Why do I need a game server query protocol?
Note: The content on this page pertains to Clanforge. If you’re using Multiplay Hosting, refer to the Multiplay Hosting documentation.
A game server query protocol is a protocol that facilitates querying information from a game server instance. The game server instance should respond with a stream of information. Typically, the response has static variables with dynamic (continuously updated) values and it's accomplished over UDP.
By supporting a game server query protocol, you enable Clanforge to report and monitor advanced analytic data on your game, such as concurrently connected players, active allocations, failed allocations, connected player per platform, etc. The data from the game server query protocol allow Clanforge to supply you with custom Grafana dashboards and empower the Multiplayer support team to proactively catch scaling problems.
The most popular game server query protocol is A2S, which Valve keeps as part of the Steam SDK. Because of its popularity, many game engines support A2S natively. Learn more about the A2S protocol.