peer-to-peer-multiplayer

/peer-to-peer-multiplayer — Build a P2P Game From the Ground Up

Overview

Multiplayer is architecture, not a feature. Bolting it onto a single-player game is 5× harder than starting multiplayer-first. This skill walks the four layers in order. Skip any of them and you'll spend the rest of development paying for it in cheat-vulnerable state, desync bugs, and "why is the other player teleporting" reports.

The four layers, top-down:

1. NetworkManager — the autoload that owns peer IDs, connection lifecycle, message routing.
2. Authoritative state — the decision matrix for which fields the host owns vs. which the client renders.
3. Three routing patterns — host→client, client→host, client→client. Each has different rules.
4. Real-time rendering — prediction + interpolation so the local player feels responsive while remote state catches up.

Build them in that order. Don't write a single piece of game logic until layers 1 + 2 exist.

Step 0 — Should it be P2P at all?

Ask the user before anything else:

Are players connecting through Steam friends / Epic friends / a private invite link, or do they need matchmaking at scale (1000s of concurrent matches)?

Answer	Architecture
Friend-invite / small lobby (≤8 players)	P2P with host authority. This skill.
Matchmaking + anti-cheat + scale	Dedicated client-server. Different skill (/onyx:client-server-multiplayer).
MMO / persistent world	Custom server. Out of scope for this skill.

If P2P is right, continue. Otherwise, stop and route to the right skill.

Layer 1 — NetworkManager

A single autoload that owns the network. Nothing else in the game touches MultiplayerAPI directly.

May I create autoloads/network_manager.gd and register it as a Godot autoload?

class_name NetworkManager
extends Node

# ── Signals (all game systems listen here, not to MultiplayerAPI directly) ──
signal connection_succeeded
signal connection_failed(reason: String)
signal peer_joined(peer_id: int)
signal peer_left(peer_id: int)
signal session_ended

const DEFAULT_PORT := 7777
const MAX_PEERS := 8

var is_host: bool = false
var local_peer_id: int = 0
var peers: Dictionary = {}  # peer_id -> { name, ready, ... }

func host(port: int = DEFAULT_PORT) -> Error:
    var peer := ENetMultiplayerPeer.new()
    var err := peer.create_server(port, MAX_PEERS)
    if err != OK:
        connection_failed.emit("create_server failed: %s" % error_string(err))
        return err
    multiplayer.multiplayer_peer = peer
    is_host = true
    local_peer_id = 1
    _wire_signals()
    connection_succeeded.emit()
    return OK

func join(address: String, port: int = DEFAULT_PORT) -> Error:
    var peer := ENetMultiplayerPeer.new()
    var err := peer.create_client(address, port)
    if err != OK:
        connection_failed.emit("create_client failed: %s" % error_string(err))
        return err
    multiplayer.multiplayer_peer = peer
    is_host = false
    _wire_signals()
    return OK

func leave() -> void:
    if multiplayer.multiplayer_peer:
        multiplayer.multiplayer_peer.close()
        multiplayer.multiplayer_peer = null
    is_host = false
    local_peer_id = 0
    peers.clear()
    session_ended.emit()

func _wire_signals() -> void:
    multiplayer.peer_connected.connect(_on_peer_connected)
    multiplayer.peer_disconnected.connect(_on_peer_disconnected)
    multiplayer.connected_to_server.connect(_on_connected_to_server)
    multiplayer.connection_failed.connect(_on_connection_failed)
    multiplayer.server_disconnected.connect(_on_server_disconnected)

func _on_peer_connected(id: int) -> void:
    peers[id] = { "name": "Player %d" % id, "ready": false }
    peer_joined.emit(id)

func _on_peer_disconnected(id: int) -> void:
    peers.erase(id)
    peer_left.emit(id)

func _on_connected_to_server() -> void:
    local_peer_id = multiplayer.get_unique_id()
    connection_succeeded.emit()

func _on_connection_failed() -> void:
    connection_failed.emit("connection refused or timed out")

func _on_server_disconnected() -> void:
    leave()