Online parties and voice chat in PlayDrop games

• A realtime game server: parties play in your Colyseus rooms.
• Signed-in players: rooms refuse guests.
• These declarations in catalogue.json:

{
  "types": ["solo", "online", "party"],
  "party": { "online": [2, 3, 4] },
  "roomVoice": true,
  "server": { "entry": "server/index.mjs", "rooms": ["game"] }
}

party.online lists the exact group sizes, up to 4, that may arrive together; [2, 4] excludes 3. It is the size of the arriving group, not the room capacity: two parties of four can share an eight-seat room. party requires the party type and party.online requires online. roomVoice: true turns on room voice and requires online.

if (!sdk.me.isLoggedIn) {
  await sdk.me.promptLogin();
}
const room = await sdk.multiplayer.join("game", { mode: "versus" });

join consumes the player's reserved party seat when PlayDrop launched a party, and otherwise joins independently. If a party join fails it rejects; it never silently puts the player in a different room. A guest gets authentication_required and PlayDrop shows sign-in; join again from sdk.me.onAuthChange. Keep the same room across rounds.

After a reload, sdk.multiplayer.reconnect(roomName, token) restores the reserved seat with a reconnection token you stored privately for this game, version and user. Discard the token and call join on multiplayer_reconnect_expired, multiplayer_reconnect_unavailable or party_reconnect_mismatch.

From a button, sdk.social.openParty({ mode: "online" }) opens PlayDrop's party window, where players invite friends and turn voice on or off. An existing party is reused. openParty() opens the party menu and openParty({ section: "voice" }) opens voice settings; do not combine mode and section. The promise resolves when the window closes, including on cancel.

Read the party with sdk.social.getParty() or sdk.social.onPartyChange(callback), which delivers the current state first: { partyId, leaderUserId, revision, members, launch }. launch.status is joining or ready when the party is playing this game. Membership alone does not mean the players share a room; use join.

Party membership belongs to PlayDrop: games cannot add or remove party members or control microphones, and players invite friends to the party from this window. A game can still send its own invite or challenge card to a friend with sdk.social.sendMessage; see sharing, friends and invites.

With roomVoice: true, everyone in a room can talk, with no server code. To change who hears whom, bind the room on your server and set a policy:

import { playdrop } from "@playdrop/server";

const platform = playdrop.multiplayer.forRoom(this);
platform.voice.setPolicy("team");
platform.voice.setTeam(client.auth, "red");

Policies are all, team, proximity (with { range }) and off. setAudience(player, audience) overrides one player and updatePositions([{ player, position: { x, y, z } }]) feeds proximity; pass null to clear a team or override. PlayDrop enforces who may hear whom. In the browser, sdk.multiplayer.voice.updateSpatialState({ listener: { position, forward, up }, speakers: [{ userId, position }] }) only adjusts volume and panning.

Voice is subject to player consent, mute and blocks, and depends on the host build and rollout.

The party capsule does not pause gameplay. PlayDrop's pause stops your client, but the room stays connected and your server keeps running. One player's pause must not stop the match for others; implement any match pause on the server.

Upload a private version, then open the test link in two windows with player=1 and player=2, as described in realtime game servers. Local parties with controllers are a separate mode: see local parties and controllers.