4 posts tagged with "gaming"

Hey everyone!

We're thrilled to announce that the early access phase of GameVault+ has concluded, and we're officially launching it today! It's been an incredible journey from the inception of GameVault to where we are now, and we couldn't have done it without your amazing support.

GameVault+ is our way of saying thank you to our dedicated supporters while also ensuring the sustainability of our platform. For a small monthly fee, you'll gain access to premium features designed to enhance your gaming experience within GameVault. We're starting with features like animated profile pictures, custom themes, and activation of the GameVault Client API, with more exciting additions planned for the future.

But our work doesn't stop here. We're committed to refining GameVault+ based on your feedback, as well as addressing key areas of improvement in the platform. This includes exploring partnerships with reputable video game databases to enhance our data offerings and refactoring our client application for optimal performance.

And most importantly, we want you, our community, to have a say in the future direction of GameVault. That's why we're opening up the floor for feature suggestions through our Discord channel. Your input will help shape the next big updates to GameVault.

Thank you all for your support and enthusiasm. We're excited to continue this journey with you and to make gaming even more enjoyable for everyone. Stay tuned for more updates, and happy gaming!

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!

Hey, Guys!

For the upcoming large UI update of GameVault, we're launching a brand new GameVault Early-Access Program, and we want YOU to be a part of it!

What's the Early-Access Program?​

Early-Access is your golden ticket to test-drive upcoming GameVault updates before anyone else. You'll be part of an exclusive group and get a sneak peek into the latest features, but here's the deal – it might not be as stable as our regular releases and you need to interact with us. Your feedback will help us fine-tune everything before the big release for everyone else.

How to Join​

📋 Complete the Application Form
📅 The first early-access phase kicks off on December 17 and lasts for one week.

Prerequisites​

💬 Active participation in the designated Discord channel.
🎮 GameVault installed from the Microsoft Store with a Microsoft Account logged in. If not, grab it here.
🚀 A GameVault Server running the phalcode/gamevault-backend:early-access image. (Only run this if you are accepted as a Tester as it could break things!)

Important Note​

• There are only a limited number of slots in the Early-Access Program. Supporters and Trusted Members are prioritized.
• If you're accepted and later found not meeting the requirements, you might be removed from future testing and the next applicant on our list gets the opportunity.

Apply here!

Hey Guys,

Our team has been working tirelessly for the past year on creating GameVault, the source-available, self-hosted, and free alternative to traditional cloud-based game platforms like Steam, Origin, Epic Games, and GoG. We are excited to share that GameVault is now available for everyone to use, and we are delighted to disclose it to the community.

With GameVault, you can play and track games together with your friends on a shared file server, free from any restrictions that traditional game platforms may impose. We have designed it to work with DRM-free games, providing a unique solution for those who want a more flexible and open approach to gaming. Think of it like Jellyfin, but for Videogames.

GameVault offers a self-hosted approach that gives you complete control over your gaming experience. The platform enables you to browse your server's game collection, securely download games, launch and play them, and even track your playtimes and progress - regardless of whether the server is offline. Additionally, you can compare stats and play states with other users on the server.

Our server features offer automatic indexing of games on the file system into a database, enrichment of games with metadata like tags and genres using RAWG API, multi-user authentication, and configurable logging. We have also implemented health monitoring, full-text search, filters, sorting, pagination, and a fully documented API. The GameVault platform is highly configurable to suit your needs.

We are thrilled that you have found us, and we invite you to try GameVault today. We would be grateful for any contributions, feedback, bug reports, and feature requests you might have. You can also support us by donating using the links provided on our website. If you have any questions or would like to connect with other GameVault users, please join our Discord, Reddit and Lemmy communities - links to which are available in the footer.

We are passionate about creating a gaming experience that is more open, flexible, and enjoyable for everyone. We hope you will join us on this journey and experience the benefits of a truly source-available alternative to traditional game platforms with GameVault.