A multiplayer backend is the server-side infrastructure (dedicated servers, matchmaking, player persistence and leaderboards) that lets players connect and play together reliably. Multiplayer is where game projects slip over budget. The gameplay prototype works on a LAN in a week; then come authority and prediction, matchmaking, persistence, cheat resistance, server orchestration and the cost of running it all once real players arrive.
We build that layer for Unreal Engine 5 and Unity titles: dedicated server builds, matchmaking and session flow, Redis-backed leaderboards, player persistence and the deployment around them. You can hire us for the whole backend or bring in one specialist to unblock the part that is failing.
Listen servers are cheaper and fine for co-op and friend-group play where a host advantage does not matter. Anything competitive, ranked or carrying persistent progression wants dedicated servers, since only they keep the simulation authoritative and cheating tractable. We usually recommend architecting for dedicated from the start even if you ship listen servers first, because retrofitting authority into client-authoritative code is close to a rewrite.
On-demand orchestration rather than always-on fleets. Edgegap spins up server instances per match in the region closest to the players and tears them down after, so you pay for concurrency rather than reserved capacity. That matters most outside peak hours and during the long tail after launch.
Rank queries in a relational table require counting rows above a score, which degrades as the board grows. Redis sorted sets keep insertion and rank lookup logarithmic regardless of size, so "what rank am I" stays fast at millions of entries. The authoritative scores still live in your primary database; Redis serves the ranking view.
Yes, and it is a common way we start. A typical first engagement is a scoped audit and fix of one failing area, such as desync, matchmaking latency, server costs or a leaderboard that falls over at scale. That gives you a concrete result before any larger commitment.