Competitive play with server-side physics ensures ideal sub-50 ms latency
Written in collaboration with
NS7
Key Highlights
Server-Side Physics with Competitive Play Worldwide: Puck’s competition-focused architecture requires the use of multiple locations nearest players to ensure it can enable highly competitive, low-latency online gameplay to players. The infrastructure and human cost of managing such distributed architecture are only possible, and viable, thanks to Edgegap’s patented orchestration.
Regionless Global Distribution to 615+ Locations: Puck’s F2P monetization model means it needs to be available, and deliver on its low-latency online gameplay experience, worldwide to reach a global player base of hockey fans. Edgegap’s regionless edge network is the only one providing game developers with instant access to the world’s largest multi-cloud network with 615+ locations, on-demand.
Fully Automated: NS7 is an indie studio with limited developer resources. Using Edgegap’s automated platform allowed him to focus on what matters, the game, leaving Edgegap’s platform and team to manage the infrastructure and players’ online experience.
Instant Game Server Deployments: Edgegap’s architecture allows for real just-in-time deployment; NS7 does not have pre-warm/pre-start server instances which are waiting and standing by (while still being charged even if not used by players) like in traditional, fleet-based orchestration. As such, NS7 is able to start a game server within 2 seconds, making this the best option to keep the OPEX cost aligned with the game’s F2P monetization model and target ARPU.
The Studio
Puck is a fast-paced, physics-driven F2P hockey virtual reality (VR) simulation that puts the player in complete control. Every pass, shot, and body check is powered by realistic physics, making each game unpredictable, skill-based, and endlessly replayable.
Built with online, multiplayer team game play as the core focus, where players must work together to create game-changing moments. Whether that’s threading a perfect pass going through defenders, setting up a teammate for a one-timer, or executing a seamless give-and-go, teamwork is at the heart of every unforgettable play.
In other words, a truly authentic hockey experience in the first person.
The Challenge
Niels Asevej, lead developer at NS7, vision for Puck was to develop a true-to-life VR hockey experience ensure a truly competitive sports experience. Specifically, this meant he saw the need to ensure:
“all inputs from players are sent to the server, the server performs the physics and sends the positions and rotations of the players back to each client”.
This meant the only realistic approach to deliver on this vision was with low-latency gameplay on a global scale.
That meant an orchestration platform which was able to help NS7:
Deliver “for sub 50ms RTT for any connected player (in competitive play)”;
A “service provider [with] a massive range of locations to where I can deploy my servers”
The ability to deploy “near instant deployments,” to ensure “players can hop into a fresh server with their friends in a few seconds”
At the same time, the studio needed to be strategic with time and budget; with development concentrated in one set of hands, backend work had to be efficient so that the bulk of attention could stay on building the gameplay, pacing, and overall player experience.
These constraints shaped Puck as much as its creative direction.
The Solution – Game Server Orchestration
Edgegap’s modern orchestration is built on three major foundations that help studios with their game server hosting:
Edgegap uses containers, which standardize the deployment of these compute workloads, solving performance consistency across online experiences and enabling game servers to be deployed in 1-3 seconds worldwide to launch games faster.
Edgegap's orchestration leverages the world's first, and largest, regionless edge network that enables game studios to deploy game servers worldwide to 615+ locations at a single price, solving both the cost and coverage issues for game studios where one (usually coverage) had to be sacrificed to optimize the other (usually cost).
Finally, Edgegap's orchestration uses a patented decision-making system to deploy game servers at the ideal location for each player in a match (usually the closest), helping improve the in-game experience with lower latency for all players.
Edgegap also prides itself on its easy integration and support.
As Niels said:
This leads me to why I picked Edgegap.
Combined, these elements enabled Puck to deliver on its vision.
Simple Integration & Migration: Integrating with Edgegap’s API was remarkably straightforward, allowing NS7 to add dedicated game servers hosting and orchestration, a process that would have taken months with traditional infrastructure. Clear documentation covered most topics and responsive technical support on Discord helped close the final gaps. For a small team, that meant hundreds of hours saved and put into the game itself, not its backend.
Instant Global Reach: From the moment Puck launched, NS7 was able to deploy their game to 615+ locations worldwide at a single price point, on-demand. This eliminated the traditional cost vs. coverage dilemma, allowing the studio to reach players in previously cost-prohibitive markets or selective regional availability which would have created latency issues for players in these countries.
Automated Infrastructure: The containerized platform automated critical deployment and scaling processes, dramatically reducing the technical workload on NS7’s small team. Without dedicated backend developers, the studio could focus on game development while Edgegap handled the complex orchestration of their multiplayer infrastructure automatically.
Conclusion
Puck’s development and ongoing availability to players worldwide reflect how thoughtful design, bold technical decisions, and the determination of a lean studio can deliver a world-class online experience.
By embracing a server-authoritative architecture and pushing for sub-50 ms responsiveness, NS7 set a high bar for competitive gameplay, even with limited resources and a tight development schedule. With the right orchestration support behind the scenes, the studio was free to focus on crafting the fast-paced, physics-driven hockey experience at the heart of Puck.
The result is a game that proves small teams can achieve large-scale precision, bringing players a smooth, global, and genuinely competitive arena to play in.
The proof? Thousands of extremely positive reviews on its initial launch!
As one of the game's fan says:
This game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rocks
