Heliohost as a (custom) game server

[Ruwuchi]

Disclaimer

    I'm very sorry If this has been asked countless times already or if it's been posted in the wrong place, but after searching through the forum I only found information about minecraft servers and other resource-expensive servers, but nothing that really resembles this kind of system...

    If your intention is to jump directly to the questions I have (located next under the "Context" section), here's the short version of that block:

TL;DR: I never did anything when it comes to web services, so please bear with me as this is, above everything, a learning experience as I go about implementing an osu!-like Asio server for my own game 

Context

    Hello!

    So... I've never really used HelioHost, and this is my first time ever attempting anything regarding webdev. Anyways... I just finished coding a small game for me to play with a couple friends, and my server is implemented in C/C++ via Asio. I've done a bit of digging around after looking at the hosting plans you guys offer, but I couldn't come to a proper conclusion on wether to choose a shared hosting plan or a VPS.

    Anyone who has ever played osu! will understand the style of multiplayer game I'm going for: at the end of each playthrough, you upload your score to the server and allow it to resolve things by itself - Even multiplayer is handled this way, via lobbies; the entire gameplay is handled fully inside the client. I have literally no idea on how that can be implemented in a remote directory, but this will serve as a good learning experience!

Questions

1. Can the free, shared hosting plans work as a "data manipulation" game server?

    The server has 3 very basic actions:

• Broadcast messages to all or specific players (e.g. Global & private chat messages);
• Listen for connections, disconnections and scores;
• Query and update values from the website database.

    If not, should I pick the VPS? and why? (I'd like to understand better the limitations since this is all quite new... that's the reason I'm asking "why")

2. Can any of those actions be better implemented via a scripting language supported by HelioHost?

[wolstech]

You will need a VPS for this.

The shared hosting does not support custom server processes/daemons nor do we allow custom inbound ports on shared servers, so the “listen for connections” part is impossible.