Deploy your game to Venus

Deploying your game is simple.

1

Build your game

Don't forget to create a new build of your game. It's easy to forget this step! Even if your game is running locally, that doesn't mean it's built to be deployed.

If you're using our templates, simply run this command from your project's root folder:

npm run build

This will compile your game into the ./dist folder in the root of your project.

Experienced developers: build your game any way you wish. You can optionally specify the path to your build, as described below.

2

Deploy!

You'll want to share your game early and often to get plenty of feedback. Deploy means your game is playable by people who you share a link with, but it won't be shown on the platform to anyone, and won't be shown in search results on the platform. Think of a deployed game as "unlisted" by default.

To deploy a build, run:

venus deploy

When it's done deploying, the CLI will show you a link to your game. Share it with anyone! It will be playable in any desktop browser, or in the Venus app.

3

Publish your game to make it show in seach results

When you feel like your game's met a quality bar that you're proud of, you can make it show up in search results on the Venus platform, for everyone.

To publish your game, run:

venus deploy --public

Advanced options

There are optional CLI paramters that give you fine control:

  • --game-id: The game ID to deploy (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

  • --build-path: Path to your game's distribution/build folder

  • --bump: Version bump type - major, minor, or patch (default: minor)

  • --uses-preloader: Whether the game uses the Venus SDK

  • --public: Make this version visible on the explore page

Under the hood

  1. First, we zip the build up in your game distribution folder

  2. Uploads the new version to Venus storage

  3. Creates a new version entry for your game

  4. Updates the dev tag to point to the new version

  5. Optionally sets the version as public (visible in explore page)

  6. Returns OneLink URLs for both public and unlisted access

Make your game visible (optional)

As explained above, the venus deploy command would not make your game publicly available on the platform by default. You'll need to specify it, and there's two ways to do so.

Either by using the venus deploy command with the --public option like this:

Or set visibility with advanced game commands:

game set-public options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

  • --version: Which version to set public (latest by default)

To hide the game from Explore (it should still be accessible via OneLink), run:

set-private options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

example usage:

Controlling version numbers

venus deploy increments your game's version automatically.

Use --bump to manually control versioning:

  • Major: 1.0.0 → 2.0.0 (breaking changes)

  • Minor: 1.0.0 → 1.1.0 (new features) (default)

  • Patch: 1.0.0 → 1.0.1 (bug fixes)

Example:

Advanced game configuration (optional)

For more granular control, use venus game ... subcommands.

Start here:

Then run venus game <subcommand> --help for details on a specific action.

game set-name

Updates the name of your game.

Options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

  • --name: The new name for your game

game set-description

Updates the description of your game.

Options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

  • --description: The new description for your game

game list-versions

Lists all versions of your game.

Options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

game add-editors

Add people who can edit your game.

Arguments:

  • emails: Email addresses of the editors to add (space-separated)

Options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

game remove-editors

Remove people who can edit your game.

Arguments:

  • emails: Email addresses of the editors to remove (space-separated)

Options:

  • --game-id: The game ID (reads from game.config.json if not provided)

example usage:

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