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Create a Game Development Category.

Creative and IRL used to be categories on Twitch. Everything that wasn't games was in Creative. This means everything from Bob Ross to ASMR (let's be real that's the same thing.) was all in one place and entirely unsearchable.|

Twitch broke up Creative and IRL into a bunch of new and rad categories to help discoverability. This included Music, Art, Beauty, Food, Just Chatting, Tabletops, ASMR, Science & Technology, and others. This category splitting really helped a lot of smaller communities grow. It was easier to find new and interesting streamers because you could now discover them in an otherwise bloated and unsearchable wasteland.

For a brief period of time Game Development was also a category right after Creative was brought down. We had a huge amount of new viewers in that category but Twitch removed it after only two weeks. We were averaging 7.1 new followers per hour under Game Development.

Science & Technology however did not gain any benefit from this. It's become another catch all like Creative was. Weed growing, animal cams, earthquake sims, and a few programmers mixed in. We average 2.8 new followers per hour in this category because nobody knows what it is.

If you search Game Development on Twitch right now the category doesn't show up, neither do streams with the tag of Game Development, in fact... nothing shows up. If you search for Science "AND" Technology you get nothing. You actually have to search for Science "&" Technology. This compounds the discoverability issue and makes the category even worse for developers. We need Game Development back.

It's a simple change but it can help build a lot of new communities on Twitch. It can also make more money for indie devs and Twitch at the same time. At the end of the day I feel incredibly lucky with the success we've had on Twitch. Because of this platform and our community we will never need a publisher or investors. We get to own 100% of our studio.

I want that replicated for game devs that come after us.

This thread was posted publicly on Twitter and has so far received a very large amount of community support.
https://twitter.com/PirateSoftware/status/1361911034219425792
4,731 votes

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PirateSoftware shared this idea  ·   ·  Report…  ·  Admin →
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  • Korofel commented  ·   ·  Report

    Good find Draco0x191! It's about time! Would have been nice if they'd acknowledged this thread in any way, but I'm glad they finally listened!
  • PeakCriminal commented  ·   ·  Report

    This would give a chance to devs to draw from the audience on opinions of developing games and help crowed source indie games also this would allow for others to connect on this level

  • evodance commented  ·   ·  Report

    i have numerous friends that would love this since they are devs themselves
  • ShidyGames commented  ·   ·  Report

    Agreed, I'm also an indie game dev (not streaming yet) and I like to see other game devs sharing their experiences on stream. It's not an easy thing to actually catch-up with them as the only way to get to those channels is to run through "Science & Technology", and then to use the filters to add a "Game Development" tag (which is not convenient). A dedicated category would be awesome.
  • erdtirdmans commented  ·   ·  Report

    Games site with no Game Development or Programming category. Tags that are misapplied and barely searchable. Science and Technology turns up nothing... Requires the ampersand... searching "Game Development" only bring Game Dev Tycoon...

    Come on now.
  • andreimakes commented  ·   ·  Report

    Would really love to see a category for Game Development. It feels really strange that we have to Go to Browse > Enter the Game Development tag > Wade through rows and rows of streams in other categories using the tag for some reason > Finally find game development streams . It's even more painful searching on mobile. Programming stream discoverability has the same problem.

    It would be nice to have a category so that our category gets to pre-populate in the search bar and actually show up in search results.
  • Simpathey commented  ·   ·  Report

    Game Developers really struggle with exposure. I think having a category would help people get exposure. Also "Game dev" as a category brings together all the good stuff that goes into making games. Programming, art, level design, music/sound, tools design, the list goes on!
  • MrApothic commented  ·   ·  Report

    We should get our category back, instead of having to share with so many random topics. It'll be far nicer to find everyone in this community if we get a allocated spot.
  • AlmightyGamesDev commented  ·   ·  Report

    Yeah I noticed that too in the video clip. He first says "Game Development" but then follows up saying "Programming". Although similar... this is not exactly what we're asking for. There are lots of people in Game Development who don't touch programming at all. (Animators, Artists, Level Designers, and so on) Likewise, there are lots of people who program, who don't necessarily make games. We're asking specifically for a Game Development category.
  • FioteBearDev commented  ·   ·  Report

    "Programming instead of Science & Techology" is not what this is asking but FOR SURE it's on the right way!
  • KoutetsuSteel commented  ·   ·  Report

    Imagine if Twitch actually gave a flying **** about its users.
  • thed135 commented  ·   ·  Report

    A Game Dev category that as been more than 6 months suggested that as no response from twitch is literally as if they doesn't care and it really sucks, if there was a game dev category there will be more game devs streaming on twitch and twitch will make more money, like why won't they add it ? Business wise it makes sense.
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