Hey Justin. I'm gonna run through these with bullet points bc I'm on a phone and am lazy, not bc I'm trying to be terse
For reference, both myself (data, gameplay, map building) and my brother the artist stream development of Brigador. I probably average 10-20 concurrent viewers while he's more like 15-25. Anyway, here's my thoughts on all this:
-you get comfortable with spoken responses to text, though we've both done a text only sessions for various reasons (I have roommates, brother has a kid). Doesn't seem to make a big difference so long as you're engaging with and responding to people. Speaking is nice though bc you don't have to stop what you're doing.
-closest I've gotten to doing code on a stream is data integration and management; not as exciting as making art for the game (that tends to be our most popular stream type), but people were still engaged so long as I explained what I was doing/changing as I went along. So long as the game and new changes get shown from time to time we've always been able to maintain at least a small audience. Visually oriented work tends to be the best though, unless you're Casey Muratori working on
Handmade Hero. Most important thing just seems to be that you're actually doing something and engaging with people talking in the chat. Sometimes that can turn into big tangents but things like that can help build regular viewers. Whatever you're doing, just be interesting. I realize that's very opaque sounding advice, but for example while my brother was streaming work on a new vehicle for the game there was a discussion on the progression of 1950s firearms and later one about modern trends in the aesthetics of suburbian housing. Stuff that had little to nothing to do with what he was working on or our game, but it was an engaging conversation and people who came in stuck around for it. It's not like you're a talk show host where every beat and conversation point has to be dictated by you; play it fast and loose, say hi to people when they come in (esp regulars), and just shoot the shit while you work on stuff.
-occasionally it can be nice to give people a choice, but bear in mind a lot of people watch twitch streams in the background or while multitasking, so most people don't chime in much or at all.
-this sucks, because good playlists/DJing is honestly one if the main reasons people stick around as long as they do-- we get complimented as often on our music as on the game itself. For now we just use copyrighted stuff at the cost of the recording, but we'll probably end up migrating to hitbox for that very reason.
-for length, 2-4 hours is typical for us. You can do longer as there's people in various timezones who like this stuff, just make sure you re announce it occasionally on your various outlets (twitter etc)
-whenever we get new people in we always take time to introduce and show the game for at least a bit; only takes a few minutes for people to decide if they're interested in your game or not, but it's impossible if you don't show it and people have short attention spans.
-good music is a big one. Also we both get pretty goofy sometimes. Ive found drinking on stream loosens everyone up
I'd advise against putting on any kind if a persona; people are really curious about making games and game devs, and they're usually appreciative and interested in just having an honest look at what it's like.
Hope that helps. Either my brother or I should be streaming sometime in the next few weeks so feel free to swing by:
twitch.tv/stellarjockeys and
twitch.tv/gausswerksThe one other thing I would say is make sure you post to as many outlets as you can to announce streaming-- despite posting on steam, twitter, and our forums, we still get people coming in late or after, sad they missed out bc they didn't know a stream was going on or bc they missed the announcement. Streaming on a regular schedule can help that a lot.
Cheers, and best if luck. Post your twitch channel so we can come heckle
Developer
