Help to make a general multiplayer game

I’m trying to learn to make a simple multiplayer game. I’m not sure how it exactly works although I’ve been trying to check out tutorials. I think I understand the part that you need servers for sessions and matches, then you need a server for player stats. Can you make an actual online game with players hosting servers and players stats online out of the box? And if I need anything else, can I use it for free? Also, the last thing, where are the best places to learn networking for games?

Basically, the “default” multiplayer setup from unreal engine is “Listen Server”.
Listen server mean a player will host the game.

You can also add dedicaced server but it can be only on a source compiled engine.

To match player together, you will need something to do the link between players,
You can go on a custom solution, or use online plateforme like steam, epic online service…

Everything is free, and implemented directly in unreal,
Some plugin on the marketplace will do the task easily.

To learn how to do multiplayer games with ue4 : Official doc is a good start place,
But there is MANY good tutorial to improve your general understanding of the flow on Youtube (free) or Udemy (notfree). You have also the An Unreal Engine Blog – An Unreal Engine Blog.

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Thank you so much for a reply! I believe it’s also a solution. But one question, I just checked out Epic Online Services, it’s apparently free, but does it work kind of like Amazon Web Services? I also couldn’t find anything much to help with multiplayer from ue4 right out of the box. I only get results for things about Steam (which you have a fee for and a little complicated) and AWS (which is expensive and takes a little while to get through the online console and the 200$ plugin).

Steam and EOS are “free” (for steam you need to pay 100$ one time per game, for EOS, i don’t know).

They both provide kinda “Master Server” service, That mean they put player in relation for you, allowing to create lobby, friendlist and some feature.

They don’t host server of the game, only the server who make player in relation between them.
Also, both take a % if you’r game are not free. 30% for steam, 5% for eos if you are with unreal engine if my memory is good.

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Ok, so I’ve checked out more into Epic Online Services, I got the SDK and did research but I seen something about the EOSCore exposed in the blueprint plugin… EOSCore in Code Plugins - UE Marketplace is this needed? Also, I’m not sure how to use the Epic Online Services SDK. So what exactly do I need to use and get to be able to create a multiplayer game for free in ue4?

I can’t give you advice on EOS, as i’m on steam.

For what you need, it’s almost depending of your need, and as always with unreal, most of the time, only you can answer to this question.

Oh ok, but I highly appreciate the help, so thank you!

Hi Again, I’m just wondering, do you know if I could use the EOS with blueprints without the plugin? I don’t have much knowledge of coding C++, so I’m not sure what the best way to get around it would be. Because I believe you can use blueprints without any plugins with Steam, so I’m not sure if it’s similar with EOS.

Errrr… without plugin i don’t think so.

I never tried it after (outside of cpp), and it’s pretty new to UE.

Oh, this could be tough for now at least. Thanks again!

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