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GAMEPERF01-BP03 Evaluate integration with other AWS services, development environments, target CPU architectures, and features - Games Industry Lens
Implementation guidance

GAMEPERF01-BP03 Evaluate integration with other AWS services, development environments, target CPU architectures, and features

Evaluate how well each hosting option integrates with other AWS services your game relies on, such as databases, analytics, or content delivery services.

Level of risk exposed if this best practice is not established: High

Implementation guidance

Integration with other AWS services

Seamless integration between services provides operational benefits like improved performance monitoring and efficient secure data delivery between game components, game servers, game backend services and observability solutions.

For example, Coordinating traffic shifts for live games can be complex. Amazon Route 53 will help keep your DNS records up to date which simplifies coordinated traffic shifts. AWS Global Accelerator traffic dials enable you to send a percentage of traffic to another Region and keep your game running during maintenance.

Development environment and tools

Consider the development tools, frameworks, and environments supported by each architecture option. Verify that your chosen option aligns with your game development solution and programming languages, as this can impact your team's ability to optimize and maintain game server performance. Delivering a game across mobile, console, and PC will increase tooling and testing complexity. Cross-system support is particularly important for multi-game studios where centralized services can standardize development best practices across titles.

Target CPU architecture and features

Consider the performance profile of your game engine and game server processes and the level of ARM support available. Evaluate if you can benefit from improved price performance of ARM based Graviton or x86 based AMD64 processors. Do you need to use Intel features like AES-NI encryption, AVX or Turbo Boost? Review Dedicated Host types to identify single versus multi-socket instance families. When using a multi-socket instance family, consider NUMA pinning and L3 cache sharing in your game server processes. Use C-state and P-state configuration to get the best performance for your game by tuning frequency clock and reducing sleep levels.

Implementation steps

  • Select hosting options with seamless integration with AWS services like AWS Secrets Manager, ACM, and others to help streamline performance monitoring, secure data delivery, and reduce manual operational tasks.

  • Verify compatibility between your hosting option and your development environment, frameworks, and programming languages to optimize and maintain server performance effectively.

  • Evaluate CPU architecture requirements, leveraging Graviton for price-performance or x86 for specific features like AES-NI, AVX, and Turbo Boost, and optimize server performance with NUMA pinning and C-state/P-state tuning.