Dependencies

• Metaplay overview - You should have a general idea of what problems we solve for you in the world of game backends. When in doubt, check out the Introduction to Metaplay page!
• A Unity project with the Metaplay SDK integrated - To run and connect to the server, you first need to add the SDK to your Unity project, as we did in the previous guide. If you haven't checked it out yet, take a look at Adding the SDK to a Unity Project.

Overview

If you followed the previous guide, your project now contains a fully-featured game server under the Backend/ directory that you can easily run and connect to on your local machine. Now you're ready to configure your project's identity accordingly and run the server for the first time.

Configuring the Project's Identity

You can configure your project's identity by giving it a name in GlobalOptions.cs. This file defines your project's default Options that are used to configure your project for different environments, such as local, development, and production. They will be explained further in the coming pages, but you can check out the Further Reading section if you're curious.

Assets/SharedCode/GlobalOptions.cs

// Let's give the project the name 'MyProject'.
public MetaplayCoreOptions Options { get; } = new MetaplayCoreOptions(
    projectName: "MyProject",
    ...

Running the Game Server

Here's how to run the server locally:

On Windows, using Visual Studio

1. Open the server solution in Visual Studio, located under the Backend/ directory and named <project>-Server.sln.
2. Make sure the Server project is selected as the startup project (in Solution Explorer, right-click on Server, and choose Set as StartUp Project).
3. Press Ctrl+F5 to start the server.

On Windows, using the command line

1. Use your command line to navigate into the Backend/Server directory.
2. Run dotnet run to start the backend.
3. Press Q to gracefully stop the backend.

On macOS, using Visual Studio for Mac

1. Open the 'Visual Studio for Mac' installation that came with Unity and check for updates to get the latest version.
2. Open the server solution in Visual Studio fo Mac, located under the Backend/ directory and named <project>-Server.sln.
3. Make sure the Server project is selected as startup project.
4. Run the project by pressing the play button or by selecting Run/Start Debugging.
5. During your first run, you may get permission popups on newer versions of macOS. Terminal access is required to run the backend.
6. Press the stop button or press q in the terminal window to stop the backend.

On macOS, using the terminal app

1. Navigate to the project folder and then to the Backend/Server subfolder in your terminal app.
2. Run dotnet run to start the backend.
3. Press q to stop the backend.

With the game server running, we can connect the game client to it in Unity. Open the environment configs editor under Metaplay/Environment Configs and set 'Active Environment' to 'localhost'.

Hitting play will now form a connection to your locally running game server.

Check it out!

You can now view the LiveOps Dashboard at http://localhost:5550 when the server is running.

Setting up Cloud Environments

If you already have environments up and running in the cloud, you can follow the Environment Configs's Setup guide to enable connecting to the cloud environments.

Further Reading

Great! We've now got a server running. To continue with basics you should start understanding how Metaplay’s programming model works so you can prepare yourself and start working on your game. We recommend you stop by Saving Player Data to the Server to get started.

You might also want to take a detour by Working with Runtime Options to learn more about configuring the server for different environments (as mentioned in the Configuring the Project's Identity section) or Introduction to the LiveOps Dashboard to get a primer on one of the most useful features the SDK has to offer.