Hey fellow self-hosters!
It’s u/Alfagun74 from GameVault, the self-hosted platform for organizing and sharing your servers DRM-free games collection. We’ve come a long way since our initial release, and I’m thrilled to share what’s been happening with GameVault since then.
From “Crackpipe” to GameVault
If you’ve been with us since the start, you might remember our initial quirky name, “Crackpipe.” Well, we had a good laugh, but as we grew, we decided to go for something more fitting – GameVault! It’s your personal gaming treasure trove, and the name says it all.
What’s GameVault?
For the uninitiated, GameVault is like having your own Steam for game files lying on your server. It’s a self-hosted, source-available gaming platform. Bring your DRM-free game files, and GameVault organizes them, enriches them with metadata, and gives you a user-friendly interface to manage and play your games. It’s all about enjoying your favorite titles with friends.
What’s happened since initial release?
Since our initial release four months ago, we’ve been hard at work, reaching version 9 on the backend and 1.7 on the frontend.
Here’s a reel of the exciting big features we’ve added:
- Auto Extraction and Installation of Videogames
- Uninstalling Games through GameVault
- Uploading Images directly to your GameVault
- Support for a metric ton of archive formats
- Crash Reports
- Database Backups & Restorations
- Bandwidth Control
- Random Game Finder
What’s on the Horizon?
We’ve been listening to your feedback, and here’s what was asked for the most:
- UI Redesign for the Library and Installations Tab
- Support for ROMS and Emulators
- Support for extra files like Soundtracks etc.
Right now we’re knee-deep in redesigning the Library, the heart of our application. Big changes are on the way, waving goodbye to the installations tab and bringing in a sleeker UI for Library, Game View, and Game Settings. More on and a sneak-peek is coming to our blog soon.
Join the GameVault Community!
If you haven’t already, come join our vibrant community on Discord. You can influence the direction of GameVault and participate in exclusive polls over there.
Spread the Word and Stay Tuned!
Help us promote GameVault among fellow self-hosters. Your efforts could inspire a bored developer to join and contribute to our project!
Let’s make gaming personal again with GameVault!
A game changer for me would be to have it setup to connect to one or more GOG accounts and pull files with like a checkbox interface and let it automatically download updates. That way the server kind of acts like a local cache.
I just got a NAS and downloaded all my GOG and Humble games into it. Didn’t even occur to me that something like this existed. I’m going to have to give it a try soon, since it sounds like Linux through Wine is supported.
Very interesting project! However, I can’t help shake the feeling that whilst you pitch it as a platform for sharing DRM-free games, it will get used for sharing games against the licenses and wishes of publishers. I don’t really care about the publishers, but do you not think there is a great risk that once your app gets enough attention, it will draw their ire and force you to shut down? Perhaps not directly, but e.g., removing you from the windows store etc.
There’s nothing illegal about GameVault. It’s a tool. It can be used correctly for its intended purpose or misused by others. Banning it would be like banning cars because some people use them as weapons instead of for transportation. So no, I don’t fear any trouble at all. After all, platforms like Plex/Jellyfin, which are basically GameVault for Movies and TV Series, are doing totally fine and are well-established in the general public already.
Still think you should have kept the original name for the lulz
