Quickstart

Get your first game server running on GameFabric in minutes.

Trial and Testing Only

This quickstart guide is intended for trials and quick evaluations. For production workloads, follow the complete setup guides covering authentication, capacity planning, and proper Agones SDK integration.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the following before you start:

• Access to GameFabric (your organization's URL is provided during onboarding)
• A game server binary ready for containerization (see Building a Container Image)
• Docker installed to build and push container images

Steps

1. Create a Branch

A Branch stores your container images and organizes them into separate tracks. In a typical setup, you might have one Branch for development builds and another for production.

Create a Branch in the GameFabric UI under Container Images > Branches.

Detailed guide: Create a Branch

2. Build your container image

Package your game server into a Docker container. A minimal Dockerfile might look like:

FROM ubuntu:22.04

# Create a non-root user with uid 1000 as required by GameFabric
RUN groupadd -g 1000 game && useradd -u 1000 -g 1000 -m game

COPY gameserver /app/gameserver
RUN chown 1000:1000 /app/gameserver

USER 1000
CMD ["/app/gameserver"]

Build the image:

docker build -t gameserver:v1.0.0 .

Detailed guide: Building a Container Image

3. Push your container image

Tag and push the container image to your Branch. Replace ${URL} with your GameFabric registry URL and ${BRANCH} with your Branch name:

docker tag gameserver:v1.0.0 ${URL}/${BRANCH}/gameserver:v1.0.0
docker push ${URL}/${BRANCH}/gameserver:v1.0.0

Detailed guide: Pushing Container Images

4. Create an Environment

An Environment isolates groups of resources, ensuring they don't interfere with each other. This allows you to manage capacity and access control separately for each Environment.

Create an Environment in the GameFabric UI under Multiplayer Servers > Environments.

Detailed guide: Setup your Environment

5. Create a Region

A Region groups one or more Locations where your game servers can run. You can assign priorities to Locations within a Region to control which Locations are filled first.

Create a Region within your Environment in the GameFabric UI.

Detailed guide: Setup your Environment

6. Create a Vessel

In the GameFabric UI, navigate to the Environment you created in Step 4, then go to Formations > Create Vessel.

When configuring the Vessel:

1. General: Enter a name for your Vessel
2. Region: Select the Region you created in Step 5
3. Volumes: Skip this section
4. Container: Select the Branch, image, and tag you pushed in Step 3, and specify the port your game server listens on
5. Advanced: Set health check to "Disabled" for testing without Agones SDK

The Vessel starts automatically after creation. In the Vessels list, click Details on your Vessel to view connection details and monitor startup progress under Container Logs. Once the logs show your server is ready, you can connect.

External port

The external port will be different from your configured game server port. If your server needs to advertise its address to external services (like Steam or a server browser), see Discovering Your Public Address.

Detailed guide: Running your Game Server

Testing without Agones SDK

Disabling health checks allows the game server to run without calling Agones SDK health check methods. Otherwise, GameFabric restarts the Vessel repeatedly for failing health checks.

What's next?

• Using the Agones SDK - Integrate proper health checks and lifecycle management
• Hosting Models - Choose between Armadas and Formations