One of the first major technical decisions we had to make for our game concerned its multiplayer architecture.
Multiplayer may feel like a given today, but behind the scenes there are many different ways to connect players.
After researching several solutions, we chose a Distributed Authoritative Server (DAS) architecture.
Why not traditional Peer-to-Peer?
In a traditional Peer-to-Peer solution, one player is often responsible for hosting the match. This is relatively simple to set up, but it also has drawbacks:
- The host often has a technical advantage.
- The session stops when the host leaves the game.
- The risk of cheating is greater.
- Synchronisation between players becomes more complex as the game grows.
For an online party game where fairness and stability matter, we did not consider this the right solution.
Why a Distributed Authoritative Server?
With a Distributed Authoritative Server, the game state is managed by a server that acts as the source of truth. Players send actions to the server, and the server determines what actually happens.
This offers several advantages:
- Better protection against cheating.
- Consistent game rules for every player.
- More control over matchmaking and session management.
- Better scalability for future expansions.
Because parts of the infrastructure can be distributed across multiple services, this also creates a flexible system that can grow with the game.
Although this approach requires more development time than a simple Peer-to-Peer solution, we believe it is the right long-term choice.
of truth.
Communication between players
A party game is not only about gameplay. Its social dimension matters just as much.
That is why we chose Vivox for voice and text chat.
Vivox is used by several major multiplayer games and provides features that closely match our needs:
- In-game voice chat.
- Text channels for players.
- Team and group communication.
- Scalable cloud infrastructure.
- Moderation and security capabilities.
This means we do not need to develop our own voice server and can focus on what we enjoy most: making the game.
The challenge
These choices do not mean everything works automatically.
Over the coming period, we will explore how:
- Voice chat can be integrated into gameplay.
- Matchmaking works together with the servers.
- Players can communicate safely.
- Latency can remain as low as possible.
- The complete multiplayer experience can feel smooth.
Those are exactly the technical challenges that excite us.
What happens next?
The foundational choices have been made. Now the real work begins: building prototypes, testing, adjusting and testing again.
As always, we will continue sharing our progress, successes and mistakes through these devlogs.
Ultimately, game development is not only about the destination, but especially about the journey towards it.