Generate installer

A launcher project in Publisher Account maintains two launcher versions: a draft launcher and a published launcher.

The draft launcher reflects the latest state of the launcher project. All changes to settings in the launcher project affect only the draft launcher. This is done for safety reasons, so that you can thoroughly test your changes.

Once the draft launcher setup is complete, you need to generate installers, and then publish the draft launcher. Publishing creates a new launcher version, a published launcher, by copying the draft launcher settings and installer links.

The published launcher and its installer links are for players. You can only update this launcher by updating and publishing the draft launcher again.

To prepare the launcher installer for players:

1. Open your project in Publisher Account.
2. Click Launcher in the side menu.
3. Find the launcher on the dashboard, and then click Edit launcher.
4. In Settings, click Launcher build.
5. Generate installers for the draft launcher by clicking Generate in the Draft section.
   Generating installers may take up to several hours. The installers are signed with an Xsolla certificate and uploaded to the Xsolla CDN.

6. Once the draft launcher installers are generated, test the launcher by clicking Get installer in the Draft section, get a link to a web installer, or download a standalone installer for your operating system.

7. If testing shows that some of the launcher settings need to be changed, change those settings in the launcher project. Then, generate installers and test the draft build again, as described in steps 5 and 6.
8. Once the launcher is ready to be published for users, click Publish in the Draft section.
9. Confirm the action by clicking Publish.
10. If you publish the launcher for the first time or change some critical settings (OS, launcher name, launcher icon), a new Published section appears above the Draft section. If not, the settings and installer links from the Draft section overwrite the settings and installer links in the Published section.
11. Copy the link to the appropriate installer to distribute it to your users. To see the list of the links, click Get installer in the Published section.

Continue reading