Prerequisite Knowledge

Code Blind is built on top of the foundation of multiple open source projects, as well as utilising several architectural patterns across both distributed and multiplayer game systems – which can make it complicated to get started with, if they are things you are not familiar with or have experience with already.

To make getting started easier to break down and digest, this guide was written to outline what concepts and technology that the documentation assumes that you have knowledge of, and the depth of that knowledge, as well as providing resource to help fill those knowledge gaps.

Docker and Containerisation

Docker and containerisation is the technological foundation of Code Blind, so if you aren’t familiar, we recommend you have knowledge in the following areas before getting started with Code Blind:

• Containers as a concept
• Running Docker containers
• Building your own container
• Registries as a concept
• Pushing and pulling containers from a registry

Resources

The following resources are great for learning these concepts:

• Docker Overview
• Docker “Quickstart” guide

Kubernetes

Kubernetes builds on top of Docker to run containers at scale, on lots of machines. If you have yet to learn about Kubernetes, we recommend that you have knowledge in the following areas before getting started with Code Blind:

• Kubernetes as a concept - you should take the basics tutorial
• Pods
• Deployments
• Services
• Creating a Deployment with a Service

Mappings in Code Blind

Code Blind extends the Kubernetes API to include new custom resources such as GameServer and Fleet. See the Reference documentation for more information.

Code Blind creates a backing Pod with the appropriate configuration parameters for each GameServer that is configured in a cluster. They both have the same name.

Resources

• You should totally read this comic and interactive tutorial
• Kubernetes concepts, explained

Dedicated Game Servers

Code Blind is a platform for dedicated game servers for multiplayer games. If “dedicated game servers” is a term that is not something you are familiar with, we recommend checking out some of the resources below, before getting started with Code Blind:

Resources

• Dedicated Game Servers, Drawn Badly (video)
• What Every Programmer Needs To Know About Game Networking
• Fast-Paced Multiplayer (Part I): Client-Server Game Architecture
• Game Server (wikipedia)
• Example simple gameserver that responds to UDP and/or TCP commands

Game Engine

If you are building a multiplayer game, you will eventually need to understand how your game engine will integrate with Code Blind. There are multiple possible solutions, but the engines that have out of the box SDK’s for Code Blind are:

• Unity
• Unreal

While you can integrate other engines with Code Blind, if you are new to developing on a game engine, you may want to start with the above.