Design a game session queue - Amazon GameLift
Best practices
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Design a game session queue

This topic describes how to design a queue that delivers a player experience with minimal latency and that efficiently uses hosting resources. For more information about game session queues and how they work, see Managing game session placement with Amazon GameLift queues.

These Amazon GameLift features require queues:

Topics

Best practices for Amazon GameLift game session queues

A game session queue contains a list of fleets where Amazon GameLift can place new game sessions. Each fleet can have hosting resources deployed in multiple geographic locations. When choosing a placement, the queue selects a fleet and a fleet location based on a set of priorities that you set for the fleet.

Consider the following guidelines and best practices:

  • Add fleets in locations that cover your players. You can add fleets and aliases in any available location. Location is important if you're making placements based on reported player latency.

  • Use aliases for all fleets. Assign an alias to each fleet in a queue, and use the alias names when setting destinations in your queue.

  • Use the same or a similar game build or script for all fleets. The queue might put players into game sessions on any fleet in the queue. Players must be able to play in any game session on any fleet.

  • Create fleets in at least two locations. By having game servers hosted in at least one other location, you mitigate the impact of Regional outages on your players. You can keep your backup fleets scaled down, and use auto scaling to increase capacity if usage increases.

  • Prioritize your game session placement. A queue prioritizes placement choices based on several elements, including destination list order.

  • Create your queue in the same location as your client service. By putting your queue in a location near your client service, you can minimize communication latency.

  • Use fleets with multiple locations. Use the queue filter configuration to prevent the queue from placing game sessions in specified locations. You can use at least two multi-location fleets with different home locations to mitigate the impact of game placements during a Regional outage.