Matchmaking - Overview
[SOCL-Matchmaking-01]
The Beamable Multiplayer feature allows game makers to create real-time and turn-based multi-user game experiences. For a project to offer multiplayer, it must first offer matchmaking.
In multiplayer gaming, matchmaking is the process of creating/finding a Match (e.g. Multiplayer 'Room') based on criteria. For example, a client could say "give me a match to play in with 2 total players of any skill level". Beamable supports matchmaking through its MatchmakingService.
The Matchmaking service has many built-in events to attach listeners (e.g. match starting, search timeout, etc). This makes it very simple to connect your game's custom UI to Beamable's services.
The outcome of a successful matchmaking search gives the participating players a match ID. This can be used to integrate Beamable's in-house Multiplayer solution, or a third-party multiplayer suite such as Photon.
The basic flow for matchmaking is described below:
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Start Matchmaking | The player is entered into a matchmaking search, where they will be matched up with other similarly skilled players. |
| Wait For Search | The player waits for other players to also enter matchmaking. This is a good place to display matchmaking callbacks to the user (how many players have been found so far, how long the search has taken in seconds, etc). |
| Report Timeout | If a duration of time has passed and a suitable match has not been found, the search is ended, at which point the player will need to restart searching. |
| Join Match | A suitable match has been found, the participating clients are now supplied with a match ID which they can use to join the "room". |
Related Features
More details are covered in related feature page(s).
• Multiplayer - Allow game makers to create multi-user experiences
Updated about 1 year ago