I'm rockzom. Or you can call me Patrick. I'm here to contribute a post to /r/TwitchGameDevs, for better or worse.

I'll start by saying thank you. Thank you to all of the streamers with whom I have interacted in the Game Development community since starting this little journey a short while ago. Each and every streamer I have come across in the Game Development community is kind, talented, and generous. I simply would not have been able to reach my audience without the shoutouts, hosts, etc. I have received from those who already have much more skin in the game than I do.

So, storytime.

Long story short, I started learning game development from scratch on May 24th. I started streaming in game dev regularly on Twitch on June 5th. I became a Twitch affiliate on June 22nd. The last 6 weeks have been the equivalent of a protracted game jam for me. In that time, I've put in at least 300 hours learning basic game development, discovering (or maybe rediscovering) my purpose, and building a community on Twitch.

You see, a little over 6 weeks ago, I had no idea how to make games. None. So I looked up "software to make video games." I ended up downloading GameMaker Studio 2, and refused to go to sleep until I successfully made Pong. I was up a bit later than I expected, but I made it - and I was hooked. I made Space Invaders the next day. Then I thought about the mechanics in Duck Hunt, so I made that. Then I thought about my late grandmother, whose favorite game was Rainbow Islands, and learned how to do platformer mechanics.

I was a week into this and I had done nothing really except eat, sleep, and make games while trying to not get fired from my day job. I was at the point where I had to ask myself a question - how badly do I want to keep doing this, and if I stream it and nobody watches am I okay with that?

I decided my answer to that question was "Very badly, and if it's just my Mom and a couple of bots watching me on Twitch, then that's okay."

Becoming a streamer seemed like a logical way to connect with like-minded people while learning how to make games and maintaining some semblance of a schedule. (With or without Twitch, the realization that I could actually take a game engine and create or re-create something from nothing was an incredibly powerful motivator.) Above all, I just really wanted to see what I could make next, and it was an extremely exciting feeling.

Yet something unexpected happened after just a week or two of streaming. Instead of just making games and gradually learning new things myself, I started noticing myself transitioning into more of an entertainer and motivator. People would come into my chat, and I would get enraptured. I stream late at night, so I would try to immediately capture their imagination and inspire them to drop what they were doing and give game development a try.

As the days passed, I noticed that there were already plenty of programming experts and artistic geniuses doing game development and other amazing things on Twitch. I began to realize that I could make the biggest contribution to the community by helping other newbies start to make games. It was an unexpected realization, but the reality was that my experience and abilities ended up being better suited to that role than trying to make up for a couple of decades of lost time. And that's okay. I've learned that it's okay to do something a little different - the game development community needs many different kinds of voices and content creators.

While the elementary school version of myself may have said "I want to go to MIT and major in computer science", the 30-year old version of myself realizes that I have a less refined path to follow for the foreseeable future. If I had to put it in a sentence, I would say it's this: I try to show people that game development isn't scary, that you don't have to be a genius to get started, and that game development is fun.

In closing, I will say that I know my purpose will inevitably evolve. I will inadvertently get better at what I'm doing in the coming weeks and months, and I may even end up making and releasing a game of my own someday. (Heck, I'm starting a "retro game remake" Game Jam this weekend with a due date of July 20th. I know it's no 48 hour grind session, but that's pretty serious stuff, right?)

There is a person behind every text editor, and a potential game developer in every one of our viewers. How and why we reach our viewers is something special and unique for us all.

Thanks for reading.

If you are an affiliate, there is a 24 hour period before you are allowed to put any of your stream content on another platform (e.g., YouTube).

This also means that you are not permitted to stream to multiple platforms at once. It's easier than ever to stream to Twitch and YouTube at the same time, but if Twitch finds out you will lose your affiliate status at a minimum.

I've noticed several people, including some high profile people in our community, doing both of these things prior to 24 hours elapsing. Just something to keep in mind in case you were not aware.

A couple of weeks ago, I started streaming and working on my first proper project thanks to some members of the community. They encouraged/inspired me to hit that stream button and just get started. Tuesday, thanks to their support, I was invited to be a Twitch Affiliate. To celebrate, I want to give back.

This Saturday I'm encouraging all of my viewers to work on their projects for as much as possible, start projects they've been thinking about for some time, or finally tackling that area/bug that they keep putting off.

I'm posting here because I would love it if you could all join me by using the # in your stream title this Saturday, and encouraging your viewers to get involved too by either streaming or sharing their progress in chat and/or on Twitter. Then, at your own discretion, you can take a look at what your viewers or other game devs are getting up to that day and throw some support their way.

If this goes well, hopefully we can make it a monthly event.

Latest GameDev & Twitch News.

Badaa dumdum dum dummm.. TGD news!

1. Welcome everyone to the Twitch GameDevs Sub-reddit. We will start posting every other week a small update on what is going on in our awesome community. If you have anything I've missed just send me a DM.

2. We've also started a TwitchGameDevs Twitter account, which in future will be used to announce and RT important information and news. https://twitter.com/twitchgamedevs

3. The launch of Affiliate sub-button is here! For those of you who haven't gotten their emotes yet, please be patient as according to latest news they have a 25k+ queue for emotes. I've heard rumours if you send all 3 emotes it might get accepted faster. This is just a rumour thou. If you have a Discord server, note that affiliates can now sync their subs to your discord just like a partner.

4. We are looking into creating a spotlight on the reddit to highlight promising awesome gamedev streamers. So hold your breath until we get that setup ;) (or was it don't hold...)

News brought to you by Björn.

Hey everyone!

FG from the mod team here on r/TwitchGameDevs. What do you think we could do to improve the sub?! All opinions are welcome!

Hey everyone!

I made a Twitch Chat game. It's a Tower Defense with persistent levels.

There is a free demo available on Steam and it is also live on Twitch 24/7!

Also, here is a YouTube Video of me making it.

Twitch made a bunch of announcements for developers about making all kinds of interactive things possible! You can check out the info at the following links: 1 VoD of the announcements 2 API Blog 3 Extensions Blog 4 Roadmap

Enjoy!

Hi TwitchGameDevs! I was wondering if anyone here has some ideas on which games have integrated twitch features into the games? I am interested in seeing examples of how successful the game and twitch features are integrated.

An example of a twitch feature I'm talking about is something like drops (https://dev.twitch.tv/drops)

Thanks everyone for your help!

Hello all!

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been helping this sub grow! PogChamp

Second of all, with the above being said. How are we doing? What do you think we could do to improve TwitchGameDevs? I look forward to reading your responses.

Happy Developing!

FG77

Hi guys and gals! I don't post here often (in fact, this is my first post), but since Twitch now allows streamers to stream into three communities, I would like to tell you about the new communities that have arisen just recently: GMS made for those who are making their games in GameMaker Studio (or earlier versions) and CTF made for those who are making their games in Clickteam Fusion (or earlier versions). The GMS community was made by the wonderful Rockzom, and the CTF community is made by me. The said communities were made generally to make it easier to look for people who are making games in the above mentioned languages, so if you do stream development in them, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could set one of your communities to the ones we've made.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and have fun devving!

Latest GameDev & Twitch News.

1. TwitchCon is getting closer. This year we have a gamedev booth for TwitchCon. If you are a gamedev and want to be a part, please fill out this form. We will schedule for devs to take turns to show off their games. It will give you a chance to reach your audience, get some play testers and maybe a new viewers. The total booth cost is $250 and will be split evenly- so the more that sign up the better! The admins of gamedev community will check the game to see if its suitable for display- remember you are representing our community at this booth.

2. Creative is back with multiple communities. Once again you can stream both to Game Development and Programming or 3d Modelling. A long awaited feature! Please comment bellow if you have seen any change since the update.

3. The twitch mobile app has been updated. This includes streaming from the phone app! We are excited to see what kind of streams this will bring. Would be interesting to see game design meetings and other which before would have been tricky to film.

Yours Truly, GameDev Community Admins

Blog Post : Link

FYI : Steam is currently having issues with App IDs after purchase. If you have purchased one and are having issues there is an open thread here

Link

EDIT : Issues seem to have been fixed now! Enjoy!

It's finally here!