Buddy stream overlay — a stage for your crew and viewers
A transparent stage you drop into OBS with a single Gatherbot overlay URL. Crew room members and live-chat viewers walk around as pixel characters, and viewers move their characters with chat commands.
What the stream overlay is
Buddy in the desktop app is a stage only you see; the stream overlay is a stage laid over your broadcast for viewers to see too. It is a web page with a transparent background, so it goes straight into OBS as a browser source, and it needs no login — the overlay URL issued by Gatherbot is the key.
- Your crew room members stand as characters, and that room's messages, greetings, actions, throws and HP show on the stream as well
- A viewer who types in your ci.me live chat gets a character on the spot
- Viewers type commands such as !jump or !attack nickname in chat to move their character
Setting it up
- 1In the Overlay tab of the Gatherbot management screen, turn on 'Buddy chat link' — with it off, the stage stays empty
- 2Press 'Copy buddy overlay URL' in the same tab
- 3Add a browser source in OBS and paste the URL. The background is already transparent, so there is nothing else to adjust
- 4Start streaming and your live chat flows onto the stage
This URL is a secret address built from the same token as the songbook overlay. Keep the address itself off your stream, and if you issue a new token the old address dies immediately — copy it again and paste it into OBS.
Who appears
| Who | When they appear | When they leave |
|---|---|---|
| You, the streamer | Always. Type in your live chat and your character says it | Never |
| Crew room members | Always. Presence and HP look the same as on the desktop stage | When they leave the crew |
| Live-chat viewers | The moment they type in chat, a character appears on the spot. Someone who has picked a character in Cigather gets that one | After a while without saying anything, they quietly leave |
The text of your crew room's messages goes out on the stream as is. That is what turning this on means — tell your crew members, and ask them to keep private talk out of the crew room while you are live.
The overlay opens even if you have not created a crew yet. In that case the stage holds only you and your live viewers.
Viewer commands
| Typed in chat | What happens |
|---|---|
| !jump · !dance · !heart | Their character hops, dances or floats hearts |
| !surprise · !laugh · !sit | Shows an exclamation or laugh mark, or sits down (type again to stand) |
| !attack nickname | Throws a pebble at the character with that nickname. The one hit gets pushed and squashed |
Viewer commands play only inside the stream picture and are stored nowhere. A viewer's throw does not take real HP from crew members — it is effect only. Korean commands (!점프, !공격 …) work too.
Ordinary chat that is not a command appears as that viewer's speech bubble. When you type in your live chat, your character speaks; when a crew member types in your live chat, their character speaks.
Common questions
I added it to OBS but nothing shows.
First check that 'Buddy chat link' is on in Gatherbot — with it off, the stage is empty. Next, the address: if you issued a new overlay token, the old URL is dead, so copy and paste it again. If both are right and there are still no characters, perhaps nobody has typed in chat yet. Try typing a line yourself.
Can viewers pick their own character?
A viewer with a Cigather account who has picked a character in Buddy appears as that character. Otherwise a free character is assigned automatically. There is no way to pick one from the stream itself.
I heard you can split into teams and go to war.
Team battles are still being prepared. We will add instructions here when they open. What you can use now are the commands above.