Cloud-based gaming café software
One brain in the cloud. A guard on every PC.
The records live in one place and every screen reads them live. Each Windows gaming PC enforces what the cloud decides. And when the café's internet drops, the counter PC keeps the floor running until it is back.
Standing by
RIG-01
41:12
RIG-02
18:38
RIG-03
1:02:05
Every PC asks the cloud what it should be doing, every few seconds, and the console and the members' phones read the same records.
Playing · hover to holdA drawing of the wiring, not a screenshot. The four moments are the ones the code handles, and each is explained further down.
Three parts, one floor
Decided in the cloud. Done on the PC.
Most of what a café owner worries about with software comes down to where the decisions are made and what happens when the line between them breaks. Respawna splits it into three parts, and each one has a single job.
Where it is decided
The cloud
Prices, sessions, wallets, invoices and the rules for every PC live in one database. The Command Center opens in any browser and the member app on any phone, and every one of them reads the same records, live.
- checkNothing to install at the counter
- checkRecords rest in India, in the Mumbai region
- checkEvery screen updates without a refresh
Where it is enforced
The agent on each PC
A Windows app on every gaming PC asks the cloud what that machine should be doing, every few seconds, and makes it so: open for a paid session, locked when the time is up, with the player's own clock and sign-in on the screen.
- checkWindows 10 and 11, 64-bit
- checkLocks at time-up, after a warning in red
- checkMembers sign in at the rig or scan its code
Where an outage is waited out
The counter PC
The till's own PC runs the same agent in a different role. While the internet works it keeps a copy of the floor. When it drops, the gaming PCs ask the counter PC instead of locking, and it hands everything back when the cloud returns.
- checkSessions already running keep running
- checkIts answers are signed, so a laptop on your wifi cannot pose as it
- checkIt sends the Wake-on-LAN that starts a sleeping floor
Why the brain is not in the back room
A server PC, or none.
The older way to run a gaming café is a server PC in the back room: the records on its disk, every screen asking it, and the floor stopping when it does. It has one real strength, and the table says so.
Respawna keeps the brain off the premises, so there is no machine at the café whose failure is the café's failure. The cost of that is depending on the internet, which is exactly what the counter PC is for.
| If the brain is a PC in your café | Respawna | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the records live | Where the records liveOn that PC's disk, backed up if someone set that up | In a managed database in the Mumbai region, off the premises |
| Seeing the floor from home | Seeing the floor from homeRemote into the café's PC, if it is on and reachable | Open the Command Center on your phone |
| The same price on every screen | The same price on every screenEach screen asks the one PC | Every screen and every PC reads one set of records, and a session's price is frozen when it starts |
| A new feature arrives | A new feature arrivesSomebody installs an update on the server PC | The console updates itself; a gaming PC updates when you ask it to |
| The café's internet drops | The café's internet dropsNothing on the floor notices. This is the one thing a local server does better | The counter PC holds the floor: running sessions carry on, new starts wait for the cloud |
| The brain's PC dies | The brain's PC diesThe floor stops until it is repaired or replaced | No café PC is the brain. With the counter PC off, the gaming PCs talk to the cloud directly |
| What you look after | What you look afterA server PC, its Windows, its backups and its updates | Your gaming PCs, as you do today |
On every gaming PC
The cloud decides. The agent makes it so.
A rig with nothing on it can only be timed from the counter. A rig with the agent can be held to what was paid for, and it can ask the counter for things without the player getting up.
Shut until it hears Respawna
A PC that boots and cannot reach Respawna stays on the Connecting screen. A restarted rig is never a free one.
The cloud's clock, not the PC's
Time left is counted from the server's clock, so changing the Windows clock buys nothing.
Locks at zero, after a warning
The last three minutes count down in red on the PC, then the screen locks. Nobody has to walk over.
Signs members in at the machine
A member signs in on the locked screen or scans its code. Plan hours pay first, the wallet after.
Asks before a USB drive mounts
Per station: USB storage allowed, blocked, or blocked with the player able to ask. Staff answer from Live Ops.
Runs what you allow
An app allowlist, with a watch mode that only reports at first, and downloads switched off through the browsers' own policies.
Power from the counter
Sleep, restart and shut down from a station's card, and Wake-on-LAN for a PC that is off.
Talks to the counter
A player asks for more time from the PC, and on Ultra orders food and drinks and chats with the counter.
Every one of these with the agent's own screens: PC locking. And the floor it reports to: Live Ops.
When the internet drops
The line goes. The floor does not.
The question every owner asks about cloud software, answered in the order it happens. Paid time is protected in both directions: a player is never charged for minutes a PC could not prove, and a café is never left with a floor full of free machines.
The PCs ask the counter PC
A gaming PC that gets no answer from the cloud asks the counter PC on your network. With the counter PC set up, it gets one, and the session on it carries on with its clock running.
What runs, and what waits
Every session already running continues to its paid end: the timer, the dock and the warnings all work. Starting a new session and a member signing in with their password both need the cloud, so those wait for it. The Command Center, opened from anywhere that has internet, shows the café as held by its counter PC.
Locked, and not billed
A PC that hears nothing for a minute locks and pauses the player's time. Paused time is never billed. If it is still silent ten minutes later, the session ends where play stopped: settled from the wallet for a member, parked as a tab for a counter session.
Billed as proven
The counter PC hands over its trail of signed check-ins. A PC that was alive the whole outage is billed as played. One that was alive and then went is billed to when it went. One with no proof keeps its pause. Nothing is ever billed past the last moment a PC was proven alive.
power_offOne PC goes quiet
A cable pulled, a crash, a PC switched off at the wall. The same rule, one machine at a time: its session pauses at the last moment it answered, and when the PC comes back the session resumes on its own, with the quiet stretch left unbilled. Staff do not have to press anything.
verifiedProven on real floors
The counter PC is not a plan on a slide. It runs on working café floors today and has carried them through real internet drops, with the sessions that were running handed back and billed as played. Setting one up is a pairing code in Setup and one run of the agent on the till's PC.
Money, guarded where it is kept
Rules the database will not break.
A screen can be wrong for a second and nobody minds. A balance cannot. So the rules about money are kept by the database itself, under every screen, rather than trusted to each screen to follow.
The price is frozen at the start
A session copies its whole price ladder when it starts, so a rate changed at nine never reprices a game that began at eight.
Money in whole paise
Every amount is stored as a whole number of paise, never a decimal, so a day's totals add up to the paisa.
A wallet nobody edits quietly
A balance moves only through the database's own functions, and every movement is a new ledger line. A refund is a reversal, not an edit.
Each café behind its own wall
Rows are separated by row-level security inside the database, not only by the app. A test signs in as one café and tries to read another's on every table and money function, and runs again when the database changes.
Records rest in India
The database is hosted in the ap-south-1 region, in Mumbai, as our data processing terms state.
Changes to a bill are logged
An edit to an invoice is written to the café's activity log with who made it, so a number that moved can be traced.
Where the data lives and who processes it: data processing terms. How the bills are built: billing and GST.
The console updates itself
The Command Center and the member app are web pages, so a new version reaches every café when it is published. Nobody installs anything at the counter, and every café runs the same version. What changed lately.
A PC updates when you say
A new agent never pushes itself. You ask a PC to update from its tile, it takes the update the next time it is free, and it refuses any download whose SHA-256 does not match the published one. A floor moves a few PCs at a time, on your schedule.
What this page leaves out
How the lock defends itself against a determined player is not written here, or anywhere public. That is not secrecy about what Respawna does. It is declining to hand a manual to the person sitting at the rig.
Asked before buying
The technical questions
Is Respawna cloud-based?
Yes. The Command Center, the member app and every record live in the cloud, in a database hosted in the Mumbai region, and open in a browser on a PC, laptop or phone. The only software installed at a café is the optional Respawna agent on Windows gaming PCs, and on the counter PC if you want it to hold the floor through an internet outage.
Do I need a server PC at my gaming café?
No. Nothing at the café is the brain. The counter PC can run the agent in its counter role so the floor survives an internet outage, but it is not a server: if it is switched off, the gaming PCs talk to the cloud directly, as they do normally.
What happens when the café's internet goes down?
The gaming PCs ask the counter PC instead of the cloud, and every session already running carries on to its paid end. New sessions and member sign-ins wait for the internet. When it is back, the counter PC hands over what happened and the cloud bills only what was proven played. Without a counter PC, a PC that hears nothing for a minute locks and pauses the player's time, which is never billed.
Is a player charged while their PC is offline?
No. A session on a PC that stops answering is paused at the last moment it answered, and resumes on its own when the PC comes back. If a PC stays silent for ten minutes the session ends where play stopped. Nothing is billed past the last moment a PC was proven alive.
What if a gaming PC restarts or boots without internet?
It stays locked on the Connecting screen until it hears from Respawna. A rig that has not been told it is in a paid session never opens, so restarting a PC is not a way to get free time.
Can a player get free time by changing the PC's clock?
No. The time left on a session is counted from Respawna's server clock, not from the Windows clock on the PC, so changing the date or time on the machine changes nothing.
Where is my café's data stored?
In India. The database is hosted in the ap-south-1 region in Mumbai, as Respawna's data processing terms state. Each café's records are separated from every other café's inside the database itself.
Can another café see my data?
No. Every café's rows are separated by row-level security enforced inside the database, not only by the application. An automated test signs in as one café and tries to read another café's rows on every café table and every money-moving function, and it is run again when the database changes.
How are updates installed?
The Command Center and the member app are web pages, so a new version reaches every café when it is published and nothing is installed at the counter. The agent on a gaming PC updates only when you ask that PC to from its tile in the console, only while it is free, and it refuses any download whose SHA-256 does not match the published one.
Will the agent interfere with games or anti-cheat?
The agent is a lock screen, not a game hook: it draws over the desktop between sessions and blocks escape shortcuts only while locked. During play it stays out of the way, and the session dock is a strip at the screen edge rather than a window over the game.
Does it work with PS5 and Xbox?
Yes for timing and billing, from the counter: consoles run on the same live floor, prices and invoices as the PCs. No software from any vendor can lock a PS5 or an Xbox, because the platforms give third-party apps no control of the screen, so the agent is for Windows gaming PCs only.
Can I run my café from my phone?
Yes. The Command Center works in a phone's browser, so the live floor, bookings, billing and reports are wherever you are. A PC's power and its USB and app rules are on the same station cards.
What does it cost?
Plans start at ₹299 a month, and every plan begins with a 14-day free trial, no card. When the trial ends you either pay to carry on or stop · nothing renews by itself, because we hold no card. Current plans and prices are on the pricing page.
On your own floor
No server to buy. Nothing new to look after.
Open the console in a browser, pair your PCs, and run the first session tonight.