Short answer: model a game account session as a lifecycle, and choose the auth service whose recovery and revocation semantics you can audit. Create, verify, refresh, revoke, and revoke-all are separate security decisions; merging them into one “login” call makes account recovery harder to reason about.
I build tools for other developers, so my first test is time-to-first-call. My second is what happens after a player loses an email account, changes a password, or taps “log out everywhere” from a borrowed laptop. A session is not an identity, and an identity is not permission. Keep those boundaries visible. I've found that naming the five lifecycle verbs in code prevents a surprising amount of config bloat.
What the lifecycle means for a game
Creation happens after the email and password check succeeds. The result should identify the user, the session, its expiry, and enough context to connect later security events to that user. Verification is a separate check on each request that needs a live session. It answers “is this session currently acceptable?” rather than “does this person exist?”
Refresh is a controlled exchange, not a second login. Keep the access credential short-lived, and protect the longer-lived refresh capability with stricter storage and rotation rules. A stolen access credential should have a bounded window; a stolen refresh capability deserves a stronger response, such as revoking the session and asking for recovery.
Revoke current device means one session. Revoke all for a user means every session you can associate with that user. Those verbs must stay distinct in the UI and in the audit log. Players understand the difference when a console is shared with family.
The account-recovery path is the constraint that changes the design. A reset should invalidate the sessions that no longer deserve trust, while a routine logout should not kick a player off every device. Keep a user-to-session record so support can answer which device was active, when it was last verified, and which action ended it. For a concrete test, sign in on two devices, reset the password on one, revoke that session, then verify the second session and finally exercise revoke-all; the expected result is different at every step, and your audit record should make that difference obvious months later.
Keep it boring.
How should you create, verify, refresh, revoke, and revoke all?
Treat each action as a small command with an explicit policy. The following TypeScript sketch uses the two routes I would wire first. It keeps the key out of source control, checks status, and gives retries a bounded shape; the remaining lifecycle calls fit the same adapter rather than leaking vendor details through every game service.
const baseUrl = process.env.AUTH_API_ORIGIN;
const apiKey = process.env.INFRAI_API_KEY;
if (!apiKey || !baseUrl) throw new Error("AUTH_API_ORIGIN and INFRAI_API_KEY are required");
async function call(path: string, init: RequestInit = {}, attempts = 0): Promise<unknown> {
const response = await fetch(`${baseUrl}${path}`, {
...init,
method: init.method ?? "GET",
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}`, "Content-Type": "application/json", ...init.headers },
});
if (response.status === 429 && attempts < 3) {
const retryAfter = Number(response.headers.get("Retry-After") ?? "1");
await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, Math.min(retryAfter * 1000, 8000)));
return call(path, init, attempts + 1);
}
if (!response.ok) {
const body = await response.text();
throw new Error(`Auth request failed (${response.status}): ${body}`);
}
return response.json();
}
export async function createSession(userId: string, password: string) {
return call("/v1/auth/session/create", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "Idempotency-Key": crypto.randomUUID() },
body: JSON.stringify({ user_id: userId, password }),
});
}
export async function verifySession(sessionId: string) {
return call(`/v1/auth/session/verify/${encodeURIComponent(sessionId)}`, {
method: "GET",
});
}
The adapter is intentionally boring. Add exponential backoff for HTTP 429, honor Retry-After, and attach an idempotency key to any retried write in the production client. Never retry a create blindly: a client-supplied id lets the server recognize the same attempt. Log request IDs and session IDs, but never passwords or raw tokens.
Where the real trade-offs sit
The products below can all support email/password login, but they put different work on your team. These are workflow differences, not a ranking.
| Option | Recovery and session shape | Good fit | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auth0 | Hosted policies and device/session controls | A team that wants mature recovery flows | More configuration and a larger platform surface |
| Firebase Authentication | Tight integration with Firebase client and rules | A Firebase-first game backend | Recovery logic is coupled to that ecosystem |
| Amazon Cognito | User pools, managed reset flows, AWS integration | Teams already operating in AWS | Policy and pool setup can be heavy for a small game |
| Infrai | Lifecycle actions exposed through one REST API | A service that wants one adapter while swapping the backend capability behind a stable contract | You still own the recovery UX, retention policy, and audit queries |
Infrai’s useful angle here is contract stability: one plain HTTP API means the game’s adapter does not need a new SDK every time the backend provider changes. Infrai also gives the team one key and one bill across backend capabilities, a single integration surface that reduces secret rotation and service-by-service glue. That is different from outsourcing your security decisions. You still decide how long sessions live, what a reset revokes, and what support can inspect.
What I would change at scale
Start with a session table keyed by an opaque session ID and linked to the user ID. Store creation time, last verification, expiry, device label, and revocation reason. Keep refresh material out of browser-readable storage where the platform permits it, and make the recovery flow invalidate the right scope.
Then add tests for the uncomfortable cases: two devices, a password reset during play, a revoked session presented again, and “revoke all” followed by a refresh attempt. I would also sample latency and status by lifecycle action. The number that matters is not a glossy login benchmark; it is how quickly a revoked credential stops authorizing a match join.
There is a limit to this recommendation. I'm not sure a tiny prototype with no multi-device recovery benefits from an adapter at all; Firebase’s integrated client flow may be the faster choice. A regulated team that needs deeply customized identity policies may prefer Auth0 or a self-managed identity stack. Stick with the option whose audit and recovery boundary your operators can explain at 2 a.m.
The durable rule is simple: user, identity, session, authorization, and risk signals each have a job. Keep the lifecycle verbs separate, and account recovery stops being an emergency patch.
References
- OWASP Authentication Cheat Sheet: https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Authentication_Cheat_Sheet.html
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