the proceedings. If you haven’t tried co-streaming yet, it’s a great way to connect streamers and their communities around things they love besides what they normally stream. You can see a full list of streamers who have signed up to co-stream the Awards at the bottom of this post. And if you’re interested in having your channel listed below you can sign up here to be included on our next update.
If you want to learn more about how to co-stream, head on over to Twitch Creator Camp for more info.
Crunchyroll Anime Awards Extension
Knowing who wins each award is great, but correctly guessing who will win is even better. Especially when you can brag about it online. So don’t forget to try the Crunchyroll Anime Awards Extension when you watch the show. You can predict winners for every category and make sure whatever community you’re watching with gets represented on the leaderboard.
Crunchyroll is also offering a special prize for co-streamers who use the Extension. The co-streamers and their communities who guess correctly on each category during the Anime Awards will be entered to win up to 1,000 one-month Crunchyroll Premium memberships to be split among the voters.
Here’s the list of Twitch partners and affiliates who have indicated they’ll be streaming the show:
During its quarterly earnings call this week, Take-Two Interactive confirmed that it’s big secret game coming out of 2K Games is still on schedule to release before the end of March 2020.
So, what is the game? Well for awhile now it’s been believed to be Borderlands 3, which is backed up by a lot of semi-collaborating evidence. However, some think the secret project is actually referring to a new BioShock, which is also said to be in development.
Unfortunately, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick didn’t divulge any further details on the project that shed light on what game it could be, but he did note that in addition to being on track, Take-Two has “very high expectations” for it.
It’s worth noting that it may not be either of these games, but looking at 2K’s library, I don’t see how it could be any game but these two. It’s certainly not another Mafia. And I don’t think another XCOM is on the agenda for the next 12 months either. Plus I don’t think either of these games would drive Take-Two to have very high expectations, especially not XCOM.
Given that there’s been numerous teases and leaks of Borderlands 3 for awhile now, it’s almost certainly the post-apocalyptic game. And this means we probably won’t be getting another BioShock for quite some time, possibly not even before 2021.
0COMMENTS
Alas, at this point all we can do is speculate. Everyone and their mother’s dog thinks its Borderlands 3, and their probably right. But I’m sure BioShock fans aren’t ready to quite give up on the idea that it may just be a new BioShock we’re getting. I know I’d personally prefer the latter, and given all the controversy surrounding Borderlands and Gearbox recently, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Take-Two also wishes it was BioShock and more Big Daddys.
Anyway, as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think or hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know there. What secret game do you think Take-Two is planning on releasing in the next 12 months? What game would prefer it be?
This week’s launch of Apex Legends is about to get a whole lot bigger.
We’re teaming up with Respawn Entertainment for the Twitch Rivals Apex Legends Challenge, featuring 48 Twitch streamers competing live for $200,000 in prizes. This two-part competition goes down on Feb 12th and 19th, and it’s the perfect chance to see which your favorite streamers are leading the pack in the new Battle Royale shooter that’s taking Twitch by storm.
Each event features 16 three-player squads. Streamers from North America and EMEA are representing their territories, with a total of 48 competitors. Each squad will compete to earn the most points, with 5 points awarded for each match victory and 1 point awarded for each kill. To win, streamer squads have to show they’ve mastered the unique abilities of the game’s roster of Legends, plus they’ll have to make the most of Apex Legend’s new additions to the Battle Royale genre, like Smart Comms for improved call-outs and Respawn Beacons for defying death.
We’ll guide you through the competition on /TwitchRivals as we keep tabs on each day’s action and point totals. But as always, you can watch and chat directly on the channel of any participating streamer if you want hang out alongside their community. So be sure to hit the follow button on /TwitchRivals and we’ll see you in the Outlands soon.
FAQ:
Q: When do these competitions take place? A: They’ll happen on February 12th and February 19th.
Q: Which streamers are participating? A:48 streamers will be participating, including:
Q: Where can I watch? A: Follow our spotlight broadcast on /TwitchRivals or head directly to the channel of any streamer who’s competing in the event.
Q: Where can I find more detailed information about the competition and competitors? A: The official Twitch Rivals website is your best source for information, including the event schedule, format, and competing streamers.
Q: How can I learn more about Apex Legends? A: Visit the Apex Legends website or follow the official /PlayApex Twitch channel.
Last year the NBA G League brought real-life professional hoops to Twitch for the first time. Basketball fans watched the game’s rising stars dazzle on the hardwood and many streamers co-streamed the broadcasts to their communities with their commentary and play-by-play. Even more used the official NBA G League Extension to make picks and take home bragging rights. This year the NBA G League is back on Twitch and there’s more of everything.
Co-streaming the games
This season, NBA G League games will air every Friday and Saturday from February 8 through March 23 on /nbagleague. That’s where you can tune in to watch the games with their original audio and play-by-play. But, this is Twitch and watching isn’t enough. That’s why co-streaming is enabled for every single game and everyone is invited to give it a spin. (For those who haven’t tried it yet, co-streaming is a great way to connect streamers with their communities around things they love. Streamers can put their unique spin on a broadcast other than what they normally stream to create a novel experience for everyone.) If you’re a streamer and want to give co-streaming a try, you can find a commentary-free broadcast to use on your co-stream at /nbagleaguecostreams.
Official G League Extension
You can also get in the game with the new and improved official G League Extension. It’ll let you view stats during games, earn points for tuning in and earn even more points when you ‘boost’ players you think will fill the stat sheet, and this year you can earn points as a community to rep your favorite co-streamer on the leaderboard. You’ll also get the chance to vote on the Twitch MVP of every match who will be interviewed on the court after the game.
Where to watch
You can watch the original broadcast at /nbagleague, or you can choose to watch Twitch Partners and Affiliates who are planning on co-streaming the NBA G League this year. So, if you’re looking for a more unique take on the action or just want to enjoy the game with a community you’re a part of, take a look at who’s co-streaming this week’s games:
Friday, February 8: Rio Grande V. vs South Bay at 7pm PT
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.
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.
If you’re torn about whether you should pick up Anthem on PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, the former is probably the better bet.
As you may remember, when Anthem was first revealed a couple years ago, it was demonstrated via the Xbox One X. And of course, some took this to believe that the Xbox One and Xbox One X versions of the game would get some type of speciality treatment. However, that assumption was wrong.
The tech gurus over at Digital Foundry recently gave the demo a spin to test run the BioWare game on different platforms. And what Digital Foundry found was that, well, for one, the game doesn’t exactly run super well on consoles, but also that it runs better on PS4 Pro than Xbox One X, despite the latter being more powerful. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdr1DWvt31c]
According to the outlet, on both consoles the game supports “4K” running at a native resolution of (roughly) 1800p. Of course, both games are using a type of checkerboard rendering in order to hit this. So, in terms of resolution, there’s not much to split the two premium consoles.
However, on the performance side of things the Xbox One X loses some ground. According to the the Digital Foundry video, the PS4 Pro has an unlocked framerate that moves between 25-35fps. Meanwhile, the Xbox One X oddly has a ceiling of 30fps, and can actually even drop below 20fps during more demanding parts of the game. It’s a quite noticeable drop, actually, and I’m not even a framerate savant like many are.
The PS4 Pro also has more flexible options if you want to emphasize performance over resolution. With the Sony system, you can drop the resolution to 1080p, which in turns allows you to run at 40-50fps. The Xbox One X does not offer this option.
Broadly speaking, Anthem, especially at certain times, is a gorgeous game, but it also seemingly doesn’t hum like other games do, especially on the premium consoles, which is a bit disappointing considering how good its E3 2017 reveal looked on Xbox One X.
0 COMMENTS Anthem is poised to release on February 22 via the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. At the moment of publishing, there’s been no word of a Nintendo Switch port.
The latest title of the popular GTA series developed by Rockstar was released almost six years ago, back in 2013, but it still continues to be a huge success. Now, fans think that it’s time for a new game soon and they are impatiently waiting for some news from the company, as we haven’t had any official details from the studio until now.
GTA 6 will have a mobile version as well
GTA 6 is expected to be released before 2021 or 2022, or maybe even earlier, who knows? At the moment we know that the publishers will want to release this upcoming game on two different consoles, PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X.
The good news is that the much-awaited title of the popular GTA series is believed to also become available for mobile devices, for both iOS and Android systems. By the time we reach the year 2020, we should already have more advanced smartphones, and the concept of foldable displays will most certainly not sound as strange as it does now anymore.
As far as the version for the PC is concerned, we haven’t heard any discussions about this until the present time, but it will most likely get released at a later time, similarly to how it happened with GTA 5.
Upcoming GTA title might have a female protagonist
For quite a long time we’ve seen only male protagonists in the GTA titles, but it seems that Rockstar is considering bringing a female lead as the main character in the next title of the GTA series. According to the rumors that we’ve heard so far, we could see at least one female protagonist and two male leads in GTA 6. We cannot wait to find out more about the studio’s plans – hopefully soon.
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.
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
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.
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.
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Immer aktiv
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Unfortunately, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick didn’t divulge any further details on the project that shed light on what game it could be, but he did note that in addition to being on track, Take-Two has “very high expectations” for it.
