Twitch For Dummies

Tee Morris is a social media pioneer. An early adopter of podcasting, Tee is no stranger to building audiences and releasing original content online. Now he adds to his online arsenal of creativity Twitch, managing his own streaming channel featuring a variety of gaming and talk shows. Tee is co-author of Podcasting For Dummies, 3rd Edition, as well as several novels in the science fiction and fantasy genre, including the award-winning steampunk series, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Your Game On 5

Chapter 1: Welcome to the World of Twitch 7

Deciding Whether Twitch Is for You 8

You want to connect with a community based on your passions or hobbies 10

You want to turn your subject of interest into a social experience 10

You want to generate excitement 11

You have a cause that needs attention 11

You want to have a little fun 12

Creating a Twitch Account 13

Insert coins to begin: The basics 14

New Twitch, who dis: Completing the Profile 16

All in the details: Channel and videos settings 18

Controlling the signal: From privacy to connected third parties 20

Learning at the Feet of Masters: Following and Subscribing to Twitch Channels 22

Following on Twitch 22

Subscribing on Twitch 24

Other Twitch Resources 26

Chapter 2: Building a Streamer’s Studio 29

Where Are You Streaming From? 30

PlayStation 4 32

Xbox One X 34

Non-Essentials That Are Essential 37

Video cameras 38

Audio gear 39

Deck switchers 40

Virtual assistants 41

Chapter 3: Making First Impressions 45

Creating a Complete Twitch Channel 46

Creating an Info Panel 46

Deciding what Info Panels you should create 48

Editing and deleting Info Panels 50

Streaming Off Your Console 52

Setting up your PS4 for streaming 52

Setting up your Xbox One for streaming 54

Chapter 4: And We’re Live! (Wait, We’re LIVE?!) 59

Streaming Your First Gameplay 60

OMG! I’m live! What do I do now?! 61

Wrapping up your stream 62

Post-Show Production: What to Do After a Stream 65

Take a bow: Social media shout-outs 65

Reruns: The ICYMI Stream 67

YouTube: Your content, on demand 69

Creating a highlight 72

Chapter 5: Improving Your Stream: Being Your Own Harshest Critic 75

G, PG, PG-13, or R: What’s the Rating? 76

Setting the Mature Content option 78

The parameters of “Adult Content” 78

Popularity Versus Pleasure: What You Are Streaming? 79

Streaming popular games 81

Streaming games you enjoy 84

Streaming retro games 84

Beyond Consoles: Streaming without Video Games 85

Streaming in the real world 86

Sharing your creative pursuits 89

Part 2: Creating Your Broadcasting Studio 91

Chapter 6: Streaming without Constraints: Streaming from a PC 93

Looking under the Hood: What a PC Needs 94

The computer processor (CPU) 95

Cooling systems 96

Random Access Memory (RAM) 98

Graphics card 98

Capture card 100

Power supply 100

Game On, Again: Setting Up Your Console 101

Streamlabs OBS: Where Creativity and Interactivity Happen 103

Incorporating a template 104

Adding a console in your template 106

Customizing your template 108

Video Is Easy; Audio Is Hard 109

Using the Astro A50 MixAmp Pro as your Party Chat solution 110

Using Discord as your Party Chat solution 111

Before Returning to Orbit, Guardian 114

Chapter 7: Setting Schedules and Social Media 115

Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel: Setting Your Schedule 116

From start to finish: A basic schedule 116

Other schedule options 118

Your own pocket of time: The length of your stream 119

Consistency and Communication 122

Notifications on Twitch 122

Notifications on Facebook and Twitter 124

Notifications on Discord 127

When Life Happens: Changes in the Schedule 129

Chapter 8: Bells & Whistles: Nifty Add-Ons for Your Twitch Stream 133

Stand By For Stream: Introduction and Intermission B-roll 134

Second-in-Command: Channel Moderators 137

Nightbot: Your Friendly Neighborhood Virtual Assistant 139

Say it again and again: Custom commands 140

Locking it down: Spam protection 143

Self-promotion on Twitch: Working with timers 146

Chapter 9: Setting the Stage 149

Love What You’ve Done with the Place: Overlays 149

Creating an overlay 150

Quiet on the Set: One Final Look at Your Twitch Studio 152

Couchcasting 153

Deskcasting 154

From the set 155

Twitch on the Go: Streaming from the Twitch App 157

Part 3: Getting Busy with the Business of Twitch 161

Chapter 10: Let’s GOOOOO, Chat: Welcome to the Show! 163

Who, What, Where: Your Show Intro 164

Gitting Gud at Multitasking: Responding to Chat 166

Checking with Chat in real time 166

Checking with Chat at specific segments 168

Taking a Bow: Ending Your Stream 169

Creating Content for Two (or More): Hosting Interviews 170

Interview requests 171

Asking really great questions 172

Avoiding really bad questions 174

Prepping Your Green Room for Guests 176

Welcoming in-studio guests 176

Meeting guests on their own turf 177

Chapter 11: The In-Between Streams 179

Meanwhile, at Penguin’s Secret Lair: Your Channel between Streams 179

Why host other streamers? 181

Selecting other streamers 182

Twitch on Demand: Past Broadcasts 185

Past broadcasts on Twitch 185

Past broadcasts on YouTube 186

Highlight Videos: Revisited 188

iGame, Therefore iTwitch: Creating Highlight Reels with iMovie 189

Import video with iMovie 189

Creating your highlight reel with iMovie 190

Exporting Your Highlight Reel from iMovie 193

Elementary, Dear Watson: Video Editing with Adobe Premiere 194

Importing video with Premiere Elements 195

Creating your highlight reel with Premiere Elements 197

Exporting your highlight reel from Premiere Elements 198

Chapter 12: From Hobby to Side Hustle to Full-Time Job? 201

Entry Level Pro: The Affiliate Streamer 202

Expressing yourself: Emotes 204

Expressing your loyalty: Sub badges 206

Showing support: Subscribers 209

A penny for your thoughts: Bits 210

Just the tip 211

Achievement Unlocked: Partnership 212

Why become a Twitch Partner? 212

The checklist for a Twitch Partner 213

Show me the money: Revenue opportunities 215

This Twitch Stream is sponsored by 215

So, Chat, let me tell you about this amazing product from 215

Show me your SWAG! 217

Don’t Quit Your Day Job Just Yet 218

Part 4: Beyond the Console 221

Chapter 13: Building Your Twitch Community 223

Check Me Out Now: Publicizing Your Stream 224

Podcasting 224

Twitter 226

Instagram 227

Who Is “The Fam” and Why Do They Matter? 230

Oh, hai, Mark: Talking to Chat 230

Kinda busy right now: When not to engage 231

The Fam includes other streamers too 232

Remembering your roots 233

The Community Board: Discord 233

Share with the class: Talking to your Chat 235

One-on-one: Direct messages in Discord 236

Chapter 14: Twitch Etiquette 239

Don’t Let the Door Hit You on the Way Out: Bad Behavior on Twitch 240

“Yo, check out my stream ” 240

They see me trollin’ and hatin’ 241

Hate speech 244

Making a Music Bed for Your Channel 244

The Big Three of content management 245

The grey area: Twitch, Spotify, and the Compromise 247

I’ll Take the First: Free Speech versus Slander 249

Family Matters 250

The significant other 250

When your kids want to stream 252

Burnout: The Specter of Twitch 253

Chapter 15: Game Over: Twitch Outside of Gaming 255

Game On: The Rise of eSports 256

Bungie TV: Going Live with the Latest 257

How Can I Help You: ServiceNow 258

Coding at the Speed of Chill: SKFroi 259

A Twitch Worth a Thousand Words: Dawn McTeigue 261

Harping on a Passion: Meadow Fox 263

Gaming for Good: Charity Streams 264

Doing a little prep before you get started 265

Setting up the collection jar 266

Part 5: The Part of Tens 269

Chapter 16: Ten Twitch Streamers Who Influenced the Author 271

ItsOrd (Matthew J Drake) 272

OneActual 273

ZGPhoto 273

iLulu 274

Aura 275

That Token Guy 276

Tiddly 277

RealMunchle (read as “RealMunchie”) 277

Danfinity 278

DrLupo 279

Chapter 17: Ten (or More) Life Lessons from Twitch 281

Twitch Continuously Makes Me Strive to Be Better 282

Twitch Opened the World to Me 282

Success Is Waiting for You If You Are Ready to Work for It 283

Insults Can Sometimes Be the Highest Form of Flattery 283

No Matter the Time, No Matter the Place, You Always Have Someone Watching Your Back 284

When You Doubt Is the Time to Work Harder 284

Don’t Love the Game Love the Player 285

It’s a Glimpse of How Good We Can Be 285

To Thine Own Self Be True 286

No, Really Just Be Yourself 286

Speak from the Head as Well as the Heart 286

There Are a Lot of Good People Out in the World Connect with Them 287

It’s Not the Tech That Matters It’s You 287

Once through the Looking Glass, What New Possibilities Await? 287

A Few Final Words from a TeeMonster 288

Index 291