Hey! I can help you get this working. PartyKit and Railway serve different purposes, so the setup is a bit different — but Railway can absolutely handle multiplayer games.

Here's what you need:

1. A WebSocket server — Since you're coming from PartyKit, you're already familiar with real-time connections. On Railway, you'll run your own WebSocket server. The easiest options:

   • Colyseus (recommended) — it's a Node.js multiplayer game framework with built-in room management, state sync, and matchmaking. Very close to what PartyKit gives you, but you control the server.
   • Socket.IO — more general-purpose, good if you want full control.

2. Key Railway config to get it working:

   • Bind your server to 0.0.0.0 (not localhost)
   • Use process.env.PORT for the port — Railway assigns this automatically
   • Enable Public Networking in your service settings (Settings → Networking → Public Networking) so players can connect from the browser
   • If you're using health checks, make sure your WebSocket server also responds to HTTP requests on the same port (Colyseus does this by default)

3. Quick Colyseus setup on Railway:

npm create colyseus-app@latest my-game-server
cd my-game-server

In your index.ts, make sure you have:

const port = Number(process.env.PORT) || 2567;
gameServer.listen(port, "0.0.0.0");

Push to a GitHub repo, connect it to Railway, and it should deploy and work.

1. For the client (browser):

const client = new Colyseus.Client("wss://your-railway-domain.up.railway.app");
const room = await client.joinOrCreate("my_room");

Why PartyKit felt easier: PartyKit abstracts away the server setup — rooms, connections, state are all managed for you. On Railway, you get more control but need to set up that layer yourself. Colyseus fills that gap nicely.

Let me know what kind of game you're building (turn-based, real-time action, etc.) and I can give more specific guidance!