Edit

PlayStream

  • Article
  • 4 minutes to read

PlayStream offers the following features to developers:

  • An event pipeline - That unifies the entire data flow from your game into a single data stream. The PlayFab Game Services will automatically insert events into PlayStream, and you can add custom events using our new WriteEvent API client and server methods. Our Marketplace Add-ons will also generate events automatically. Events are managed as JSON data.
  • A real time rules engine - That can evaluate complex rules in response to incoming events through PlayStream, and trigger a variety of actions, including CloudScript.
  • A real time segmentation system - That can group players into segments based on a variety of player properties. Segments are calculated in real time and are always up-to-date. Actions may be triggered automatically as players enter or exit segments.
  • A real time visualization of event data - That includes a real-time event debugger.
  • The ability to send some or all of the events to external web services via webhooks - These can be configured automatically by installing Marketplace Add-ons, or configured manually to send events to your own servers.
  • An event archive - Where you can filter, search, and view historical events - including event delivery history.

Let’s look at these features in more detail.

Note

PlayStream now offers support for entity events as well as classic PlayStream events. To learn more, please reference the PlayStream with entity events article after you finish this one.

PlayStream event pipeline and monitor

The easiest way to see the event pipeline in action is through the PlayStream Debugger. You’ll notice the monitor as soon as you click on the PlayStream Monitor tab for your game.

PlayStream Monitor

The PlayStream monitor is a real time stream of all the events for your game, including any custom events you choose to send, using our WriteEvent API methods.

This is immensely valuable during development, as it gives you a way to immediately see what’s happening on the back end as you test out your client- and server-side code. It also links you straight to the player accounts, so that you can check them against the game logic you’re working on.

There are several selectable fields in each event. If you select the “(i)” information circle, you will see the raw event JSON data.

Event Raw JSON Data

You can also select the player’s ID to jump straight to the player’s profile. Certain other events also have selectable fields.

Player segmentation and actions

Using those events, you can set up segments which define players within your users, based upon most player properties. This all happens in real time - so there should be no perceptual lag, even at large scale.

If you can tie an event to the thing you want to use as a differentiating factor, you can make a segment for it. And segments will apply retroactively to all players, based on the data in their profiles -- so if you define a segment of players where XP > 3,000, then every player with XP > 3,000 will now be in that segment.

High XP Segment Definition

This particular segment will be evaluated anytime the statistic called "Total_XPGained" changes. If the condition (> 3000) evaluates to true, then the player will enter the “High XP Players" segment, and the corresponding action(s) will be triggered -- in this case, it will send a push notification, and grants gold to the player.

You can also trigger different custom actions when the player leaves a segment, allowing you to make any other changes needed as a result.

There are a variety of basic actions available, including granting an item to the player, granting virtual currency, changing a statistic, banning a player, sending a player an email or sending a Push notification. You can also trigger custom CloudScript to be run instead.

Rules and Actions

The same action system shown above can also be utilized to respond on specific events coming from your game. For example, the rule shown below demonstrates how when a custom event (Client_StoreVisit) is seen, the player receives some virtual currency, and receives a push notification thanking them for their visit.

Rule responding to custom event

Using rules and actions, you can affect LiveOps behaviors in your game without making any changes to the game client.

Webhooks

You can also set up Webhooks, such that some or all of the events going through PlayStream will get pushed out to an external service.

For example, you could use the feature shown below to call your own back end server on any player login.

Webhook Configuration

PlayStream Webhooks are POST calls to your provided endpoint, which pass along all the data for the event in the body of the call. Using this mechanism, you could then enable additional custom actions on your real-time data, using your own custom services.

Event History

You can also access a historical archive of events. By default, events are kept for a certain period of time that depends on your service tier. You can view the event history in two places - you can view all events for your title in the PlayStream Event History tab, or only events for a particular player on that player’s PlayStream tab.

Event History

You can select the arrow to the left of a particular event to see details only for that event, including its delivery history. For example, the event shown below has been delivered to three different Marketplace Add-ons - Appuri (both legacy and current), and Segment.com. You can click on the event name to filter the list of events by all events of that name.

Event History Details

Custom Tags

The Custom Tags feature allows game developers to further enrich their standard PlayStream events with business specific metadata.

This is a quality of life feature designed to make building on top of PlayFab easier and more extensible.

Getting Started With PlayStream