Stream Raiders
A Game Review
It can be a tough job to entertain an audience and engage them in an amusing fashion for hours on end. Couple that with the daunting task of marketing yourself to attract new followers and it can become quite the undertaking. Fortunately, a fun solution has arisen to help streamers accomplish these endeavors with less effort and increased results. What better way to ease the burden of such work than to make a game of it? That's exactly what Captain.tv did, with their original game Stream Raiders.
WHAT IS STREAM RAIDERS?
For those of you who may not have heard of this game or haven't had the opportunity to play it, Stream Raiders is a streamer-initiated unit placement campaign battle strategy game.
Let's break that down.
Streamers, who are the "Captains" of their team, select campaigns on a map.
(To be a Captain, your account must have 100+ followers on Twitch.)
Each battle within the campaign allows viewers 30 minutes to place units before the battle begins.
Once a viewer places a unit, a 5-minute timer begins before that viewer can place another unit within the 30-minute window.
At the end of 30 minutes, the streamer begins the battle and all the placed units clash with the NPC's on the map, with one side coming out the victor.
Captains can place one buff on the field prior to starting the battle to help their team. Battles can also be started early before the 30-minute timer has expired. Players can unlock a variety of units, each with different types of strengths to overcome different classes of enemy troops. There are several Captain slots available in the game so that players can play with a limited number of simultaneous streamers concurrently. A viewer's individual progress in terms of units unlocked and level progression of that unit is saved within the player's profile, so that progress is brought to the battlefield each time regardless of Captain.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE STRATEGY...
There are different types of unit strengths that can be utilized by players as they face a variety of enemy troops. For example: some units are armored, some heal, some have ranged capabilities, whiles others have their own unique support traits. Placing units that have the best chance to overcome the type of enemy being faced is a key element of the game. To assist with this, Captains have the ability to mark their team's placement area with symbols that communicate the types of units that should be placed there. Players are free to ignore these symbols, but doing so tends to have a negative impact on the team's overall plan.
Please note, your number of followers or even active viewers will not impact the difficulty of the instances encountered. Circumstances like that are determined by the active number of players placing on your battle maps. The more players you have, the more enemies you may encounter, but also the more strategies in regards to troop placement you can develop. The further a Captain's team progresses into a campaign, the harder the enemy becomes by way of increased level and number of units. Some encounters are labeled boss battles, with a powerful unit amongst the enemy that requires a number of player troops to defeat.
WHAT ELSE DOES IT HAVE?
Stream Raiders has an automated quest system, allowing players to perform game actions that yield increased rewards. A selection of items to either enhance your troops or change their appearance by way of "skins" is available in the Shop for either game currency or real-world money. Captains can earn custom skins that their viewers can purchase to help support the stream. There are also different modes of play, presenting unique challenges for the player to experience. In addition to the Campaign mode described above, the game allows for Dungeon & Versus modes during specific periods.
Captains who choose to lead their viewers in Dungeon mode will face an increasingly difficult series of levels. As the team progresses, Captains can select rewards that offer bonus buffs to the team for the duration of the dungeon. If a player's unit dies in this mode, it is generally no longer useable for the rest of the dungeon run. In Versus mode, Captains are matched against other Captains in a head-to-head conflict where players have only a few minutes to place units and build a stronger team than their opposition. Both of these modes rewards a unique currency players can use to purchase special in-game items.
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
Allowing streamers to choose and start battles at their own pace gives them the freedom to not interrupt other activities on their stream. It makes for a great addition to the main content to bring an added layer of involvement with a community. However, sometimes streamers are held up in starting a battle and a player has to subsequently wait to claim rewards from that participation. This wait can turn into a serious delay with some streamers even ending stream and logging off, forgetting to start the battle until the next day or broadcast. While Stream Raiders is often not the main focus of many streams, Captains and potential Captains should keep in mind the responsibility to their viewers of completing any started battles.
This game is also a great way for viewers to find new streamers they may not have otherwise found. When you do find a Captain that you enjoy playing with, Stream Raiders has a "Favorite" system where you can click the heart icon under a Captain's profile picture. This makes it easy to find those Captains again later in the "My Favorites" tab of the "Choose Streamer" interface.
If you're looking for Captains who play regularly and are diligent about starting battles on time, we'd like to recommend the following streamers (presented in alphabetical order):
If you'd like to learn more about how to play this game, the Stream Raiders Wiki has plenty of information.
Happy Raiding!