Matchmaking

Matchmaking puts players who want the same kind of game together. Each mode of your game is a queue with a smallest and largest number of players. A player, or a whole party, searches in a queue; once the queue holds enough players, Flock makes a match and seats the players in a session. A party is matched as one group and never split. Players are matched in the order they search.

Dashboard
Unity
Unreal

Make queues under Multiplayer → Matchmaking with Create Queue:

Queue Name: the name your game searches by, letter for letter, case included.
Min Players and Max Players: the smallest and largest match.
Same game version only: matches players of one build with each other only. Leave it on unless different builds can play together.
Allowed Segments: only players in these segments may search here. Leave it empty for everyone.
Queue metadata: notes for your own reference. Matching does not read them.

Multiplayer → Matchmaking Activity shows who is waiting in each queue now, and the matches made.

Search alone. A search that ends without a match is an outcome, not an exception.

CancellationTokenSource searching = new CancellationTokenSource();
cancelButton.onClick.AddListener(searching.Cancel);
try
{
    FlockMatchmakingResult found = await FlockClient.Instance.Multiplayer.FindMatchAsync("coop-4", null, searching.Token);
    if (found.IsMatched && found.Session != null)
        await PlayAsync(found.Session);
    else if (found.Outcome == FlockMatchmakingOutcome.Expired)
        ShowMessage("Nobody found in 5 minutes. Search again?");
    else
        ShowMessage("The search stopped.");
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
    ShowMessage("Search cancelled.");   // the search is cancelled on the server too
}
catch (FlockException ex) when (ex.ErrorCode == FlockErrorCode.MatchmakingQueueNotFound)
{
    ShowMessage("No queue is named coop-4.");
}

Search as a party. The leader’s game starts the search, and every member’s game hears it through the party, so handle the result in one place: SearchEnded is raised on every member’s game, the leader’s included.

party.SearchStarted += () => ShowSearching();
party.SearchEnded += result =>
{
    if (result.IsMatched && result.Session != null)
        _ = PlayAsync(result.Session);
    else
        ShowLobby();
};

if (party.IsLeader)
    await party.FindMatchAsync("coop-4");

The SDK checks a search every 3 seconds. FlockMatchmakingOptions.Attributes passes your own data with a search; matching does not use it yet.

How a search ends

`FlockMatchmakingOutcome`	When	What to do
`Matched`	Players were matched. `Session` is where they play; `PlayerIds` lists them, the longest waiting first.	Connect the players. If `Session` is null, `GetMySessionAsync` finds it; with Create a session when a match forms off, there is none and your game makes one.
`Expired`	Nobody was found within 5 minutes.	Offer to search again.
`PartyChanged`	A player joined or left the party during the search.	The leader searches again.
`Cancelled`	Another game stopped it: a party member’s, or the player’s own on another device.	Show the lobby.

A search your game cancels through its token ends the call with an OperationCanceledException instead. The server can add outcomes, so treat any other as ended without a match.

Party members and game versions

On a Same game version only queue, the server takes each member’s version from their game’s last read of the party. Have every member’s game read the party (GetMyPartyAsync) once it is running, or the search is refused with MatchmakingVersionMismatch.

What matching does not use yet

Matching is first come, first served. Skill, region and latency rules, teams and backfill are not built yet; what a search sends in its attributes is stored for them. Until then, make a queue per mode and region (coop-4-eu, coop-4-na).

Errors

`ErrorCode`	When
`MatchmakingQueueNotFound`	No queue has that exact name.
`MatchmakingPlayerNotEligible`	The player is not in the queue’s allowed segments.
`MatchmakingPartyTooLarge`	The party is bigger than the queue’s largest match.
`MatchmakingNotPartyLeader`	A party member tried to start the search.
`MatchmakingVersionMismatch`	Party members are on different builds.

Getting Started

Concepts

SDKs

Features

Multiplayer

Reference

How a search ends

Party members and game versions

What matching does not use yet

Errors

​How a search ends

​Party members and game versions

​What matching does not use yet

​Errors

How a search ends

Party members and game versions

What matching does not use yet

Errors