Twitch Welcomes our First Developer to the Ambassador Program: AlphaDuplo!

Last March, Twitch announced an expansion to the Ambassador program featured at TwitchCon 2018—a program designed to amplify established Partners and Affiliates with amazing communities—with the goal of telling unique stories that deserved a bigger spotlight. 

From being role models for their community, to establishing new content genres on Twitch, to having inspirational stories that empower those around them, these creators embody what it means to #BleedPurple. From Berlin to San Diego, and regularly across the Twitch front page and social media, we’ve introduced you to over 50 different streamers making a positive impact for the Twitch community.

And yet, there’s still an entirely behind-the-scenes group of creators making significant contributions to the Twitch experience who deserve to be recognized: Twitch Developers. These independent volunteers spend their time making tools and Extensions for our moderators, viewers, and streamers. Many of you have used their tools, but have you ever thought about who makes them?

We’re proud to support our Twitch Developers, and excited to announce our first Developer Ambassador, AlphaDuplo. Learn more about his journey, his tools, and how you can get involved:

When did you get started developing Extensions on Twitch?

I found out about Extensions right after Twitch announced and released them in August 2017, and started developing my own shortly after. By that time, I already had multiple Twitch projects out there and was really excited to try out Extensions as a whole new feature to see what unique experiences could be built. Turns out, there’s a lot of stuff that can be done!

What Extension are you most proud of?

Definitely “Timeout with Bits”! I created that Extension, in which streamers can preset timeout lengths and Bits values that allow people in chat to timeout others for fun, without any expectations of it getting well-known or used. Within just a few hours, people started using it. I love joining streams to see people’s feedback and if they enjoy it – and it seems they love it!

A month later, I received an email from Twitch letting me know they’d like to help support the Extension because of its growth and the noticeable difference in the viewing experience. From there, we worked together by planning updates, implementing checks to prevent abuse, and featuring it in the Extensions manager.

As a developer, what’s the best way for the Twitch community and for streamers to engage with you?

I was hoping for that question! As a developer, I’m always looking for feedback. While my Extensions do run across thousands of channels, I rarely get feedback on what people want me to improve or add to make the Extension better.

Streamers (and viewers!) should know that they can, and should, always send feedback so developers can improve the tools we make. Personally, my Twitch Whispers and Twitter DMs are always open for feedback and discussion. I’d love to hear from you!

What motivates you to continue building on Twitch?

I build not just for the people who use it, but for the entire community. Twitch is a lovely place and I love building tools for it. Whenever I join a stream that’s using my Extension and the whole chat goes “LUL LUL Kappa Kappa,” it’s clear that everyone is having a great time. That’s when I feel that I’ve made a great impact and made a lot of people happy.

If someone wanted to start building on Twitch, what advice would you give them?

Just try it! Really; it’s fun. Twitch has excellent documentation, whether you want to create a simple chatbot, use the API, or build an Extension yourself. Especially if you have experience building a website, you’ll be able to manage building an Extension in almost no time.

Also, don’t hesitate to ask for help! There’s an official Twitch Developer Discord server where you can meet many other developers building tools and Extensions for the Twitch community. We’re happy to help, no matter if you’re a developer or a streamer looking for a developer to build a project for you.

Is there anything else you’d like the Twitch community to know about you, Twitch developer products, or the developer community?

In just a few weeks, it will have been 10 years since I wrote my first line of code. Back then, I was still just a kid and never thought I would ever run even a single public project in the future. I taught myself programming without learning it in school or at university. I used books and videos created by content creators, just like some of you probably do.

Being invited to the Twitch Ambassador program as the first developer is huge for me! I run multiple projects including “Timeout with Bits” and I’m one of the owners for the Twitch Developer Discord Community. I’ve met a lot of cool people over the past few years, including Twitch staff, and I’ve made friendships from building. I highly suggest anyone who thinks about creating something just to go and try it out!

If you’re interested in learning more about Extensions, head over to our Extensions overview or browse Extensions in your streaming Dashboard. If you’re interested in building applications with Twitch’s developer products, visit our developer website. You can also follow @TwitchDev on Twitter to keep up to date and find more developers to connect with!