Explore AWS GameKit in the Unity Editor

Summary

This overview gives developers a quick survey of the AWS GameKit package tools and functionality for the Unity Editor.

When you open a game project in the Unity Editor and the project has the AWS GameKit package added, you can use AWS GameKit components to:

• Manage your cloud project – Define AWS GameKit configuration settings for your game project.

• Deploy backend services for your cloud features – Configure, deploy, and test a backend for each game feature.

Manage your cloud project

Each Unity project must have a companion AWS GameKit cloud project to manage the Unity project's backend services on AWS. The cloud project contains your configurations and code for each cloud fetaure. AWS GameKit uses this information when deploying and interacting with AWS resources for these features.

Find cloud project settings

1. In the Unity Editor toolbar, open the AWS GameKit menu and choose Settings.

2. Open the Environment & Credentials section.

Work with cloud project settings

Note

If you use AWS credentials for users created with the new AWS IAM Identity Center, you might experience unusual behavior and messaging. These credentials provide short-term access only, which means you must regularly generate new credentials and enter them into the plugin, If you created users with the automated script supplied with the AWS GameKit download package, the AWS credentials for these users are long-term access keys.

• Set up a cloud project. Provide the following information:

  • Project alias is a unique identifier for the cloud project. AWS GameKit stores cloud project configurations and code in a folder with this name in the Unity project folder, and references the game title in all AWS resources deployed for the project.

  • Environments let developers maintain multiple replicas of the project's backend in parallel, such as for development, testing, and production. Users set the active environment they want to work in. Project teams commonly start with the default Development environment.

  • Region specifies the physical location where AWS GameKit deploys the AWS resources for an environment. Each environment has one designated region.

  • AWS account credentials identify which AWS account to use for the project and validate an account user. If the account is valid and the user has access rights for AWS GameKit, then they can deploy or update AWS resources for the project's backend.

• Work with an existing project. Use the settings on this page to do the following:

  • Sign in to work on the project. Choose an environment to work in and submit AWS security credentials.

  • Switch environments. Only one cloud project environment can be active at a time. All actions you take on cloud features and deployed backend resources impact the active environment only. You can switch to a different environment on this page. You might also have to resubmit security credentials.

  • Change account credentials. AWS GameKit automatically reuses security credentials from the previous session on the current device. If your credentials have changed, use cloud project settings to submit new ones.

  • Change deployment region. You might want to change the location where AWS resources are deployed for the active environment. You can't change the deployment region if the environment has AWS resources deployed.

Deploy backend services for your cloud features

In feature settings, users can build a cloud-connected backend for each AWS GameKit feature. After selecting an environment to work in and submitting credentials, users can customize a feature and then create or update AWS resources to run the feature's backend. AWS GameKit maintains each environment's feature configuration and deployment status in the cloud project.

Find game feature settings

1. In the Unity Editor toolbar, open the AWS GameKit menu and choose Settings.

2. Open a game feature section. The following screenshot displays the settings for the identity and authentication feature.

Work with feature settings

Feature section contain tools in a set of tabs. All features have Deployment and Testing tabs. The Achievements section also has a Configure tab for achievement definitions.

Use the Deployment tab to customize each feature and manage backend deployments.

• View status of deployed features. This tab displays the feature's current deployment status. Configuration settings reflect the feature backend as deployed. If the feature isn't deployed yet, the default values are shown.

• Configure feature settings. Customize settings before deploying the feature backend. For example, with identity and authentication, you can choose to let players log in with a registered user name and password, a Facebook account, or either.

• Deploy, update, or delete AWS resources. After choosing feature settings, you can create new AWS resources for the feature or update them if they're already deployed. You can also remove the feature by deleting the deployed resources. You can monitor progress by opening the Log section of AWS GameKit settings.

• Access feature dashboards. You can activate a metrics dashboard for each AWS GameKit feature. Each dashboard contains operational metrics for the AWS services and resources used by the feature. For example, you can monitor API calls to the backend. Dashboards use the Amazon CloudWatch service.

Use the Testing tab to experiment with API calls to a deployed feature backend .

• Register as a player. Before you can make API calls to a feature backend, you register as a player and complete the confirmation process. You do this with the identity and authentication feature, which is always the first feature to deploy.

• Connect to the feature backend. Each feature's testing tab prompts you to log in with a player account. On successful login, you can make feature-specific API calls to your deployed feature backend.