Hello, Xbox fans. I wanted to share with you a little bit about how we’ve integrated Mixer into our latest game, City of Brass.

City of Brass on Xbox One features a Mixer Interactive Mode, which can be enabled at any time by a player in-game. This mode allows the viewers of the player’s Mixer stream to have a real impact on the game, by either helping or hindering the player’s progress. Using Mixer, the viewer interactions are easily accessible via buttons on the stream page, and the interactions occur in real time! What this means is that viewers can wait for the perfect moment to save the player… or be their downfall.

During development, we saw streaming as a valuable way of letting many people experience City of Brass. Looking into Mixer and its interaction features, we realized it was a natural fit for the style of game we are making. We wanted to create a rich engagement where audiences can interact with streamers in real time, and for it have a meaningful gameplay effect.

The Help and Hinder system has been carefully balanced to both provide fun to the viewers and the player. We expect there will be moments of tension, where players who are low on health survive an onslaught of viewer spawned enemies – and at times die to them – and they’ll see the name of the viewer that got them killed. There will be also moments where a viewer manages to just save the player from death, gives them the perfect tool for the job or spawns an allied character which goes on a multiple kill run, becoming legendary in the stream.

The ability for the viewers to interact in real time is a really exciting tool. Viewers can wait until the streamer goes around a corner, runs into a dead end or is about to enter a boss fight to unleash the Hinder tools. Likewise, right as the player needs a bit more loot to purchase an item, or needs a throwable item to progress, the viewers can time their actions to when it is needed most. Having the buttons right there on the screen – and seeing enemies or allies with your Mixer username right there in the stream – it’s like you’re in the game playing with them!

Using Mixer has really opened our eyes to how much fun interacting with your audience can be. We believe it’s important that the experience be fun on both sides and we feel we have hit that balance well. So now we’re thinking of more ways we can allow the audience to interact with City of Brass post-launch, and we’re really looking forward to hearing the feedback and suggestions from both the players and viewers.

We hope you enjoy City of Brass when it launches on Xbox One this Friday, May 4, and especially have fun with Mixer!