Interactive Paper Crane Twitch Overlay & Community Goal, StreamElements and Kick | Origami Chat Cranes, Sub Goal, Raids | Thousand Cranes

TRY IT FIRST: play with the live demo at nymbra.studio/thousand-cranes. Chat as a viewer and watch your crane fold, hang two friends beak to beak, fire every alert and a raid, fold the thousandth crane, tie off tonight's strand and try all five paper sets, right in your browser. No sign-up, nothing connects to your channel.

Installs in about 5 minutes with the START HERE guide, no coding. Bought on your phone? Download from your Etsy purchases on a computer; installing needs one.

Paper cranes on strings across the top of your stream. The first time someone chats in a stream, a sheet of paper in their own colour and print folds itself into a crane, flies up and clips onto the string with a little wooden peg, and their name tag drops in under it. Their messages open on paper slips beside them.

Every crane counts toward a thousand your community folds together, stream after stream. A kraft tag in the corner keeps the count. When it reaches 1,000, every peg opens, the whole flock lifts off the strings and swirls around a paper strip with your thank-you, then flies home and clips back on.

A see-through full-screen overlay for StreamElements, shown in OBS or Streamlabs. Twitch and Kick chat fold onto the same strings. The strings sit in a band across the top of the stream, so your game stays clear.

WHAT HAPPENS ON YOUR STRINGS

• First message of the stream: that chatter's sheet folds into a crane (kite, petal fold, neck, tail, head, wings), flies up and clips on. One crane per person per stream.
• Later messages: their crane flutters and hops on its thread, and the message unfolds on a paper slip.
• Replies and @mentions: the two cranes fly together and hang beak to beak under one shared name tag, like "hollowpine + mossbell". Friends are remembered and hang together again next stream.
• Tonight's string holds 26 cranes. Past that the quietest move up to the far string, and they come back down when they talk.
• Last stream's cranes hang on the far string behind tonight's, so the strings fill up over the weeks.
• A deleted message or a timeout folds its slip away, and a crane folded by that message comes down with its count.

TONIGHT'S STRAND

A strand of cranes down the right edge is your goal for the stream: subs (10 by default), follows, bits or tips, or off. Each sub threads its own crane onto it. When it reaches the goal, a tassel drops in, the label turns to "tied for tonight" (your words) and the strand swings. It starts again next stream.

ALERTS

• Follow: the follower's crane folds with "followed" on its slip.
• Sub and resub: a crane folds in the subscriber's paper and threads onto tonight's strand when the strand counts subs.
• Gift subs: one crane per gifted sub folds side by side, and the gifter's slip says how many.
• Bits: the cheerer's crane flutters and folded paper stars tumble from it.
• Tip: the tipper's crane unclips, flies a lap under the string and clips back on.
• Raid: a V of paper cranes glides in from the left with "raided with 142 viewers" on its slip, then each crane climbs to its own place on the string. One crane per raider, up to 12 per raid (your setting).

What counts toward the thousand: one crane per chatter per stream, one per sub and gifted sub, one per raider up to your cap, and one per place on a follows, bits or tips strand.

CHAT COMMANDS, BY WHO TYPES THEM

Your viewers: !crane (their crane flutters and bows, and a slip shows its paper, how many streams it has folded here and its friend) and !paper indigo (picks their paper by name or number and keeps it for every stream; !paper alone tries the next one, !paper original goes back).
You and your mods: !cranes (the count tag swings and a slip under it reads the count, tonight's cranes and the strand) and !flight (tonight's string takes a practice flight and clips back on, once every 90 seconds).
Other ! commands never show on a slip.

MAKE IT YOURS

16 settings in the widget's settings panel, in plain words:
• Preview a stream and Preview the big moments (the strand tied, a raid and the thousand), to see it all before you go live. Previews never touch your count
• 5 paper sets: Washi mix (16 warm prints, the default), Soft pastels, Night sky (navy, silver and gold), Forest and kraft, and Sunset brights, 12 papers in each of the other four
• Crane size, how many name tags show at once, and chat messages on paper slips (on or off)
• Graphics: Full for the soft shadow and the big flock, or Light for slower PCs
• The big goal: how many cranes to fold together (1,000, or your own number), the most cranes one raid adds, your thank-you words and its second line, and a button to start a new thousand
• Tonight's strand: what fills it, when it ties, and the words when it's tied
• Kick channel

WHAT YOU GET

One instant-download ZIP:
• START-HERE.html: open it in your browser to play with a practice stream that runs the real widget, pick your paper and goals, and copy each file with one click
• widget.html, widget.css, widget.js and widget.json: the four files for StreamElements
• SETUP.md: the same steps as plain text
• LICENSE.txt

One-time purchase, no subscription, free updates.

SETUP

Unzip the download on your computer and open START-HERE.html. Use its copy buttons to paste HTML, CSS, JS and FIELDS into a custom widget in StreamElements, stretch it over a 1920 × 1080 overlay and add the overlay link to OBS or Streamlabs as a browser source. About 5 minutes in all, and no coding needed.

WHAT YOU NEED

A free StreamElements account and OBS Studio, Streamlabs Desktop or any streaming software with browser sources. A 1920 × 1080 overlay: the strings hang across the top and the rest stays see-through.
• On Twitch it works as soon as the files are pasted.
• On Kick, type your channel name in the Kick channel setting, or leave it blank if you signed in to StreamElements with Kick.

GOOD TO KNOW

• The count is saved in your StreamElements account, so it carries over between streams and after OBS restarts. Start a new thousand in the settings sets it back to 0.
• A new stream starts when the overlay has had no chat or alerts for 3 hours.
• Cranes come in as people chat; silent viewers fold one once they type something.
• The strings count chat and alerts that arrive while your overlay is running. They don't import past followers, subs or chatters.
• No sound. Thousand Cranes is silent, so it never talks over your game or music.
• Colours vary a little between monitors.

FAQ

Will it cover my game?
The strings stay in a band across the top of the screen. A fold, a slip, a raid or the big moment passes lower for a few seconds. Make the cranes smaller, show fewer name tags or turn the slips off if you need more room.

Do we have to reach 1,000?
No. Set Cranes to fold together to any number from 10 up, like 100 for a smaller channel, and the thank-you reads "100 cranes, folded together".

How fast does the count grow?
One crane per chatter per stream, plus subs, gifted subs and raiders. A stream with 30 chatters and 5 subs adds about 35 cranes.

Does it remember my viewers after OBS restarts?
Yes. The count, each viewer's paper, their friends and how many streams they have folded with you are saved in your StreamElements account.

Will it slow down my PC?
Graphics Full draws a soft shadow and a flock of up to 140 cranes. Light skips the shadow and flies a smaller flock, for a slower PC.

The listing shows the real widget with example names. Abstract listing backgrounds are not part of the overlay. This is a digital download licensed to one streamer and their channels; please do not share or resell the files.

Also from Nymbra Studio: Firefly Meadow, where your chat becomes a meadow of fireflies that light paper lanterns together, and Starlings, a sky of little stars that link into constellations.

Need help? Message me through Etsy with your StreamElements username and a screenshot of the widget settings. I'll help you get it running and usually answer within a day.