Ascendants Rising: Helping indie studios stay in control

Challenge

The freedom to control updates

Limitless Games had very specific needs. Not only did they need servers that would handle the stress as the game expanded, but it was also vitally important that they could still control the various systems they’d set up. For example, they were integrating the Epic Games Store and the tools that come with it into their game.

All of these plug into a single Continuous Integration System to roll out updates. Whatever orchestrator and server provider they chose, needed to be able to link up with these systems.

Solution

Taking a weight off their shoulders

It’s important to support independent studios. So we offered Limitless Games our indie package, a way to keep their costs down, particularly during their early access phase. This meant they could host around the world, make sure that they could test with real-world players, and rest assured that everything would run smoothly.

All they needed to do was use Docker to containerize their game binary and they were ready to get going.

Reliable and easy to integrate

The creative minds at Limitless Games created Ascendants Rising to be a cooperative RPG, where players battle through a multiverse of monsters and bosses, each more formidable than the last. The four-player multiplayer game focuses on battles and quick gameplay, letting players build their own classes and allowing even new players to be useful in combat.

While still in early access, the studio wanted to get the game in front of real players to see how it would fare and iterate their development. Testing a single-player game is straightforward, but testing a cooperative game needs real-life people to jump aboard and give their feedback. It lives or dies on whether the multiplayer servers are working.

“The main technical challenge is on the multiplayer side of things,” explains Manu Marquez, co-founder at Limitless Games. “If the multiplayer doesn’t work then people won’t play it. And the community expects a certain level of quality, so the architecture itself needs to allow for this. On top of that, we’re still in the early stages of development, so we needed a system where we could potentially release something new every few weeks.”

Making sure that all their systems were linked up correctly would give them the control and flexibility that they needed. They needed a server provider that was reliable and easy to integrate.

Keep it easy to integrate

The key to the puzzle is that we’re agnostic. We could integrate straight into their current set up, along with their Epic Games Store tools and their matchmaker, PlayFab, through a single Continuous Integration System.

“Gameye is fairly straightforward and easy to develop for, ” Manu says. “Using their API is super easy. It’s easy to integrate, easy to update and you don’t lose control. You keep your freedom.”

Roll out changes quickly

Linking up to their current setup was key key, as they’re still in early access and wanted to iterate their development. Now, in combination with their other systems, Manu can roll out updates to the game in a few clicks, sending new versions to the Epic Games Store, our servers and anywhere else it’s needed.

Give them the personal touch

There was a final part of the puzzle that made everything come together for Manu. We give channels to speak directly with our team, making it easy to troubleshoot problems and giving that personal touch.

“The support is what makes the difference,” Manu adds. “Gameye is an easy place to work with. Nothing is an issue and they’re proactive. You feel like you’re working with a partner and have a direct line to the people who can actually help. You don’t have to go through like 20 guys before you get to someone who can understand what’s going on.”