Questions and answers

A marble race your Twitch chat plays. Viewers type !play, a ball with their name drops onto the course, and the first one across the finish line wins. It’s 2D, quick to follow on stream and runs right in your browser.

Yes: No Balls Allowed. Streamers, set it as your stream’s category when you race, so viewers browsing it find you. Tags like ChatPlays and Interactive help too.

Yes, while we’re in the invite-only beta.

No. They just type !play in your Twitch chat.

No. The game runs in your web browser, and on stream it’s simply a Browser source in OBS (or any streaming software that can show a web page).

Anything that runs a modern browser: Windows, Mac, Linux or a Chromebook. No gaming PC needed. To play for fun, your phone or tablet’s browser works great too, with touch controls. For streaming, use the computer that runs OBS.

Streamer pages are invite-only for now. Sign in with Twitch, and if you’re not on the list yet, get in touch and we’ll add you. Your page lives at noballsallowed.com/yourname/.

On your page, choose Live on Twitch, pick a course, and copy your OBS link from step 3. In OBS, add a Browser source and paste the link. That’s it. There’s also a Test with fake chat button so you can try everything before going live.

From your dashboard: your tagline, intro text, badge, footer, the three “How it works” steps, the words that pop up in the race (like the callout when a ball hits a bumper) and the result lines. You also pick the hat your subscribers’ balls wear. Inside the game you can choose name tags, text size, camera style and zoom.

No. Your setup page only opens for you, and your race and OBS links include a private key. Anyone else who visits your page sees a card pointing them to your Twitch channel. If a link ever gets out, reset it from your dashboard.

Coming soon. Every page already gets our set of courses, and a course editor for streamers is on the way.

Yes. Subscribers’ names show in a highlight color, and their balls wear the hat you pick from our 20 streamer-only hats: a top hat, party hat, backwards cap, cowboy hat, wizard hat, Viking helmet, propeller beanie (it spins!), gamer headset, halo, cat ears with whiskers, big bow, beret, floppy sun hat, heart boppers, hair curlers, sleep mask, bandana, fox ears, retro sweatband or antlers. It’s their default: a subscriber who picked a hat of their own wears that instead. And when you race on your own stream, your ball wears the host crown and your name shows in your own color, so chat can always spot you.

Yes. Anyone can join wearing a hat from the player hat set by typing it after !play, like !play pirate, or with !hat pirate once they’re in. !hats shows all 23 on screen: pirate hat, chef’s hat, beanie, sombrero, fedora, hard hat, graduation cap, bucket hat, witch hat, devil horns, unicorn, flower crown, racing helmet, sailor cap, jester hat, mohawk, traffic cone, alien antennae, shark fin, eggshell, sunglasses, jack-o-lantern and mouse ears. It’s one pick per series, and a viewer’s own pick replaces your sub hat. Players can also save a color and hat at noballsallowed.com/me, and it shows up every time they type !play, on any channel.

Yes. Every real Twitch player gets career stats that add up across every channel: races, finishes, podiums, wins, series won, awards and streams. Playing unlocks hats too: 30 of them in 5 collections, from a Paper Boat for racing in 2 streams to a Golden Teacup for 100. After each race, up to three players win a race award for the funniest thing their marble did, and the game can call out big moments mid-race with a caption. Players see all of it at noballsallowed.com/me by signing in with Twitch. Hats and colors are looks only: they never change how a marble races, and there’s nothing to buy. Bots and pretend chat never count.

Coming soon. Add the No Balls Allowed bot to your server, members type /play to join, and the results post back to your channel. Great for community game nights, even when you’re not live.

Yes, with hands-off mode. Bots race nonstop on random courses until someone in chat types !play. Then a real series starts, with bots filling the field so even one viewer gets a full race. Bots can win races, but only real players can be champion, and players can wear hats so everyone can tell them from the bots. Between races, pop-up cards explain the game to new viewers. You can still step in from chat with !skip, !stop and !kick. Star your favorite courses and they come up more often, in hands-off and in your series. During the beta we switch it on for your page, so just ask. See it on our homepage.

Yes. Switch on Starting Screen when you set up a live race, hands-off or BallBucks Derby, and your OBS link opens on an animated Starting soon screen in your branding, with a countdown bar, your own message and pop-up tips. While it runs, viewers can type !play to drop in a marble with their name on it, and they’re in the first race (in BallBucks Derby they take the first race’s runner spots; in hands-off mode they start a real series straight away). When the timer ends, or when you say so, the game starts on its own, with no second browser source or scene switch. Need a break? !brb brings up a Be right back screen. During the beta we switch it on for your page, so just ask.

Yes, with party mode. Press P in the game (or on your Starting soon screen) and run a live light show from your keyboard: bass thumps that punch the camera, laser sweeps, roaming gobo spotlights, a disco ball, a UV blackout where the marbles glow neon in the dark, a flash-safe strobe, and a build-up you hold and release for the drop. The lights are only for show. They never touch the physics, so every bounce and every result is exactly what it would have been without them. The strobe stays within the usual safe limit for flashing. During the beta we switch it on for your page, so just ask.

A game mode where chat bets on the race instead of (or as well as) racing. It’s a 3, 5 or 7-race series with 10 numbered runners: viewers who type !play to race, with bots filling the empty spots (or bots only, if you like). Before each race a betting board shows every runner’s odds, and the odds move as chat bets. Viewers bet with !bet 3 100 (to win), !top3 3 100 or !exact 3 5 1 50 for the jackpot (up to 3 bets a race), and can’t bet on a race they’re running in. Anyone can type !howto to see how it works. Everyone starts with the same 1,000 BallBucks, and the richest bettor after the last race wins. During the beta we switch it on for your page, so just ask.

Yes, that’s the best part. With chat players on, viewers type !play to be one of the 10 runners, and everyone else bets on them. Runners can’t bet on the race they’re in, but sign-ups open fresh before every race, so anyone can race one and bet on the next. The board shows how many people are backing each runner, so chat can see who the crowd favorite is.

After every race a payouts screen shows the podium, what each place paid, the biggest winning bets, the jackpot and the richest players. Anyone can type !mybets (or !balance) at any time to see their bets, what each would pay, what they have left and their rank.

No. BallBucks are pretend points, just for fun, a lot like Twitch’s own channel points predictions. They’re free, everyone gets the same amount, and they can’t be bought, sold, traded or cashed out for anything. There’s nothing to pay and nothing to win except bragging rights. Go broke and you just sit out until the next derby.

Please don’t give real prizes (money, gift subs, merch or anything else of value) for BallBucks results. Keeping it about bragging rights is what keeps it a game and not gambling. A shout-out, a title for the night or a sound alert is a great way to crown the winner.

Yes. Mods and the broadcaster can run races from chat with !start, !pause, !resume, !skip and more.

Twitch only for now.

Very little. Playing needs no account, and streamer sign-in only tells us who you are on Twitch. The details are on our privacy page.

We love Marbles on Stream. It’s the game that inspired this one, and it’s fantastic if you want big 3D tracks, lots of game modes and a huge community. No Balls Allowed is our simpler take: 2D, in your browser, nothing to install, and branded for your channel. See the side-by-side on our homepage.