Solo play with an AI cohost versus broadcasting with one: what changes?

One character, two uses

Signal Broker runs the same way whether or not anyone is watching: a Windows app, the Broker watching the game window you chose, speaking through your default audio output when something is worth saying. What changes between playing alone and broadcasting is who else hears him, what you have to set up, and what you owe the people watching.

Playing alone with him

What you get is a second presence in your game: the Broker watches what you play, remembers what happened in the session, and speaks when he has something worth saying. He is a character, not an assistant: you do not type to him and he does not wait to be asked.

• No OBS, no scene, no stream key. He appears over fullscreen or windowed games through the in-game overlay; the Broker Bar shows time left and status, toggled with Ctrl + Shift + Alt + B, also over a fullscreen game. His voice comes out of your Windows default output device like any other sound.
• Your choices, privately. SPECTATOR comments on what he sees; PLAYER speaks as if sitting beside you; you can change it before a session or while one runs. Adjust Talkativeness. Position and size of the overlay are yours in Settings. Playing alone is where you find the settings you like before anyone else hears them.
• Your pace. PAUSE holds the Broker without ending the session: he stops looking and speaking until you press RESUME. A paused session spends no Signal Time. STOP ends the session and spending stops.
• Quiet is normal. He holds during cutscenes, dialogue and menus, and when nothing is worth a line; the Broker Bar shows LISTENING in that case.

What leaves your PC is the same either way: while a session runs, captured frames of the game you chose, with the session context the Broker needs, go to the Signal Broker service and on to its AI provider; never your microphone (the app has none).

Broadcasting with him

• One Browser source. In the app, OVERLAY → Set up OBS → Enable OBS overlay, choose Centered, Bottom left or Bottom right, then Copy OBS Source. In OBS, one Browser source at 800 × 600 placed above your game source. The address points at your own PC and works only while Signal Broker is open with the overlay enabled; keep it off screen.
• His voice in your mix. He plays through the Windows default output device, so Desktop Audio captures him together with the game. There is no separate audio track yet. Check the Desktop Audio meter and make a short test recording before going live.
• What he adds for viewers. A character who watches the game and speaks when something happens, whether chat is busy or empty.
• What he does not do for viewers. He does not read chat and he will not answer a viewer. He is not a chat bot or a text-to-speech reader; combine him with those tools if you want both.
• Tell your audience. The commentary is generated by AI. Say so on stream or in your description; some platforms and countries require it.
• Same cost. Streaming a session spends Signal Time exactly like playing without a stream.

Setup differences side by side

What to watch out for in each

Solo. Some games in exclusive fullscreen hide every overlay; borderless or windowed mode for that game is the reliable alternative. Some anti-cheat protected games refuse capture; the app says so when it happens. If you switch headsets mid-session, stop and start again. During a voice outage the Bar shows VOICE RECOVERING and he keeps watching; if the voice cannot reconnect, the session ends and says so.

On stream. A blank source usually means the app is closed, the overlay is off, or the source sits below the game: keep Signal Broker open and Enable OBS overlay on, check the source is visible and above your game, click Refresh cache of current page. Captions without a voice mean Desktop Audio is not capturing his Windows output. What your viewers see is the Browser source; what you see over your own game is the in-game overlay, and they are separate. There is no in-session game switching: to change game, STOP, choose the other game in the app, then START, which takes a few seconds; plan the scene change around it.

Recordings to watch first

The developer’s own sessions, recorded on earlier Founder Alpha builds with the lines that miss left in:

• eFootball and Company of Heroes: the closest to a stream with no narrator but him.
• Dead Cells: a fast roguelike, where timing shows most.
• DiRT 3: a racing game, with a cropped taskbar in the capture.
• Crash Bandicoot: thirty-five minutes of him as the host of a platformer.

Behaviour, wording and the voice change between builds; the current public release is 1.0.0-alpha.12. All recorded sessions.

Which one to try first

Solo first, even if you stream. The free trial is 30 Signal Minutes, claimed through your eligible account with no card, and Signal Time measures his work, not the clock. Run ten minutes on the game you know best with the evaluation sheet, settle the role and Talkativeness, then add the Browser source with the OBS guide and make a short test recording before going live.

PAUSE holds the Broker without ending the session: he stops looking and speaking until you press RESUME. There is no in-session game switching: to change game, STOP, choose the other game in the app, then START. Founder Alpha is early-access software, sold to customers in the United States only.

Limits

• No claim is made about what playing with the Broker does for you beyond what the pages describe: he is a character who reacts to the game. Nothing here is about companionship, wellbeing or health.
• He does not hear you and does not read chat; the app has no microphone input and no chat.
• No guaranteed cadence: how often he speaks depends on the game, the moment and the service.
• Founder Alpha is early-access software; the commentary can be wrong, repeated or badly timed, and it is sold to customers in the United States only.