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The mobile game industry is evolving rapidly and will continue to do so. As mobile phone usage increases daily, the mobile game user base is also growing rapidly. Achieving and sustaining such a huge user base is crucial to a game’s success in the long run.

Backend development practices help effectively design and scale a mobile game for huge user bases. Scaling a mobile game to millions of users has its complexities. But with the help of correct strategies and tools, reaching and sustaining a mobile game for millions of players is achievable.

Here we will discuss the backend best practices in building and scaling a mobile game application to millions of players. 

Also, we will discuss the system design and its principles to make the code manageable, scalable, and readable in game development.

Building a million-user base:

For a game to reach a million quality users, the secret lies in building a unique and engaging game that reflects the targeted users’ requirements. Some of the best approaches are given below.

Modern advertisements

Banner and video advertisements are the traditional modes of advertising. In addition, we need innovative modern ways of advertising in the current digital era. 

Engagement is promoted by using interactive playable ads, and it helps to reach users who enjoy the game, consequently leading to higher retention rates.

Multi-platform usage

As more gamers play on mobile, PC, and console, successful mobile games create narratives and gameplay flows that extend seamlessly into these other gaming environments. 

Engaging game narrative

By crafting compelling storylines and clever interactivity, game developers can create a more immersive experience that draws players in and keeps them engaged for the long haul. Some successful examples include Pokémon Unite, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, and Among Us.

App store optimization

Image courtesy: Solguruz.com

Developers must focus on app store optimization (ASO) strategies to optimize a game for the App Store/Play Store. The strategies involve

• Keyword research, 
• Crafting compelling titles and descriptions, 
• Adding high-quality visuals, and 
• Encouraging user ratings and reviews to improve visibility and increase downloads.

System Design

System design is a crucial part of software development. It focuses on defining the architecture, components, modules, interfaces, and data for a software system to fulfill the specific requirements.

It aims to create a disciplined and efficient structure that helps to meet the intended purpose while considering factors like scalability, maintainability, and performance.

Let’s see some of the principles used in system design to build scalable and reliable systems.

Principles of system design

SOLID principles

The SOLID principles provide a clear approach to improve object-oriented design and help us to write clean, robust, and easy-to-maintain code. 

Image Courtesy: thoughtworks.com

1. Single Responsibility Principle

This principle says, “A class should have only one reason to change”.

It means every class should have a single responsibility, or single job, or single purpose within the software system.

The reason is that if a class has multiple responsibilities, a change in one part can impact the others, making the code more difficult to maintain, test, and debug.

2. Open/Closed Principle

This principle says, “Software entities (like classes, modules, functions, etc.) should be open for extension, but closed for modification”.

If we modify the existing code, there is a risk of breaking something that already works. By extending the system instead of modifying it, you make the software more adaptable and reduce the chance of introducing errors.

3. Liskov’s Substitution Principle

This principle says, “Derived or child classes must be substitutable for their base or parent classes.” 

This ensures that a subclass can be used wherever its parent class is expected, maintaining correct functionality.

4. Interface segregation principle

It states that “do not force any client to implement an interface which is irrelevant to them.”

This is the principle that applies to interfaces instead of classes in SOLID principles, and is relevant to the “single responsibility principle.”

Here, we focus on building as many small client-specific interfaces as possible, instead of building one huge general interface

5. Dependency inversion principle

It states that “high-level modules shouldn’t depend on low-level modules; both should depend on abstractions.” 

Moreover, abstractions shouldn’t depend on details—details should depend on abstractions.

This leads to more flexible, loosely coupled code that’s easier to maintain and modify without impacting other parts of the system.

Design Principles 

Software design principles act as guiding principles for developers, helping them manage the complexities involved in building robust and efficient software systems. Some commonly used design principles are given below.

Separation of Concerns

It is the practice of dividing the system’s functionality into independent modules to ensure each module has a well-defined purpose and responsibility. This makes the system more maintainable and easier to debug. 

Modularity

This principle focuses on breaking down a system into independent modules and allows for easier development, testing, and maintenance. Each module can be treated as a box, with its own specific functionality. 

Abstraction

Abstraction involves hiding the complex details and exposing only the essential features of a component, which helps to simplify the interactions and allows for easier understanding and use. 

Encapsulation

This principle helps in bundling the data and methods that operate on that data into a single unit (e.g., a class). This promotes data integrity and makes the system easier to manage. 

Scalability

Scalability is the practice of designing the system in a way to handle the increasing loads without significant architectural changes. This ensures that the system can meet the demands of future growth possibilities. 

Flexibility and Extensibility

This principle focuses on making the system adaptable to changes and new features, further allowing the system to undergo ongoing evolution and improvement. 

High Cohesion and Low Coupling

High cohesion means that components within a module are closely related and work together effectively. Low coupling means that modules have minimal dependencies on each other, making them easier to modify and maintain. 

Reliability:

A reliable system is able to perform its functions as expected and can tolerate errors or failures. 

Security:

The practice of securing the system against unauthorized access and attacks. Making it crucial for maintaining the system’s integrity and reliability. 

Performance:

The system should be designed to meet specific performance goals, such as latency and throughput. 

Backend development – An introduction

Backend development deals with the non-user-facing aspects, such as the application logic, building and maintaining the server and database, and other aspects.

A robust backend architecture plays a crucial role in scaling a mobile game for millions of users. The various factors that are included in building this robust architecture are,

• Horizontal scaling for server capacity, 
• Data management with distributed databases or cloud storage,
• Code optimization for efficiency, and 
• UI optimization for fast loading times.

In addition, using cloud-based solutions and monitoring performance with analytics tools is important to ensure a smooth experience for a large player base.

Scaling the backend effectively

To effectively scale a mobile game’s backend, several best practices should be followed, which include,

• Using microservices for modularity, 
• Load balancing for efficient traffic distribution, 
• Database sharding for optimized data management, and 
• Caching for performance enhancement. 

Additionally, focusing on security, designing for failure, and implementing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are crucial for a robust and scalable backend. 

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of backend best practices:

Implementing a scalable Infrastructure:

Horizontal Scaling:

Scaling Horizontally with containers 

Image Courtesy: LinkedIn/Sandeepshah

Instead of upgrading existing servers, horizontal scaling allows you to add more servers to handle increased load. This is more resilient and cost-effective than vertical scaling. 

Cloud-Based Solutions:

Utilize cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) for their scalability, elasticity, and cost-effectiveness. 

Load Balancing:

Load balancing

Image Courtesy: LinkedIn/Sandeepshah

It is the practice of distributing traffic across multiple servers using load balancers to prevent any single server from being overloaded. Load balancing helps in improving performance, reliability, and availability.

Implement Auto scaling:

Auto scaling

Image Courtesy: VMware.com

Auto scaling, and sometimes known as automatic scaling, is a cloud computing technique to allocate computational resources dynamically. Here, the number of active servers will vary automatically as the user requirements change.

Efficiently manage data:

Distributed Databases: Consider using NoSQL databases or distributed relational databases for scalability and fault tolerance. 

Data Replication: Implement data replication to distribute data across multiple servers for redundancy and faster reads. 

Caching: Implement caching mechanisms to store frequently accessed data in memory, reducing latency and server load. 

Modular Backend Architecture:

Microservices architecture breaks down the backend into smaller, independent services to improve scalability and maintainability.

Image courtesy: www.netsolutions.com

Microservices architecture offers several benefits, including improved scalability, fault isolation, agility, and technology flexibility.

API-First Approach: 

Image courtesy: www.netsolutions.com

In an API-first approach, the first preference is given to building APIs. Everything about a project revolves around the idea that the end product will be consumed by mobile devices and that APIs will be consumed by client applications. 

An API-first approach involves developing APIs that are consistent and reusable. 

Monitoring and Analytics:

Monitoring the system is crucial to find and fix issues related to performance. Aspects such as server performance, resource utilization, and data traffic should be continuously monitored. 

Making use of monitoring tools helps in effective monitoring as well as boosts performance.

Nagios and Zabbix are some of the tools that help monitor the system and receive alerts when things go wrong.

Analytics: Includes tracking user behavior, identifying bottlenecks, and optimizing performance. 

Alerting: Involves setting up alerts to notify you of potential problems or performance issues. 

Social and Multiplayer Features:

Real–time Communication: Implementing efficient communication protocols for real-time multiplayer gameplay improves the collaboration between the players of the game and boosts engagement.

Matchmaking: Designing a robust matchmaking system that can handle a large number of players, create balanced and fair games by matching players with similar skill levels, preferences, and availability. 

Social Networking: Integrate social features like guilds, leagues, and tournaments. 

By implementing these backend best practices, you can ensure that your mobile game can scale to support millions of players while maintaining a smooth and enjoyable user experience. 

Optimise database queries

Optimizing database performance involves a range of strategies to enhance speed, efficiency, and overall system health. Key areas include query optimization, indexing, hardware optimization, database configuration, and regular maintenance. 

It is crucial because a fast, efficient database translates to a better user experience, increased productivity, and reduced costs for organizations

Wrapping Up

Building a scalable backend system requires meticulous planning and implementation of best practices.

Strategies like modern advertisements, multiplatform usage, and app store optimization play crucial roles in the reach of a mobile game and consequently in acquiring a base of millions high-quality and consistent users.

Strategies such as 

• Horizontal scaling, 
• Auto-scaling,
• Managing the data efficiently, 
• Using a distributed database architecture, 
• Incorporating a modular backend approach, 

and other practices that we discussed help build a scalable system that can handle increasing traffic and users without compromising performance or availability.

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