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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SwarmCollective commented
Definitely need this category with specialized recognition in the search for game Development and Software Development including programming languages by name (added as tags)
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awkravchuk commented
༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Gib teh category pwease
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JervalGames commented
yesss this is exactly what my idea was and exactly why I've been reading stuff for a few hours just to get in here and ask for that new category to be added!
How do I upvote this?? -
Zhorky commented
In my mind its fine in Creative, but should have its own sub category called "Game Dev". There is a need for this.
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BodaMat_Ukr commented
It's really good idea. I also love searching game development
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I_am_paranoid commented
I usually search streams by tags like "Game Development" and "Programming". But yeah, S&T category feels useless right now with all these infinite cam streams
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SecondSenseTV commented
I would love this. It would also make it more clear on where to stream anything Game Dev.
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Teo_Rit commented
Yeah go for it, Gamedevs of the world, Unite !
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NayaStudios commented
Yup. Im up for it. I did some gamedev sessions on twitch already, but there is no category for it.
Meanwhile the indie gamedev scene is pretty large and always getting larger! Frankly making games is the most hardcore gaming thing ever.
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p4ndaotv commented
go twitch!
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dyrenh commented
It's disappointing this hasn't already happened. Please seriously consider this petition.
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PumpkinDays commented
Imagine having a platform focused on games and no category for game developers who make games :( My own game has a category on Twitch however when I do game development on my game I'm lost in a category of misc stuff. Please make a category for us.
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HelloVikram commented
Gamedev lives in a place in between Science/Technology and Art/Creative. Twitch really supports the Game Dev industry - it would be nice to see as a its own category. Please make this happen! Thanks!
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404neverfoundd commented
Please make this happen!
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Onamonapea commented
Please make this happen! As a game developer who streams, it always feels weird to choose between the art or tech categories (sometimes even music on some days). I do remember that there used to be a category for us back in the day, but I do feel like more developers are more open to streaming their process now and people are more interested about learning game development than before.
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StraightUpGruntled commented
The game development community on Twitch is so strong that I believe it deserves it's own category. Not only for the reason of having such a large community, but Game Development doesn't always fit under the category of Science & Technology. Let me explain.
Game Dev requires a large variety of tasks, and for this reason, results in many different categories of activity being streamed while developing a game on Twitch. These activities can vary between the existing categories of Science & Technology, Music, and Art, and can occasionally spread itself into Just Chatting and other categories. This essentially spreads the game dev community over at least 3 different categories, making it quite difficult to find other game developers to watch, raid, and support. In my opinion, it is the ability to support other game dev streamers through raiding and the easy of involvement that keeps game developers streaming on Twitch.
A case could be made that if game dev were to be created a category, other more specific industries and hobbies would have to be made as a category as well. And while this is true, Twitch is also a game focused streaming platform. Every game on Twitch has it's own category, and so it only makes sense to at least give game developers their own unique category. This will not only help game developers find each other, but also help gamers to watch the development process of indie games, and help to integrate developers even more into the gaming community.
Overall, having an individual category for game development will be able to strengthen the Game Dev community.
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naoconhecido commented
This really needs to happen twitch, please !
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AdamCYounis commented
I just want to throw my 2c into this one, though many of the sentiments have been shared already.
Earnestly, the experience of producing a game on twitch can be a frustrating one, particularly because of the poor categorisation. It's not about wanting to be separated from garden growers and seismologists. It's not about wanting to be recognised as different or special.
Simply put, making a game involves doing all kinds of activities that are technical, creative or both, and switching between them in a way that is completely free-form. Sometimes I'm doing 10 mins of code and 5 minutes of art interchangeably over the course of 5 hours. If I categorise this as "Art" I get people wandering into the stream saying "This isn't art, why did I find you in that category". If I categorise as "Science & Technology" they say "where's the code? Why are you in an art program?". Not to mention the equally likely scenarios that you'll find music production, testing, gameplay, project planning, system design or talking shop about games.
I don't want to have to change my category every 10 minutes, and I don't want to have to justify why I'm doing something people who browse the category aren't expecting to see there. If every new game release and associated community gets its own category, how does the entirety of game development not have one?
There is a perfectly healthy and hungry community of people who want to watch people make games. They know what the content is and they're happy to watch all of it. If we have our own space we become much easier to find and we stop muddling up everyone else's categories.
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SaintJames23 commented
This definitely needs to happen.
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JamesTDGPF01 commented
This would be nice, especially since I want to watch people create games on twitch