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What Does It Take to Run an Online Server-Side Account Based Multiplayer Game?

Kitoro

Member
Hey There, Everyone!

Not sure where the best place to put this thread is, but I figure the Gaming Community board would be the least offensive place to start.

To put it simply, I'm knee deep in development on a F2P Mobile Gacha game that's unlike any on the market yet. I am unable to divulge details on the nature of the gameplay, but what I can say is that it runs on Unity, and currently supports live 4 player multiplayer over Unity's free relay servers (which we'll have to migrate from when we launch). We're going to try and squeeze in Bluetooth multiplayer for when Wi-Fi is not available to players who don't want to burn through their data plan.

The online play runs flawlessly right now with the free relay servers, but this is just a small group of 4 people playing the game. Ideally, when the game releases, there will be thousands of people connected to our server space simultaneously, logging into their server-side accounts, opening game lobbies and inviting their friends to lobbies to start matches.

I know that most gacha games use Amazon Web Services for server hosting, and I'm sure I'll end up using AWS as well, but what scares me is that, through all my time and energy (no pun intended) spent playing gacha games, both for study and leisure, I've never truly found one with completely live multiplayer. Sure, some fake it, and I can see characters running around the screen attacking enemies, but there's no consequence between my actions and theirs on each other's screens that really matter.

The game I'm making is highly cooperative, where placement does matter, and we've had to make the net code truly count for player positioning and movement. What worries me is that almost every gacha game with multiplayer elements practically play themselves, or only offer asynchronous multiplayer, if that. Our game is 2-D and not graphically demanding, just to add.

Basically what I'm getting at is that the game is really coming along nicely, and we should be ready to launch in the Fall or so, but the only gray area for us is that we really don't know how server load and costs would fluctuate when offering live multiplayer vs asynchronous multiplayer only.

Thanks so much for your time and any insight you may have; it's very much appreciated!
 
Would it be legal/possible to ask AWS for data regarding games such as Order And Chaos, a mobile MMORPG, that has real-time multiplayer to possibly get a ballpark of the upper end of server costs?
 

Kitoro

Member
Would it be legal/possible to ask AWS for data regarding games such as Order And Chaos, a mobile MMORPG, that has real-time multiplayer to possibly get a ballpark of the upper end of server costs?

That's my next move, but I figured I'd ask here as well for any insight from anyone who may have experience working on similar projects.

I really appreciate the idea; I hope they do share at least some anonymous information on games such as Order & Chaos and other slightly less intensive online mobile games compared to asynchronous only games such as Monster Strike and Brave Frontier.
 
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