Design Challenges for Livestreamed Audience Participation Games

Livestreamed APGs (audience participation games) allow stream viewers to participate meaningfully in a streamer's gameplay. However, streaming interfaces are not designed to meet the needs of audience participants. In order to explore the game design space of APGs, we provided three game development teams with an audience participation interface development toolkit. Teams iteratively developed and tested APGs over the course of ten months, and then reflected on common design challenges across the three games. Six challenges were identified: latency, screen sharing, attention management, player agency, audience-streamer relationships, and shifting schedules. The impact of these challenges on players were then explored through external playtests. We conclude with implications for the future of APG design.