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Bullet Mayhem is a 2D 1v1 shooter built with Godot that demonstrates dedicated server hosting on GameFlow using a direct connection (IP and port).

Bullet Mayhem Lobby

Prerequisites​

  • Access to the Bullet Mayhem repository (Early Adopter access required, contact GameFlow support)
  • A GameFlow account
  • Godot 4.6

Step 1: Clone the Repository​

git clone https://github.com/GameFlowGG/bullet-mayhem
cd bullet-mayhem

Step 2: Open the Project​

  1. Launch Godot 4.6
  2. Click Import on the project manager
  3. Navigate to the cloned bullet-mayhem directory
  4. Select the .godot project file
  5. Click Import & Edit

Step 3: Install the GameFlow SDK​

GameFlow provides a native Godot Game Server SDK that handles server lifecycle, automatic health reporting, and player tracking. Pure GDScript, no third-party dependencies.

  1. Clone the GameFlow SDK repo and copy its sdk/godot/addons/gameflow/ folder into your project's addons/ directory
  2. (Optional) Enable the plugin in Project → Project Settings → Plugins; the SDK classes are plain class_name scripts, so this step is not required

Requires Godot 4.4+.

Step 4: GameFlow SDK Integration​

Bullet Mayhem creates one GameFlow instance for the server process and drives the lifecycle from it. Off GameFlow (running locally), the SDK switches to local mode automatically, so the same project runs everywhere with no extra configuration.

Initialization​

Create the client and connect on the server only:

var gf := GameFlow.new()

func _ready():
    multiplayer.peer_connected.connect(peer_connected)
    multiplayer.peer_disconnected.connect(peer_disconnected)

    if "--server" in OS.get_cmdline_args():
        await gf.start()
        hostGame()

Player Tracking​

Report players as peers connect and disconnect. This keeps the server alive (GameFlow reaps servers reporting zero players past the idle timeout) and powers the live counts in the dashboard:

func peer_connected(id):
    if multiplayer.is_server():
        await gf.players.track(str(id))

func peer_disconnected(id):
    if multiplayer.is_server():
        await gf.players.untrack(str(id))

The player list capacity comes from the Max Players per Server value you set on the game in GameFlow, so the server doesn't set it. See Player Tracking for details.

Server Start​

Signal readiness once the server is listening. Health reporting then starts automatically, so there's no manual health loop to maintain:

func hostGame():
    peer = ENetMultiplayerPeer.new()

    var error = peer.create_server(server_port, 2)
    if error != OK:
        return

    peer.get_host().compress(ENetConnection.COMPRESS_ZLIB)
    multiplayer.set_multiplayer_peer(peer)

    await gf.ready()

Step 5: Export and Zip​

  1. In Godot, go to Project → Export
  2. Click Add... and select Linux/X11
  3. Click Export PCK/Zip → save as game.pck
  4. Create a .zip file containing the exported PCK

Step 6: Create a Game on GameFlow​

  1. Log in to your GameFlow account
  2. Navigate to the Games section → Create New Game
  3. Set Name to Bullet Mayhem

Step 7: Configure Server Settings​

  1. Set Memory to 1GB
  2. Set vCPU to 1 core
  3. Set the Port to 8910
  4. Enable the us-east region

Step 8: Deploy and Test​

  1. Upload the .zip file in the builds section
  2. Click Create Test Server, wait for the server to reach "Ready"
  3. Run the game locally in Godot, enter the server IP and port, and click Join

Bullet Mayhem In-Game