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Twitch's 'Choice Chamber' is here, will make you hate your viewers
Ah simpler, pre-internet, times: when screwing up someone's perfect game was as easy as "accidentally" tripping over those absurdly short controller wires during a pal's perfect Sonic The Hedgehog run. Choice Chamber, the first title funded in part by game-broadcasting juggernaut Twitch brings that sort of griefing into the modern era and it's out now. A brief recap: while playing the game and broadcasting it on your channel, the audience in chat has a direct impact on what happens next in the 2D side-scroller. So if I'm feeling particularly nasty, I could set one of the game's procedurally-generated rooms on fire and give someone's player character the pogo ability, which makes them jump around all willy nilly. You know, if I was in a dour mood and could get the folks in chat to agree with me (I am very charming).
Let the audience decide your fate in new Twitch-backed game
When some 1.1 million people played Pokémon together via Twitch's game-broadcasting service, developer Studio Bean must've gotten inspired. Choice Chamber takes the idea of the audience deciding what happens onscreen to a new level and injects Twitch chat into the game's DNA; here, the peanut gallery has a direct impact on the player's progression. As you make your way through a series of randomly generated rooms, the audience (people watching you broadcast via Twitch, of course) takes a series of polls that alter the game's flow. It's a lot like playing as dungeon master with your Dungeons and Dragons crew, but with a 21st century twist. As cool as voting on what weapon the player gets, or summoning a giant fist that wipes across the screen to obliterate a boss monster sounds, though, the project is only halfway to its $30,000 Kickstarter funding goal. With four days left in the campaign, Twitch has announced that it'll step in and match the funds needed to finish the game.
