The sample groups players two ways: room codes, or, optionally, Edgegap’s matchmaker.

With room codes:

1. A player presses Host. The relay creates a room and returns a 6-letter code, shown in the HUD.

2. The host shares the code: in a party screen, a friends list, a chat or a Discord message.

3. Other players type the code and press Join room.

Codes skip I and O, so they’re easy to read out loud. The room lasts as long as the host stays: when the host leaves, the relay closes the room and disconnects the others. The host can also kick a player.

To bring this into your game, show the code in your own UI and pass it through whatever already connects your players, such as Steam or Epic Online Services friend invites.

With the Edgegap matchmaker (optional, off by default):

1. In the dashboard, open Matchmaker → Create Matchmaker. Upload matchmaker-config.json from the repository, with application.name and version set to your relay’s app version, then click Create and Start. The file uses matchmaker 3.3.3, profile casual and a 30 s ticket expiration. For its first 10 seconds, a ticket can only join a running relay; then 2 to 4 waiting players get a new one. A latency rule keeps players together only when each has at most 150 ms to an Edgegap beacon and their pings differ by at most 100 ms.

2. On your relay’s app version, add the environment variables MATCHMAKER_URL and MATCHMAKER_TOKEN: the matchmaker’s API URL and Auth Token. Without them, the relay logs “backfill: off” and its rooms never take later players.

3. In TanksSettings.asset, turn on Use Matchmaker and paste the same API URL and Auth Token. The token is safe to ship in a game client. The game sends its pings to Edgegap’s beacons with each ticket (matchmakerLatencyBeacons, on by default). Command-line version: -matchmaker <url> -matchmakerToken <token> -findMatch. To connect over wss://, also turn on matchmakerUseWebSocket (-matchmakerWebSocket).

4. Players press Find Match. If a nearby relay has room, the player joins it: a room with a free seat first, otherwise a new room on that relay, which the player hosts. If none has room, after about 10 seconds the matchmaker deploys a new relay for 2 to 4 waiting players near each other. The first matched player to reach a room hosts it, and the others join automatically, with no code to type.

5. Each relay holds up to 4 rooms of up to 4 players (RELAY_MAX_ROOMS, RELAY_MATCH_MAX_PLAYERS) and keeps at most 5 backfills open: requests at the matchmaker that carry the relay’s address and its players’ pings. It offers a new room only once its rooms are full, so two players searching at the same time end up together.

6. A host left alone for 2 minutes (RELAY_SOLO_ROOM_SECONDS) is told, and the game searches again by itself. When a host leaves, that room closes. Once its last room ends, the relay closes its backfills and stops its own deployment, so it stops billing.

A relay deployed without the matchmaker keeps working with room codes. Players can join a room in progress, so your game must accept players mid-match, as Tanks does. The sample queues players one at a time; for parties, add a backfill_group_size rule so a party never takes more seats than a room has free. Browsers can’t ping beacons, so a WebGL build needs a profile without the latency rule.

“Load the edgegap-matchmaking skill. Build a matchmaker config (version 3.3.3) for my LightNet relay app version: profile casual, 1 team, min and max team size 9999 at first so tickets only join running relays through backfill, then an expansion at 10 s to 2 to 4 players, a beacons latency rule (max latency 150 ms, difference 100 ms) and a 30 s ticket expiration. Tell me how to create it in the dashboard, add MATCHMAKER_URL and MATCHMAKER_TOKEN to my app version, and put the URL and token in TanksSettings.asset with Use Matchmaker on.”

Matchmaking with strangers: The matchmaker puts strangers in the same room, but the host’s game still owns it, so a cheating host can ruin it, and the room ends for everyone in it, later joiners included, when the host leaves. For public casual or ranked matches, give the match to a server: extend the relay with your game logic, or start with Mirror Networking, Fish-Networking, PurrNet or Netcode for GameObjects, which cover dedicated servers and Edgegap’s Matchmaking end to end.