alfagun74

Hey c/selfhosted,

we've finally done it. After years of people asking for it, GameVault now has its very own Web UI!

For anyone who hasn't heard of it yet: GameVault is a self-hosted gaming platform that gives you a Steam-like library experience, but for your own DRM-free games. You host it yourself, you own your data, and you can share your collection with friends and family. Basically, it's for gamers who also love the selfhosting mindset.

This Web UI / Cross-Platform Client has been the most requested and long-awaited feature for as long as we've been working on GameVault. When we first built it, it was just a small project for the two of us, written with the tech we knew at the time. Over the years, especially here on Lemmy, people gave us plenty of criticism for the tech stack and the UX, because you guys love to use linux. And honestly... fair enough. We knew it wasn't great.

The new Web UI is our way of addressing all the feedback we've received and setting the stage for the future. It’s not just a nicer interface. This also represents the first building block for a new cross-platform client that we’re working on.

The Web UI acts as a cross-platform core, which means that in the future we will be able to package GameVault to run both directly in the browser as well as a native application on Windows, Linux, or even mobile devices. This upcoming client will be built on the same foundation, ensuring a smoother and more unified experience whether you're on a desktop OS or just checking your vault from your phone.

Right now, we're planning to expand the Web UI continuously and figure out how to handle the legacy windows desktop client moving forward. The technology underneath is much cleaner now, so we finally have the freedom to iterate and improve without being stuck in the past.

Anyway, we're really excited about this step. It feels like a true milestone for the project, and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. If you're self-hosting and love gaming, give it a try, I'm curious what you think.

You can also check out a live running demo version on demo.gamevau.lt
Username: demo
Password: demodemo

Hello c/selfhosted,

GameVault is a free, self-hostable gaming platform for organizing, browsing, downloading, installing, and playing your DRM-free game files stored on your home servers. It’s a full-featured alternative to platforms like Steam, designed for users who want complete control over their infrastructure and share their gaming library with friends and family.

With GameVault, you get:

• A native Windows client with full offline gaming support
• A beautiful library to browse your game collection
• Fully automated game installations
• Game progress tracking
• Rich metadata and cover art
• Cloud save functionality for seamless play across devices
• Multi-user architecture with role-based access control

Check it out here if you haven’t had a chance to set it up yet!

We’re excited to announce a major new release: The Identity Update

Why This Update Matters

Until now, GameVault used Basic Auth and supported one user per user device. This simple approach worked when the platform was just a side project for two friends.

But GameVault has grown, thousands of users, more setups, and higher expectations. This update lays the foundation for secure, scalable identity management and multi-user capabilities. We’ve shipped several great features with this release, including:

🔐 Modern Authentication & SSO Support

SSO support has been one of the oldest and most requested features on our issue tracker. Reworking the entire auth system was no small task, it took over five months to implement and test. But it’s done, marking a major step forward.

GameVault now uses OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect as its authentication foundation. This enables secure, modern login flows while staying flexible: traditional username and password login still works, but now runs on token-based authentication with session-based access and refresh tokens instead of basic auth.

If you want to use an identity provider, GameVault can integrate directly with providers like Keycloak, Authentik, Authelia, Google, Microsoft, Discord, or virtually any other RFC-compliant OAuth 2.0 or OIDC service.

This overhaul not only improves security and user experience, but also opens new possibilities for the platform, like web-based clients.

👥 Multi-Profile Support (GameVault+)

Need to support multiple users or connect to multiple servers on the same machine? GameVault+ now offers fully separated user profiles, each with its own server connection, game library, save data, preferences, and more. Whether you’re sharing a PC with family or housemates or just want to stay organized, profiles keep everyone’s games and progress completely separate.

💾 Installing Games Across Multiple Drives

Long overdue: GameVault now supports multiple root install directories, letting you choose where each game is installed. Whether you’re splitting your library across SSDs and HDDs or just organizing games, GameVault manages paths and indexing automatically.

How to Update

Due to the massive changes older clients and servers are not compatible with the newer infrastructure anymore, so you will probably need to update:

• Client: Update via Microsoft Store or GitHub.
• Server: Update via Docker or GitHub.
• Docs: Full documentation available here.

Thank You

Reaching so many regular users and GameVault+ subscribers is something we never imagined when we started this project. Thank you for trying it, testing it, using it and most of all, supporting it.

We still enjoy spending all our free time on this project, and as long as you keep us going, we won’t stop.

Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts,

The Phalcode Team

Hey c/selfhosted,

It's been a while since our last update, but we've been busy working on exciting new GameVault features!

For those unfamiliar: GameVault is a self-hosted gaming platform that offers a Steam-like library experience for DRM-free games on your own server. It allows you to organize, share, and play your game collection with friends and family, all while keeping complete control over your data. If you are a gamer and self-hoster and never heard of it, you are probably missing out!

Based on your valuable feedback, we've significantly improved GameVault+, our main source of income, to ensure that it truly provides value for its price.

So what's new in GameVault+?

💾 Cloud Saves

GameVault now supports cloud saves through integration with Ludusavi. Your server becomes your personal cloud - automatically syncing save files between PCs and your GameVault server. Easily continue playing on another device or uninstall games and return to them later without losing your progress!

💬 Discord Integration

Your friends can now see exactly which GameVault games you're playing, thanks to a brand-new Discord Presence integration.

🚂 Steam Integration

Manage all your games in one place! GameVault can now fully synchronize your library with Steam as non-Steam shortcuts, letting you launch everything from Steam's familiar interface or your TV using Steam Big Picture.

👪 Affordable Family & Friends Plan

We've especially heard your feedback on pricing for families and groups loud and clear. Our new Family & Friends Plan lets you use GameVault+ with up to 6 users for just €8.99/month - making the premium features affordable for almost everyone!

🎯 Other Improvements

The latest updates also includes various bug fixes, improved stability, better theme management, UI enhancements, and performance optimizations.

Lastly.. Thank you for reaching 1k Discord members, 10k active users, and over 100k Docker Pulls, and for supporting our passion and work on this hobby project by subscribing to GameVault+. Your feedback continues to shape GameVault, so please share your thoughts and suggestions here, on our GitHub, or on our Discord!

Happy Gaming,

The Phalcode Team

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.

Hey folks,

Thank you, everyone, for the feedback and the huge desire for a User Interface overhaul for GameVault on our Discord Poll.

In case you're wondering what GameVault is, it's like having your own video gaming platform for games on your server – think Plex, but for video games. If you are a self-hosting gamer, you most likely want to check this out.

With the brand new version 1.8, we've taken your feedback to heart and worked hard to give GameVault a fresh coat of paint!

I attached a before/after pic of how it used to look (left) versus now (right) so you can see the difference.

The UI underwent a complete makeover, and aside from looking pretty awesome, it is much better in terms of usability as well.

Just so you know: The first UI was kind of basic and only meant for us two developers, as we didn't initially plan to release this project to the public.

Now that the traction is so huge and thousands of people are using this software, it would plainly feel wrong not to give it a facelift. So, every button and detail has been thoughtfully placed to make things way more user-friendly.

If you weren't a fan of the old UI, now's the time to swing by and check out the changes.

If you also want to steer the future development of GameVault, make sure to join our Discord Server.

You can check out GameVault here.