By John Imah, Gaming Creator Program Lead, and Nick Miller, Product Manager

In January we launched our gaming creator program, and since then we’ve seen thousands of people livestreaming and building communities on Facebook around the games they love. Established creators in the program continually share feedback on how we can help new gaming creators be successful. We hear often that emerging creators need help getting started, finding audiences for their content and connecting with fans.

So today we’re announcing a new program specifically for emerging gaming creators, as well as an early version of a new place for people to discover and watch gaming video on Facebook.

Level Up Program for Emerging Gaming Creators

To help gaming creators get started, we’re announcing our Level Up Program for creators who are just beginning to build their communities on Facebook. Available in the coming months, this program will give creators information and tools to jumpstart their communities and earn money for their work. Key elements of the program include:

Earning money with Facebook Stars: Level Up members will be able to earn money through the fan support feature that we announced in January. Now called Facebook Stars, that feature lets fans support their favorite gaming creators by purchasing and sending virtual goods during livestreams. Early access to new features for livestreaming: Level Up members will receive early access to new features, best practices from established gaming creators and customized access to Facebook support for troubleshooting and bug reporting. We want to give emerging gaming creators the information and support they need so they can livestream more easily, grow their communities more quickly and focus on making great content.

Check out our Gaming Creator portal for more on the Level Up program, including eligibility requirements. We’ll start sending invitations and onboarding Level Up members in waves and plan to open up to gaming creators globally in the next few months.

We’re continuing to expand our gaming creator program — creators who are interested in joining can sign up here. Several partnered creators are participating in our test of fan support via monthly payments, and in the coming weeks, we’ll add more partnered creators to that test group.

More Ways for Fans to Discover and Follow Gaming Video

Many people already watch gaming videos in News Feed, Groups and Pages, and we want to do more to help creators get discovered and reach new fans. To make it easier for people to find and follow gaming content, we’ve recently started testing a new gaming video destination on Facebook — available at the short URL fb.gg — that aggregates live and prerecorded gaming video on Facebook in one place.

People will be able to discover gaming video on our new destination based on creators and games they follow, Pages they like and Groups they belong to. We’ll also feature creators, esports competitions and content from gaming industry events on fb.gg. To seed the ecosystem, inspire others, and bring great content to fb.gg, we are funding content from creators and esports that will also be aggregated in our gaming video destination.

We’re in an experimental phase and will continue to test new experiences, including a feed where fans can explore relevant gaming content, improvements to recommendations, expanded gaming video inventory in more languages and integration of an Instant Games tab on the mobile version of our gaming destination so people can toggle between watching and playing games.

Gaming Creators and Facebook Gaming at E3

Next week at E3 in Los Angeles, we’ll showcase what we’re working on as we strive to build the world’s community for gamers. Our booth in South Hall (#2301) will bring all these efforts together under an updated visual brand identity for Facebook Gaming that unites the wide variety of gaming communities on Facebook. We’ll continue to roll out this new look at future events and on additional Facebook gaming channels and platforms.

Similar to our recent activation at PAX East, the Facebook Gaming E3 booth will feature creators like MelonieMac, Darkness429, MissesMae and StoneMountain64 alongside developers to talk about their favorite games and mingle with fans in person — and all content will be available on the homepage of our gaming video destination. We’ll also feature some exciting games coming out this year, both playable and featured on stage, including the latest VR titles coming to Oculus Rift.

For a full overview of our E3 presence this year, including details on Facebook’s Women in Gaming initiative and our work with E3 Coliseum, visit our E3 page.