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DISCLAIMER: I know this question starts to leave development island but it is very game development related and still think this is the best place.

I see many free MMOs/online desktop client games out there. I am baffled at the ability to fund such. I don't mind hosting myself but would at least like to have someone host a matchmaking service. If these indie devs really are pouring money down the server drain then I'm screwed but if some one can "learn me" :) some alternatives I would greatly appreciate it.

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5 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

You can host a simple matchmaking service on Google App Engine for free. It should be able to service many users. If it starts being really really popular, you can start paying for the service with what you earn.

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This looks like my best option now. I need free for the development phase. Thank You. – Jonathan Kaufman Jul 28 '10 at 17:07
up vote 2 down vote

You can also put off some server cost on one of the users after you setup a match. Have one random player (preferably with the best connection to all the other players) become the "host". If this player disconnects, then find the next best host and so on.

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up vote 1 down vote

I know this question has already been answered, but especially with the recent release of the elastic beanstalk, Amazon's Web Services are another alternative.

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up vote 0 down vote

Steamworks is an option if you don't mind being tied to their platform (not a huge loss since most gamers probably have Steam already).

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the only problem with steamworks is that you need a game. I am looking for a cheap alternative for me to test and develop with. – Jonathan Kaufman Jul 28 '10 at 16:55
I guess big studios get more latitude on those rules :-/ (we definitely didn't have anything for some of our games when I first got SDK access) – coderanger Jul 28 '10 at 17:02
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If you want a very simple thing, you can find "free" stuff on the app engine and such, but also, you can run quite complicated stuff on slicehost.com and start with 20 bucks. You would be surprised of how much you can do with small slices. If you get more traffic than a couple hundred bucks can pay, you should be able to generate money somehow.

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I thank you for this option. This is definately something I will look into but for now in the beginning stages googles free app engine seems to offer what i need. – Jonathan Kaufman Jul 28 '10 at 16:58

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