Setting up Game Server Watcher on ServerPrism

This guide covers setting up your Game Server Watcher Discord bot, from creating it in the Discord Developer Portal to configuring it on your ServerPrism instance.

Create your bot in Discord Developer Portal

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal.
2. Click New Application.
3. Give your application a name (e.g., "Game Server Watcher") and click Create.
4. Navigate to the Bot tab in the left sidebar.
5. Click Add Bot, then Yes, do it!.
6. Under TOKEN, click Reset Token, then Yes, do it!.
7. Copy the displayed token. You will need this later.
8. Disable the Public Bot toggle if you don't want others to invite your bot.
9. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, ensure PRESENCE INTENT, SERVER MEMBERS INTENT, and MESSAGE CONTENT INTENT are OFF. Game Server Watcher primarily uses slash commands and does not require these intents.

Invite the bot to your server

1. In the Discord Developer Portal, go to the OAuth2 tab, then URL Generator.
2. Under SCOPES, select bot and applications.commands.
3. Under BOT PERMISSIONS, select the following:
   • Send Messages
   • Embed Links
   • Read Message History
   • Use External Emojis
4. Copy the generated URL at the bottom.
5. Paste the URL into your browser, select your Discord server from the dropdown, and click Authorize.

Order on ServerPrism

If you haven't already, order your Discord Bot server:

1. Go to the ServerPrism website and select the Discord Bots product.
2. Choose Game Server Watcher as your desired bot runtime.
3. We recommend at least 1 GB RAM for Game Server Watcher, which is usually sufficient for monitoring multiple servers.
4. Select your preferred region and complete the deployment process.

Configure startup variables

Game Server Watcher requires specific environment variables to run. You configure these on the Startup tab of your ServerPrism panel.

1. BOT_TOKEN: Paste the bot token you copied from the Discord Developer Portal.

2. PREFIX: Set a command prefix for your bot (e.g., !). Note that Game Server Watcher primarily uses slash commands (/), but some legacy features or help commands might use a prefix.

3. OWNER_ID: Your Discord User ID. To get this, enable Developer Mode in Discord (User Settings > Advanced > Developer Mode), then right-click your username and select Copy ID.

4. SERVERS: This variable defines the game servers your bot will monitor. It's an array of JSON objects. Each object represents a server. Here's an example for a Minecraft server and a Counter-Strike server:

   [
     {
       "name": "My Minecraft Server",
       "type": "minecraft",
       "host": "play.example.com",
       "port": 25565
     },
     {
       "name": "CS:GO Fun Server",
       "type": "csgo",
       "host": "192.168.1.100",
       "port": 27015
     }
   ]
   

   You can find a full list of supported game types and their configuration options on the Game Server Watcher GitHub page.

5. STATUS_MESSAGE: (Optional) A custom message for the bot's Discord status (e.g., Monitoring your games!).

6. UPDATE_INTERVAL: (Optional) The interval in seconds for checking server status (default is 60).

After setting all variables, click the Restart button on the Console tab to apply changes.

First start

Once you've configured the startup variables and restarted your server, navigate to the Console tab.

• Success: You should see output indicating the bot is connecting to Discord and fetching server information. Look for messages like [INFO] Logged in as Game Server Watcher and [INFO] Successfully updated slash commands.
• Bot Status: Your bot should appear online in your Discord server.

Common issues

• Bot not coming online: Double-check your BOT_TOKEN for typos. Ensure there are no extra spaces.
• Bot online but not responding to commands: Verify that applications.commands scope was selected during the invite process. Also, ensure your SERVERS variable is correctly formatted JSON.
• "Invalid Token" in console: Your BOT_TOKEN is incorrect or revoked. Generate a new token in the Discord Developer Portal and update the BOT_TOKEN variable.
• Error parsing SERVERS variable: Ensure your JSON is valid. Use an online JSON validator if you're unsure.

Next steps

Now that your Game Server Watcher bot is running, you can use slash commands in your Discord server to interact with it. Try /status to see the current status of your configured game servers. For more advanced configuration and command details, refer to the official Game Server Watcher documentation on GitHub.