Building Real-Time Multiplayer Games on Mobile: A Technical Guide

Mobile networking is a nightmare. Users jump between Wi-Fi and 5G, move behind thick walls, and enter tunnels. Your game must handle this gracefully.

1. Client-Side Prediction

Don’t wait for the server. If the player presses “Forward”, move the character locally instantly.

// Simple Prediction Pseudocode
void Update() {
    Vector3 input = GetInput();
    LocalPosition += input * Speed * Time.deltaTime; // Predict
    SendInputToServer(input);
}

2. Server Reconciliation

The server is the boss. If the server says the player actually hit a wall, the client must “snap” the player back smoothly.

3. UDP is Your Friend

TCP is too slow for real-time combat. We use Custom UDP layers (like LiteNetLib or ENet) to ensure packets arrive fast, and we only retry the packets that really matter (like the “I died” packet).

At Arrof Store, we maintain servers in 5 global regions to ensure every player has a sub-50ms ping experience.