Getting started with Amazon GameLift
Take advantage of these getting started resources to learn more about the Amazon GameLift service and how you can start developing a custom hosting solution for your session-based multiplayer games.
Before working with Amazon GameLift, complete the following set-up steps:
Set up an Amazon Web Services account to use with Amazon GameLift, with user permissions for the Amazon GameLift and other Amazon services.
Choose an Amazon Web Services Region to work in. This Region is where you create and manage your Amazon resources when working in the Amazon Management Console and other tools. You can always switch to a different Region. As a best practice, start working in a Region that's geographically close to you.
Explore the following resources to experience Amazon GameLift with example materials or your own game project.
When you're ready to start building a hosting solution for your own game, use the Amazon GameLift plugin to get started with a simple working solution. Or choose one of the development roadmaps provided to guide you through creating a custom solution for your game. Also take a look at how Amazon GameLift supports iterative development. Amazon GameLift supports several options for local and cloud-based hosting that let you deploy new server build versions for testing and experimentation with minimal effort.
Topics
Amazon GameLift examples
If you're considering using Amazon GameLift to manage your custom game server, or you're interested in taking advantage of Realtime Servers, we recommend that you try the following examples before you use Amazon GameLift for your own game. The custom game server example gives you experience with game hosting in the Amazon GameLift console. The Realtime Servers example shows you how to prepare a game for hosting using Realtime Servers.
Custom game server example
This example demonstrates the process of deploying a sample game server to Amazon GameLift managed EC2 fleet for hosting. Use the sample game client to connect to a live game session. You can experience how to use Amazon GameLift tools, including the console and the Amazon CLI, to monitor the fleet's hosting performance and usage.
The example walks you through the following steps:
-
Upload the sample game server build.
-
Create a fleet to run the game server build.
-
Get the sample game client and use it to connect to a game server and join a game session.
-
Review fleet and game session metrics.
Start up multiple game clients and play the game to generate hosting data. Use the Amazon GameLift console to view hosting resources, track metrics, and explore options for scaling the fleet's hosting capacity.
To get started, sign in to the Amazon GameLift console
Realtime Servers example
This example is a complete tutorial that walks you through how to deploy a sample multiplayer game, Mega Frog Race, with Amazon GameLift Realtime Servers. The tutorial covers how to integrate your game client with the Realtime Servers SDK and deploy a complete hosting solution with Realtime Servers on managed fleets.
For a hands-on tutorial, see Creating Servers for Multiplayer Mobile Games with Just a Few Lines of
JavaScript
The source code includes the following parts:
-
Game client – A source code for the C++ game client, created in Unity. The game client gets game session connection information, connects to the server, and exchanges updates with other players.
-
Backend service – A source code for an Amazon Lambda function that manages direct API calls to Amazon GameLift.
-
Realtime script – A source script file that configures a fleet of Realtime Servers for the game. This script includes the minimum configuration required for Realtime Servers to communicate with Amazon GameLift and to host games.
After you set up the sample game for hosting, use it as a starting point to experiment with other Amazon GameLift features such as FlexMatch.