Heads up, Twitch Plays Pokémon fans.
It should now be easier than ever to find new "Twitch Plays" games to join. Twitch on Thursday launched a new directory devoted to these collaborative broadcasts.
As Twitch users may recall, the move comes after an anonymous programmer in February 2014 captivated the gaming community with a "Twitch Plays Pokémon" stream that let some 1,165,140 users collaboratively play Pokémon Red by typing commands into the chat box. In its announcement Thursday, Twitch said it has seen "tons of fascinating adaptations of the Twitch Plays concept" since then, which are now finally available in one place.
On the Twitch Plays directory, you'll find active releases like Twitch Versus Zombies, Twitch Plays Dark Souls, and even the frustrating Twitch Plays Claw Machine. And, to get you even more excited, Twitch Plays Pokémon is planning its first run of 2016 on Feb. 14.
"A heavily modified Pokémon Crystal will be played with the [next Twitch Plays Pokémon] game starting in Kanto and featuring a much more sophisticated AI running external to the game," Twitch said.
Meanwhile, Twitch also laid out some guidelines for what actually constitutes a "Twitch Plays" game. Defined as "autonomously running games that utilize Twitch live streams as the primary mode of content delivery," these interactive experiences must give the audience control over "player" action in the game and allow an uncapped number of simultaneous participants.
"'Live' interpretations of Twitch Plays, where a broadcaster is acting out audience feedback directly, is prohibited," Twitch said. "All channels must feature software-based implementations." Games that feature Twitch integrations but don't give total control over to the audience are also not Twitch Plays.
Don't be surprised if these rules change over time, as Twitch is still "learning what's possible in this brave new world of interactive live video content."