Igniting the Spark: Building Online Services for Borderlands 2
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Gearbox built an online services platform named Spark for Borderlands 2. As this was an entirely new effort for Gearbox, we learned that building a service is quite different from building a game. Along the way, we shipped two beta releases in the original Borderlands to help us succeed. The genesis of Spark, key milestones and challenges in its creation, and post-mortem from launch are discussed. This talk will help others understand why we created Spark and also what it takes to launch an online service.
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Igniting the Spark: Building Online Services for Borderlands 2
- 1. Igniting the Spark: Building Online Services for Borderlands 2 Jimmy Sieben @jimmys Lead Programmer, Gearbox Software
- 2. A Word About Me • I’ve been programming for 20+ years, 15 professionally • Making games since 1995; at Gearbox for over 10 years • Network Programming on multiple titles • Halo: Combat Evolved (2003: PC) • Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (2005: PC/Xbox) • Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (2008: PC/PS3/Xbox 360) • Borderlands (2009: PC/PS3/Xbox 360) • Borderlands 2 (2012: PC/PS3/Xbox 360)
- 3. A Word about Borderlands • Introduced in 2009, sold over 6 million • Coop Shooter Looter: • FPS Action, Action-RPG Mechanics • 4 player Cooperative, drop-in drop-out • Borderlands 2 released in 2012, sold over 6 million • Refined Shooter Looter, enhanced coop play • Built SHiFT and Spark to connect to community • A new initiative, something we’ve never done before
- 4. What is Spark? • Spark: Our backend platform • Internal name • SHiFT: Our online service • Customer-facing
- 5. Spark Features for Borderlands 2 • Archway • SHiFT Account Signup, Platform account linking / authentication (Xbox LIVE, PSN, Steam) • Code Redemption & Rewards • Discovery • Dynamic configuration, per-environment and per-user • Supports user populations for betas and testing • Micropatch • Data-driven hotfixes for rich game content • Hard-coded or service-delivered (tied into Discovery) • Leviathan • Telemetry for gameplay • Stats and Events with rich metadata
- 6. Why do this? • Games are increasingly social, connected experiences • AAA Games must go beyond the box • Embrace the web and mobile, companion experiences • Engage with players any time, anywhere • Build the brand • Ultimately, all about the customer • Build the connection directly to the fans • Enable the community to forge connections • These are pillars of the next generation of games
- 7. Archway: Accounts and Authentication • Single Sign On via ticket verification • Xbox LIVE, PSN, and Steam supported • Platform ID only comes from a valid ticket • This makes it difficult to impersonate a user
- 8. Spark: Single Sign-On Process Game: Game: Spark Backend: Acquire User Ticket Send ticket to Verify ticket from Platform API Spark
- 9. Spark: Reward Redemption • Built a system of Offers and Entitlements into our account system • Created a code generator for 5x5 codes
- 10. SHiFT Code Example Xbox 360 CBKBJ-3TXBH-55S3X-W6TT3-9BSZ5 PlayStation 3 WBKTB-CB6TT-X6WCJ-9T5BB-W5CBT Steam WTCTB-HHX3C-39FJJ-JB333-FWWJZ These are real-live codes, good for a Golden Key in Borderlands 2. Redeem them when you get home
- 11. SHiFT Code Reward Architecture Offer Offer Text Entitlements Entitlement 1 Entitlement 2 Entitlement 3..n GoldenKey ShiftCustomization Entitlement Name Consumable: 1 Valentine’s Skin Parameters
- 12. SHiFT Code Entitlement Architecture Golden Key
- 13. SHiFT Code Redemption Patterns Single Redemption Fixed ??? Redemption (small) 1 Shift Code Fixed Timed Redemption Redemption (large)
- 14. Spark: Micropatching • Borderlands 2 is a rich data-driven game • So much of the game is actually implemented in data, how can that be updated on the fly? • We built a system to package data updates into Micropatches, deliver them via Spark • This allows us to do balance tweaks, bug fixes, live events by changing data implementation • Authoring support in editor and backend tools
- 15. Spark: Telemetry • How do players experience Borderlands 2? • Drive Micropatches • Provide business intelligence during launch • Get visibility on exploits and cheats • Feed into future development
- 16. How do you do this? • What does a backend service look like? • GDC talks • HighScalability.com • Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google publications • Phone a Friend • How do you choose technology for Blue Sky? • Know your priorities: What you like, Healthy ecosystem • Rapidly evolving space • Just choose and go – adaptability is key
- 17. The Challenge of AAA Startups & mobile teams reference soft launch, gradual run-up to inflection point (John Mayer tweets about Words with Friends) Day 0 Day 1 Day 30 Day 120
- 18. The Challenge of AAA • AAA game launches are the opposite: Vertical, long tail and plateau Startup AAA Day 0 Day 1 Day 30 Day 120
- 19. Building the Service • Research • Build a team • Start coding • Ship it 2-3 years later? • …. This isn’t easy. Is there a better way?
- 20. Building a Beta! • We shipped BTest for Borderlands on Steam • Beta test of our toughest feature: Telemetry • Early visibility into key decisions and questions for Authentication • The focus of the first 10 months of Spark • Shipped on 9/9/2011
- 21. BTest Postmortem: Test Everywhere • We took our beta to different networks • 2k and Gearbox corporate • Home, with and without VPN • QuakeCon! • QuakeCon used a transparent Squid proxy • Exposed a copy/paste bug in our HTTP code • Oops, sending POST data on a GET!
- 22. BTest Postmortem: Crash Bug! • Clock synchronization problem on server • Game clients slowly drifted away from server • Some crash reports early • By Saturday morning, all clients crashing • Workaround server side, instantly fixed crashes! • Lessons • Some test are vectors very difficult to predict • Server tunability is incredibly valuable • Tuesdays are the Best Days! (Not Friday!)
- 23. BTest Postmortem: Leaderboard • We created a simple leaderboard to encourage players to try the update • It got slower and slower and slower, until updates were taking over 45 minutes. Refactored queries and got updates down to 20 seconds • Hacker submitted bogus data within hours of launch • Lessons: • Test with full data set early • Try and break your assumptions • Malice is the Norm
- 24. BTest Postmortem: Database Schema • We didn’t know exactly what we wanted to ask, so we built a very flexible, generic model • Very quickly got too slow to work with • How many enemies killed: 1 hr+ query times! • Database size out of control • Hard to plug in tools for visualization • Lessons: • Knowing what you want to do w/ data is crucial • Data archival was very useful
- 25. BTest Postmortem: Capacity Planning • Looked at Steam data in March • Predictable decline to July Launch March May July September
- 26. BTest Postmortem: Capacity Planning • We shipped Btest in September… • Steam Summer Sale! • Borderlands 2 announced! Planned Actual March May July September
- 27. BTest Postmortem Capacity Planning • Scrambled to handle dramatically higher load • Resized DBs, more servers, reconfiguration • Lessons: • Pay close attention and adjust constantly • Be plugged in to PR and Business • Be agile
- 28. Building another Beta! • BTest was so helpful, we shipped another beta! • Launched December 13, 2011 (a Tuesday!)
- 29. Gearbox Moves into the Cloud • BTest1 was hard to operate on shared hosting • Capacity hard to adjust, and we didn’t get it right • We knew we needed to design for more flexibility • BTest2 Shipped on Amazon Web Services • EC2, RDS, ELB • Steep learning curve, but paid off… • Didn’t get everything right…
- 30. BTest2 Postmortem: Holiday Stability • We launched and were mostly stable • However, problem Christmas evening! • Our game was still selling, new people playing • Queues were backing up, not severe • A few days later, CPU is pegged! • The Cloud to the rescue! Deploy more bigger! • Lessons: • Queue storage in cloud gave wiggle room • It was actually pretty easy to recover from CPU peg • Capacity planning still hard!
- 31. BTest2 Postmortem: Missed Opportunities • New to AWS, Deployed regular EC2 instances • Skipped VPC • This turned out to be a mistake • More difficult to secure some resources like we wanted • Had to build load balancing logic into app layer • Lessons: • Embrace as much of the feature set as you can • Don’t be afraid to choose long term over short term • Especially for a Beta!
- 32. Going Wide • After shipping two iterations, had some confidence in architecture • Define the final feature set for the game • Building an implementation plan is hard • Include all stakeholders • Navigate difficult policy waters • Finish building the team and finish the code!
- 33. Discovery: Design for Tunability • Created Discovery service which is central store for service configuration • If the client doesn’t get service info, disable it • Flexibility is key: • Simple key/value pairs, dirt-simple format • Different configs for environments, titles, and platforms
- 34. Discovery: Design for Testability • Endpoint URLs and Versions from Server • Single point of entry hardcoded in code / platform config • Client overrides for configuration via INI and command line • Allowed developers to work offline • Allowed QA to customize things for testing • Supported even in final builds • Enabled internal and external beta scenarios!
- 35. Design for Bad User Behaviors • Be conscious of user behaviors which can harm the service • Signup / Signin • Code Redemption • We implemented client side throttles • Prevent button mashing denial of service attacks • Don’t create incentives for users to be bad • Signup/delete path not optimized for churn • Signup rewards once per platform ID, ever
- 36. Load Testing Difficulties • We didn’t fully understand how ELB worked at first • Amazon’s documents are good, but easy to overlook • Turn off DNS caching • Prewarming critical • JMeter limitations led us to write custom scripts • Costs can get out of hand! Watch carefully! • Should have invested more in automation
- 37. Launching Borderlands 2 • Borderlands 2 launch: September 18, 2012 • The team was all set in the war room • Night and day shift established for launch • Latest capacity info from industry friends and experts projected we would survive • But still, wave of terror washed over me a T-6 hrs
- 39. So?, What Happened • Nothing! • Well, almost. At least at first. • Email queues backed up, deployed more workers • Slowing turning up the dials on telemetry • Watching the numbers, generally OK • Went to sleep happy! • A few things did come up in the following days…
- 40. Day 1: Bad Query Beware tolower() query on indexed columns Our testing missed this because it only shows on a loaded database
- 41. Day 2: Keeping Telemetry Going • Launch week capacity was tough to manage • We wanted to keep costs in check, but had not implemented AWS Auto-Scaling Groups • Manually add/remove instances at set times
- 42. Day 2: Keeping Telemetry Going
- 43. Day 2: Operation Mistake Reveals Bug • Made a mistake pushing change to Redis • Lots of users kicked off service accidentally • Many of them didn’t come back automatically!
- 44. Day 2: Telemetry Bug
- 45. Day 2: Telemetry Bug • Actually found 5 different bugs • Reauthentication is a tricky process to test • Bugs in each layer involved in process • Hard to test all the interactions in the system • Fixing it was also a challenge • Coordinate operations, dev, production, QA • More on that later…
- 46. Day 3: Bad Build • An early Steam patch was released with bad configuration, pointing at test environment! • Fortunately, just after patch release we took down test environment for maintenance. • Deployed a workaround on server frontdoor • Could not bring it back up until all users were patched
- 47. Day 3: Bad Build Continues! • It wasn’t just our main SKU that had this problem • We released that code to the Russian SKU as well, which had a delayed update plan • It took almost 3 weeks to deploy that patch • Still not out of the woods. • Unpatched users still out there • Pirated copies? Users that didn’t update? • Lesson: be very careful with configuration!
- 48. SHiFT Codes! • A few days into launch, we were stable enough to start using our SHiFT Codes • Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) got things started with some quick tests • Engaged directly with devops team to measure results • Got a little TOO engaged…
- 50. SHiFT Codes: Chaos • While looking for real-time code redemption results, I issued a bad query that impacted some monitoring • Took most of the afternoon and evening to recover • Redis failover scripts did not work as expected • Restart monitoring node, stabilize cluster • Move some monitoring functionality to new node • Lessons: • Try not to intermingle monitoring for different components • Be extra careful querying 100MM record datasets!
- 51. SHiFT Codes: Optimizations • During week 2, we used a new type of code that was active for a period of time • This allowed us to build a social engagement strategy around code redemption times • Essentially created Flash Mobs for SHiFT
- 56. SHiFT Codes: Optimizations • Linear table growth as redemptions increase • By the second weekend, there were many many rows • Lookups on this table were missing an index • Didn’t catch this growth over time in testing • Query for entitlement and offer info not cached • This data doesn’t change during a code drop • Missed this: requires large table and flash mob • Easy to cache in app layer to reduce DB pressure
- 57. SHiFT Codes: Unexpected Behavior Telemetry traffic pattern changes when a code drops Users Save & Exit game, wait to redeem in menu Causes spike and lull in telemetry traffic
- 58. SHiFT Codes: Unexpected Behavior • We didn’t expect this behavior • Fortunately this didn’t cause a big problem • Had extra capacity on hand for launch window • Lessons • Carefully think through interactions of systems • However, must recognize that not all user behaviors can be predicted • Be prepared for surprises
- 59. The Challenge of AAA: DLC • Successful AAA games must have a DLC plan • Borderlands 2 successfully launched 5 packs • Week 4: Gaige: Mechromancer character class • Week 5: Captain Scarlett & Her Pirate’s Booty • Week 10: Mr Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage • Week 17: Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt • Week 18: Domination, Madness, and Supremacy
- 60. The Challenge of AAA: DLC • This put a lot of pressure on live team • New Features, bug fixes, balance tweaks • Packaging and builds • Meanwhile Spark team had challenges too • Improve service manageability, security patches, keep it running • Optimize server performance and costs • Lesson: Very difficult to do things post-launch • Plan ahead for anything you need in the first 10 weeks • Lots of slack in schedule, communicate with dev
- 62. What Didn’t Happen? • Spark performed above expectations • No downtime in launch window • User-facing components didn’t buckle • Team wasn’t killed keeping it going
- 63. Team Wasn’t Killed Keeping it Going
- 64. Why Did We Succeed? • Great team of smart, passionate, and committed people • Spent adequate time testing user-facing (10 weeks from certification to launch) • The cloud: over provision, then scale back • We launched 2 betas
- 65. What’s Next? • We originally developed Spark for a single title, Borderlands 2 • Felt that constraining scope was key to success • SHiFT was so successful, we shipped it again! • Aliens: Colonial Marines launched February 2013 • Integrated accounts, rewards, and built new rewards for SHiFT
- 66. Getting Spark to 1.0 • Finish integrating Amazon features: VPC & ASG • Optimize costs around known traffic patterns • Enhanced monitoring and deployment tools • … And beyond! • Find new ways to use the platform! • Experiment with new ways to engage with fans
- 67. Final Thoughts • This is really important for next-gen • Capacity planning is very hard to do • Coped by being agile and relying on the cloud • Ship early and often • Possible even for AAA Games! Jimmy Sieben @jimmys jimmy.sieben@gearboxsoftware.com
Editor's Notes
- I’ve been programming for over 20 years, professionally for 15I have been making games since 1995 and have been at Gearbox for over 10 yearsNetwork Programming on multiple titlesHalo: Combat Evolved (PC)Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (PC/Xbox)Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (PC/PS3/Xbox 360)Borderlands 1 (PC/PS3/Xbox 360)Borderlands 2 (PC/PS3/Xbox 360)
- In order to do anything interesting, need to know who players arePlatform ID coming from a ticket means it is hard to impersonate a user, as the attack has to generate a signed ticket, but the platform controls the secret key…
- We wanted to provide a means to give players rewards from social channels
- A code gives you an Offer (customer-facing term is Reward)RewardsOffer Text is localized on backend, sent to client on loginEach instance of an entitlement can have unique parameters (consumable? Amount? which inventory to spawn)
- Entitlements can be part of many OffersOffers can contain main EntitlementsSince Offer text is customized per-reward, can build flexible and compelling Rewards from simple building blocks
- ???:Future-proof design since the smarts live on the server
- Live event example: Gear Up event as a lead-in to Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game HuntRight click menu to copy micropatch string to clipboardPaste into INI for local testing, custom configuration via command lineLinks to bugs in backend tools, custom management of patch setsA/B testing and experiments and betas also supported
- I recall at GDC Online 2010, the Newtoy team described Words with Friends spiked after John Mayer tweeted about it.
- Launch night was big, the first weekend was the peak. Sustained traffic for the first couple of monthsboosted by DLC, eventually settle into a stable player base
- First thoughts…Wait, we need to think about this some more…
- Why not use the game we already have, Borderlands, to help us learn about building the serviceWe need to iterate, and ship sooner. So let’s launch a beta on Steam!Great choice because it was easy to update, rapid iteration on PC. Good size player base, but not so large that a mistake would destroy the game or seriously damage our fans
- This was a case that we missed in internal testing, getting all the network configurations right can be tricky
- Bad (or maybe good) luck that the servers were up just long enough that by Btest launch they had drifted enough to expose the bug – we rejected tickets from the futurePatch Tuesday is a thing for a reasonAlso release Micropatches on Tuesdays, built our hotfix workflow around this lesson
- We archived all of this data, and constantly replayed it over the rest of development as we refined the system
- We started in March, looked at Steam dataPredictable decline to planned July Launch
- Unfortunately, R&D caused our schedule to slip a bit, so we didn’t launch until SeptemberMeanwhile, marketing was doing what they do best: selling our game! A couple of things happenedAnd, we announced Borderlands 2!
- New set of goals as Borderlands 2 takes shape
- Steep learning curve as the team was familiar with traditional IT environment. Experience with virtualization, but on a much smaller scale for internal resourcesStill, we jumped right in and started digesting the APIs, had an environment up and running pretty quickly, with a LONG list of things to improve on post-btest
- PII, first-party considerations for platforms we shipped on, regional restrictions, EULA and TOS…I want to talk about a few things that really helped in terms of the actual code
- BTest taught us the wisdom here
- This is also the mechanism by which we intend to support future A/B tests and experiments within our game
- We took these notes from a talk Christopher McArthur from Riot Games gave at GDC Online 2011: “Building the Chat Service for League of Legends: From Struggle to RedemptionEmail sending in those paths, don’t want users abusing themA special hash conputed to ensure a given platform ID cannot get rewards more than once
- We had done some isolated load testing of components, but only limited work past BTest of the system as a wholeWe had about 10 weeks from going into final certification before launchNot a lot of time, but enough to get some real work done, so we focused heavily on load-testing at this timeWe planned to support millions of logins and data posts every hour
- Here’s the team ready for launch in the war room
- Beware tolower() query on indexed columnsOur testing missed this because it only shows on a loaded database
- Massive variability in traffic between bottom and the top on this day
- You can see the change there at 20:20Found bugs in telemetry code, new failure mode testing didn’t catch
- If we hadn’t taken test server down by chance, could have been very messy to deal with.
- Not sure how many are pirated copies, versus just users that didn’t patch or have somehow hacked their local setup
- Unfortunately, we got a little too engaged…
- I love this graph because it really captures the chaos of that afternoon
- Graph from first timed release – system help up fine, but at the time I thought of it as a shark fin, a portent of pain to come…
- Another test that weekend,fin is getting taller and fatter… uh oh.
- Another test, now we are really getting into trouble, like the shark’s body is surfacing
- Uhoh, now we are in real trouble
- Right at 2pm, code drops and traffic spikes – had to redeem code in main menuDoes not recover for quite some time, users play is interrupted
- Did not model or test for itManual scaling and coordination with PR ensured we had capacity for code drops in the early days
- I want to talk about something else that was unexpected for us during the launch window.New content launching every 4 or 5 weeks, releases and certifications were back to back and we didn’t want to miss any dates.
- The first 10 weeks, up through the second campaign DLC launch, was very intenseThis is definitely something to think about when planning your live team for your service
- I am particularly proud of that last point.This is the war room during our peak traffic on Sunday. We were definitely all tired on September 21, but we didn’t turn into zombies in the office just barely keeping it up. We were actually able to send guys home and things kept working.
- Team had the right puzzle pieces that fit together, complementing each others’ strengthsThat 10 week period I talked about, we proved out a lot of capacity for our most critical components and knew how to scale themTake advantage of the cloudBut really, the 2 betas helped us tremendously. We found and fixed many problems in those releases, effectively we shipped a 0.1 in BTest1, a 0.2 in BTest2, and something like a 0.9 with Borderlands 2
- We developed for one title, but always had the future of this being a cross-title thing in mind, so key elements were designed with extensibility in place
- These are all things we have recently completed, or are in the process of wrapping up nowVery happy with how the first iteration of our platform worked outBuilding collaborations with other studios, new ways to use shift codes, new platforms to expand onto
- Mantra of ship early and oftenCapacity: Found that it continued to evade us over timePlease fill out Speaker Evaluations in your email when they scanned your badgeStop here – just show the shift code slide again if askedIf doing Q&A, please state your name and affiliation(not to me: repeat questions or rephrase/summarize)