Development support with Amazon GameLift - Amazon GameLift
For custom game serversFor custom client servicesFor Realtime Servers
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Development support with Amazon GameLift

Amazon GameLift provides a set of SDKs that you can use with your managed game hosting solutions. Use Amazon GameLift SDKs to add the necessary functionality to multiplayer game servers, game clients, and game services that need to interact with the Amazon GameLift hosting service.

For the latest information about Amazon GameLift SDK versions and SDK compatibility, see Amazon GameLift release notes.

For custom game servers

Create and deploy 64-bit custom game servers with the Amazon GameLift server SDK. Game servers that are integrated with the server SDK and deployed for hosting can communicate with the Amazon GameLift service to start and manage game sessions. For information on integrating the server SDK, see the topics in Preparing games for Amazon GameLift.

Development operating systems

  • Windows

  • Linux

Supported programming languages

Amazon GameLift provides the server SDK for the following languages. Download each server SDK package at Download Server SDKs. For detailed version-specific information, see the included Readme files in each package.

Supported game engines

Use language-specific SDKs with any engines that support C++, C#, or Go libraries. In addition, Amazon GameLift provides these game engine plugins:

  • Unity

    • C# server SDK plugin for Unity is a lightweight plugin with pre-built libraries that you can install using the Unity package manager. Use this plugin with the following Unity versions: 2020.3 LTS, 2021.3 LTS and 2022.3 LTS for Windows and Mac OS. It supports Unity's .NET Framework and .NET Standard profiles, with .NET Standard 2.1 and .NET 4.x.

    • Standalone plugin for Unity 2021.3 LTS is a full-featured plugin with the C# SDK libraries built for Unity and GUI elements for configuring and deploying Amazon GameLift resources for hosting.

  • Unreal Engine

    • C++ server SDK plugin for Unreal is a lightweight plugin consisting of C++ Unreal source code that you can build into libraries for use with Unreal Engine versions 4, 5, and 5.1.

    • Standalone plugin for Unreal Engine 5.0, 5.1, and 5.2 is a full-featured plugin with the C++ for Unreal server SDK libraries and Amazon SDK. The plugin is installed in the Unreal editor, with UI elements and supporting materials for configuring and deploying Amazon GameLift resources for hosting.

Game server operating systems

Use the Amazon GameLift Server SDK to build game servers to run on the following platforms:

For custom client services

Create 64-bit custom client services using the Amazon SDK with the Amazon GameLift API. This SDK enables client services to manage game sessions and join players to games that are hosted on Amazon GameLift. To get started, download the Amazon SDK. For more information about using the SDK with Amazon GameLift, see the Amazon GameLift API Reference.

For Realtime Servers

Configure and deploy Realtime servers to host your multiplayer games. To allow your game clients to connect to Realtime servers, use the Amazon GameLift Realtime Client SDK. Game clients use this SDK to exchange messages with a Realtime server and with other game clients that connect to the server. To get started, download the Amazon GameLift Realtime Client SDK. For configuration information, see Integrating a game client for Realtime Servers.

SDK support

The Realtime Client SDK contains source for the following languages:

  • C# (.NET)

Development environments

Build the SDK from source as needed for the following supported development operating systems and game engines:

  • Operating systems – Windows, Linux, Android, iOS

  • Game engines – Unity, engines that support C# libraries

Game server operating systems

You can deploy Realtime servers onto hosting resources that run on the following platforms: