GDC 2025 Session Viewer
"Database-Oriented Design": Why We Built Our MMORPG Inside a Database (Presented by SpacetimeDB)
Tyler Cloutier (Founder, Clockwork Labs)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass, Summits Pass, Expo Pass, Audio Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Programming
Format: Sponsored Session
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Why build an MMORPG backend entirely inside a database? What does that even mean?
In this session, attendees will learn why the developers of BitCraft, a large-scale, survival crafting MMORPG built the game's backend entirely within SpacetimeDB, a relational database system complete with ACID transactions. The developers review the current state of the art in MMORPG backend architecture, breakdown misconceptions about the real-time performance of databases, and reveal how RDBMS + WebAssembly can massively simplify the development and deployment of large scale multiplayer games.
What at first seems like a completely unhinged idea slowly transforms into a logical and natural extension of data-oriented design and ECS. Attendees will learn why database-oriented design offers unique advantages for MMORPGs and how it enables indie devs to build MMOs by simplifying the development through advanced techniques in databases like incremental query evaluation for real-time client updates or multi-version concurrency control.
Whether you're building your own online game or rethinking backend systems, this session provides insights and inspiration for using modern database technology in game development.
Takeaway
Attendees learn how SpacetimeDB builds on top of ECS and data-oriented design and gain a deep understanding of how database-oriented design can simplify MMORPG backend development through the use of advanced database techniques like incremental query evaluation to solve complex engineering problems like real-time network updates.
Intended Audience
This session is for game developers interested in ECS/data-oriented design, backend engineers, developers interested in a simpler way to make massively multiplayer games, or curious game devs looking to get a better understanding of how MMORPGs are built.
