Sidenius

Launcher and Patreon integration

Added 2024-11-11 00:14:42 +0000 UTC

As mentioned in this week's Discord update, I've decided to use a custom launcher to download/update the game and have a Patreon verification from within the game to grant access to it. I'll be talking some more about the implications of it in this post.

The way the launcher works is that you first download it from for example the game's website. Then the launcher downloads the game from a server, which also keeps track of when a new update is available and what files changed since you last downloaded the game so that it can patch it. So when a new update is pushed, you only need to download the files that actually changed instead of the whole game all over again.

Anyone can download the launcher and game, as the Patreon verification happens from within the game. It's very simple, you press a Patreon button before the main menu and it automatically opens up a Patreon window in the browser where you authorize the game to view your profile, then you get a key that you use to unlock the game and enter the main menu if you are authorized.

However, this method also means that if you cancel the membership you can no longer access the game. Originally I wanted it to be that you could keep the version you downloaded while subscribed even after cancelling, but there are some issues with this regarding having a lot of different game versions out in the wild and on piracy sites. On the other hand, with the decision to make the builds available for all tiers and not just tiers 3+ it seems like a fair trade off as one could simply move to the lowest tier and still have access to the latest version after it passed the higher tiers, or unsubscribe during periods when playing something else and resub to the lowest tier after a few updates and still get all the new content except the absolutely latest preview build that is played by the higher tiers.