With the AWS GameSparks service being shut down later this year developers will no longer have access to their game’s backend service or data. While this is a stressful time, there are things that we can do to alleviate the pressure. We’ve answered a few commonly asked questions below, to ease your mind if you’re worried about the future of your games.

What you need to know:

What dates do I need to keep in mind?
Is my game finished?
What services can I migrate to?
What platform is best for my game?
How are you going to migrate player data?
What player data needs to be migrated?
What happens after 30th September?
What happens if we miss the deadline?
Any additional resources that could help us?

What dates do I need to keep in mind?

Although the site won’t officially shut until September, it’s better to be ahead of the game and plan your migration now. Time is of the essence when it comes to your migration. Here are some dates to keep in mind:

• 22nd July 2021: No new accounts can be opened
• 31st March 2022: No new titles can be published with GameSparks’ tools
• 30th September 2022: Users won’t be able to login or access their data/APIs

Is your game finished?

With the right attitude you can save your games. It’s just going to take a bit of work. Luckily, here at SuperNimbus we know just what to do. AWS has chosen us to work with AWS’s Global Game Tech Team to make your migration easier. No tunnel is without an end and you’ve got time to choose the best next step. Perhaps you want to find another platform or would rather take matters into your own hands and create your own bespoke platform. Whatever the need, we are here to advise you.

What services can I migrate to?

The million dollar question. Literally! If you’re looking for a new host platform, here are some sites worth considering:

• Beamable
• Nakama
• brain-Cloud
• Epic Online Services
• AccelByte
• AcceleratXR
• AWS Core Services
• Nakama
• PlayFab

What platform is best for my game?

This all depends on the type of features you are using and how much custom code you have in your current project, not to mention any future plans you have to add new features to your game. Some alternatives are better suited to specific kinds of games or platforms. Something to also consider is the cost when compared to your current GameSparks usage.

Your team should spend some time weighing up the pros and cons of each platform before making a final decision.

Feel free to contact us if you think you need some additional guidance.

How are you going to migrate player data?

There are generally two ways to migrate player data:

1. Bulk-Migration

In this approach you need to export all of your player data and import it into the new platform (known as extract-transform-load or ETL). This usually requires your game to be taken offline for a period of time while the ETL process takes place. It is important that players are offline so that player accounts are not corrupted or partially migrated.
This is a simple approach but due to the process taking time (in some cases up to a couple of days for large databases) and the game needing to be offline during that time, this might be undesirable.

2. Passive-Migration

This is also called a “trickle” migration because it involves only migrating players as they login. When a player logs into the app, we register them on the new platform and then pull their data from GameSparks into the new platform. This approach doesn’t require your game to go offline but it does mean that less players will be migrated as you can only migrate player that come online between now and 30th September.

There are exceptions and workarounds to both of these approaches but they depend on each game and how flexible you can be with the player data you need to migrate.

Feel free to contact us if you need further guidance.

What player data needs to be migrated?

Designing, building and testing a migration path is a large amount of work. One way to speed things up is to reduce the amount of player data you need to migrate. Ask yourself these questions:

Does every player need to be migrated?
Most players in your GameSparks database will be old players who have not played in a long time. If these players did not purchase anything perhaps their accounts can be excluded from the migration?

What features can be “reset”?
Social features such as guilds, friends-list and leaderboards can be tricky to migrate as they rely on groups of players or player data to be migrated together. Consider if your game can announce a “reset” for these features, or offer compensation for any prestige lost by resetting leaderboard ranks or guild resources.

What happens after 30th September?

Once GameSparks is shut down your players will lose access to their accounts. This will affect any login behaviour in your app so, in most cases your app will not function without a backend to replace GameSparks.

What happens if we miss the deadline?

Unfortunately your game may need to come offline for a period of time while you build an alternative. At this point, all your GameSparks data will be lost however, if you make a export of your player data before September 30th you will be able to load this data into a custom database and use it for player migrations at any point after 30th September.

Any additional resources that could help us?

We have worked with AWS Game Tech to develop a series of tutorials and guides which will hopefully help speed up your migration process and shine some light on some of the more uncertain aspects of starting a migration like this.

You can see those tutorials here.

You can also check out our blog where we will be posting regular guides and tutorials which will help you.

Also check out our partners Code Wizards website and blog for additional guides and helpful resources.