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GameVault 2 leaves Early Access and runs on Linux

· 3 min read
Alper Alkan
Alper Alkan
Co-Founder of Phalcode®

The Early Access phase we announced in the last post is over. GameVault 2 (RockWhistle) is available to everyone now, on Windows, Linux and macOS.

In that post we quoted the request we had been hearing for three years: "Where is the Linux support?" This release is the answer.

A public beta, for now​

Treat this release as a public beta. GameVault 2 does not replace GameVault 1 yet, and reaching full feature parity will take a while. GameVault 1 remains available and feature-complete, so you can stay on it if it does something you depend on. As we said last time, GameVault 2 will eventually become the main desktop client.

One thing to know before you install: the new client uses a different format for game installations, so existing installations cannot be carried over. Games have to be downloaded and installed again in GameVault 2.

What's new​

The new client already has a few things the old one never did:

  • Multiple versions per game, with a version picker when you download.
  • A lot of Linux work: AppImage and .deb packages, umu-launcher support for Windows games, per-game Wine/Proton prefixes, launch logs, and a tray menu that starts your recent games.
  • OPSEC mode, which masks user names, emails and your server address for screenshots and streams.

There is more beyond that list. The library, downloads and installed-games management were rebuilt on the new foundation.

What's next​

Stability is the next priority, together with the GameVault+ features that the last post already flagged as missing. After that we might get to the golden faucets. That part is not settled yet, and we may also remove a few features nobody uses.

Bugs, feedback and thanks​

Our testers ran the client hard and we fixed dozens of stability issues, but they could not cover every edge case. If you find a bug, report it in the GameVault frontend issue tracker. We go through those reports and fix what we can.

Thanks to everyone who joined Early Access, tested builds and sent feedback. We learned a lot, and much of it is already in this release.

We have fully switched to RockWhistle ourselves and no longer use GameVault 1. We are happy with it, and we know there are still rough edges to smooth out.

Download GameVault 2 from the releases page, and tell us what you think on Discord.

See you in RockWhistle. 🙂