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

Hi everyone!
We’re happy to announce that thanks to your feedback, we have created the Software and Game Development category! Thank you for all of your support around this idea.
Category: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Software%20and%20Game%20Development
Read more on the Twitch developer forum: https://discuss.dev.twitch.tv/t/software-game-development-a-new-streaming-category/33364
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windybeardgames commented
This is GAMEDEV!!!!!
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Monogatete commented
Please bring gamedev category back!
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naoconhecido commented
Please, everyone reading this, contact @eshear on Twitter, twitch is literally ignoring us...
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emanx140 commented
Even bathtubs have their own category. Why are we worse?
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Silvio257 commented
every little Mario game has it's own category. so why can't we game devs have our own??
I mean like isn't a category on twitch just something like an enum entry. come on
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moi93101 commented
Hahaha, ok interesting, so it just need to be a legit game !
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luna6667 commented
@moi93101 that will actually be the third known attempt at making the category a thing that way. 2 were done by the original creator of this post, and both were manually removed by an admin.
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moi93101 commented
I took the idea of @Smaxx and submited "Let's GameDev !" game to IGDB.
If you know an admin to speed up the process... -
RelentlessRolento commented
I’m more confused why this hasn’t been standard since launch of the platform TBH
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Pkeod commented
Is game development category finally going to be added with all of these 350+ new identity politics tags being added?
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Smaxx commented
Maybe it's a faster approach for anyone of us to actually develop and release a pointless indie game called "Let's GameDev" or something… 🤔
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FaunasHome commented
This is a great idea! I’d love to find game dev streamers using this category!
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Danielvutran commented
COME ON TWITCH YOU SLOW *** MO FOCCCERS !!!! 😂
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Riazey commented
We are pretty popular on uservoice, is twitch ignoring the 10 mins it takes to add a category just because it wont make them enough money? But they removed our gamedev game within 3 hours just to save a tiny bit of money... priorities??
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AndrewDavidJ commented
+1 to this.
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superblindman commented
I see this as absolutely essential. Game developers absolutely deserve their own category, so they can interact with a development community that can properly discover their streams.
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ChrisDevVlog commented
Agreed, we need a game dev category! I was having good growth with the Unreal Engine category then it disappeared. Once I started streaming in Science and Tech my growth is pretty much gone. Please make a dedicated Game Development category!
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AXE978 commented
Please bring GameDev back!
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krux702 commented
So I guess Twitch is Onlyfans now? Way to bring home a big win of creating a category for thinly veiled ****** content, instead of a Game Development category people have been asking for for months.
Very disappointed.
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pwrdwnsys commented
Twitch simply don't care, or it could be a commercial thing - perhaps the expected subs/bits revenue realised from configuring a Game Dev category is negligible next to a creator riding an inflatable banana in a paddling pool? Maybe prioritising that content fits in with longer term plans? Someone at Twitch or Amazon has to be thinking about how to compete with (or take the views from) OnlyFans-style sites and how they can then link that with adult product placement or up-selling other group services in-stream.
Any community energy that's left might be used to organise the few remaining Game Dev streamers to move to another platform that will listen to its creators, rather than leave them howling into the void. GG Twitch.