Servers and infrastructure in Hex

Asynchronous online play with customizable servants isn't the only way I'm leveraging the web to help make Hex a better game, I'm also building and utilizing online infrastructure (mostly via AWS) to create a modern and streamlined experience for players. Please note that other than the basic information needed for throne realm servants, no other user data is being collected, not even basic telemetry data or analytics.

So how am I leveraging this stuff. One way is the CDN, which delivers assets (mostly images) when you are online and the game client determines that it would be faster to fetch them from the CDN than from the game's own package. Starting in the next update, the game will also download a config file from the server that can update the game's basic settings. Everything from the price of flasks to the MP cost of deflections can be adjusted in this config file, meaning I can remotely adjust game balance.

My ultimate dream is to leverage the server to deliver more content, like mods or patches. Having the ability to release significant content through an online service would allow me to rapidly prototype new ideas, share test content, and just provide small content updates between the larger, more traditional releases. This is a long way off, though, as I'd need to basically complete the mod tools for Hex in order to start working on something like this, and right now I'm not even working on mod tools (nor will I be for probably at least a year or so).

Subscribing to the Patreon helps pay for these services, too! We actually already get too much traffic to qualify for free tier services on AWS--but we're not breaking the bank or anything, don't worry. However, as the game gets bigger and presumable gains a large audience, it will cost more money to maintain. Right now, there's a hard limit on how many servants can be on the server too, and as new servants are added, the oldest ones get bumped off. Right now, that's reasonable as the old servants belong to players who haven't "logged in" in months, but as the player base grows, the server will need to accommodate a larger active population at any given time.