Game leaderboard

Question

I am trying to create a leaderboard server and currently have a Dynamo db table with id , score and timestamp field. I want to sort all the players position based on score and time. Also want to query a single players position. I want the queries to be fast.( trying to avoid scan operation). What are my options to achieve this?

I am aware of AWS GameSparks but unfortunately its in preview.

Answer

While DynamoDB can implement a leader-board, it would not be my first service of choice. Elasticache for Redis would provide more features to implement the leader-board more effectively while also providing lower latency reads. More info in this blog:

[Build a real-time gaming leaderboard with Amazon ElastiCache for Redis](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/building-a-real-time-gaming-leaderboard-with-amazon-elasticache-for-redis/).

Should you still wish to proceed with DynamoDB then there are also some blog posts which you may find useful:

[How to Build a Real-Time Gaming Leaderboard with Amazon DynamoDB and Rockset](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/how-to-build-a-real-time-gaming-leaderboard-with-amazon-dynamodb-and-rockset/)

[Amazon DynamoDB: Gaming use cases and design patterns](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/amazon-dynamodb-gaming-use-cases-and-design-patterns/)

Answer

Hi

Have you seen this page in the documentation (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/GSI.html) - it uses a leaderboard implementation as an example so will hopefully help.

HTH

Nick

Game leaderboard

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