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Twitch, the web video platform that specialise in video games, is launching its own open development tool kit to allow studios to add video sharing to their games.
The toolset includes support for Unity PC broadcasting and an updated version of Twitch’s SDK that will give developers the means to collect game data and create content tailored to what’s currently popular within a game’s community.
Twitch tools can be used to pinpoint and showcase the top videos for a title, promote popular content and videos that fit with trends, create a catalogue of highlights from players’ games and help develop a game’s pre-existing social network pages.
“Much of the appeal of live video game broadcasting is like the appeal of traditional sports broadcasting,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear.
“Spectators and players love to watch and re-watch the very best moments, but having access to deep statistics about the game makes it all the better. With our new SDK, developers will be able to share events and statistics about what’s going on in the game alongside the video itself. All kinds of things will be available, from what map a broadcasted game was on to a running total of the number of bricks ever placed. There’s huge room for creativity here from both developers and players.”
Relic Entertainment’s PC strategy title Company of Heroes 2 was revealed as ones of the first games that these video tools with b integrated within.
“Our community has been asking for better video tools and we are delighted to be able to deliver them with the integration of Twitch into Company of Heroes 2,” said Relic producer Greg Wilson.
“We are able offer exciting new features like post-match highlight videos, direct game capture and much more.”
Twitch has been expanding its reach in recent months beyond the PC. In May, Twitch announced, it will be launching a dedicated app for Xbox Live Gold members, and earlier in the year us revealed partnerships with Activision and Ubisoft to add in-game streaming tools to Call of Dut: Black Ops 2 and TrackMania 2: Canyon.
