What you'll learn in this series

Welcome to the W4 Cloud intro tutorial!

In this Getting Started series, you will learn how to use W4 Cloud for multiple people to play online together using the W4 API.

We'll add W4 Cloud's multiplayer to a game inspired by Hex-A-Gone from Fall Guys.

The game's rules are simple:

  • When you walk on a hexagon, after a few moments, it falls.

  • If you fall, you lose.

  • If you bump into another player, you push them.

  • The last person to stand wins.

We'll learn the parts specific to W4 Cloud. This series assumes you already have at least some game development experience and are familiar with Godot.

We will follow these broad steps:

  1. First, we will add the necessary code for the game to use W4's services.

  2. Then, we will create a server version of the game.

  3. Finally, we will upload it on W4 and prepare it to run online.

Creating online multiplayer games requires good programming foundations already. If you're not confident in your skills, we recommend going through Godot's free Getting Started series first.

In the series, you will learn how to:

  • Register users and save player session data (authentication).

  • Set up an authoritative server that serves as the central hub for all the players.

  • Create a "puppeteer" setup. This is when players send their inputs to the server, which takes care of updating the game simulation. This setup limits cheating.

  • Use W4's manual matchmaking with lobbies.

  • Use the W4 API to allow multiple players to play together with an authoritative server.

  • Build and publish a game using W4 cloud.

The setup you'll learn is suitable for most real-time multiplayer games that do not rely on sub-second reflexes, such as Overcooked, and turn-based games like The Witcher's Gwent.

There's a lot to learn when it comes to online multiplayer game development, and many advanced topics. This Getting Started series does not cover:

  • Predictions and rollback: playing the game locally to simulate lack of latency, and correcting the game state when the server sends the synchronized state to players.

  • Peer-to-peer or mesh networking: connecting players directly, without a server.

  • Deterministic Networking: reproducing a game on all clients through inputs alone

W4 Cloud does allow you to support Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking, predictions, and rollback. However, these features require implementations unique to each game, which is beyond the scope of this Getting Started series.

Our goal here is to familiarize you with the most common pieces of W4's API.

At the end of this series, you'll find an annex with links to deepen your networking skills and dive into topics like predictions and rollback.

In the next part, we'll get started with an overview of W4 Cloud's authoritative multiplayer.