Creating computationally demanding multiplayer games is complex, risky and time-consuming. All too often, studios are forced to compromise on their design vision for the sake of timelines and production risk. That’s why we created SpatialOS, a networking engine that makes it easier and faster to create innovative multiplayer games with more simulation, scale and fidelity.
SpatialOS helps developers to push the boundaries of what can be achieved by the traditional client-server model.
By offloading the networking to a separate server-side process that lets you share simulation across multiple game servers, SpatialOS gives you a more powerful, more flexible compute capacity to draw on. And with native integrations for Unreal and Unity – plus SDKs for integrating other game engines – you can take advantage of SpatialOS without giving up the tools and workflows you're used to.
When you offload AI logic to a secondary game server, you’re free to build richer, more populated worlds. You can add more NPCs than a single game server can support, and increase their complexity and diversity – all without compromising on player count or other gameplay systems.
Create large seamless worlds populated by more interacting players, objects and systems by using multiple game servers to simulate different areas of a game world. SpatialOS handles the complexities of server load balancing and object migration across boundaries, enabling a seamless gameplay experience for your players.
All game state is stored in SpatialOS’ high-throughput, low-latency in-game database, built from the ground up specifically for real-time multiplayer. This means all changes to the game world persist down to the smallest detail, leaving a permanent mark on the world (e.g. trees felled in the forest, the lives of your NPCs).
Setting up a multiplayer playtest takes just a few CLI commands. Share a link and testers will be playing in minutes.
Populate playtests with simulated players following pre-defined logic, enabling large-scale end-to-end tests without needing many playtesters.
Make changes to a live multiplayer game (e.g. weapon damage) and see them instantly play out in your playtest.
Our ‘snapshots’ regularly save your entire game state. Use them to deploy new cloud instances and quickly recreate multiplayer bugs.
Our Inspector tool allows you to analyse and debug your game world via a top-down, real-time visualisation of everything happening in it, no matter how big or complex it is.
Our scalable metrics feature high storage capacity and throughput, and our log indexes are specifically designed for online multiplayer games.
Scavengers is a multiplayer FPS with a genre-splicing mixture of PvEvP and survival elements. SpatialOS enables Midwinter to add more AI without cutting back on player count, and achieve its unique gameplay vision in less time and with less risk.
What in the past would have required a team of ten engineers you can now achieve with just two
Improbable Games Canada is working on a truly open and living multiplayer RPG world that doesn’t have to compromise with the restrictions of standard networking technology. Combined with the tooling provided by SpatialOS, the game’s developers are able to test and iterate their ideas at an unprecedented speed.
The workflows that we are embracing to take full advantage of SpatialOS make a team of 60 feel like a team of hundreds
Multiplayer game developers have been pushing up against technical limits for as long as there have been multiplayer games. We created SpatialOS and pushed those limits back, so that game designers like those in our London studio can experiment with more AI and more players, and explore new gameplay possibilities, such as innovative in-game social spaces.
When you use SpatialOS, you pay for managed instances of the SpatialOS networking engine that run alongside your game servers.
We charge by the number and size of SpatialOS networking instances you use, rounded to the nearest minute. Games that need less networking use fewer instances and cost less. Bigger, more complex games require more instances and cost more.
For more details about the size and costs of the networking instances available, visit our SpatialOS pricing information.
We know that forecasting your multiplayer costs isn’t easy and what you pay for SpatialOS will vary depending on your game design and player base. Get in touch and we’ll be happy to draw up a tailored cost estimate.
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Porting an existing Unreal project to SpatialOS can be done in just a few days. Games built with other game engines will depend on the specifics.
Get in touch to find out more.
We’ve built our own under-the-hood integration for Unreal, which keeps the APIs and workflows you’re familiar with (e.g. blueprints), allowing you to create an innovative multiplayer game without disrupting your team.
We’ve built our own integration for Unity. It includes a tool for running server-side and client-side code from within the same Unity editor window, avoiding the usual time waste of repeatedly building the server-side executable. We also provide Unity-specific ready-made modules for common multiplayer gameplay elements, including shootable weapons, health, player lifecycle, character movement, and transform synchronisation.
Our GDK for Unity supports MonoBehaviour, Entity Component System (ECS) and games that use both workflows together.
We provide a suite of SDKs that allow you to integrate SpatialOS with any game engine, and can provide hands-on support to help you achieve this in your desired timelines. The flexible architecture of such integrations reduces the work needed to transition from P2P to dedicated server mode and beyond, allowing you to adapt to your game’s changing needs with relative ease.
Get in touch to find out more.
