Greenhorn - Newbie Question: When I roll out my game, will I need to have a backend server of any kind? I hadn’t thought of this before; I assumed I didn’t because the game would be downloaded onto their device.
Thanks
Lori
It’s kind of a complex answer. No.
Unless…
You need one because it’s a multi-player game.
You need one because you want to track high scores for multiple players and have a leaderboard.
You want to track achievements using GameCenter or Google Gameplay.
You want to have a web site to promote your app (okay for this one, your app isn’t using the server, but your question is “do you need a server of any kind…”)
You want to send push notifications to your players
You want to use in-app purchases
and so on.
So if you have a simple game that doesn’t need anything, then no a server is not required. For leaderboards and achievements, you would likely use Goggle Play Game Services or Apple’s Game Center. While you are not responsible for your own server, you’re using a server. This is the same for in-app purchases. You would already know if you’re using those. The one side-note here is that some people do like to track their customers purchases and keep their receipts on their own server for security reasons.
I would think if you were doing multi-player stuff you would have already known what your server needs are, so I don’t think this impacts you.
Given that most of these conditions are thing you would have already had to have addressed if you’re ready to launch, then I go back to my original answer:
No you don’t.
Rob
I’m not ready for launch - still hard at work. But I would like to be connected to FB and allow the players to see the highscores of their FB friends (similar to what Candy Crush does); which sounds like I should look into the Google Play Game Services or Apple’s Game Center so that I would not have to be responsible for my own server.
I do plan on having inapp purchases and I know where and how I want to use them (I have an out line of what I want) I just haven’t programmed that yet. I’ve just start “researching” and there is so MANY MANY things that need to be considered it is quite overwhelming. I’m trying to create a checklist of what I need to do right now and at some point in the future.
Would the information for in app purchases be stored by Google Plan and/or Apple Game Center? I was thinking it billed through them.
I appreciate the quick response.
Lori
Lori,
Unless you need real time data and/or “server side receipt validation” there is nothing required for in-app and you can check your in-app purchase (on ios via report the next day) on google you can check it in real time under google wallet.
Facebook hooks into facebook so no need for server side on that as well.
Candy Crush however does communicate to it’s own servers for tracking, receipt validation and a few other things.
It sounds to me that you do not need a server as GPGS and AGC will take care of your high score info and you can use google/apple reporting to see all your in-app purchases.
Christopher
Thank you so much for responding. The information is extremely helpful. One less thing to worry about right now.
Have a great day!
Lori
It’s kind of a complex answer. No.
Unless…
You need one because it’s a multi-player game.
You need one because you want to track high scores for multiple players and have a leaderboard.
You want to track achievements using GameCenter or Google Gameplay.
You want to have a web site to promote your app (okay for this one, your app isn’t using the server, but your question is “do you need a server of any kind…”)
You want to send push notifications to your players
You want to use in-app purchases
and so on.
So if you have a simple game that doesn’t need anything, then no a server is not required. For leaderboards and achievements, you would likely use Goggle Play Game Services or Apple’s Game Center. While you are not responsible for your own server, you’re using a server. This is the same for in-app purchases. You would already know if you’re using those. The one side-note here is that some people do like to track their customers purchases and keep their receipts on their own server for security reasons.
I would think if you were doing multi-player stuff you would have already known what your server needs are, so I don’t think this impacts you.
Given that most of these conditions are thing you would have already had to have addressed if you’re ready to launch, then I go back to my original answer:
No you don’t.
Rob
I’m not ready for launch - still hard at work. But I would like to be connected to FB and allow the players to see the highscores of their FB friends (similar to what Candy Crush does); which sounds like I should look into the Google Play Game Services or Apple’s Game Center so that I would not have to be responsible for my own server.
I do plan on having inapp purchases and I know where and how I want to use them (I have an out line of what I want) I just haven’t programmed that yet. I’ve just start “researching” and there is so MANY MANY things that need to be considered it is quite overwhelming. I’m trying to create a checklist of what I need to do right now and at some point in the future.
Would the information for in app purchases be stored by Google Plan and/or Apple Game Center? I was thinking it billed through them.
I appreciate the quick response.
Lori
Lori,
Unless you need real time data and/or “server side receipt validation” there is nothing required for in-app and you can check your in-app purchase (on ios via report the next day) on google you can check it in real time under google wallet.
Facebook hooks into facebook so no need for server side on that as well.
Candy Crush however does communicate to it’s own servers for tracking, receipt validation and a few other things.
It sounds to me that you do not need a server as GPGS and AGC will take care of your high score info and you can use google/apple reporting to see all your in-app purchases.
Christopher
Thank you so much for responding. The information is extremely helpful. One less thing to worry about right now.
Have a great day!
Lori