Panel Notes: So You Want To Start A Twitch

[spindizzy]

Presented by gothicat, whose twitch is Gothicathulu. She's kindly uploaded the slides here too, so I'd check those out for more clarification on stuff that I glossed over when taking notes! She's also said that she's happy to answer questions, so I'd suggest speaking to her if you want to know more about anything!

• Qualifications to make this talk: she's been streaming for four years, made it to affiliate last year. She's a variety streamer, so a mix of art and video games.


• (Apparently affiliate is one level below partner, and gets you a subscribe button/lets you monetise your channel, and gives you buttons for subscribes.)


• Where do I start?
  
  • You need a decent internet speed – I have "1mbps" written down here, and I'm assuming that the optimal one? You can check how good your speed is for streaming in the settings. "Excellent" means stable, "acceptable" means you have some incompatibilities, and "unstable" means you can't stream at all.
  
  
  • You also need a good mic. Kitty uses a Hitachi HMP 606 she picked up from a charity shop for a tenner, blue snowball ice is quite popular (I remember renay had some Opinions about snowball mics but not what they were.). Apparently the other one that's popular is a gaming headset? I have "Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma" written down here. But all of the recs aside, it doesn't need to be expensive as long as it's good.
  
  
  • And most importantly: you need content. What are you going to stream!
    
    • Creative — share art process, has to be safe for work, can be art, cosplay, craftings.
    
    
    • Gaming — almost anything goes, ask your common sense if you're not sure. Choose a game that will work for your audience and you, because if you're not having fun then your audience won't either. She specifically advises against playing a popular game just because it's popular, because you will get NO HITS. Also, if you play indie games – especially if you tweet that you're playing an indie game – the devs will often show up to hang out in your stream.
    
    
    • IRL lets the community see who you are IRL. It's for chats and hanging out!
    
    
    • ASMR has it's own category if that's what you're into.
  
  
  • You don't need a webcam. Most streamers tend to stay anonymous or use an avatar/facerig (but facerig will DRAIN your processing power, fair warning.)


• How do I do the thing!
  
  • Broadcasting software! The main ones are Open Broadcasting Software (OBS),
    XSplit, and Stream Labs Open Broadcast System (SLOBS).
    
  • Kitty swears by SLOBS, in part because it lets you merchandise.
  
  
  • OBS — Arguably the most common streaming software on twitch. Has many options and add-ons you can use.
  
  
  • XSplit — Second most popular software on twitch. Limited free mode, can pay to add more. Has the same functions as OBS, but adds its own flare. Has built in overlays, easy to set up, has built in optimiser.
  
  
  • SLOBS can hypothetically let you filter out other people's audio, which is useful for games where you're on chat and some people don't want what they're saying to be streamed. Integrates chat, stream preview, viewer count, uptime, mic/sound levelds, scenes, widget access, and events list (e.g. new followers).
  
  
  • Recommends downloading them and having a go. They all have a steep learning curve, but are fairly self-explanatory once you understand them. They're usually pretty good with documentation and social media if you do have questions.


• Kitty also recommends bots!
  
  • They can help you with chat moderation, give you customised commands that viewers can access, and you can set them to display rules and ban keywords.
  
  
  • They're not a REPLACEMENT for a good mod, but they are a good support!
  
  
  • Don't allow links in chat. Just don't.
  
  
  • There will be trolls, it is inevitable.
  
  
  • Bots can stop people spamming the chat.
  
  
  • Keep auto-messages low (every thirty minutes or so.)
  
  
  • If you create custom commands, you can use them to answer frequently asked questions (like "what art program do you use!")
  
  
  • Kitty uses Streamlabs chatbot, nightbot, moobot (which is not free), deepbot, and ankhbot. They all come with instructions and usually run via a secondary twitch account.


• How to make it pretty
  
  • Ninety-nine Lives provides copyright free music for streams that you can export to Youtube (because otherwise you're going to have to strip the music.).
  
  
  • ... I have "Comes with free overlays" written here, but I feel like I have missed a very crucial noun.
  
  
  • Twitch has it's own currency called bits, so you can get something called a BitBoss which loses health whenever people give you bits. ... So like 4thewords, but with people giving you stuff?!
  
  
  • I was sitting there like "... Does this work?!" but apparently people like interactive stuff.
  
  
  • It's better to have more of the screen be what you're doing than your overlay, Ask Them How They Know.


• Resources!
  
  • People can donate to you! Streamlabs has its own donation system, but Patreon and Kofi work too.
  
  
  • http://www.lachhhtools.com — pops up whenever you get a donation or subscriber, has a giveaway mechanic.
  
  
  • Muxy — free to use alerts extention.
  
  
  • Social Blade lets you track/predict growth so you can learn trends.


• Tips & Tricks
  
  • Make a schedule, stick to it, and advertise it.
  
  
  • Interact with other streamers, big and small.
  
  
  • Host each other/raid each other (which sounds terrible but is apparently positive?)
    
  • Network the heck out of things.
  
  
  • Don't let the haters get you down, because they will try.
  
  
  • You will have trolls. You will.
  
  
  • Don't be afraid to change it up! It is your stream, change it how you want.