Godot Multiplayer on AWS

If you want to make your first multiplayer game with Godot on AWS, I think I can help you.

I make a lot of awful games. But with multiplayer, I can force my friends to play my awful games with me.

Here’s my last multiplayer game, Matchy Miners.

Here's a step-by-step tutorial on getting a very starter multiplayer project with Godot running in AWS.

By the end, we’ll get a multiplayer game like this running in AWS.

Step 1

Download the starter project.

1. Download or clone the project from the github repo.
2. Import the project into Godot.
   1. Launch Godot.
   2. Click Import.
   3. Navigate to the .project file in the downloaded godot-network-multiplayer-starter project.
   4. Click Import & Edit.

Step 2

Create the server locally.

1. With Godot open, navigate to res://Scenes/Network.tscn.
2. Click the root node Network.
3. In the inspector, set Connection Type to server.
4. Export the project as an executable. (Project > Export > Export Project)
   • This executable will be your server!
5. Run the executable.
   • Once you run the server, you don’t have to do anything else with it. Just make sure its running.

Step 3

Run the game locally!

1. In the Godot project, go back to res://Scenes/Network.tscn.
2. In the inspector, set Connection Type to client.
3. Play the project!
4. In the game window, type in your name and the server host.
   • Your name is up to you!
   • The server host will be 127.0.0.1 for now.
     • 127.0.0.1 or localhost represents the computer that the code is working on.
   • Something like this:
5. Press Join.
   • You should now be in the game.
6. Move around with W/A/S/D or Up/Left/Down/Right.
7. Type in chat by pressing Enter.

Remember the server we had running in Step 2?

• Put that window right up next to your Godot game window.
• When you move or chat in the game window, you’ll see yourself move on the server!

Step 4

Create the server on AWS.

This is the part where we put the server actually on the internet, in the AWS cloud. Make sure you undestand how it works locally before moving on.

1. Create a free AWS account here if you don’t already have one. The page should look like this after logging in.

2. Navigate to Services > Compute > EC2.

3. Launch a free EC2 instance.

   • An EC2 instance is basically just a server in the AWS cloud.
     1. Click Launch Instance.
     2. Make sure to choose the t2.micro instance type. It should say free tier eligible.
     3. Create a key pair so that you are authorized to connect to the server later.
     • Click Create a new key pair.
     • Use these values are press Create key pair.
     • After you create the key pair, it should save a .pem file to your computer. Remember that location. 4. Press Launch Instance.

Step 5

Configure the EC2 instance on AWS.

1. Click on the EC2 Instance ID. It should be named something like i-0a8f5d7cafdc0a9e6.

2. Under the Security Groups section, click on the security group named something like sg-0a7003edc6121a09c.

3. Click Edit Inbound Rules.

4. Click Add Rule. Select All Traffic for Type and Anywhere-IPv4 for Source.
   • This makes your server very insecure. But for the purposes for our first multiplayer game, it’s fine. Make note that security will have to be tighter for a commercial game.

5. Click Save Rules.

6. Repeat steps #3 through #5 for Outbound Rules. Start at Edit Outbound Rules.

Step 6

Upload the Godot server to the EC2 instance on AWS.

Instead of running the server executable on your local machine, we’re going to upload the server to AWS EC2 and run it from there.

This next part is much easier with access to a bash terminal. You’ll need to run chmod permissions commands, scp commands to write files to AWS, and ssh commands to run Godot on AWS.

1. In the Godot project, export the project as a Linux build (.x86_64 and .pck files).
2. Open your terminal/command prompt on your local machine.
3. Navigate to a folder that has both the .pem file and the .pck file.
4. Change permissions to .pem file. On a bash terminal, run chmod 400 my-key-pair.pem.
5. Copy the .pck file from your local machine to the EC2 instance using an scp command:
   • scp -i [PEM_FILE_NAME] [PCK_FILE_NAME] ec2-user@[PUBLIC_IPV4_DNS]:/home/ec2-user/
     • [PEM_FILE_NAME] is the path to the .pem file
     • [PCK_FILE_NAME] is the path to the .pck file
     • [PUBLIC_IPV4_DNS] is the value called public IPv4 DNS on the AWS console.

   

Step 7

Run the Godot server on the EC2 instance on AWS.

1. SSH into the EC2 instance on AWS.
   • ssh -i [PEM_FILE_NAME] ec2-user@[PUBLIC_IPV4_DNS]
   • For example: ssh -i my-key-pair.pem ec2-54-90-177-85.compute-1.amazonaws.com
2. Update the EC2 instance and install Godot on the EC2 instance.
   • sudo yum install wget && sudo yum install unzip && wget https://downloads.tuxfamily.org/godotengine/3.4.4/Godot_v3.4.4-stable_linux_server.64.zip && unzip Godot_v3.4.4-stable_linux_server.64.zip
3. Run the Godot server from the EC2 instance:
   • nohup ./Godot_v3.4.4-stable_linux_server.64 --main-pack godot-network-multiplayer-starter-server.pck &
4. Disconnect from the EC2 instance.

Step 7

Play the game while connected to your server on AWS!

1. Play the Godot project.
2. Type in your desired name in the Player Name field.
3. Type in the Public IPv4 address of the EC2 instance in the Server Host IP field.
   • The Public IPv4 address can be found on the AWS console and looks like this:
4. Press Join and enjoy! Have multiple people join the same Server Host IP!

Setting up AWS resources can be scary, but it can be really helpful in getting your first online multiplayer game setup with Godot.