World of WildCrazeAn Internet Craze

28.
SepLive! How does it work?

Another project in beta

This week I’ve been working behind the scenes on live.a-d-a.tv, in many ways inspired by the livestream page I made for this website. So, what does it do?

Screenshot from live.a-d-a.tv

In short, it shows who’s streaming and displays the most popular stream if there is one.

Background

A/D\A is a strong community on Twitch that features a diversity of hobby live streamers. As there currently are no partners to promote the community, I’ve been contemplating something to substitute a team page on Twitch. As much as a team page would be useful to the community, it’s a feature only Twitch partners have the privilege to utilize.

In the mold

Design had to be super simple, with the least amount of clutter. First idea was to show stream and chat only, and none of the other stuff. After that, the menu bar from the regular website was added as a convenient way to navigate the community, and a subtle way of telling direct visitors that there’s more to this community than just a stream.

Other streams should be watchable, even though not appearing in the list of “locals”. Providing a clean interface for everyone’s viewing pleasure.

Layout was pretty much given. The recommended width was used for chat, leaving the rest of the screen for a video window. As the project progressed, the list of streams were tweaked to match the chat width. To begin with, stream buttons were somewhat smaller and at the same time harder to read.

Behind the scenes

1. The web server pulls the channel list from Adamanty, the community robot. As soon as you have the robot in your channel, you’re visible on the page.
2. The list of channels are forwarded to the Twitch API.
3. Twitch returns a list of who’s online, and provides basic information about the stream(s).
4. Active streams are collected in an “active” menu, sorted by popularity, while the rest are sorted alphabetically.
5. Most popular stream is also used to display video stream while on the front page.

What’s next then?

While the site appear functional as it is, there are a couple of things that I’d like to explore further. The biggest thing on my mind is a way to integrate the stream info section, as a lot of these include chat rules and otherwise useful information. Then there are potential buttons for tweeting and following.

Balancing things is where the headache kicks in. As much as I want to put things into the page, I also want to keep it neat and simplistic. The mobile Twitch application kind of reflects the same way I’m thinking, that you should only see stream and chat unless you actively seek out the other stuff. And at the same time extra stuff should be right there, without having to look everywhere for it.

Right now, extra stuff might be a bit into the future. In its simplest form, my philosophy tend to be to do things when there’s nothing else I rather be doing. The creative process of working on small projects like these are a reward in its own. I’m having fun while it lasts, but tend to feel an emptiness when I finish my work. Not knowing where to go next. Not knowing what might tickle my fancy.