Get Started Steps

To get up and running with the Epic Online Services (EOS), integrate the EOS SDK with your game, so your game can access EOS services. To do this, you:

• Set up an Epic Games account and organization in the Developer Portal.
• Download the EOS SDK (available in C and C#).
• Integrate the Platform Interface into your game.

This document gives guidance on how to do this together with information on the sample code which comes with the SDK download.

There are also introduction resources, including introduction blogs, FAQs, and some information on the EOS game engine plugins for Unreal Engine and Unity. For more information on these see the Introduction Resources page.

Check the system requirements for your development environment and your game-client's runtime environment in the System Requirements page.

You use the Developer Portal (dev.epicgames.com/portal) to set up your game to use EOS services, to configure the services, and to access the SDK download.

In the Developer Portal, you associate your Epic Games account with an "organization", which is your company or business. Each game is known as a "product". An organization can have multiple products.

Every game (product in the Developer Portal) has:

• A product ID - a unique identifier for your game.
• One or more sandbox IDs - different named environments for your game's implementation. Example use: you have three different sandboxes to separate the development, testing, and production versions of a game's implementation.

Every sandbox has:

• One or more deployment IDs - different iterations of your game's implementation within a sandbox. Example use: every deployment in your testing sandbox is either a beta test version or a release candidate, and every deployment in your production sandbox is a release version.

The EOS SDK uses these to identify your game with the EOS services.

For more information about how to use product management tools when setting up an account, see the documentation on Product, Sandbox, and Deployment IDs.

Once you have set up your organization and products in the Developer Portal, you can download the EOS SDK from the Developer Portal.

To get the SDK download, on the Developer Portal home page, click Download SDK.

Note: To use Epic Online Services (EOS) SDK, your local network, router, and firewall must allow access to specific host addresses. For a complete list of these host addresses, see the Firewall Considerations documentation.

There are different types of SDK downloads to use, depending on which platform your game client runs on:

• Windows, macOS, Linux - the EOS SDK in C, and the EOS SDK in C#.
• Mobile - the EOS SDK for iOS, and the EOS SDK for Android.
• Consoles - there are EOS SDK downloads for game consoles in C, and in C#.
  The SDK downloads for consoles are only available to developers approved by the platform holders and approved by Epic Games.
  The platform holders are: Microsoft (Xbox One, Xbox Series X), Sony (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5), and Nintendo (Switch).
  To get access to the SDK downloads for consoles and associated documentation:
  • Go to the Developer Portal at dev.epicgames.com/portal, click SDK & RELEASE NOTES, and click Request access at the bottom for guidance on applying for console developer access from the platform holders.
  • Once you have platform-holder approval, you can apply to Epic Games using the Console Developer Request for Epic Online Services form, which is at eoshelp.epicgames.com.

The EOS SDK download has the following directories:

We recommend looking at the samples directory, which demonstrates some of the platform's features. For more detailed information about the samples, see the following documentation:

• Auth And Friends Sample
• Session Matchmaking Sample
• Lobby Sample
• P2P NAT Sample
• Player Data Storage Sample
• Title Storage Sample
• Leaderboards Sample
• Store Sample
• Mods Sample
• Using the Android SDK Samples
• Using the C# SDK Samples
• Using the iOS SDK Samples

Find further information on using the EOS SDK in the following documentation:

• For interface handles, naming conventions, and error handling and other key information, see: EOS SDK Key Information.
• The EOS SDK in C# has some implementation differences to the EOS SDK in C. If you are using C# and if you are using Unity for games development, also see: EOS SDK in C#.

To use EOS services in your game, you integrate interfaces. There is an interface for each service.

The first interface you integrate into your game is the Platform Interface. It holds the handles you need to access every other interface and keep them running: when your game starts up, you initialize the SDK and get a handle to the Platform Interface.

Find out more about this in the Platform Interface documentation.

Note: The Platform Interface is not the same as the games platforms your game clients run on. The documentation refers to these game platforms as “EOS SDK on Platforms”.

You can use the Epic developer resources support community at eoshelp.epicgames.com to ask questions, get support, and become part of the Epic developer resources community.

Support covers:

• Developer Portal
• Epic Games Store
• Epic Online Services (EOS)
• Kids Web Services (KWS)

Keep up to date with new features in the following documentation:

• What's New
• EOS SDK Release Notes

You can find out what's in development on the EOS roadmap at trello.com/~/eos-public-roadmap.