should i have a matchmaking system?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hello!

right now im working on a personal project. it is a multiplayer game. I want it to have up to 15 players at a time. the reason im asking if i should have a matchmaking system is because in every game mode there is permanent death. so basically when you die, you are out of the game, you can continue to watch the game, or go to the lobby. the reason i want to know about matchmaking is because if i could use matchmaking that would allow people to not wait around for the next match, increasing peoples attention, and making the game more fun. Is setting up a matchmaking server actually doable? the game will only be 15 dollars and i don’t want any micro transactions, or subscription fees. distribution will be pc only though services like steam and good old games. so basically i don’t want to be paying for a server and eventually lose all my money, im looking for a scale able model that can support 100 players or 1,000,000 players., that costs me nothing. Would it be a better idea to just go with traditional options and allow the players to just host there own servers like in battlefield, and make the game play matches take a shorter amount of time and not have matchmaking at all. I know for sure i wouldn’t have to pay for servers with that. I would love to have matchmaking if its possible and literally costs nothing. My mane goal is to not have players waiting around to long when they die.

thanks!

2

It sounds like you answered your own question. There’s no right answer.

Since your asking on here I am making some assumptions, mainly that you are part of a very small team. On a larger team you would be having this type of discussion internally. So, with a really small team I think it is more important to spend your time and resources to get the actual game-play experience good. If it does well and is played a lot it would be a natural step to add matchmaking later. I think this would be very different with a larger project having an advertised release.

It’s really unique to your game. If you have a core story for what you game does, evaluate the matchmaking feature against that story. Does it support it? Does it detract from it? Or, without it will the game not meet the main story or experience you are trying to provide.

3

I think your right. it will be better to launch initially without matchmaking.