Game Modes

📄️ Definition

A game mode is an object featuring a set of parameters which define the configuration and the behavior of a match. The set of parameters defined on a game mode can further be edited at competition creation time, or voted upon during a match’s voting phase. The final set of parameters will eventually be passed to the game during the Match Configuration call, inside the gamecustomdata field of the request.

📄️ Anatomy of a Game Mode

A game mode basically consists of two parts: a section common to all game modes, and a game-custom one.

📄️ Match Custom Data Keys

A match custom data (aka MCD) key is an object describing a single match parameter (a map, a weather condition, the duration of the match, etc). The keys can be managed in the Game Modes > Match Custom Data section of the Game Studio and are defined by:

📄️ Voting Keys

Voting Key

📄️ Standard Keys

Standard Keys

📄️ Game Mode Creation

General Information

📄️ Game Mode Lifecycle

A newly created game mode will be in “draft” state, meaning that it can be saved, closed, and later reopened for further edits, or deleted altogether. When you are ready to test the game mode on the game’s test environment (normally your sandbox), you can transition the game mode to “testing” state. This action will publish it in the test environment, where you can create competitions using that game mode. At this time, the game mode will no longer be editable. If you do need to make adjustments to it, you may transition it back to “draft” state.

📄️ Game Mode Variants

There are times when you will want to create two (or more) almost identical game modes, with slight differences on some keys that only apply to certain game regions and/or certain organizers. A classic example: include/hide certain game maps in certain regions.

📄️ What it all boils down to

Throughout this document we often referred to the competition settings page (or mentioned “at competition creation time”), which is where the game mode eventually ends up being picked for a given competition (hub / tournaments) and can be further tailored depending on the keys that were marked as editable when creating it.