Game Launcher

Overview

A Windows game library launcher built as an Electron app. It scans a list of configured directories for installed games, tracks play sessions locally, and supports adding custom non-Steam shortcuts. The renderer is React plus Vite plus TypeScript, the main process uses better-sqlite3 for local storage, and the app ships as an NSIS installer via electron-builder.

Highlights

• Scans configured directories for installed games and adds them to a local library.
• Play session tracking so the launcher remembers what was played and when.
• Custom shortcut support for non-Steam games.
• Packaged as a Windows NSIS installer via electron-builder.

Challenges and approach

• Scanning thousands of files on startup froze the UI. Moving directory scans off the renderer into the main process and streaming results back over IPC fixed it.
• Tracking play sessions reliably meant hooking into process lifecycle events rather than polling, so the launcher knows the exact moment a game exits.