When you think of Twitch, think of Twitch chat. And when you think of Twitch chat, you think of emotes, the small, emoji-like images that are basically their own language on the streaming platform.
twitch global emotes, available for all streamers, are the starting point. But most Twitch streamers have access to custom emotes, which are often spins on various global emotes — for example, a streamer having a PogChamp of their own face — and help build a sense of community. Emotes can make communities feel connected, as if they share the same secret language. Simply put, emotes matter, and that’s why there are communities of artists building economies on the fringes of Twitch’s business.
But there’s never been a great way to acknowledge artists for their emote work, other than a mention scrolling down a page somewhere, or an on-air shoutout that’s easy to miss. But this is changing: Twitch announced this on Tuesday that there are ways to recognize emote artists for their work.
There are two parts to this: Emote Mapping and Artist Badge. Emote attributions are a label that can be self-assigned to emotes that tags an artist’s Twitch channel every time someone clicks on an emote. You can see what that looks like below – the new detail is listed under Tier 1 Sub Emote, with a link to the artist’s channel.
Creators can also assign an artist badge to five different people per channel. Twitch expects this to be used for emote, overlay, and avatar artists. The Artist Badge is a small brush outlined in blue that appears in Twitch chat.
“As a freelance artist with a disability, creating art for Twitch streamers has been life changing.” Twitch streamer and emote artist Jesshy Carr said igamesnews. “As a viewer and emote collector, I’m so excited to be able to click on an emote and see who created it so I can potentially contact that artist to get some of their art for me.”
Artists who do not want either can disable the feature, and artists must approve any attributions assigned to them. Both subscriber and follower emotes can be assigned to artists with the new labels. However, the artist must have a Twitch account to be credited for their work. It’s a small change and some Twitch artists are waiting to see if it’s beneficial to their business. However, artists who have spoken to Polygon are happy to have their work credited in a more visible way – when someone clicks an emote in chat.
Pandreama Twitch emote artist and animator, told Polygon that this could be a way for new artists to gain exposure.
“This is a change that will help both big and small artists,” Pandreem said. “It’s a huge opportunity to get more popularity and commissions. When I started, the space for emote artists was much smaller and it was easier to get noticed. I’ve mostly made my name by contacting users via Twitter when I searched for the tag ’emotes’.”
This advertising method is less viable these days, she said — there are many spam and bot accounts flooding commission requests.
“I’m sure it’s not that easy to grow in this space, there are many talented artists on Twitch and they should have a chance to see their art get more recognition,” said Pandreem.