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New to Networking Games!

Discussion in 'Multiplayer' started by unitynoob24, Jun 7, 2017.

  1. unitynoob24

    unitynoob24

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2014
    Posts:
    398
    Hey guys!

    I have made a bunch of single player games and recently have been looking into making something simple that is multiplayer, targeting PC/Steam.

    I know next to nothing on the topic and have some main questions. I know historically you pay for servers and build your games to interact with your own servers, depending on the scale of the game this gets very expensive.

    I was wondering if there were free networking options for something simple that would still work on a larger(ish) scale. Possibly a free networking feature within Unity or Steam API?

    Thanks guys!
     
  2. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2011
    Posts:
    7,462
    P2P is free. I believe UNet and Photon both offer solutions for that. Dedicated servers and services are what cost money. If you can avoid those then it can be free or nearly free to have a multiplayer title.

    The Free path is conceptually having a Player be the Server+Client while others connecting are only Client. The Server still acts as it normally would with authority over game events and calculations while the Clients more or less just request that things be done to the server and the server approves them, updates the game and/or lets the Client do that thing.

    Nat punchthrough is usually the main cost on that type of thing. Otherwise, you have to open ports on each client's router.
     
  3. unitynoob24

    unitynoob24

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2014
    Posts:
    398
    Ah gotcha! Thank you very much!

    So there is a free way to go about making something P2P where multiple players could connect to a host/server/player then I would just have to use Nat Punch-through so people wouldn't have to worry about port forwarding?

    This is exciting news! I always just kind of assumed multiplayer games, even indie titles had deep pockets for running servers so I never looked into multiplayer - however I always have ideas that could work well with multiplayer and frequently that comes up when I am showing a prototype to friends but it is always pushed to the back burner.. because well, I am a small indie operation! lol
     
  4. thegreatzebadiah

    thegreatzebadiah

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2012
    Posts:
    836
    Hi @unitynoob24,

    I think you would be interested in my plugin, NAT Traversal, which will automatically perform punchthrough and port-forwarding for you.