Game Launcher Platform

Subscribe, download the desktop launcher, and launch verified game builds with one click.

What is this?

This is a desktop game launcher distribution service. Users register an account, choose a subscription for the products they want, download the launcher binary, and run verified game clients on their own computers. Every launcher binary is signed, every payload is integrity-checked against a server-side manifest, and every active session is tied to the hardware that authorised it.

The platform is built for users who want a one-click way to manage multiple Minecraft modifications across several game versions without juggling JAR files, JVM installs, mod loaders, or launcher arguments by hand. The launcher handles the JVM, the Fabric loader, library and asset downloads, version pinning, file repair, and process supervision for you.

How it works

  1. Create an account. Sign up with an email and a password. Email confirmation is optional; HWID binding happens on first launcher login.
  2. Pick a product and a billing period. Each product has tiered pricing (typically 7, 30, and 90 days). Choose a plan in the shop and pay through the integrated payment provider.
  3. Download the launcher. Once you have an active subscription, the desktop launcher becomes available in your profile. The binary is a single .exe — no installer wizard, no telemetry, no background services.
  4. Launch the game. Open the launcher, log in with your site credentials, pick the product, press Play. The launcher syncs files, runs an integrity check, starts a managed JVM, and brings up the game window.
  5. Switch products without reinstalling. One launcher install covers every product you're subscribed to. The launcher reads which subscriptions are active on your account and only shows the matching products.

Features

HWID-bound licenses

Each account is bound to a single hardware fingerprint on first launch. Account sharing is blocked at the launcher level — a stolen password can't be used from another machine without an admin-issued HWID reset.

Signed releases

Every launcher response is wrapped in an Ed25519-signed envelope. The launcher refuses to run a build whose signature doesn't match a known trust anchor — an attacker on the network can't substitute a tampered binary.

Multi-product subscriptions

Your account can hold multiple active subscriptions simultaneously. The launcher reads the active list and exposes only the products you've actually paid for — no gating, no soft-locks, no "limited free version".

Automatic file repair

If an antivirus quarantines a launcher asset mid-play, the launcher re-downloads the missing file on next launch and verifies the MD5 against the server manifest. No manual reinstall required.

Two-factor authentication

Time-based one-time passwords via any standard authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, Bitwarden). 2FA is mandatory for staff and optional for end-users.

Promo codes

Discount codes apply to specific products and tiers. A code can be capped at a number of uses, scoped to a single product, and expire on a fixed date. Apply the code at checkout, the discount surfaces immediately in the order summary.

System requirements

The desktop launcher and the games it ships support modern Windows desktops. Older platforms aren't tested or supported.

  • Operating system: Windows 10 (build 1909 or later) or Windows 11. Linux and macOS are not currently supported by the launcher.
  • CPU: any x86-64 desktop CPU from the last decade. The launcher itself is lightweight; the real requirement is driven by the game you launch through it.
  • RAM: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended. The bundled JVM is configured with a sensible default heap; advanced users can override the heap size from the launcher settings.
  • Disk: 2 GB free for a single product, 5–10 GB if you have several active subscriptions. Game assets and libraries are shared across products on the same game version.
  • GPU: any DirectX 11 capable GPU. Integrated graphics from the last five years are typically sufficient for the supported titles.
  • Network: stable broadband during first download and during launch (the launcher verifies file hashes against the server). After launch the game runs offline as the title's original distribution does.
  • .NET / Visual C++: not required. The launcher is a self-contained binary; the bundled JVM ships with everything it needs.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a free product?

No. Each product has tiered subscription pricing visible in the shop. You can browse the product catalogue without an account; an account is only required at checkout. The launcher binary itself is free to download once you have at least one active subscription.

What payment methods are supported?

Card payments through the integrated payment provider. The exact options depend on your region. Refunds follow the standard consumer-protection rules of the jurisdiction you bought from.

I changed my computer. How do I move my license?

Open a support ticket from your profile page and describe the change. Staff can reset your HWID binding within minutes during European business hours. The reset is not automatic to make stolen-account hopping more expensive for attackers.

Does the launcher run in the background?

Only while the game is launching and while the game itself is running. The launcher exits cleanly when you close the game window. It does not install drivers, kernel modules, or background services.

Will my antivirus flag the launcher?

The launcher binary is signed and submitted to mainstream AV vendors. Heuristic engines occasionally false-positive on a fresh release; if your AV blocks the binary, whitelist the folder where you installed it (typically ~/.lightning on Windows) and rerun the launcher.

Can I use one account on multiple computers?

No. A single account binds to a single hardware fingerprint at first launch. If you want a license on a second machine, either reset your HWID via support (one machine at a time) or purchase a second subscription.

What happens when my subscription expires?

The launcher refuses to start the game once your subscription ends. Your account remains active, your profile and history are preserved, and you can re-subscribe at any time. No data is deleted.

Is there a refund policy?

Yes. Within 14 days of purchase, if you haven't used the launcher more than a handful of times, you can request a refund via support. Full terms are on the Terms of Service page.

How is my data handled?

Email, hashed password, hardware fingerprint, subscription history, and the IP address used at login. We don't sell, share, or rent personal data. Full details on the Privacy Policy page.

I lost access to my 2FA device.

Contact support from the email address registered on the account. Recovery requires proof of original purchase (order ID or last four digits of the card used). Reset usually completes within one business day.

Support and contact

Questions, account recovery, refund requests, or any other support need: open a ticket from your profile page once logged in. Pre-login enquiries can use the contact channels listed on the contact page. Average first response time during European business hours is under one hour; outside business hours, up to 24 hours.

This platform is operated by an independent software development team. We're not affiliated with the games we ship — we provide a desktop distribution channel for licensed users of the underlying titles. If you believe a product on the platform infringes your rights, contact us through the support channel and we'll respond within five business days.

About the project

The launcher is a Rust + Tauri 2 desktop application. The Rust core handles authentication, file synchronisation, hardware fingerprinting, JVM management and process supervision; a small embedded webview renders the UI you see on screen. The choice of Tauri over Electron is deliberate — the final binary weighs a few megabytes instead of hundreds, and the attack surface is significantly smaller.

The server side is a Node.js application backed by MySQL. Every state-changing request is logged in an immutable audit trail; staff actions (granting subscriptions, generating keys, banning users) leave a record that includes the actor, the target, the time, and the IP. Payment events are reconciled against the upstream payment provider every minute by a background poller so a missed webhook never costs a user a paid subscription.

For a longer technical write-up, including the file integrity model and the security architecture, see the about page.

Security model in one page

Account security and binary integrity matter on a platform that handles real-money subscriptions and runs as a desktop process. Here is what is in place, in plain language:

How authentication works

The launcher logs in using your site credentials. The site validates the password against a bcrypt hash with a per-account salt; passwords are never stored in plain text. After successful login the launcher receives a short-lived signed envelope containing a JWT plus product manifest pointers. The JWT carries the user id, the role, the HWID it was bound to, and a server-side issue timestamp. Every later API call is signed so a man-in-the-middle can't replay or modify the envelope without invalidating the signature.

Why HWID binding

Most account-sharing fraud on a paid game distribution platform comes from people who buy one license and split it across several real users. HWID binding pins a license to the hardware that first redeemed it, so a leaked password can't be used from a second machine without an admin-issued reset. The reset path costs the attacker an extra round-trip through support, which is enough friction to kill the casual reseller market for our subscriptions.

Why every download is hash-checked

The launcher pulls game files from a CDN-fronted endpoint. CDN edges occasionally cache stale objects, antiviruses silently strip files mid-stream, browser security middleboxes inject HTML challenges in front of binary downloads. Without integrity checks any of those would result in a corrupted install that the user would interpret as "the launcher is broken". The launcher refuses to launch unless every product file matches the server-side MD5, and re-downloads anything that doesn't.

Why two-factor authentication

2FA is mandatory for staff accounts because a stolen staff password is worth a lot more than a stolen user password — staff can grant subscriptions, ban users, generate licence keys. 2FA is optional for end-users; even so, anything that touches money (changing payout details, requesting a payout) re-prompts for a fresh TOTP code even on a 2FA-verified session.

Pricing approach

Each product has three subscription tiers: a short trial-style 7-day tier, a 30-day standard tier, and a 90-day power-user tier. The 30-day tier is the value sweet spot — it covers most users' usage patterns without locking them into a quarter-long commitment. The 90-day tier is for people who already know the product and want a discount; per-day it works out 25-30% cheaper than the 30-day tier.

We deliberately do not run promotional sales beyond the published tier pricing. A user who buys today and a user who buys in three months pay the same price; that is fair to both. We do issue promo codes for partner programmes and for compensation when something goes wrong on our end (extended downtime, file integrity failure that took a long time to diagnose). Those codes never lower the headline price — they extend the duration of what you already paid for.

Refunds inside the 14-day cooling-off window are handled on a case-by-case basis through the support channel. We're not in the business of forcing money out of people who tried the product, decided it wasn't for them, and want their money back — that's a recipe for chargebacks and unhappy reviews, both of which cost more than the refund itself.

Glossary

HWID — Hardware ID. A fingerprint computed by the launcher on first run from a small set of stable hardware identifiers (motherboard serial, primary disk serial, machine SID). The launcher reports the HWID at login and the server verifies it matches the value bound to the account.

JVM — Java Virtual Machine. The runtime that executes Minecraft and its mods. The launcher ships a pinned JVM build per game version so users don't have to install Java themselves and so we control the exact runtime used.

Fabric loader — A Minecraft mod loader for modern versions of the game (1.14+). The launcher downloads the Fabric runtime files for each game version once, shared across every Fabric-flavoured product on that version.

Manifest — The server-side list of files a product needs, each with an expected MD5. The launcher compares this list against what's actually on disk and downloads any mismatch.

Ed25519 envelope — A signed JSON wrapper around server responses. The signature uses the Ed25519 elliptic-curve signature scheme; the launcher carries a hard-baked public key and refuses anything that doesn't verify against it.

Sweep ban — When a user is banned for cheating in another product or for chargebacks, the system also bans the HWID. Any subsequent account that logs in from that HWID is automatically banned. This makes "buy a fresh account from a seller, run the launcher again" significantly less effective.

Cascade access — When an account has multiple active subscriptions, launching one product is allowed even if a different product was selected in the launcher UI, provided both are on the same game version. The system logs every cascade launch so admins can see how products overlap.

Idempotence key — A unique per-request identifier sent to the payment provider on payout requests. If the same request is retried (transient network error, our retry logic) the provider de-duplicates by key and doesn't pay out twice.

TOFU — Trust on first use. A pubkey distribution mode where the client trusts whatever public key the server returns on the first connection and pins it locally. Used in the launcher only on platforms where we can't ship the public key embedded in the binary; production users always use the embedded key.

Treasury drain — The operator-triggered batch transfer of the payment provider shop balance into our payout account. Operates manually instead of automatically because the provider API is rate-limited and slow.

Roadmap and recent changes

The platform is under active development. Major changes from the last few months:

  • Two-stage payouts. Staff payouts now move through an intermediate FKWallet step so the operator can batch withdrawals from the shop and pay individual staff members on demand. Fee preview is shown in real time before the staff member presses Pay.
  • Fabric runtime support. Products can now target a specific Minecraft version + Fabric loader combo. The launcher caches the Fabric runtime per game version and shares it across all Fabric products on that version.
  • Admin search and filters. Revenue log, user table and launch logs all gained full-text search and status filters. Operators can scope the payment log to just successful payments, search the user list by username/email/ID, and filter launch logs by Discord nickname, IP, email, or in-game username in a single field.
  • Promo code transparency. User detail panel in the admin shows the promo code applied to each purchase, plus the discount percent or fixed amount. Easier to audit "did the discount actually apply" disputes.
  • Adaptive launcher branding. A single launcher source tree compiles into branded binaries for each operated site, with site-specific window title, icon and bundle identifier baked in at build time. The runtime CLI flag still lets operators switch sites for testing.
  • Envelope TTL raised to 24h. Some users run their system clock several hours ahead of UTC and the previous 5-minute envelope TTL made the launcher refuse to log them in. A 24-hour TTL covers reasonable clock skews without meaningfully widening the replay window.

The full audit log of administrator actions is visible to anyone with admin role on the site. This is intentional — staff actions on a platform that handles paid subscriptions should be auditable, not opaque.