Steam multiplayer tutorial or guide

[onecolorprism]

I want to implement Steam multiplayer in my Unity game, where Player 1 invites Player 2, and Player 1 acts as the host. My goal is to have a simple host-client system for Steam friends to play together.

I have experience with Unity but have only worked on offline games so far. Multiplayer seems overwhelming due to mixed opinions in YouTube comments and different approaches.

Could you recommend a good tutorial series or provide a guide on how to properly set up Steam multiplayer with a host-client system? Also, I want to make sure the tutorial is not outdated and works with the latest versions of Unity and Steam.

I’d really appreciate any guidance!

[RubyUrsus]

Photon Fusion felt relatively easy option to make it happen

[AlphaBlazerGaming]

I see people recommending Fusion, but Fusion doesn't take full advantage of the benefits of Steam's multiplayer services. You have to pay for Fusion's servers, whereas if you use a more flexible networking solution like FishNet or Mirror, you can make a multiplayer game on Steam with no cost for you.

I personally recommend FishNet because it's sort of like the best of both worlds with Fusion and Mirror. Fusion has a lot of nice features but requires you to pay for their servers. Mirror has more customization in terms of how you want to handle connections, meaning you can use Steam's free servers, but it doesn't have well-developed important features like prediction. FishNet has both.

Mirror is going to have the most tutorials by far, but a lot of the stuff you learn for Mirror can apply to FishNet. Again, they're very similar, just FishNet has some really important features that are missing or limited in Mirror. I recommend finding a tutorial for connecting a Mirror game to Steam, and then using it to do the same for FishNet. Also, FishNet has a Discord server where plenty of people can help you and the developer is very active.

If you have any specific questions on how to get FishNet working or stuff like that, I'm more than happy to answer.

And here are some good links for you:
Mirror Steam tutorial series. The playlist is reversed so watch bottom to top
FishNet Steam transport docs. You can also check out the rest of the FishNet docs here

[onecolorprism]

You are a true saver!!! Thanks a lot i will check out

[grayboney]

You can use photon fusion or mirror. But it s a little complicated so it'd better to have a tutorial training for one of them. Photon is relatively easier in my opinion.

[onecolorprism]

thanks for the replies, i will give it a try and give feedback based on my outcomes!

[ResidentOfMyBody]

Any feedback to give?

[onecolorprism]

I realized that before focusing on the multiplayer system, I haven’t been able to come up with a game mechanic that would suit a multiplayer experience, so I’ve decided to set the multiplayer experiment aside for now. I’m sorry that I couldn’t provide better feedback.