Pioza Launcher is an open-source launcher project created entirely in Unreal Engine 5 using blueprints. This makes it highly customizable for beginner programmers and indie game developers who want an easy and reliable way to distribute their games to players. It comes with several features, such as:
- Downloading, installing, and updating games
- Moving files to other drives/folders
- Displaying game descriptions, minimum requirements, screenshots, and videos
- Playing sound effects when clicking on a game
- Easily changing repositories via the console
- Extending functionality with custom console libraries and more
- Creating backups of downloaded games
- Making shortcut in start menu and on desktop
- Playtime tracking
- Linux system support
- Offline Mode
- Easy localization of game metadata
- Verifying game files using checksums
- Adding notes in the launcher menu for specific games
- Support for changelogs based on HTML files
- Actions queue
- ARM64 platforms support
You can find the installer and zipped build in the Releases tab.
Note: The zipped build is not portable — it will save its configuration in the LocalAppData directory.
- Windows: Available both as an installer (
.exe) and a zipped build. Winget install script is also available below. - Linux: Available as .rpm and AppImage. Install script is also available below.
Windows version supports all features and does not require proton and dependencies (which are shipped with release)
Run this command in cmd or powershell (this may require admin privileges):
curl -o pioza-launcher.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Shieldowskyy/PiozaLauncher/main/pioza-launcher.yml
winget settings --enable LocalManifestFiles
winget install -m pioza-launcher.yml -hLinux support was introduced in v0.6.8 and has been considered stable since v0.7.1.
The launcher supports both native Linux games and Windows games via Proton.
To install the latest version of Pioza Launcher on Linux, run this command:
curl -sSL dsh.yt/pioza.sh | bashTo uninstall it later, run:
curl -sSL dsh.yt/pioza.sh -o /tmp/pioza.sh
bash /tmp/pioza.sh --uninstallThe Linux version of Pioza Launcher requires a few system dependencies:
vulkan- required to run launcher guizenity– used for file picker dialogslibnotify- used for sending system notificationspython3- used for running umu-launcher scripttar- used for unpacking game backup archives
Install these using your distribution’s package manager.
Pioza Launcher is built with Unreal Engine. I found it easier to prototype some features using Unreal Blueprints, but I plan to rewrite parts of it in C++ in the future.
To run this project, you must install Unreal Engine 5.5 on your machine. You might also need Visual Studio with the Unreal Engine components installed to compile all plugins and C++ code.
All required plugins are now included in the repository!
Note
Although you might be able to run the project without these plugins, I recommend installing them to ensure the project starts without any issues.
Sentry is optional but recommended, and therefore included with the project:
Sentry
This project includes external components with their own licenses:
All three are licensed under the MIT License.
Copyright (c) 2024 Georgy Treshchev
Full license texts are available in their respective repositories.
Included as a Git submodule.
Licensed under the Apache License 2.0.
Repository: https://github.com/Shieldowskyy/DSHConsole
Licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3). Not included - downloaded automatically on first run only on Linux platform builds. Repository: https://github.com/Open-Wine-Components/umu-launcher
Licensed under the MIT License.
Repository: https://github.com/getsentry/sentry-unreal
This project is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. This allows you to inspect the code and verify its safety.
Future Plans: Once the project is mature and stable, I intend to relicense it to Apache 2.0. This will give everyone the freedom to create their own launcher variants, including closed-source versions, while keeping the core project open and transparent.
![@github-advanced-security[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/57789?s=64&v=4){kind=small}