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What do you guys think of using Windows Azure for deploying a custom built game server. It's being built in C#, and I want to get a few things down before stretching too far into the project.

I like the idea of being scalable, but I also know that I will never get to the scale of anything to the scale of WOW, or something quite as big. It will just be an interesting journey to test something like this.

So, will Windows Azure work for that, or is there any other services that can provide something like that?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't know if cloud computing is the best solution, you're going to be paying by the minute. You might be better off getting a VPS and/or using a p2p network scheme for UDP(syncing coordinates). Then again if the server is idle you won't be charged for the idle time, if you implement it correctly. \$\endgroup\$
    – tsturzl
    Commented Sep 21, 2012 at 4:46

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So, will Windows Azure work for that

Yes, Windows Azure will work.

or is there any other services that can provide something like that?

If you want to develop and run a .NET game server, you'll need something that will run the .NET framework (as well as any other libraries you end up using in your project). Any server host that offers Windows Servers will suffice.

The two big options for Windows Server hosting are Windows Azure and Amazon EC2. There are others out there as well, some being a tad more reliable than others.

How do you choose your host? Personal preference. Finances. Methods of access. Reliability. Reputation. None of us can answer that for you.

If you have the ability to install the software you need (.NET, any dependency libraries, Visual Studio, SQL Server, whatever else you require to build and run your game server), and you can access the system in a way that works for you (ssh vs. rdp vs. telnet vs. vnc vs. http) then the rest is fairly subjective.

Windows Azure has a 90-day free trial. Give it a shot. If it works, keep it. If not, check out the others.

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You can also consider the google computing engine.

But before you commit to a service, you should analyse pricings. You pay for traffic / processing time / space, so this may not be a viable solution ...

[UPDATE]

Maybe Google Compute is not the best alternative for Azure (I guess is more related to heavy computation than with hosting web apps ...); I found this presentation regarding different cloud services, and you have two more options:

  • Amazon EC2, which can run Windows
  • AppHarbor, which hosts .NET applications (C#, ASP.NET, ...)
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  • \$\begingroup\$ Does Google Computing Engine support the C# language? A quick search did not turn up anything. Also the payment for Azure wont be that high, just thinking of getting one server and a few gigs of data. \$\endgroup\$
    – Wynand Pieterse
    Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 19:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Accordingly to this you can choose the VM's OS, thus supporting C# ... \$\endgroup\$
    – fableal
    Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 19:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ Accordingly to this, "all instances run Linux", you can use Mono. \$\endgroup\$
    – fableal
    Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 19:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Cypher 1. There is no need to run Visual Studio on Linux to deploy a .NET application 2. Even so, enter MonoDevelop \$\endgroup\$
    – fableal
    Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 20:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ Hmmm, Amazon EC2 also sounds like a really good alternative. I will look into it thanks! \$\endgroup\$
    – Wynand Pieterse
    Commented Sep 20, 2012 at 20:26

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