I've been doing research on where to host a simple multi-player backend for a simple game I'm developing. So as a first choice I downloaded the Windows Azure SDK, which provides a nice and simple emulator environment where you can test out your application before uploading.

I also download the Azure Social Game Toolkit (Visit), and followed as far as my understanding can take me.

So, down to the main question. Is there anybody with experience developing Azure applications. I'm developing a Action RPG game, in a similar vein to Diablo III. I was thinking of putting up Matchmaking, Friends Lists, etc.

Is there another way to connect to Azure services via something like UDP or TCP for sending packets or does everything have to go through HTTP requests? Is it even possible to use HTTP request/response for something like this?

All game commands will be simple. Because the game server and the clients will be kept in-sync and will have deterministic actions, I'm just going to send actions like "Use Primary Skill" and "Use Secondary Skill".

Any hints, ideas, light bulbs or a smack-in-the-face presentation will be much appreciated.