4 posts tagged with "community"

Hey everyone!

In our last post we mentioned the challenges we've been facing with the videogame metadata database we've been using, rawg.io. Unfortunately, it's become an unmaintained abandonware, causing frequent downtime and issues like incorrect search results and registration problems. The situation peaked on May 5th when the service went down completely for a day.

GameVault's new metadata provider strategy​

To address these issues, we're making significant changes to GameVault's metadata system. Our goal is to make GameVault metadata provider agnostic, allowing users to seamlessly plug in their preferred metadata provider.

We're also excited to announce our official partnership with IGDB (twitch.tv), a trusted video game database. Going forward, GameVault will primarily use IGDB's APIs out of the box.

More details on our plans can be found in this GitHub ticket. We also plan to continue supporting the use of your own API keys and other vendors.

However, as decided in our recent poll, we will be removing all support for RAWG.

Temporary solution: Implementing a RAWG replacement​

However, implementing these changes will take time, and we are both currently busy with work commitments and travel plans. So what happens if RAWG suddenly stops working while we're away? To address this concern, Toylerrr, one of our most valuable community members, had a great idea. He began developing a solution that would be a drop-in replacement for RAWG. An application that mimicked the behavior of RAWG, but fetched data from Steam instead. All you have to do is replace the url in the RAWG_API_URL environmental variable.

We loved the idea and built on it. Introducing rawg-to-steam-redirect.

The link above explains how it works and how you can use it today.

What we liked most about it is that it required minimal backend changes to integrate. We have already tested this solution on our 667 games server and it works great. The quality of box art for example is much better. One drawback is that Steam does not have a lot of tags in its API.

While https://api.rawg.io/api will remain the default RAWG_API_URL for now, you can switch between RAWG and the new solution at any time. Just make sure your GameVault backend is updated to at least v12.1.0.

Exciting new features​

In addition to these changes, we're excited to introduce you to some new features that were recently released:

• 🔖 Bookmarking Video Games: You can now bookmark your favorite games within GameVault.
• ⏯️ Download Management: GameVault now supports pausing, auto-resuming, and resuming downloads.
• 🔒 Encrypted Archives: GameVault now supports password protected archives.

We hope these updates will make your experience with GameVault even better as we move through this transition period.

Supporting GameVault​

Finally, we want to thank all of you for making all of this possible. If you have not already done so, please consider upgrading to GameVault+ to flex with animated profile pictures on your server. We would really appreciate it. Bet you can't find the GameVault+ easter egg though... 😉

With love,

Phalcode

Hey Everyone!

It feels like it's been ages since we last caught up regarding the development of GameVault (the self-hostable platform for drm-free videogames), but trust me, the silence from our end doesn't mean we've been slacking off. In fact, quite the opposite has been happening behind the scenes.

When my friend and I first launched this application, it was born out of a simple need for a solution to a problem we thought was very particular and only for ourselves. Having a steam-like platform for game files lying on my home server.

We never imagined it would resonate with others or find its own place in the market. Frankly, we thought it might end up just another forgotten repository on GitHub, gathering virtual dust with no one paying it any mind.

But boy, were we wrong. The response to our app was unexpectedly large and overwhelming. Thousands of people are using GameVault today, and it seems there's quite a demand out there for the exact product we've been building.

We’re a small indie team of two and despite juggling multiple jobs, we've poured our hearts and souls into this project during our spare times, striving to offer a self-hosted alternative to the gaming platforms out there. And while we've received some generous donations (shoutout to our two loyal monthly donors btw – you know who you are, and we're endlessly grateful!), it's clear that relying solely on sporadic tips isn't sustainable for the long term and we need financial support to maintain our services and justify our time investment towards our families.

So, it's time for a slight change. We're thrilled to announce the upcoming release of a new version of our client application, complete with an optional subscription model we're calling...

GameVault+​

What is GameVault+?​

First, to clear some of the confusion:

No, this is not some shady scammy "We're going enterprise" rugpull. The core of GameVaults upcoming features and the features you enjoyed until now will always remain free. Additionally the system is designed to be easily bypassed if you can't or dont want to afford it.

It was long planned on our board and well discussed within our community. Think of GameVault+ as our way of saying "thank you" to our supporters and to motivate them to support us regularly. To be more specific, it's us giving back some goodie-features that are not necessarily needed to use GameVault back to our supporters, while they help us keep the lights on here at Phalcode.

With GameVault+, you'll gain access to premium nice-to-have features designed to enhance your GameVault experience, all for a small monthly fee of €4,99 monthly or €49.90 anually.

Currently, these features include:

• Uploading animated profile pictures
• Applying Custom Themes
• Activation of the GameVault Client API (CLI, URI, and NamedPipe Interfaces Used for client integrations with 3rd party tools like Playnite)

But there are more to come! We will be enhancing this offering with more features, whenever we see room for it, as GameVault+ subscribers are the ones, who keep this project alive.

All details and a Q&A are on the GameVault+ page.

We'll be rolling out this new product today to our early access users first to get the product and the infrastructure around it tested, tweaking and refining it based on your feedback before making it available to everyone. It's an exciting new chapter for us, and we can't wait to have you along for the ride.

So what's next?​

We will polish the rough edges of GameVault+ and bring it to life in the next few weeks, hopefully. You will probably already see some documentation on this website for it. Keep in mind, this is all a work in progress, and we will announce the final release soon.

After that, we will need to urgently find a solution to our heavy reliance on the degrading and unmaintained RAWG Database. We are already in contact for potential partnerships with Video-Game Databases.

Finally, we will need to do some refactoring of our client application's architecture.

But stay tuned because once all of this is done, the Next Big Feature we'll be focusing on will be open for the community to decide in our #polls channel on Discord. So make sure to join "The Council" to get notified and vote on your most desired feature.

Thank you all for supporting us and looking forward to seeing you all on our next updates!

Hello everyone!

We hope you're all doing well. We wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for the flood of feature requests and bug reports that have been pouring into our issue trackers. Your enthusiasm and dedication to making GameVault even better are truly inspiring to us.

As many of you may already know, GameVault is a passion project for us, and while we are mostly convinced by your fantastic ideas, it may take some time for us to implement them. Our team meetings happen in our free time, and although we genuinely want to incorporate your suggestions into our roadmap, we are limited by the time and capacity we can dedicate to the project. Moreover, we want to ensure that the features we develop are refined, polished, and also the most desired in the users' opinions, which adds to the timeline.

We believe that collaboration with our incredible community is the key to success, and that's why we want to introduce you to our Roadmap. It displays all new issues, planned tasks we want to work on, and all the ongoing work in a well-organized Kanban Board. You can find it right here.

To ensure that GameVault's development aligns better with your needs, we kindly request your active participation. By voting on GitHub with a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down on new and planned issues, you can help us prioritize them effectively. We value your opinion: What features do you feel are most crucial? What aspects of the platform do you find most bothersome? What issues do you see as unnecessary or bloated? Your input will mainly shape the direction we take.

If you're eager to go the extra mile and actively contribute to shaping GameVault further, we invite you to join our Discord community and becoming a "Council Member". By becoming a "Council Member" and enabling Poll Notifications under "#Channels & Roles", you will have a direct say in the future of GameVault because you will get notifications about opinion polls we run from time to time.

We cannot stress enough how much we appreciate your involvement in our endeavor to create the ultimate gaming experience for all of you. Your passion and feedback are invaluable, and we are committed to making GameVault the best it can be, together.

Thank you for being part of this amazing journey with us!

Hello, everyone!

We have an important announcement to share about our source-available gaming platform, project. We have listened to your feedback and concerns, and now we need your help in choosing a new, family-friendly name that better reflects our platform's values. To make this decision-making process more convenient, we have created a poll with 100 potential names, suggested by you on our Discord, some of which were generated by AI. Your participation in shaping the future of our platform is greatly appreciated.

We kindly request your support in selecting a new name for our gaming platform. The poll offers a variety of names, and we ask that you choose at least 10 names (10%) that appeal to you. By gathering diverse input and minimizing bias, we aim to create an inclusive and enjoyable experience for all users. We apologize if the current name has caused any discomfort, and we are committed to creating a welcoming environment for gamers.

To cast your votes and contribute to the selection of a new, family-friendly name for our source-available gaming platform, please click on the link provided at the end of this post. Your voice matters, and together, we can find a name that truly represents our app's essence. The results will be announced on this blog around July 15, 2023.

We sincerely appreciate your support and encourage you to stay tuned for updates as we continue to improve our platform based on your valuable feedback.

Link to the poll: https://forms.gle/cYsURG6BqMXcxE3B8

Happy voting!