Chapter 4. Player.IO – Bot Wars

In the last chapter, we have covered our first dedicated server technology, Photon Server. In this chapter, we will be covering another dedicated server technology known as Player.IO.

Just like Photon Server, Player.IO runs dedicated server code, where players connect to the server and send messages, and the server processes game logic. Player.IO also includes a variety of other features such as login/account systems, databases, leaderboards, and so on. Additionally, it is similar to Photon Cloud in that servers are hosted by the service, and cannot be self-hosted.

In this chapter we will cover the following topics:

• What makes Player.IO different from Photon Server

• Setting up a development server instance

• Setting up the Unity client SDK

• Connecting to Player.IO, joining rooms, and sending/receiving messages

• Loading and saving data via BigDB

• Generating instant object IDs client-side

• Creating a simple multiplayer RTS prototype

Let's dive in.