Twitch wants to help developers make livestream-friendly games

Twitch's new Developer Success initiative, which the Amazon-owned streaming video community announced today during the 2016 Game Developers Conference, is meant to support developers who want to focus their games around Twitch livestreaming.

Developer Success encompasses Twitch's existing backing of what the service calls "Stream First" games: titles that are "designed from the ground up for the live streamed experience," Twitch said in a press release. Under the program, Twitch will also create new services for app partners.

Brooke Van Dusen, director of game developer success at Twitch, mentioned the proliferation in recent years of community-driven creativity in interaction on Twitch between livestreamers and viewers — spontaneous phenomena like subscriber tournaments and "Twitch Plays" games.

"However, these systems have always been external to the games broadcasters are playing," Van Dusen noted. "Stream First games by nature embrace these developments, incorporate features inspired by these creative concepts of Twitch community interaction, and bring about an entirely new genre of video games."

Twitch is hosting a Stream First showcase during GDC for three games. Pipeworks' Superfight, a card game in which players argue over who would win hypothetical battles between characters with super powers, incorporates Twitch features like voting within chat and four-way live video. Schell Games' Wastelanders is a turn-based strategy game in which broadcasters and viewers play together live. And Streamline (screenshot above), from indie studio Proletariat, is an arena-based title that offers multiple game modes that the broadcaster and up to 15 viewers can play.

More details are available on Twitch's Developer Success website.