Arena Rivals: 5v5 Competitive Mobile
Multiplayer · Unity · iOS & Android · Real-Time PvP
Arena Rivals is a real-time 5v5 competitive mobile game with a 3-minute match format. Nine Pixels architected and built the full stack from a GDD, client, game server, matchmaking, and backend. The client's previous studio had told them real-time 5v5 on mobile was not technically feasible.
Synchronising game state across 10 players with varying network conditions simultaneously. Latency compensation, cheat prevention, and graceful disconnect handling all had to work from day one. The previous studio had attempted the netcode for 6 months and failed.
Server-authoritative architecture with no client-side shortcuts. Custom game servers on AWS GameLift broadcast authoritative state at 20 ticks/second. ELO matchmaking in Go groups players by skill and geography. Lag-compensated collision detection keeps perceived latency under 50ms while the server stays authoritative. Anti-cheat runs server-side with statistical anomaly detection.
The previous studio said 5v5 real-time on mobile wasn't feasible within our budget. Nine Pixels delivered it in 16 months and it works.