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Amazon GameLift Features
Managed game server hosting
Amazon GameLift securely provisions instances, deploys your game servers onto running instances, load-balances traffic across fleets of game servers, monitors instance and game server health, and replaces unhealthy instances without your intervention.
In China, Amazon GameLift runs within the proven network infrastructure and data centers operated by licensed local cloud operators and supported by Amazon’s technologies.
GameLift’s autoscaling feature can start one, hundreds, or even thousands of instances simultaneously and stop unused instances in just minutes. You configure the service to automatically scale capacity based on a steady-state percentage target. GameLift will automatically add or remove capacity as needed, adjusting to fluctuating load patterns to minimizing rapid fluctuations in capacity.
GameLift is designed to safeguard your game servers from frequently occurring network and transport layer distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. You can also configure the service to autoscale server capacity to absorb DDoS attacks without taking your players offline. Learn more about protecting game servers from DDoS attacks.
GameLift offers both on-demand and Spot instance types. With Spot instances you get the same high-performance hardware as on-demand instances at savings up to 70%. With all GameLift instances you have the flexibility to select a configuration of CPU, memory, and networking capacity that is optimal for your game. And all GameLift instances come with Enhanced Networking, which provides significantly higher packet per second (PPS) performance, lower network jitter, and lower latencies.
The Amazon GameLift management console includes dashboards for monitoring the performance of your game. You can see real-time data on player demand, server capacity and health, CPU and memory utilization, and create operational alarms using Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon GameLift also lets you automatically collect and store game server logs for retrieval and inspection.
GameLift supports all major game engines, including Amazon Lumberyard, Unreal Engine, Unity, and custom C# and C++ game engines. With GameLift you can also connect your community across devices and broaden your pool of players for potential matches.
Amazon GameLift supports all major game engines, including Amazon Lumberyard, Unreal Engine, Unity, and custom C# and C++ game engines.
GameLift includes everything you need to run your dedicated game servers in the cloud – a high-performance virtual machine, SSD-based storage, fast data transfer to the Internet – on demand without monthly commitments. You only pay for the resources you actually use.
Flexibility to adopt the cloud with your own tools using GameLift FleetIQ
Launch dedicated, low-cost game servers with the flexibility to adopt the cloud with your own tools. Access GameLift FleetIQ independent of other GameLift features. Read the announcement to learn more »
Use your existing tools and software without GameLift’s game server management layer to gradually move live games or launch new games to the cloud with the cost savings of EC2 Spot instances made possible only with GameLift FleetIQ. Since instances run in your account, you also have the flexibility to use containers or integrate instances with other Amazon Web Services such as Amazon Elastic Container Service.
Save up to 70% compared to existing on-premises deployments by using FleetIQ's algorithm that puts low-cost Spot instances into your own Amazon Web Services account. FleetIQ monitors in real-time and predicts which Spot instances are best suited to host new sessions, so you get the cost-savings of Spot while directing players onto instances with lower probability of game session interruptions.
With general availability for the GameLift FleetIQ update, only pay for what you use. GameLift FleetIQ charges a fee proportional to the EC2 instance charges under GameLift FleetIQ management. For full details, learn more on the pricing table.
Use Amazon CloudFormation to create GameLift FleetIQ game server groups. Create a template that models each game server group, and then use the same template to create identical game server groups in multiple Regions.
Opt out of using Spot Instances. This is useful for short periods of time with new game and content launches. We still recommend switching back to Spot-Preferred or Spot-Only modes to save on game server costs.
Describe the status of instances managed under GameLift FleetIQ using the new DescribeGameServerInstances API, whether it’s active, draining, or terminating. This allows you to implement a status-based checkpoint mechanism before you place a game session on an instance. It also allows you to drain your other resources if they’re tied to the instances.
Flexibility to use fully managed matchmaker independent of GameLift game servers
Game developers value flexibility in their matchmaker to iterate quickly and identify the right set of matchmaking rules that make their games fun. But a matchmaker with that flexibility is difficult to build in-house and at scale because doing so requires expertise in distributed compute. FlexMatch lets developers skip that lengthy upfront development effort and dive right into optimizing their rulesets. Now, FlexMatch is also accessible in standalone mode so developers can place formed matches on any game server solution.
Matchmaking with GameLift FlexMatch
GameLift’s FlexMatch capabilities let you match players together based on rules you define. Whether you choose to build your matchmaking based on player skill, latency, or custom criteria, FlexMatch’s simple but powerful rules language makes it easy for anyone to quickly create robust player matchmaking. FlexMatch results automatically route into a queue, which can then place the match in the Amazon Web Services China region that balances player latency and server utilization. Learn more about FlexMatch in our Developer Guide.
If you’re looking to create a player-intensive, “Battle Royale” style game, FlexMatch now enables you to match and connect up to 200 players to a single game session on the lowest latency server instance available—all based upon a custom rule you define. Large Match Support also includes the ability to create multiple teams from one definition and automated backfilling.
Realtime game servers
GameLift Realtime Servers help developers quickly and affordably create and update game servers with a few lines of JavaScript. It’s a great choice for games that don’t need a lot of backend horsepower. GameLift Realtime Servers are designed with mobile, turn-based, and messaging games in mind.
GameLift Realtime Servers include a network stack, with TCP and UDP networking provided out of the box.
Update server logic in real time by quickly customizing scripts. Add state and choose to execute server logic at regular intervals.
Once you’ve created your game server, scale to millions with Amazon GameLift and realize the benefits of running dedicated servers like minimized lag, reduced cheating, and improved stability.
Designed with a small footprint, you’ll reduce costs by running more games on a single server instance.
Use GameLift Realtime Servers at no additional cost outside of GameLift’s current prices.
Learn more about Amazon GameLift pricing
