[Poll] Simple Unlimited Game Hosting: Online Player Prefs and Game Cloud Services

I’ll begin providing a simple Online Player Prefs Service soon.

It will allow you to save any user data online and sync user data across any device.

  • SetValue( key, value );

  • GetValue( key, onReadyCallback );

  • LoginGuestUser();

  • CreateUser( email, password );

  • Login( email, password );

  • ResetPassword( email );

Pricing

I am still adjusting the pricing model to make sure hosting costs are covered, but it will be around the following:

  • Unlimited Connected Users

  • GCU - Game Cloud Unit

  • 1 GCU is approximately what an average monthly user would use

  • 1 GCU includes 1MB Bandwidth

  • 1 GCU includes 1MB Storage / Month

  • 1 GCU includes 1,000 Transactions

  • 1,000 GCU free each month

  • +10,000 GCU = $10

  • GCUs never expire

  • Free for small games

  • Affordable for any game

  • Networking Solved without Development Costs

Story

I am planning to build a new Game Cloud Service that will eventually be more powerful than anything currently available.

I have been using Microsoft Azure Cloud for my own use which is amazingly powerful and cheap.

I recently learned about Age of Ascent’s goal to support 100,000 users in a single space battle (worldwide users all fighting in the same battle against each other). They have already succeeded with 50,000 players in a single battle.

http://web.ageofascent.com/video-microsoft-cloud-age-ascent-browser-game-handle-50000-players/

Then, after reading their tech documents, I realized that I was already using some of the same technology.

Game Cloud Services

First, I want to release a simple Online Player Prefs based on my existing code.

From there, I will expand it to support more advanced scenarios that require shared data:

  • Leaderboards
  • Lobby
  • Room
  • Chat
  • Session
  • Groups
  • Persistent Universe

Some details:

  • This will work for any game (real time support will be added later)

  • This will support unlimited users

  • This will all be cloud based built on Microsoft Azure

  • User Data would be located in the nearest Microsoft data center to the user

  • Data centers are in 22 world wide regions: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/regions

  • I have used this tech with my app with 30,000 connected users

  • The price would be cheaper than anything out there

  • Accessing the Api will be simple on any platform or device

Future Ultra-MMO Real Time:

If demand is sufficient, I will expand to real time.

I have been researching Age of Ascent technology and plan to implement a similar architecture.

  • Ultra-MMO Real-Time
  • Regional User Clustering for Low Latency (<100ms)
  • Worldwide Single Universe with Medium Latency (<400ms)
  • Supports 50,000+ connected users in a single universe location (actively messaging each other with <100ms lag if in same region or <400ms worldwide)
  • Supports Unlimited Connected Users
  • Inifintely Scalable Server Clusters in Every Microsoft Region to support unlimited connections at any region
  • Will sync universe state across regional clusters

If you want to know how this is possible:

http://web.ageofascent.com/age-ascent-azure-service-fabric-developers-presentation/

Let me know if you think this would be useful.

I’ve been looking for something like this, I know a lot of times I’ve lost my data when playing some mobile games and this seems like it would be the solution to that.

Any estimate for when this will be out?

Cheers