Game Server Hosting

Gameye

Host your PurrNet dedicated servers on Gameye — no SDK, no plugin, no egress fees

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This guide covers hosting your PurrNet dedicated servers on Gameye, a game server orchestration platform. Gameye runs your server at the container level, so there is nothing PurrNet-specific to install — if your server builds to Linux and runs in Docker, it runs on Gameye.

You'll need a free Gameye Developer Trial account to get an API token. It's self-serve — no sales call required.

Unlike some hosts, Gameye needs no PurrNet addon or plugin. Your server runs as a plain Linux container and Gameye manages it externally through a REST API. Nothing goes inside your Unity project.

What you'll need

  • Docker (Desktop or CLI) — to build and push your server image. Make sure it's running when you build.
  • Unity Linux Dedicated Server Build Support — add it via Unity Hub (Installs → Add Modules).
  • A Gameye API token — from your Developer Trial.
  • An OCI-compatible container registry (Docker Hub, GitLab Registry, AWS ECR, GCP Artifact Registry — any works).

1. Build a Linux dedicated server

Build your project for the Dedicated Server platform (Linux) — PurrNet has a Build Server button for exactly this.

Make sure your NetworkManager starts as a server in the build. The simplest way is to set the NetworkManager's Start Server Flags to start in server builds, so it begins listening as soon as the container boots. Alternatively, call StartServer() from your own bootstrap script guarded by #if UNITY_SERVER.

Your transport binds a fixed internal port. Keep it fixed inside the container — Gameye maps an external port to it and returns that external port to your matchmaker.

2. Containerize the server

Wrap your build in a Docker image. A PurrNet server needs nothing beyond a minimal Linux base:

FROM ubuntu:22.04

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
    ca-certificates && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

WORKDIR /app
COPY Build/ /app/
RUN chmod +x /app/MyGameServer.x86_64

# Expose the port your PurrNet UDP transport is configured to listen on.
EXPOSE 5000/udp
ENTRYPOINT ["/app/MyGameServer.x86_64", "-batchmode", "-nographics"]

Build and push it to your registry:

docker build -t your-registry/purrnet-server:1.0.0 .
docker push   your-registry/purrnet-server:1.0.0

3. Register the image with Gameye

During onboarding, give Gameye your registry credentials and image name. Gameye pre-pulls your image onto infrastructure in every region you deploy to, so by the time your matchmaker calls the API there's no image transfer happening — just a container start.

4. Start sessions from your backend

When a match is ready, call the Gameye Session API with your image and a target region:

curl -X POST https://api.gameye.io/session \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "location": "eu-west",
    "image": "your-purrnet-server",
    "args": ["-batchmode", "-nographics"],
    "labels": { "matchId": "abc123" },
    "ttl": 3600
  }'

The response comes back in about 0.5 seconds with the connection details:

{
  "id": "session-abc123",
  "host": "185.x.x.x",
  "ports": [ { "type": "udp", "container": 5000, "host": 34521 } ]
}

Pass host and the external host port to your players — they connect their PurrNet client directly to the server. Gameye is not in the network path during gameplay, so there's no relay hop or added latency.

That's it — no PurrNet addon, no SDK in your build, no DevOps. Push a Docker image, call an API.

Notes

  • Any PurrNet transport works. UDP for action games, WebSockets for browser clients, Steam, or Composite. Your server binds the transport's listen port inside the container; Gameye maps an external port to it.
  • Shut down cleanly when a match ends. When your server process exits with code 0, Gameye reclaims the compute and stops billing for that session. A common pattern is to quit once the last player disconnects.
  • Any matchmaker. Gameye's Session API is plain HTTP, so trigger it from any backend — Unity Matchmaker, Nakama, or a custom service.
  • Pricing. Gameye is $0.07/vCPU/hr with no egress (bandwidth) fees. PurrNet is free and MIT-licensed, so the server software adds no licensing cost.

For more detail, see the Gameye + PurrNet integration guide and the Gameye documentation.