I have a game which is currently singleplayer. Due to the nature of the game it is not ideal for it to be multiplayer to play with strangers, however it would be fun to play with friends and this is one of the most requested features.
My problem is that I cannot figure out how to acccomplish this. In the past I used a system where the game had 50 max players per server and users were instructed to create a free private server to play with friends or solo, however this process is not great because some players do not understand how to do this and most importantly it does not allow the game to be singleplayer by default.
I’ve been looking into using reserved servers but I cant quite figure out how to make it work. From my understanding, I would have to create a second place within the game which is multiplayer and make a reserved server when a player wants to play multiplayer. From here, they would have to somehow invite their friends, but I’m not sure if they would be able to join the server after it is created.
TL;DR: Game is singleplayer. I want to keep it that way by default, but I want players to be able to invite their friends to play, like an invite-only server.
Thanks for the clarification on the reserved server code. Perhaps I could use some sort of lobby system? I was unaware of the optimized server thing, but the problem is that any random person could still join from the server list. I could look into making it friends only of the first player or the owner needs to allow each person to join or something like that though.
Well, @incognitobot_rblx explained it nicely, but for your specific needs I suggest you make the start place a lobby, where you can create the reserved sever for yourself. For friends to join, they can join the lobby and have a list of servers their friends are already in. (you can use messaging service)
Personally, I don’t think this is a good game for the algorithm. However, if you can pull off a loyal playerbase then I see no issues.
I am a bit worried about the lobby affecting engagement, a non-zero amount of players would leave if they cannot get straight into the game. I think I will go for this solution using the social slots @incognitobot_rblx pointed out:
The max players is set to 50 or another high number
The social slots is set to “Customize” to 1 player.
When a player joins a new server, they are set as the “host”. Only they can invite people to the game.
When a player attempts to join that specific server, they are kicked unless they were invited by the host (this could be expanded by allowing friends to join, or other criteria)
