Game Server Hosting on AWS

This course describes Game Server hosting options on AWS. It identifies key technical and business requirements that influence selecting a Game Server hosting solution. The course describes AWS Game Server hosting solutions including Amazon GameLift, FleetIQ Game Server Groups, container-based solutions using Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate, and solutions based on Amazon EC2 and AWS core services.

• Course level: Intermediate
• Duration: 1.25 hours

Activities

This course includes videos, e-learning interactions, decision-making scenarios, and knowledge checks.

Course objectives

In this course, you will learn to:

• Describe Game Server hosting options offered by AWS.
• Describe common technical and business requirements for game server hosting.
• Distinguish between AWS Game server hosting options by key technical and business requirements.
• Apply requirements to selecting a Game Server hosting solution.

Intended audience

This course is intended for:

• Game designers
• Game developers
• Game producers

Prerequisites

We recommend that attendees of this course have:

• Familiarity with game development and general knowledge of game server hosting on computers or in data centers
• Completed Getting Started with AWS Game Tech (https://www.aws.training/Details/eLearning?id=47467) or equivalent knowledge
• Foundational understanding of cloud computing and AWS, equivalent to AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Course outline

Part 1: Introduction

• Welcome to Game Server Hosting on AWS
  • Course objectives
  • Introduction to the course
  • Course outline
• Game Server Hosting
  • Define a Game Service
• Game Server Hosting on AWS
  • Amazon EC2 and AWS core services
  • Container-based solutions
  • Amazon GameLift
  • Amazon GameLift FleetIQ Game Server Groups

Part 2: Business and Technical Requirements for Game Server Hosting

• Management Responsibility
  • Common responsibilities identified in the Game Tech layers model
  • Developing a basic Game Server requirements list
• Requirements
  • Cost
  • Development effort
  • Features
  • Latency
  • Portability
  • Controls
  • Scaling

Part 3: Game Server Hosting with AWS Core Services

• Amazon EC2 and AWS Core Services
  • Review of AWS services commonly used in game hosting solutions
  • Matching Game Server hosting requirements

Part 4: Game Server Hosting with Containers

• Using Containers for Game Servers
  • Container abstraction and Game Server abstraction
  • Docker
  • Container orchestration and Game Server management
• Container Services on AWS
  • Running containers on Amazon EC2 instances
  • AWS Fargate
  • Amazon ECS
  • Amazon EKS
  • Mapping EKS abstractions (pods) to Game Servers
  • Mapping ECS abstractions (tasks) to Game Servers
• Building a Game Server Hosting Service with Containers
  • Player placement into Game Sessions
  • Game Session Lifecycle Management
  • Instance shopping for lower costs
  • Matchmaking integration
• CI/CD for Game Servers
  • CI/CD for Game Servers development and deployment
  • Using CI/CD for global scale deployment of games
  • Example of Containerized CI/CD for Game Servers
  • Matching container solutions to Game Server hosting requirements

Part 5: Game Server Hosting with Amazon GameLift

• Amazon GameLift
  • Overview of GameLift layers and key features
  • Matching Game Server hosting requirements
• Amazon GameLift FleetIQ Game Server Groups
  • Overview
  • Matching Game Server hosting requirements

Part 6: Selecting Game Server Hosting Solutions

• Game Hosting Examples and Practice Scenarios
  • Apply key learnings to solve Game Server hosting scenarios

Part 7: Completion

• Knowledge Assessment
• Summary
  • Review and summary
  • Course survey
• Next Steps
  • More training and certification
  • Additional resources