BACKEND FOR GAMES THAT NEED TO SHIP
You've got a game. You need it online with saves and maybe multiplayer. You don't need PlayFab's 50 features or Firebase's pricing surprises.
No credit card. No 30-page docs. Just ship.
// That's it. That's the whole backend.
import { Watchtower } from '@watchtower/sdk'
// Cloud saves
await wt.save('progress', { level: 5 })
// Multiplayer room
const room = await wt.createRoom()
room.broadcast({ moved: true })
"I spent a week on multiplayer networking and I still don't understand lag compensation"
"PlayFab's docs are longer than my game's codebase"
"Firebase... Supabase... Nakama... I just want to save player data"
"My game works on localhost. Deploying it is a different nightmare."
"I googled 'simple game backend' and got enterprise solutions"
"I'm mass quitting multiplayer. It's too hard." — actual r/godot post
We read these posts too. That's why we built Watchtower.
If your engine can make API calls, it works.
Drag folder → get URL. Native games use their own distribution.
PlayFab has leaderboards, analytics, A/B testing, player segments, economy management... You need cloud saves and maybe rooms. Here's that.
Key-value storage per player. JSON in, JSON out. Works across devices. No schema, no migrations, no database.
await wt.save("level", 5)Create room, get 4-letter code, share with friends. We handle connections, reconnections, host migration, cleanup.
const room = await wt.createRoom()Send JSON to everyone in the room or specific players. 60 updates/second. We don't touch your game logic.
room.broadcast({ x: 100, y: 200 })Drag your game folder. Get a URL. Connect GitHub for auto-deploy. Works with Phaser, Three.js, any HTML5.
yourname.watchtower.hostAmazing if you're Minecraft. Overkill if you're a solo dev shipping a jam game. 50+ features, enterprise pricing, docs that assume you have a backend team.
Works, but it's not built for games. You'll fight the data model. Pricing surprises are a meme for a reason.
Actually great — if you can self-host. Open source, full-featured. But you need Docker knowledge and server management skills.
Four features. Flat pricing. One SDK. For devs who want to ship this week, not learn Kubernetes.
No calculator needed.
For side projects
For shipping games
For teams
All plans include 14-day free trial. No credit card required.
Early access coming soon. Join the waitlist — we'll email you when it's ready and give you a month free for being early.