{"id":694,"date":"2022-09-08T15:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T15:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/startups\/blog\/?p=694"},"modified":"2025-06-25T06:39:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:39:23","slug":"azure-playfab-gavra-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/startups\/blog\/azure-playfab-gavra-games\/","title":{"rendered":"#StartupsOnAzure – Azure PlayFab is Gavra Games’s powerup for multiplayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Small game development teams often lack the expertise or resources to handle the server-side and runtime infrastructure issues that are critical to a game\u2019s success. It does not matter how exciting the UX is if players cannot easily and securely find and interact with each other, or if runtime performance is slow or unreliable. This case study shows how Azure PlayFab and its partners provided Gavra Games with a complete, cost-effective, and performant framework for testing, staging, and hosting its turn-based RPG multiplayer video game, at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game development dilemma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indie game developers are primarily interested in the creative side of game development. They are motivated by the thrill of engaging users in a great gaming experience that keeps them coming back for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, however, the behind-the-scenes infrastructure and architecture issues are just as critical to deploying great games as the client-side UX. Yet it is rare for a small team to have the expertise or resources to handle all the ins and outs of server-side deployment so that their game will consistently perform as designed, at any scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A popular solution to this dilemma is for game developers to rely on out-of-the-box game development and management platforms that seamlessly take care of scalability, performance, and availability, while tracking and analyzing real-time user behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Gavra Games<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Gavra Games<\/a> was founded by two cousins, Lior Hadashian<\/a> and Shay Shem-Tobi<\/a> who are gaming enthusiasts, with a combined 20 years of game development experience. They dreamed about creating globally accessible games for mobile and PC that were fun and easy to learn, but hard to master.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After about five years of development, during which other talents and investors joined the journey, they released their ambitious, flagship game \u201cWarriors: Rise to Glory<\/a>\u201d on Steam in January 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWarriors: Rise to Glory\u201d is a turn-based, role-playing game (RPG). Users start as weak, low-level warriors who get stronger by defeating other warriors in battles. With the spoils of war, they acquire better gear and skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game can either be played with up to six players in online multiplayer battles, or against an AI-based robotic opponent in a single-player campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Azure PlayFab and GitHub<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Azure PlayFab<\/a> platform gives game developers a backend infrastructure that is quick to deploy and easy to use even without prior server-side knowledge. Azure PlayFab delivers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n