Hey everyone,
it’s me again, one of the two developers behind GameVault, a self-hosted gaming platform similar to how Plex/Jellyfin is for your movies and series, but for your game collection. If you’ve hoarded a bunch of games over the years, this app is going to be your best friend. Think of it as your own personal Steam, hosted on your own server.
If you haven’t heard of GameVault yet, you can check it out here and get started within 5 minutes—seriously, it’s a game changer.
For those who already know GameVault, or its old name He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, we are excited to tell you we just launched a major update. I’m talking a massive overhaul—so much so, that we could’ve rebuilt the whole thing from scratch. Here’s the big news: We’re no longer relying on RAWG or Google Images for game metadata. Instead, we’ve officially partnered with IGDB/Twitch for a more reliable and extended metadata experience!
But it doesn’t stop there. We’ve also rolled out a new plugin system and a metadata framework that allows you to connect to multiple metadata providers at once. It’s never been this cool to run your own Steam-like platform right from your good ol’ 19" incher below your desk!
What’s new in this update?
- IGDB/Twitch Integration: Say goodbye to unreliable metadata scrapers. Now you can enjoy game info sourced directly from IGDB.
- Customizable Metadata: Edit and fine-tune game metadata with ease. Your changes are saved separately, so the original data stays intact.
- Plugin System: Build your own plugins for metadata or connect to as many sources as you want—unlimited flexibility!
- Parental Controls: Manage age-appropriate access for the family and children.
- Built-in Media Player: Watch game trailers and gameplay videos directly in GameVault.
- UI Overhaul: A fresh, streamlined look for the app, community, game and admin interface.
- Halloween Theme: For GameVault+ users, we’ve added a spooky Halloween skin just in time for the season!
Things to keep in mind when updating:
- GameVault Client v1.12 is now required for servers running v13 or above.
- Older clients won’t work on servers that have been updated to v13.
For a smooth update and a guide on how to use all these new features, check out the detailed migration instructions in the server changelogs. As always, if you hit any snags, feel free to reach out to us on Discord.
If you run into any issues or need help with the migration, feel free to join and open a ticket in our Discord community—we’re always happy to help!
If you want to support our pet-project and keep most upcoming features of GameVault free for everyone, consider subscribing to GameVault+ or making a one-time donation. Every little bit fuels our passion to keep building and improving!
Thanks for everything! We’re more than 800 Members on our discord now and I can’t wait to hear what you think of the latest version.
Your client is still Windows Store exclusive? That’s a hard pass from me.
it is not exclusive to Windows Store. We also provide Windows Releases directly on GitHub, and there are guides on running this on linux aswell.
Then why does the link to download the client lead to the MS Store instead of Github?
It’s open source, so you could compile it yourself if you wanted.
Looks like it’s targeting .NET 6.0 though, which ends support in less than a month. I don’t know if it’s easy to change, so it might be worth it to the devs to start work on a cross-platform and currently supported client.
Any progress on the plans for a native Linux client or Web Interface? Last I checked there was only a Windows client available (although it could be ran within proton to be fair).
While Windows is no doubt the popular gaming OS ATM, I think you’ll find a much higher population of Linux users amongst the self-hosted crowd.
Your service is exactly what I want for my GOG library, so I’d love to give it a spin!
For now we gave up on it but we may look into it in the future. I’m sorry, we’re just two guys and it would mean to redevelop the entire client.
Understandable! I’ll keep an eye on the project for the future!
I might try running it in bottles and see what the experience is like.
I having one of those things… Ya’ know a picture with words…
Heroic Games Launcher could be the answer. The GameVault devs wouldn’t need to reinvent the wheel with a Linux client dealing with all the proton sand boxing. Just add to the heroic launcher.
Looks like someone has already had a similar thought too…
https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher/issues/2951
Don’t want to pile on but the lack of a web client in favor of a Windows Store client really kills this for me. I mean, I’m not even on windows so it’s a deal breaker anyway. Would love to get this talking to Lutris somehow.
Also going to pile on a bit about your use of Discord, it is walling off information in a proprietary communication channel. Support tickets should be handled on the web so others can easily tack on if they are experiencing the same issues etc.
There are ways to run this on linux.
Sorry if there were any miscommunication: We have github and email support aswell, its just lots of people find talking in real time easier.
https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-app/issues https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-backend/issues
Gotta say, I love the idea behind this project, and it’s great you’re reaching out to this community here. I haven’t run it myself yet, but it looks great, and the feature list is massive.
Couple questions really stopping somebody like myself from setting up an instance though.
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It’s not “just” a launcher, and it’s not quite a distribution platform. Is this mostly geared towards people playing the same game on multiple machines?
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It seems like this is setup as a Steam replacement, but only for a DRM-Free games, so why would you (as a creator) suggest I use this instead?
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This also seems like there’s a world in which this is set to be a decent game hosting platform. Plans?
Thanks for showing up.
- It’s for groups, mostly. Families & Friends.
- It’s not really a replacement. It is a way for you to have a steam like experience for games where you would not have one. Games lying on your server.
- No, not at all at the time, but maybe in the future
Thanks for looking into it
Love the idea of this project, exactly something I’m looking for. Though as others have stated, a more native way for Linux or an integration with Lutris or Heroic Launcher would truly be helpful for this project. Believe it would get a lot more traction in the selfhosting community if this became a reality.
