Building real-time multiplayer from scratch takes 3-6 months of specialized networking engineering. You need expertise in WebSockets, state synchronization, lag compensation, and distributed systems. Most indie developers give up before shipping. Those who push through often launch games where players teleport around, actions arrive out of order, and lag makes everything frustrating.
Building real-time multiplayer from scratch takes 3-6 months of specialized networking engineering. You need expertise in WebSockets, state synchronization, lag compensation, and distributed systems. Most indie developers give up before shipping. Those who push through often launch games where players teleport around, actions arrive out of order, and lag makes everything frustrating.
CraftMyGame makes multiplayer a checkbox. Enable it, configure your room settings, and publish. Your game supports real-time multiplayer with professional-grade synchronization - the same technology powering games with thousands of concurrent players.
No networking code. No server infrastructure. No AWS bills climbing every month.
Getting players into games quickly keeps them engaged. Long waits or confusing lobby systems drive players away before they even start.
Private Rooms - Create a room and share a link with friends. QR codes and Telegram integration make sharing instant, perfect for mobile players who want to play together right now.
Public Lobbies - Let players browse active games and join with one click. Quick Join finds an open room automatically, so new players get into the action immediately without hunting through lists.
Room Capacity - Set minimum and maximum player limits to ensure games have the right number of participants. A 4v4 team battle can require exactly 8 players, while a party game might allow 2-12 for flexibility.
AI Players - Fill empty slots with AI opponents when human players are not available. Great for late-night sessions or testing your game mechanics. For example, a racing game can start immediately with AI racers filling any empty positions.
No matchmaking servers to configure. No lobby browsers to build. Players share a link and friends join in seconds.
The moments before and during a match shape the player experience. Rushed starts feel chaotic. Missing time limits make competitive games drag on forever.
Start Countdown - Give players time to ready up and coordinate before the action begins. A 10-second countdown builds anticipation and ensures everyone loads in properly. For battle royale games, this is when players strategize their drop location.
Game Duration - Set time limits for competitive matches to create urgency, or leave unlimited for relaxed sandbox play. A 5-minute match keeps arcade games snappy, while unlimited works for cooperative building sessions.
Player Ready Status - Track who is ready to play with visual indicators in the lobby. No more guessing if everyone has loaded in. The game can auto-start when all players confirm they are ready.
Connection Quality - Built-in ping monitoring shows each player's connection strength. Players know immediately if their connection is causing problems, reducing frustration and support requests.
Configure these once. Every match runs smoothly without manual intervention.
Death mechanics define how tense or casual your game feels. Get them wrong and players either rage-quit or get bored. Building a custom respawn system from scratch requires tracking player states, managing timers, handling edge cases, and synchronizing across all connected players.
Life Counts - Give players limited respawns for battle royale tension, or unlimited lives for casual play. Three lives creates a completely different experience than infinite respawns - choose what fits your game.
Respawn Delays - Add a wait before returning to give deaths strategic weight. A 5-second delay punishes reckless play. Instant respawns keep party games moving. For example, a tactical shooter might use 15-second respawns to reward cautious play.
Respawn Locations - Choose where players reappear: designated spawn points, their last checkpoint, or their death location. Random spawn points prevent camping, while fixed spawns work for team-based games with bases.
Invincibility Duration - Brief protection after respawning prevents spawn camping. 2-3 seconds gives players time to orient themselves without creating exploit opportunities.
Death Behaviors - Decide what happens when players die: respawn after a delay, become a spectator until the round ends, or permanent elimination for high-stakes matches.
Balance death mechanics for your game style. Hardcore survival or casual fun - your choice.
Every competitive game needs clear win conditions. Without them, matches feel pointless and players lose motivation. Coding custom victory detection, leaderboard tracking, and announcements takes days of development.
Last Alive - Classic battle royale mode where the final player standing wins. Simple, dramatic, and instantly understood by players.
Metric Ranking - Rank players by score, kills, time survived, resources collected, or any custom metric you define. Perfect for racing games (fastest time), arena shooters (most eliminations), or collection games (most items gathered).
Elimination Messages - Notify all players when someone is eliminated with customizable messages. "Player2 was eliminated by Player1" keeps spectators engaged and builds drama. Personalize these messages to match your game's tone.
Win Announcements - Celebrate victories with personalized win messages and effects. Acknowledge second and third place to reward more players. For example, "Champion! You survived 15 waves and collected 2,340 gold."
Define how winners are determined once. The system handles tracking, announcements, and leaderboards automatically.
Eliminated players should not stare at a static game over screen. Keeping them engaged means they will stay for the next match instead of leaving. Building a spectator system from scratch requires camera controls, player switching, permission systems, and UI overlays.
Follow Mode - Watch remaining players from their perspective. Switch between players freely to follow the action. In team games, eliminated players can scout for their surviving teammates.
Free Camera - Roam the battlefield independently to observe the action from any angle. Perfect for games with large maps or complex strategies worth analyzing.
Spectator Restrictions - Control who can be watched: allies only to prevent cheating in team games, everyone for casual matches, or no spectating for high-stakes competitive play.
Respawn Countdown - Show eliminated players exactly when they will be back in the action. A visible timer reduces frustration and keeps players from quitting early.
Keep eliminated players engaged. Let them cheer for friends, learn from watching skilled players, or provide callouts to their team.
Connect death events to your broader game systems for deeper gameplay. When a player dies or respawns, trigger any action your game needs. Custom event scripting normally requires complex state management and careful timing.
On Death Actions - Drop collected loot for other players to grab. Spawn visual effects like explosions or soul particles. Update team objectives or notify allies. For example, a looter game can scatter inventory items around the death location.
On Respawn Actions - Grant temporary damage buffs to help players recover. Reset cooldowns and abilities to full. Trigger dramatic spawn animations. A shooter might give respawning players 5 seconds of bonus speed to get back into position.
On Elimination Actions - Special handling when a player runs out of lives permanently. Announce the elimination to all players. Award bonus points to the player who made the final kill. Unlock spectator mode automatically.
These triggers turn simple death mechanics into memorable gameplay moments.
Where players start shapes the entire early-game experience. Poor spawn placement causes frustrating deaths or boring openings. Hand-coding spawn logic with fairness algorithms and collision detection eats development time.
Edges - Players spawn around the map perimeter, ensuring fair starts with equal distance to the center. Classic battle royale positioning that gives everyone time to loot before encounters.
Center - Everyone starts in the middle for immediate action. Perfect for arena-style combat or party games where you want instant chaos.
Circle - Distribute players in a ring formation at equal distances. Great for dueling games, racing starts, or any game where players should face each other from the beginning.
Random - Unpredictable spawn locations keep games fresh and prevent spawn camping. Each match feels different because players start in new positions.
Custom Coordinates - Define exact spawn positions for each player slot. Use this for asymmetric games where different roles start in different areas, or to ensure players spawn in specific lanes.
Control where players enter the game to shape every match from the first second.
Networked games fail when players see different game states. One player thinks they dodged an attack, another sees a hit. Desync destroys the experience. Building reliable synchronization requires deep expertise in networking, state prediction, and conflict resolution.
CraftMyGame handles the complexity:
You configure game rules. The platform handles player connections, state management, and all the edge cases that break homegrown networking solutions.
Running game servers is expensive, complex, and distracting. You need to monitor uptime, handle scaling, patch security vulnerabilities, and pay monthly bills that grow with your player base.
Automatic Scaling - Whether 10 or 10,000 players show up, the infrastructure handles it. Viral moments do not crash your game. Quiet periods do not waste money on idle servers.
Zero Infrastructure - No AWS configuration, no DevOps expertise required, no surprise bills when a streamer plays your game. Focus on game design instead of server architecture.
Global Availability - Players connect from anywhere in the world with low latency. Regional routing ensures players in Tokyo, London, and New York all get responsive connections.
We handle the servers, security, and scaling. You handle making a great game.