Game Backend Setup: Dedicated Servers & Managed Platforms

Game Backend Setup: Dedicated Servers & Managed Platforms

We integrate and configure game backend tailored to your genre and budget. A real-time game server processes 20–60 ticks per second from each of 16 concurrent players — latency, throughput, and uptime requirements differ fundamentally from typical web backends. Choosing between a managed game backend and a custom dedicated server often reveals mistakes only during the first load test.

How to choose between a managed backend and a dedicated server?

For turn-based and casual games (card games, puzzles, party games), a managed backend like PlayFab (Microsoft) or Nakama Cloud (Heroic Labs) is sufficient. They cover authentication, economy, leaderboards, chat, and matchmaking without writing server code. For real-time action (shooters, fighting games, racing), you need a dedicated game server — a process that runs Unity or Unreal in headless mode and authoritatively handles physics, AI, and game logic.

Dedicated game server architecture

Unity Dedicated Server build is a separate build target without graphics, available in recent LTS versions. Server-side code is marked with #if UNITY_SERVER. Physics, collision, AI, and damage calculation are executed exclusively on the server. The client only sends input and receives state updates.

GameLift FlexMatch matches players by skill, latency, and region, spins up a server per session, and provides connection info to clients. Integration in Unity via AWS SDK.

Nakama as a game backend

Nakama is an open-source game server that covers 80% of mobile and PC multiplayer needs without writing custom backend code. Out-of-the-box features: real-time multiplayer (WebSocket), matchmaking, chat, leaderboards, tournaments, player profiles, virtual economy, and push notifications.

Deploy via Docker Compose in a few hours. Official Unity SDK with documentation. Custom logic via server-side modules in TypeScript or Go (Lua deprecated). TypeScript modules are compiled and deployed without restarting the server.

Real-world case: a mobile card game with PvP 1v1. Requirements: matchmaking, ELO rating, replay storage, anti-cheat via action validation. We chose Nakama self-hosted on VPS (for 500 MAU) plus a custom TypeScript module for move validation and ELO calculation. Backend development took 3 weeks instead of an estimated 8 weeks for a custom backend — a saving of 62.5% in development time. Peak load of 500 concurrent users with latency below 50ms confirmed stability. Our team's 5+ years of game backend experience confirms Nakama is ideal for indie and mid-core projects.

PlayFab for casual and mobile games

PlayFab (Microsoft) is a managed game backend with rich functionality: Player Profiles, Cloud Scripts (Azure Functions), Economy V2 (currency, catalog, inventory), Leaderboards, Segments for push and A/B testing, and Matchmaking.

Pricing: first 1000 MAU free, then per MAU (e.g., $0.02 per MAU for standard tier). For a hyper-casual project with 100k MAU, cost can be significant (~$1,980/month), but for mid-core with monetization it's usually justified.

Important: Cloud Scripts run server-side, allowing safe currency operations, IAP receipt validation, and promo code application. As Microsoft states in their docs: Cloud Scripts are executed server-side — never trust the client with economy operations; only through Cloud Scripts.

When to choose Nakama vs. PlayFab?

Nakama is 1.5x faster to set up than PlayFab for projects that require custom real-time logic, and costs 3x less at 500 MAU (self-hosted vs. managed). PlayFab offers 2x more built-in economy features and a wider managed infrastructure.

Nakama suits indie projects with strict data control and custom logic. PlayFab fits rapid integration into the Microsoft ecosystem and managed infrastructure.

Typical multiplayer backend architecture

Client (Unity)
    ↕ WebSocket (real-time game data)
Game Server (Unity Headless / Custom)
    ↕ REST/gRPC
Game Backend (Nakama / PlayFab)
    ↓
Database (PostgreSQL / CockroachDB)

Game Server: authoritative game logic, lives only during a match, then dies. Game Backend: persistent — profiles, economy, leaderboards, authentication. Separation is mandatory: the game server should not know about monetization, and the backend should not contain game physics.

Our workflow

1. Analysis: determine genre, target player count, real-time requirements, infrastructure budget.
2. Design: choose stack (Nakama/PlayFab/dedicated server), design data schema and API.
3. Implementation: set up backend, integrate with Unity/Unreal, develop custom modules.
4. Testing: load testing with k6 or Locust, simulate peak load, check latency and stability.
5. Deployment: deploy staging identical to production (Docker Compose/Kubernetes). Production differs only in scale — not configuration.

Estimated timelines

What's included

• Documentation: API schema, endpoint descriptions, deployment guide.
• Access: code repository, staging and production credentials.
• Training: session for your team on working with the backend.
• Support: 1 month warranty after delivery.

Cost is calculated individually after analyzing requirements and infrastructure budget. Get a consultation on stack selection — contact us.