This document summarizes DevCon 2015, a developers productivity conference hosted by Microsoft Russia. It discusses using Microsoft Azure for scalable cloud game development and common issues such as storage, multiplayer capabilities, mobile apps, analytics, and DevOps. Case studies are presented on games that used Azure for cloud backends, multiplayer load balancing, mobile apps, predictive analytics, and DevOps. The document concludes by emphasizing the benefits of cloud-based games but also the need for optimization, choosing the right tools, proactive testing, and loose coupling of systems.

1. DevCon 2015
developers productivity platform

2. #msdevcon
DevCon 2015
developers productivity platform

3. Alex Belotserkovskiy, Tech Evangelist,
Microsoft Russia
Scalable cloud games
using Microsoft Azure

4. Why cloud?
Common development issues
Cases
Storage and processing
Multiplayer
Mobile apps
Analytics and big data
DevOps
Some experience

5. Why cloud?
Games become services
Approach to delivery the games is changing
Support and maintenance is changing
Monetization is changing constantly and becoming “live” –
business model of one project constantly adapting to the market
situation
Studios and indie developers getting the access to the new
markets

6. Microsoft Azure
2

7. Common development “how to solve”

8. Case 1: storage
Performance counters data can be collected every second
Mobile app: every user action = new event
Multiplayer: amount of msgs/sec can be >100 000
We need a big, scalable, fast and flexible storage

9. architecture
Traffic Manager
http://myawesomegame.ru
cloud service
http://us.cloudapp.net
worker roles web roles
cloud service
http://ru.cloudapp.net
worker rolesweb roles
Storage:
Blobs/Tables/SQL
Azure/SQL Server

10. Tables
NoSQL-
“key-value”
storage
Queues
Components
inter-connection
Blobs
Files,
multimedia,
documents,
binary
content
Traffic
Manager
Requests
routing
SQL Azure
SQL Server as
a service

11. 160М+downloads
$10МRevenue
Cloud backend for games (Windows,
Android, iOS)
Connected Gameplay

12. JoyBits and Doodle God

13. Case 2: Multiplayer FPS, load peaks

14. Microsoft Azure – global coverage
load balancing
http://www.globalfoundationservices.com/

15. architecture
Traffic Manager
http://myawesomegame.ru
cloud service
http://us.cloudapp.net
worker roles web roles
cloud service
http://ru.cloudapp.net
worker rolesweb roles
Physics cluster Physics cluster
Mastermind cluster

16. Tables
NoSQL-
“key-value”
storage
Queues
Components
inter-connection
Blobs
Files,
multimedia,
documents,
binary
content
Traffic
Manager
Requests
routing
SQL Azure
SQL Server as
a service

17. Tables
NoSQL- “key-
value”
storage
Queues
Components
inter-
connection
Blobs
Files,
multimedia,
documents,
binary content
Traffic
Manager
Requests
routing
SQL Azure
SQL Server as a
service
Virtual
Machines
Windows/Linux virtual
machines for heavy
workloads

18. Case 3: mobile apps
Galactic Reign: turn-based strategy

19. Azure Mobile Services
Windows Store
iOS
Android
Xamarin
Windows Phone 8
iOS
Android
HTML5/JS
Open Source SDK
Source
Control
Scripting:
table,
scheduled
& custom
API
REST API
Facebook Twitter Microsoft Google
Active
Directory
SQL
Table
Storage
Blob
Storage
WNS & MPNS APNS GCM
Mongo
DB

21. architecture
http://barboskiny.ru
VM

22. Blobs
Binary content
SQL Azure
SQL Server as a
service
Virtual Machines
Windows/Linux virtual
machines for heavy
workloads
Web Apps
Admin panel/users
portal

23. Case 4: predictive analytics and big data
Halo 4 - Hadoop HDInsight for getting
insights from raw data
Insights = which modes are preferred
by gamers; session of the length;
amount of kills, etc

24. Case 4: predictive analytics and big data
HDInsight
Hadoop
clusters on
demand
ML
As a service
Stream
Analytics
NRT data
streaming
and/or
processing
Data
Factory
Data
transformati
on
Batch
HPC as a
service

25. Ситуация 5: DevOps
iPhone app does not
work
Slow requests
DB is not
responding Latency
Campaign is not
popular

26. DevOps & Azure
Deployment
Monitoring and
diagnostics
Development
Xplat CLI Knife-
Azure
Puppet
CLI
Vagrant
-Azure
Infrastructure
management
Release
Management
Application Insights
DSC Extension
Release Management
Powershell
OpInsights

27. Some experience
Cloud-based games is a good approach
But for doing things right sometimes you need to:
optimize the requests lifecycle
optimize the format of the messages
choose right instruments
testing proactively
doing the system loosely coupled

28. Contacts
Alex Belotserkovskiy
{Microsoft Russia | Tech Expert Cloud, HPC & IoT}
albe@microsoft.com; @ahriman_ru; ahriman.ru
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/albe
http://azurehub.ru

29. © 2014 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of
Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.