How to integrate Launcher with Epic Games Store

How it works

You can integrate your game with Launcher in Epic Games Store (EGS). It lets you promote your other EGS games via Xsolla Launcher.

Prerequisites

To set up EGS integration, you will need:

• an Epic App ID (Artifact ID)
• an account with the admin role and game application on Epic Games Developer Portal
• a game build for publication on EGS
• a ready-to-use launcher configured in Publisher Account
• the latest version of BuildPatch Tool

Get Epic App ID (Artifact ID)

To find your Epic App ID:

1. Log in to Epic Games Developer Portal.
2. Go to your game products.
3. In the game card, select the Epic Games Store option.

4. In the side menu, click Artifacts and Binaries and choose the sandbox and artifact.

5. Click the artifact name to see the Epic App ID

Integration steps

Set up authorization

1. If you don't have a client policy, create one:
   1. Log in to Epic Games Developer Portal.
   2. In your product (game) settings go to the Product Settings > Clients > Add new client policy section.
   3. Add a policy name in the Client policy field.
   4. Select the GameClient policy from the Client policy type dropdown list.
   5. Click Add new policy.

2. Create a login client:
   1. In your product settings, go to the Product Settings > Clients > Add new client section.
   2. Add a client name in the Client name field.
   3. Select the newly created client policy from the Client policy dropdown.

3. Click Create Application.

4. Assign the created client:
   1. Click Linked Clients on the top right.
   2. Select the previously created client from the Select Clients dropdown list.

5. Make sure that permissions are configured, click the Permissions navigation bar. If it is marked as Not configured, enable and disable any of the options, and save the changes.

6. In your project in Publisher Account go to the Login section.
7. Select a login option and go to the Authentication > Publishing platforms > Epic Games section.
8. Fill in the Application ID and Application secret key fields. You may copy the field values from Epic Games Developer Portal (the Product Settings > Clients > Edit client section).
9. Click Save changes.

Set up EGS platform and download files

1. In your project in Publisher Account go to the Launcher section.
2. Find the launcher on the dashboard, and click Edit launcher.
3. Go to the Settings section and click Set up to the right of the Epic Games platform logo.

4. Enter the Epic App ID of your game.
5. To ensure user entitlement works properly, specify Audience Item ID. Perform the following steps to retrieve the ID:
   1. In your product settings, go to the Epic Games Store > Offers section.
   2. Determine what offers will be used for launchers to check entitlement. If the user will have an entitlement offer you chose, the launcher will consider that the user owns the game.
   Click Edit offer to see Audience Item ID.

7. Click Download launcher host to download the LauncherHost.zip archive for Windows or macOS.
8. Click Download config to download the hostArgs.json configuration file for Windows or macOS.

Generate and download launcher installer

Prepare the Game Build for EGS

1. Unpack the LauncherHost.zip archive (should be downloaded in the previous step) to any folder of your choice. This archive contains the GameBuild directory which will be used to prepare the game builds that will be uploaded to Epic Dev Portal.

• LauncherHost.exe — an executable file for LauncherHost utility
• Qt5Core.dll vcruntime140-140_1.dll, msvcp140-140_1.dll — service libs for the LauncherHost.exe utility
• installer — a directory that contains the launcher installer

Directory structure for MacOS:

• LauncherHost — an executable file for the LauncherHost utility
• Frameworks — a system folder for the LauncherHost utility libs
• installer — a folder that contains the launcher installer

2. Create a new folder in the GameBuild folder.
3. Copy and paste your game build into that folder.
4. Set up the game executable file name (Windows / macOS) in the Game > Build > Executable files section and specify the relative path to the game executable file.

5. Copy the launcher installer and the hostArgs.json file to the GameBuild directory. As a result, the GameBuild directory should have the following structure:
   • For Windows:

\---GameBuild
    |   hostArgs.json
    |   LauncherHost.exe
    |   msvcp140.dll
    |   msvcp140_1.dll
    |   Qt5Core.dll
    |   vcruntime140.dll
    |   vcruntime140_1.dll
    |
    \---installer
            installer.exe

2. • For macOS:

\---GameBuild
    |   hostArgs.json
    |   LauncherHost
    |
    +---Frameworks
    |   \---QtCore.framework
    |       \---Versions
    |           \---5
    |               |   QtCore
    |               |
    |               \---Resources
    |                       Info.plist
    |                       QtCore.prl
    |
    \---installer
            Launcher.pkg

Upload game builds to EGS

1. Unpack the BuildPatch Tool that was downloaded earlier.
2. Create a directory for BuildPatch Tool to be used as cache directory for game builds.
3. Go to to the unpacked directory BuildPatchTool_x.y.z/Engine/Binaries/Win64 (this varies depending on the BuildPatch Tool version and the operating system).
4. Open a terminal inside this directory and run the following command in order to upload the game binaries. You can refer to the documentation for more detailed instructions.

.\BuildPatchTool.exe
  -ClientId="<YourClientId>"
  -ClientSecret="<secret>"
  -mode=UploadBinary
  -OrganizationId="<YourOrg>"
  -ProductId="<YourProduct>"
  -ArtifactId="<YourArtifact>"
  -BuildRoot="<absolute-path-to-GameBuild-directory>"
  -CloudDir="<absolute-path-to-cache-directory>"
  -BuildVersion="1.0.2-launcher-win"
  -AppLaunch="LauncherHost.exe"
  -AppArgs=""

The command parameters:

• ClientId and ClientSecret are available in the Epic Dev Portal in the Product Settings > BPT Credentials section.

• OrganizationId is available in the General Settings section on the Organization > Settings tab.

• ProductId is available in the EOS SDK Credentials section on the Product Settings > SDK Download & Credentials tab.

• To find the values of the ArtifactId and BuildVersion parameters, refer to the instruction. The value of the BuildVersion parameter is also available in the action menu on the game card in the Epic Games launcher.

• AppLaunch — the path to the main executable file relative to BuildRoot in the following format:
  • LauncherHost.exe — for Windows LauncherHost — for MacOS

• AppArgs — additional launch arguments. It can be an empty string.

Assign platforms to the artifact

1. Go to the artifact’s page.
2. On the right-hand side, scroll to the Inactive binaries section, click the actions menu button (…), click Assign platforms. Select the platforms accordingly.

Get developer access to the game in EGS launcher

1. Add a new user to groups:
   1. Go to the Product Settings > Player Groups section.
   2. Click the actions menu button (…) on a particular player group, and click Edit Group.
   3. Go to the Add accounts tab, choose Epic Games as the Identity Provider and specify the account ID.

2. Generate access keys:
   1. Go to the Epic Games Store > Access keys section of your project settings.
   2. Click Generate keys on the top right.

2. 3. Select the sandbox and the offer that you want to generate the keys for.

2. 4. Enter the keys’ name in the Batch name field.
   5. Select the Testing type.
   6. Specify the quantity.

2. 5. Once keys are created, download them. Click the actions menu button (…) and click Download.

5. Click the profile button on the top right of the EGS launcher and click the Redeem Code option.
6. Redeem the downloaded key. Once a key for an offer is successfully redeemed, the user is entitled to that particular offer.

Update game builds

In order to update the existing game builds, repeat steps for preparing game builds, uploading to EGS, and assigning to the artifact.