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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Indie3D commented
I love Game Development Twitch channels and I wish they got a channel for themselves! Please Twitch make it happen...Thanks in Advance!
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Fumpledump commented
Two reasons that make this a good decision.
1. Game Development often lies in between different scopes of medium like art and technology and making it a separate category would definitely alleviate confusion when for both streamer and viewer (because they might have to change it depending on what they are doing.)
2. Having it as its own category makes the game dev streaming more marketable as people already go there for games and now they can be shown a specific category for people making games that they might want to see in the future.
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Brussells commented
Please restore the Game Development category! Makes logical sense!
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SofaMire commented
This one right here, please! Whenever I do a game dev stream I always am not sure what to categorize it as. Science and Technology is too broad, and a game-focused streaming platform should have a game dev-focused category.
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Jess_StPierre commented
Yes please twitch! Just do it!
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workshopcraft commented
why is this not just "add a new record to a database" easy to do? >.<
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imGekko commented
Game Dev is a must have category mad that it's not already a thing.
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kaynSD commented
As someone who has had to either stream under Creative or Sci&Tech (depending on when I was working on it), a full blown GameDev category would be very welcome so that I can at least be honest about what it is I'm doing.
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OMGRicky42 commented
Game development is SUCH a broad topic. Whether it be art, code, game design, UI, multiplayer development, sound design, and so many more things. Please please help me find more game devs!
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manderz11 commented
We need this. This would help out new game developers. Not only would it be easier grow on this specific category for new developers that stream, but also help separate the mess from Science & Technology.
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totallybigman commented
Please add this! I love watching game dev streams but they're so hard to find under the catch-all "Science & Technology" category!
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thekaizengamer commented
GO GAME DEVELOPMENT !!
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Ashur_Games commented
yes!
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kiddolink commented
Yes!
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Majorir commented
Game Development !!
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Ewy commented
Game development or just a category named Programming. That includes software dev, modding, web development and game development.
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ReCurseHeather commented
This is long overdue.
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EvoStreams commented
We have needed this for so long! It would be a great solution to finding game developers. Right now, people playing games tag themselves with game development. It's incredibly hard to find people actually developing. Also, this could promote game development and help the industry!
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8BitSkullDev commented
I agree with DeviantGhost0. There might be a place for 'Programming' or 'Software Development', but it is not in response to this issue.
Game development is a multi-disciplinary field. As a game dev myself focusing on code, I'm still 10x more interested in watching streams where game art or music is being developed than I am interested in someone coding an app or a website. I'd wager the (nearly) thousands of people upvoting this issue agree.
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DeadRobotDev commented
Game development encompasses more than just programming, which is why a Programming category wouldn't work as a solution. The reason people think there isn't much game dev is because it's split across multiple categories, including Science & Tech, and Art.