Versioning and Publishing

Versioning

You can create versions of your game configuration whenever you like. There are a number of reasons you might want to create a version, including:

• When you want to publish your game to the Live servers.
• You've just finished a feature and the game is working exactly as you like. You're moving on to something new but want to be able to fall back on the existing configuration in case anything goes wrong.
• You want to maintain a couple of configurations and publish them at different times (for example, you have a weekend configuration of the game with 'weekend offer' prices).

You create a version by taking a Snapshot of your game's configuration:

• The process collects all your configuration information and stores it in a configuration set.
• This set also contains any data you have in your metadata collections.

Not Included? A game configuration Snapshot does not include any Admin Screens configuration you've built up in the Manage section nor any Experiment configuration you've set up.

To create a Snapshot:

1. Go to the Configurator > Game Overview page.

2. In the Snapshots panel, click to Create a new Snapshot. A Create Game Snapshot dialog appears.

3. Enter a description for the Snapshot - choose something meaningful so you'll be able to identify it in future when you might have multiple Snapshots.

4. Click to Create the new Snapshot under the entered Description. When you've created the Snapshot, it's listed in the Snapshots panel in the Game Overview:

5. From here you can perform the following actions (by clicking on the icons to the right of the description):

• - Preview the Snapshot. Allows previewing any of the Snapshots without having to revert to them, editing will be disabled when previewing.
• - Copy the Snapshot. Copies the Snapshot and then you can choose to use it either to overwrite an existing game or create a new one. If you are overwriting, there is a fail-safe - a Snapshot of the previous version is automatically created (called "AUTOSAVE - Pre Copy") which can then be deleted if all is in order.
• - Publish the Snapshot. This will take the Snapshot and publish the configuration to the live servers. The Snapshot that is currently published is highlighted in green:
  • When you've published a Snapshot, you can use the unpublish icon button to unpublish the Snapshot. This is especially useful if you've published a Snapshot too early or inadvertently.
  • See below for more detail on publishing.
• - Revert the portal to the version contained in the Snapshot. This updates your workspace with the Snapshot version. There is a fail-safe - a Snapshot of the previous version is automatically taken (called "AUTOSAVE - Pre Revert") which can then be deleted if all is in order.
• - Delete the Snapshot.

6. If your game is on the Development Pricing Tier, you won't be able to publish a game Snapshot to Live and you'll see a warning dialog when you click the Publish Snapshot button:

• You can click to Upgrade your Pricing Tier directly from the warning dialog or go to the Game Overview page and upgrade from there. For details on how to upgrade your game to a Pricing Tier that allows you to publish to Live, see the Game Overview page.

Mongo Database Collections for Snapshots

When you take a Snapshot, the platform records all of your game's configuration into a configuration set:

• This includes all Metadata Collections and their content.
• This excludes all Runtime and System Collections and their content. These are created new for the Live stage when you first publish a game Snapshot and remain untouched when future Snapshots are published.

Game Data Indexes and Snapshots

When you create a game Snapshot, any indexes for Data Types you've created using the Game Data Service will be made available for your game's Live stage when you publish the Snapshot:

• None of the data you've inserted into Data Types in Preview will be published to Live.
• Any changes to Game Data indexes will be made to the Live stage and a re-indexing will occur when you publish to Live.

For more details, see the Data Types in Preview and Live section on the Data Explorer page.

Publishing

Once you have configured and tested your game, you'll want to make it available to the public! The testing you have done to this point has been on the Preview servers. These servers allow you to develop your game but are not suitable for use by a significant number of players - there's a limit of imposed on the number of concurrent connections in Preview by game Pricing Tier - please see our Pricing webpage for details.

Don't Launch on Preview! You should not launch your game using the Preview servers because player devices will not be able to connect when concurrency limits are reached.

When you are ready to launch your game you need to save the configuration in a Snapshot and then publish it to the Live servers. These are designed for higher concurrency loads - please see our Pricing webpage for the Live concurrency limits imposed by game Pricing Tier.

IMPORTANT! If your game is Development Pricing Tier, you won't be able to publish to Live. You can upgrade your game's Pricing Tier to one that allows you to publish to Live from the Game Overview page. For details of what's included in the different available Pricing Tiers, please see our Pricing webpage.

Going Live Checklist! Before you attempt to create a Snapshot of your game and publish it to Live, please review the Going Live Checklist to ensure everything runs smoothly.