In .NET Core 3.0 we are introducing a new type of application template called Worker Service. This template is intended to give you a starting point for writing long running services in .NET Core. In this walkthrough you’ll learn how to use a Worker with Azure Container Registry and Azure Container Instances to get your Worker running as a microservice in the cloud.

Since the Worker template Glenn blogged about is also available via the dotnet new command line, I can create one on my Mac and edit the code using Visual Studio for Mac or Visual Studio Code (which I’ll be using here to take advantage of the integrated Docker extension).

dotnet new worker

I’ll use the default from the Worker template. As it will write to logs during execution via ILogger, I’ll be able to tell quickly from looking in the logs if the Worker is running.

public class Worker : BackgroundService

{ private readonly ILogger<Worker> _logger; public Worker(ILogger<Worker> logger) { _logger = logger; } protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken) { while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested) { _logger.LogInformation("Worker running at: {time}", DateTimeOffset.Now); await Task.Delay(1000, stoppingToken); } }

}

Visual Studio Code’s Docker tools are intelligent enough to figure out this is a .NET Core app, and will suggest the correct Docker file via the Command Palette’s Add Docker files to workspace option.

By right-clicking the resulting Dockerfile I can build the Worker into a Docker image in one click.

The Build Image option will package my Worker’s code into a Docker container locally. The second option, ACR Tasks: Build Image would use Azure Container Registry Tasks to build the image in the cloud, rather than on disk. This is helpful for scenarios when the base image is larger than I want to download locally or when I’m building an application on a Windows base image from Linux or Mac. You can learn more about ACR Tasks in the ACR docs. The Azure CLI makes it easy to login to the Azure Container Registry using the Azure CLI. This results in my Docker client being authenticated to the Azure Container Registry in my subscription.

az acr login -n BackgroundWorkerImages

This can be done in the VS Code integrated terminal or in the local terminal, as the setting will be persisted across the terminals’ environment. It can’t be done using the cloud shell, since logging into the Azure Container Registry requires local shell access so local Docker images can be accessed. Before I push the container image into my registry, I need to tag the image with the URI of the image once it has been pushed into my registry. I can easily get the ACR instance URI from the portal.

I’ll copy the URI of the registry’s login server in the portal so I can paste it when I tag the image later.

By selecting the backgroundworker:latest image in Visual Studio Code’s Docker explorer pane, I can select Tag Image.

I’ll be prompted for the tag, and I can easily paste in the URI I copied from the portal.

Finally, I can right-click the image tag I created and select Push, and the image will be pushed into the registry. Once I have a Docker image in the registry, I can use the CLI or tools to deploy it to Azure Container Instances, Kubernetes, or even Azure App Service.

Now that the worker is containerized and stored in the registry, starting an instance of it is one click away.

Once the container instance starts up, I’ll see some logs indicating the worker is executing, but these are just the basic startup logs and not my information-level logs I have in my Worker code.

Since I added Information-level logs during the worker’s execution, the configuration in appsettings.json (or the environment variable for the container instance) will need to be updated to see more verbose logs.

{ "Logging": { "LogLevel": { "Default": "Information", "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information" } }

}

Once the code is re-packaged into an updated Docker image and pushed into the Azure Container Registry, following a simple Restart…

… more details will be visible in the container instance’s logging output.

The Worker template makes it easy to create long-running background workers that you can run for as long as you need in Azure Container Instances. New container instances can be created using the portal or the Azure Command Line. Or, you can opt for more advanced scenarios using Azure DevOps or Logic Apps. With the Worker template making it easy to get started building microservices using your favorite ASP.NET Core idioms and Azure’s arsenal of container orchestration services you can get your microservices up and running in minutes.

Brady Gaster

Senior Program Manager, ASP.NET Core

Follow    

<!–

---

–>

Rocket League developer Psyonix is opening an Esports Shop that’ll funnel revenue back to esports teams and players.

The store will open for business on April 16 as part of the Rocket League Esports Shop pilot program (that’s a mouthful), and will feature items like decals, wheels, and player banners representing a variety of teams.

While teams will likely be keen to appear in the store for marketing reasons, there’s also a financial incentive, as all esports organizations participating in the pilot program will net 30 percent of revenue from related sales.

A portion of revenue from every item sold will also be distributed among players in the North American and European Rocket League Championship Series League Play via a prize pool bonus — irrespective of whether they’re a member of the pilot program.

Psyonix claims there’ll be opportunities for teams in Oceania and South American to participate in the revenue sharing program further down the line.

The store itself will appear in the Rocket League main menu under ‘shop’ following an update on April 16. It will feature six in-game items each day, which will be purchasable using a new currency called Esports Tokens.

Those tokens will be sold in packs of 100 ($0.99), 600 ($4.99), 1200 ($9.99), and 2500 ($19.99), and much like the items in the store itself won’t be tradable.

Epic Games has made a notable hire in the form of Respawn and Infinity Ward co-founder Jason West.

According to The Game Awards creator and journalist Geoff Keighley, Epic brought in West around a month ago to help the company scale up its own internal development efforts. (Update: Speaking to Variety, Epic has since confirmed Keighley’s original report.)

As you’ll no doubt recall, Epic has been busy of late, opening its own Steam rival called the Epic Games Store and filling it with a variety of big-name exclusives like Borderlands 3, Metro: Exodus, and Control.

It’s unclear whether West will be working on existing projects like Fortnite, or new games that could be used to expand the Epic Games Store growing list of exclusives.

For those of you wondering why West left Respawn in the first place, the one-time Call of Duty overseer departed back in 2010 to spend more time with his family, and before that was fired from Activision for alleged insubordination.

Earlier this year in January, PM Studios and acttil announced a physical and digital version of Cytus Alpha (or ‘Cytus α’) would be coming to the Switch in North America this April. Over the past few days, there have been reports the physical version had been delayed, and it’s now been confirmed.

Instead of arriving later this month, this version of the game will arrive in this region on 14th May. The digital version will still be released on 25th April. Apart from this, nothing else has changed. If you decide to purchase a physical copy of the game, you’ll still receive a special CD and exclusive box art (see above).

If you haven’t heard about this game before, it’s been developed by Rayark – the studio behind VOEZ and Deemo. Cytus Alpha features futuristic graphics, more than 200 songs (new and old) touch controls and online multiplayer – where players can engage in score battles. Here are all the details from the official PR:

• Music: More than 200 tracks from the original release with over 400 Charts, and additional unreleased songs, including exclusive songs from Cytus Ω, which are available in Chapter Ω! and collaborations from Chapter Ω!
• Visuals: Mesmerizing futuristic graphics with a new UI developed specifically for Nintendo Switch!
• Story: An in-depth data system for diving into even deeper story engagement!
• Difficulty: Easy to hard modes to satisfy beginners and veteran rhythm game players alike, and various musical tastes such as pop, jazz, trance, hardcore and more!

Do you like the sound of this game? Tell us down below.

During an interview in February this year with Eurogamer, Respawn Entertainment’s lead producer Drew McCoy said his team would “love” to bring its first-person battle royale game Apex Legends to the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.

In a Wired Tech Support video posted earlier this week on YouTube, McCoy was asked once again about the possibility of Apex Legends coming to the Switch and said the team was aware of the demand for it. Here’s his full response:

“If Switch was coming, we would tell you and we would blast it across the world.”

“We are hearing all the Switch players who say they want the game. I can’t make any promises right now. We have a lot of things that we’re working on, so stay tuned for anything in the future. But currently, we don’t have anything to announce.”

Cross-play is also something the team is apparently looking into right now and “really care about” according to McCoy.

Would you like to see Apex Legends make the Switch? Have you played it on another platform? Tell us down below.

Next week – 21st April to be precise – is the 30th anniversary of arguably the most iconic piece of hardware in the history of video gaming. Speak to someone who knows absolutely nothing about game consoles and they’ll still be able to name the Nintendo Game Boy and most probably whistle the tune to Tetris too. Its ubiquity in the early ’90s meant it became shorthand for gaming in general, part of the cultural fabric in a way that few other pieces of hardware can claim.

Next week we’ll be publishing several new articles in celebration of the humble handheld, plus digging through the archive to find the very best of our previously published features. We’ll also be posting a ‘Top 50 Game Boy Games’ article along the lines of our previous 50 Best Switch Games So Far and 50 Best 3DS Games features.

As with those selections, the ranking will be entirely based on User Ratings from the Nintendo Life Games database, so readers can rate any game they like and after a minimum threshold has been reached, that game then becomes eligible for the list according to its overall rating. This has worked well for the previous lists, and we’ve seen some interesting changes as the fluid ranking fluctuates over time. Of course, 3DS and Switch have plenty of user ratings already, but going back 30 years it’s inevitable that Game Boy games only have a fraction of votes compared to more modern systems.

That’s where you come in! We’ve updated our database to include all Game Boy titles that saw a release in the west, so in preparation for the 30th anniversary we’d love for you to rate your favourites using the specially designed tool below.

Assuming you’re logged in, simply scroll through the alphabetical list and click the star to bring up a rating of 1-10. Click on the score you think it deserves and you’re all done! If scrolling through six pages of the Game Boy’s substantial library feels too much like work, simply use the search bar at the top of the list to find your favourites and rate them from the list of results. Lovely!

If you need a reminder on a particular game, feel free to click the game title and check out our reviews and screenshots. However, bear in the mind that many of them won’t have been rereleased on Virtual Console and therefore may not have a Nintendo Life review to their name – the Game Boy’s over double the age of the site, remember! A Wikipedia link on the game page should hopefully job your memory, though.

So, what are you waiting for? Get stuck in!

It’s difficult to believe that 30 years have passed since Game Boy changed the portable gaming landscape forever. Thanks for voting – we’ll be sharing the results, our memories and more next week, but in the meantime feel free to reminisce below…