this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2024
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If you hoard video games and aren’t selfhosting GameVault yet, you’re missing out! (self.selfhosted)
submitted 3 weeks ago by alfagun74 to c/selfhosted
39 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

top 39 comments
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[–] [email protected] 92 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Your client is still Windows Store exclusive? That's a hard pass from me.

[–] warmaster 30 points 3 weeks ago

Instant letdown. I've switched my 4 PCs to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

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.

[–] alfagun74 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Then why does the link to download the client lead to the MS Store instead of Github?

[–] alfagun74 3 points 3 weeks ago

Because we decided its the main distribution platform. But there are multiple.

[–] loganb 47 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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 30 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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 12 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] loganb 5 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't have Windows on any of my gaming machines, so I can't really use something that depends on it.

Now, if you also target Wine during unit tests as a compatible base system, I could get into that.

[–] alfagun74 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

we don't have any unit tests, yes shame on us. But dozens of users are running this using linux wine and for instance steam deck already, its a community effort but hey, it works. See here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Good enough for me. Just remember to keep us in mind 👍

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

[–] alfagun74 6 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] just_another_person 27 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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 17 points 3 weeks 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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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 12 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

Yeah, honestly, kinda fuck off a bit.

[–] alfagun74 16 points 3 weeks ago

we do have Github aswell. it's just most people find discord easier. Here you go, trooper:

https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-app/issues https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-backend/issues

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

A native linux client would be nice

[–] alfagun74 12 points 3 weeks ago

We had fantasies about it but its just too much work for us two, there are community clients for linux natively in development tho.

https://github.com/Phalcode/gamevault-app/issues/284#issuecomment-1865310371

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 7 points 3 weeks ago

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

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Will it store my ROMs

[–] alfagun74 2 points 3 weeks 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 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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

[–] alfagun74 1 points 3 weeks ago

yeah browsing that 4000 game folder list sure is the same fun.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Does this run on a raspberry pi 1 or 2? I can't remember which one I have, but I barely use it so it'd be cool to have something to use it for.

[–] alfagun74 2 points 3 weeks ago

It does, it needs about 120mb of ram I think.

[–] linearchaos 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

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 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

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 4 points 3 weeks 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 3 points 3 weeks 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.