Stop Killing Games FAQ & Guide for Developers

0:00 Introductions 3:31 What are some ways to EOL your game? 5:55 Good examples of games with EOL plans 9:31 Designing an EOL Plan 11:29 Suggestions for existing games to support EOL 14:41 How can costs be reduced for EOL? 16:10 What is the minimum viable build to pre serve? 17:19 Replicating your server environment locally 18:39 How Docker and Virtual Machines help with EOL 19:50 Reusable patterns to use now and in the future 21:35 Should the game fail gracefully when servers are unavailable? 22:20 What are best practices for removing credentials, API keys, etc. for EOL builds? 24:04 Conditional compilation and environment specific code in preparing for shutdown 25:17 How to document the server stack for later players 26:55 How do players host servers when setup is complex? 27:57 What happens if your game is tied to platform ecosystems like Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live? 29:15 What if your core gameplay is tied to time-locked events? 30:13 Can matchmaking be replaced with LAN or Peer-to-peer solutions? 31:10 What if the game server requires authoritative logic for fairness? 32:13 Automating an EOL build alongside normal builds 33:13 What tooling can you provide to the community? 34:52 What are the differences between hosting a game server on Amazon compared to locally? 36:04 What if your game uses a lot of services such as AWS, Google Cloud, and other microservices? 37:25 Example list of microservices that could be removed 37:52 How to EOL your game if you are using a managed backend 39:35 Can dependency injection help isolate what needs to be removed at EOL? 41:01 How do you test the final state of your game in a post-server world? 42:13 Can you create a stripped-down server binary for player hosting? 43:31 How do you remove Login or DRM from games that prevent running offline? 45:07 How do you remove anti-cheat for EOL? 46:25 How do you handle data at EOL and protect user privacy? 47:35 How do we patch out authentication servers? 48:44 What if I can't compile into binary? 50:11 What are alternative distribution methods? 51:39 What if I have secrets or private keys in my server binaries? 52:35 What's the safest way to release server binaries if you can't share the source code? 55:38 Communicating to your players that the final build is unsuppored 57:42 Can you delist a game from a store but still let owners re-download it? 58:26 How do you handle games that are part of a larger ecosystem? 59:28 How long should the EOL patch be available to download? 1:00:21 Providing a fallback experience for players who launch the game post-shutdown 1:01:48 How do you decouple online and offline features if the game was not built that way? 1:03:04 How to design your next game to make EOL easier from the start 1:04:14 How much would it cost to convert my game to one that can be preserved? 1:05:48 EOL Case Study - Path of Titans