Cross-Platform Support
Download Hydra SDKs and demo appsWindows 8 and Windows Phone support coming soon.
Sign up for early access to our Windows 8 and Windows Phone beta SDKs!Player Stats
Player data is the core of any online experience. Not only does it provide you with great data for online player pages and business intelligence, but it powers almost every other feature in Hydra.
- Lifetime per-player storage for any and all stats in your game
- Profile updates are immediately reflected in leaderboards, matchmaking, and other Hydra features
- Use profile system as a persistence layer for your own features
Leaderboards
Your players want to know how they stack up: with Hydra, you can tell them exactly. Create as many leaderboards as you need, on any profile stat. Hydra handles the sorting and provides an endpoint for your game to retrieve your leaderboard rankings.
- Create leaderboards for any player profile stat
- Optional daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly expiration
- Updates happen in real time with profile changes
Matchmaking
From free-for-all matchups to tightly controlled pairings, Hydra supports any matchmaking style you can think up. You can specify as many or as few matchup criteria as you like, to offer your players the exact multiplayer experience they’re looking for.
- Set up unlimited match scenarios based on any profile stat or combination
- Players can submit matchmaking preferences from your game’s UI
- Fixed-team matchups or open, come-and-go play supported
Achievements
Create achievements on the fly based on any stat you’re tracking in Hydra. We’ll take care of the book-keeping and send a notification to your game when an achievement is reached.
- Achievements awarded automatically at thresholds for any profile stat
- Grant points or XP rewards with any achievement
- Manage achievement images and metadata from Hydra dashboard
Broadcasts
When you use Hydra to keep your game fresh with new achievements, matchmaking scenarios, and more, make sure to let your players know about it, using Hydra’s broadcast channel system.
- Schedule start time and duration for messages as far in advance as desired
- Unlimited separate channels available for different types of messages
- Use message metadata to power in-game features such as time-based challenges
Notifications
Our notifications tie directly into our match service, allowing players to be notified in realtime, or through native push notifications of event-related updates. Hydra allows developers to configure push notifications and display text through the dashboard.
- Prompt players of turn-based games to make their moves
- Send out quests or pass along player-to-player challenges
- Hydra handles cross-platform differences in sending notifications
Global Accounts
Link all of your Hydra games under one community with our global account system! It tracks all of your users’ cross-game information (such as username and avatar), and allows sign-in using third-party authentication systems, such as Facebook, Google, Windows Live ID, and Steam.
- Your players’ friend networks span across all your games running on Hydra
- Leaderboards show players how they stack up against friends
- See when friends are online using Hydra’s presence system
Async & Realtime Matches
Our match service allows you to quickly configure and integrate asynchronous and realtime multiplayer matches. It is fully integrated with our profiles, notifications, matchmaking, and friends services for full-featured multiplayer games out of the box.
- Build an asynchronous multiplayer game like chess or Words with Friends
- Power fast-paced, realtime games such as Call of Duty
- Keep track of match-specific data, such as team wins or map type
Player Matching
- Match players up with similar or complementary opponents
- Combine any profile criteria or player-submitted matchup preferences
- Great for quick one-step matchmaking for head-to-head games
Realtime Networking
- Seamlessly send shared state and player actions to all match participants
- Build open chatrooms or one-on-one player communication
- Low latency channel supports true realtime interaction
Developer Tools
- Export your players’ profile data in JSON for data-mining
- Data exports are uploaded directly to your Amazon S3 account
- Custom statistics dashboards provide a breakdown of your game’s activity
Friends
- Your players’ friend networks span across all your games running on Hydra
- Leaderboards show players how they stack up against friends
- See when friends are online using Hydra’s presence system