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December Update: Death by AI, Twitch Insights and Godot

December Update: Death by AI, Twitch Insights and Godot

Tabish Ahmed
Tabish Ahmed

December 6, 2023

November was filled with numerous game launches across different distribution platforms, and we're still actively releasing new games with studios and new multiplayer modes in our SDK.

I'll keep this update brief and will concentrate on numbers and insights. In the next one, we'll share our vision for 2024 and how Playroom aims to become synonymous with casual multiplayer gaming.

A quick highlight, I really appreciate receiving inbound messages from industry veterans like Timmu Toke (CEO of Ready Player Me), who appreciated our technology and vision. These messages keep fueling us to move forward in our mission.

Beta Playtest of Death by AI (original IP)


Play Death by AI (opens in a new tab)

In the first week of November, we soft launched a new game called "Death by AI" (play here (opens in a new tab)) a Jackbox-style party game. The game was developed in eight weeks, a feat made possible by the rapid development and backend abstraction provided by Playroom Kit.

In 20 days:

  • Thanks to our community and YouTube superpowers, the game was picked for playtesting by over 30 Twitch streamers.

  • "Death by AI" ranked #1 on Hackernews for more than 6 hours.

  • During the open beta, we saw over 70,000 users, with a Week 1 retention rate of 40%.

  • For social casual gaming, Twitch and YouTube were the primary sources of traffic.

  • In total, we recorded over 100,000 game sessions with almost 10,000 hours of gameplay in 20 days.

Game streamers (Twitch) market:

We believe the market has not yet fully recognized the demand for live streaming and social games, presenting a massive missed opportunity. Given the speed and eagerness with which these Twitch streamers tried new games to play with their communities, it's evident that game streamers are constantly seeking new content to engage their audience, rather than sticking with the same incumbents.

Watch Twitch Game Sessions:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1994655659 (opens in a new tab) - troubella (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1993564690 (opens in a new tab) - gundagam (opens in a new tab)

https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1987464516 (opens in a new tab) - d20thoughts (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1992579724?filter=archives&sort=time (opens in a new tab) - Ray0ken (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1986139636?t=04h25m57s (opens in a new tab) - dogbomb (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1990764587?t=04h06m57s (opens in a new tab) - HalloweenMoonCrab (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1977839808 (opens in a new tab) - DelandSIV (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1991226584?t=02h10m29s (opens in a new tab) - ArryBo (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1986538449?t=02h25m41s (opens in a new tab) - Zeas44 (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1988259299?t=03h19m42s (opens in a new tab) - CONEY (opens in a new tab)

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1982633325?t=02h46m46s (opens in a new tab) - Cubiie (opens in a new tab)

Playroom Kit Insights

This month, we released support for the Godot Engine (opens in a new tab), which was the community's second most requested engine. This achievement marks our commitment to consistently launching a multiplayer system that works across all game libraries and engines, thereby reducing the barrier for developers.

  • Since July, we have published over 50 SDK changelogs.

  • Our initial target was to launch only 3 engines, but we now officially support 10 game engines and libraries.

  • We have seen over 500 SDK downloads from developers.

  • We launched three out-of-the-box multiplayer modes: Phone multiplayer, Web multiplayer, and Stream multiplayer.

  • We are launching LIVE multiplayer to support games on TikTok and Twitch.

Games to try:

Playroom:

Playroom's offers a web-based Multiplayer Kit to meet the growing consumer demand of cross-platform multiplayer games. The SDK unlocks new multiplayer modes that makes game interoperable with seamless architecture. Playroom Games also distributes 1P and 3P multiplayer games across platforms

Playroom Highlights: Let's review last 6 monthsMultiplayer Edge Cases