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.

  • loganb@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    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!

    • alfagun74@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 month ago

      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.

      • loganb@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        1 month ago

        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.

    • r00ty@kbin.life
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 month ago

      Just post that you think it’d be impossible to port to rust and linux. Then someone is bound to do it :P

  • KNova
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 month ago

    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.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    ·
    1 month ago

    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.

    1. 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?

    2. 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?

    3. 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.

    • alfagun74@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 month ago
      1. It’s for groups, mostly. Families & Friends.
      2. 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.
      3. No, not at all at the time, but maybe in the future

      Thanks for looking into it

  • Detective'@slrpnk.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 month ago

    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.

    • alfagun74@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 month ago

      We’ve contacted heroic regarding a collab but they never wrote back. You can do this as a fallback though.

  • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    23
    ·
    1 month ago

    feel free to join and open a ticket in our Discord community

    Yeah, honestly, kinda fuck off a bit.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    1 month ago

    Saved for when I get my home server back up and running. This sounds way better than keeping everything on an external SSD.

    • alfagun74@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      it is mostly optimised for pc atm. it will save them perfectly fine and you can download and browse them using this as well, but its still on our roadmap to build in a web based emulator, native emulator support and auto-install for roms. See details here

  • TCB13@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    1 month ago

    It’s so hard to have a SMB share with one folder per game. The solution is obviously to run 4000 docker containers.

  • linearchaos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    I’m kind of apprehensive to open up a really small projects on my home network to the outside world. Kudos for maintaining unraid as a platform though.

    I might consider running it at my house but my wife is Mac I’m Linux it would only help my kids.

    Could It handle mod packages for Java Minecraft or something?

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 month ago

      That’s a terrible romcom.

      “She was a Mac user, listening to The Beatles on her iPhone. He was a Linux user…probably using one of those custom modular built cell phones with an open kernal or something. This Holiday season, watch cultures clash as two different technology mindsets clash. When governments threaten to censor pornography in their state during the stressful holiday season, they turn to each other for support and, they fall in love! Courtney Cox, and Jerry Lewis star in…Different Worlds!”

      I wouldn’t watch that.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        Lol, That’s why I self-host so much crap. The only way I can give it to everybody is to make it a web app, or maintain three separate sets of clients.

    • alfagun74@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 month ago

      It could handle modpacks, thats even an example on the site. You dont need to open it up to the internet, it works perfectly fine in LAN and VPN aswell.