At GDC I got to talk to the founders of Shockbyte, a game hosting server provider. The company had its start with Minecraft, but it has since expanded to support other games like Ark: Survivor Evolved and Valheim. You can find a list of supported games on the official website, here.
The founder started the company at 15 when he saw a need in his community that needed to be filled. It has since grown to what it is today, but not without issues. They have since learned from their mistakes and worked hard to provide the best services for their customers. Shockbyte’s goal is to make their servers as user-friendly as possible so that even the most tech illiterate can effortlessly create a server. What sets this company apart is that while its competitors are stuck in their ways, Shockbyte continues to innovate. They plan to add game-specific features to make the user experience as effortless as possible. These features are only months away, and I hope to return with more information as soon as it is publicly available.
If you are in the market for a server to host one of your worlds, Shockbyte offers inexpensive plans with 100% uptime, DDOS protection, and 24/7 customer support. They also have a 72-hour return policy in case you aren’t satisfied. With these kinds of promises, it is at least worth some research.
I haven’t used Shockbyte, but I have used a service like it to host my Foundry VTT servers for my D&D campaigns. At the time, running it on my PC wasn’t an option because my computer was outdated and my internet was slow. The sessions I ran off my computer were terrible. I faced constant crashes, assets wouldn’t load, and my player’s moves wouldn’t register. I was only dealing with images. I can only imagine how terrible the experience would be with something more resource heavy like Minecraft. Having a dedicated server is great because it eliminates the issues. My players could access the servers, even when I was away, and the games ran smoothly on any internet speed. It also eliminated the risk of losing all my work to hardware failure, which I did. I have since started hosting on a Rasberry Pi because it fits my needs better, but I understand the value of a service like this.
Shockbyte has a number of affordable plans for several games. I am sure there is one that is just right for you!
This isn’t a sponsored post, nor was I asked to write anything. I am doing so because the product seems great, and I felt the need to share my experience. I am very grateful that Mitch and Niek made time to speak with me to talk to me about their company and answer all my questions. I know I am still a small blog, so it meant a lot to me that I was treated like I wasn’t. It was clear from our conversation that they are passionate about their company and what they do, and I feel confident that they will succeed in providing a fantastic service. I wish them all the best. Thanks again!
Make sure you follow Shockbyte on their socials to stay up to date on all their news: Discord
*Images taken from the official website