Multiplayer Game Architecture in Unity

In this Unity multiplayer tutorial, we cover the building blocks of multiplayer Unity games and go over various network topologies.

0:00 Intro
0:41 Basic Building Blocks (Components)
2:15 Local Multiplayer
3:24 LAN
4:35 Direct P2P (Peer to Peer)
5:25 Player-hosted Client/Server P2P
6:46 Dedicated Server
7:35 Sample Multiplayer Game Architecture Requirements Overview
8:24 Dedicated Server Cloud Options
9:43 Player Authentication (PlayFab)
10:30 Matchmaking
12:08 Friend List
12:49 Leaderboards
13:35 Persistent Data (Database/API)
14:53 Outro

[AttackOnTyler]

My thing is, when multi-player game devs talk about multiplayer, they will tell you two things.

1. It's hard
2. You need to develop your game with multi-player in mind from the start.

While conceptually that makes sense, they don't elaborate. Like of course you need to start with multi-player if you're going to have a dedicated server and clients because your input needs to go to the server and the server needs to communicate that back. Cloud based servers makes sense, since you want low latency for your player base but nothing more is elaborated on past that.

This video is the best road map I've ever seen for all the big picture systems that need to be put in place to make a big multi-player game and I can not thank you enough for putting this together.

[xzippyzachx]

This was a very good high level explanation of how the architecture of a multiplayer game is built! Very well put together!

[washburnlane]

20 years in IT and this is probably most concise yet informative 15:21 of my career. Excellent work! I look forward to the series.

[obaynaeem]

i have searched the internet for simple info about networking before making my first unity multiplayer game and found that this series is the best of the internet has to offer
keep up the good work, and thank you

[stuffwithjuice]

Literally am going from using Ableton to soft and tNice tutorials helped trendously as a beginner. Thank you so so much for tNice tutorials!!

[FullStackIndie]

Oh my goodness dude you blew my mind!!! This probably the most in depth and simple to understand tutorial on networking I've ever seen. Great job man!!! loved it! I truly hope your able to achieve the scope of what you presented in this tutorial. So far you've given all this away freely and it's much appreciated. Keep up the great work!

[BladezyEditz]

No intro, no side talks just straight to point... You gained a new sub buddy ❤✨

[urzytkownikYT]

This is entire goldmine of knowledge. God almighty, where would we be if every youtuber would keep such quality.

[VincentVeak]

Holy smokes, this is actually amazing and was everything I was hoping for. Just stumbled across this randomly and I'd love to support this. I really do hope that this series reaches completion!

[niazm.sameer]

Let me just say; I hope you don’t stop making these videos. You’re helping people make their dream game. Thank you! ❤️

[sac]

Great video, also worth noting that giving players the ability to host dedicated servers will ensure that the game can be played long after official servers have shut down.
I love games that give me this ability as I know the game won't just become unplayable at some point in the future.

[hmqasim_]

This was a very good high level explanation of how the architecture of a multiplayer game is built! Very well put together. Nice work buddy !!!

[MonkeyBoyKHS]

how do you only have 6k subs bro. As a dev myself this is such a great break down of some complex things in such a clear manner. Good shit my guy

[johnwang]

I am currently studying for big tech system design interviews and came across your video, just wanted to say how amazing and well-put together this video is. I really liked how you compared different cloud services and also how you built upon each example to go from local multiplayer all the way to dedicated servers. You have a talent for teaching!

[alexsofia]

Best series, and no YouTube ads. All of these videos earn a like from me.

[trombonaught]

That must've been the most beginner-friendly 15 minutes out there for this topic. Woah.

[TheSensationalMr.Science]

10:51 nakama... is a great software for social, matchmaking and competitive game server. also works with unity.
Hope you have a great day & Safe Travels!

[Ayyouboss]

Why is this just so awesome. I can just feel how much effort ist put into these vids just based on the packed and understandable knowledge I was able to obtain from just this video!
Great work and please keep this series up! I really would like to see more of this awesome stuff as I never was able to really understand the core of Networking because of its complexity. Thanks <B

[ANJ_gaming]

One note I feel was overlooked was that Dedicated Servers don't Have to have the downside of cost. In the scenario that the game devs themselves want to host dedicated servers, that is accurate, but you can also build around player ran dedicated servers which wouldn't run the developers any extra cost as far as I'm aware.

Great video nonetheless

[frederickfreund]

OMG this video is soo good. Thank you so much! Love the topic and the way you explain it. I Was very sad when the video was over. I would also be very interested in more videos that go into the rough architecture of different kind of multiplayer games (i.e. "how would you approach a game like worms, NFS, cod" and so on). There are many Tutorials out there that explain how to write something specific in code, but I am more interested in how to structurize multiplayer games, as I struggle a lot with that when my projects get bigger.