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Game Server Deploy

A cost-efficient, multi-game dedicated server platform on AWS Fargate with a local management UI and a fully serverless Discord bot. Servers only run — and only cost money — while somebody is playing; the rest of the time the account is silent except for a handful of near-free Lambdas.

What you get​

  • On-demand Fargate tasks per game (no persistent ECS service, no idle cost).
  • EFS with per-game access points so each world is isolated yet persistent.
  • Auto-DNS — a Lambda UPSERTs {game}.{yourdomain} on task start and DELETEs it on stop. Optional ALB with ACM for HTTPS-fronted games.
  • Watchdog Lambda that stops servers after a configurable idle window.
  • Local Nest.js + React dashboard to start/stop, edit config, stream logs, and track costs.
  • Serverless Discord bot — two Node.js Lambdas plus DynamoDB and Secrets Manager handle every slash command; no 24/7 bot process.

Choose your path​

The rest of the site is organised around three roles. Pick the one that matches what you're doing right now:

  • Setup guide — from a blank AWS account to a running game server, in order.
  • User guide — day-to-day operation: starting/stopping servers from the dashboard or Discord, reading the cost panel, checking logs.
  • Maintainer guide — working on the code: monorepo layout, tests, lint, CI, release/deploy mechanics, load-bearing invariants not to break.
  • Submodule guide — the pattern of wrapping this repo as a git submodule inside a private parent repo that holds terraform.tfvars, server_config.json, state, and anything else secret.

Component reference​

Deep-dives on each piece, for when the guides hand-wave past something:

  • Architecture overview — the diagram below in full, with every arrow annotated.
  • Terraform — every .tf file, variables, outputs, and AWS services touched.
  • Management app — the Nest.js API, React dashboard, and @gsd/shared library.
  • Lambdas — the four Node.js Lambdas (interactions, followup, update-dns, watchdog).

High-level architecture​

High-level architecture

Run Terraform from your laptop (or a CI runner); after that the control plane is the dashboard, the Discord bot, or EventBridge schedules. No persistent server process — only the Fargate tasks themselves cost money, and only while they're running.

For the full breakdown (Discord bot internals, control-loop Lambdas, and the /server-start sequence) see the architecture overview.

Repository map​

game-server-deploy/
├── app/                       # Nest.js + React monorepo (npm workspaces)
│   └── packages/
│       ├── shared/            # @gsd/shared
│       ├── server/            # @gsd/server (Nest.js API)
│       ├── web/               # @gsd/web   (React + Vite)
│       └── lambda/
│           ├── interactions/  # Discord Function URL entry point
│           ├── followup/      # async ECS work + Discord PATCH
│           ├── update-dns/    # Route 53 + ALB on task state change
│           └── watchdog/      # idle detection + auto-stop
├── terraform/                 # all AWS infra (VPC, ECS, EFS, Lambdas, DDB...)
├── docs/                      # this site
├── Dockerfile                 # containerised management app
├── docker-compose.yml
├── setup.sh                   # first-time bootstrap — Linux / macOS
├── setup.ps1                  # first-time bootstrap — Windows (PowerShell)
└── README.md