LovelessCodes Posted September 22, 2025 Report Posted September 22, 2025 (edited) Hey Seraphs I’ve been working on a new launcher for Vintage Story called “Story Forge”, and I’d love for you to take it for a spin and tell me what you think. What is Story Forge? Story Forge is a modern desktop app for Vintage Story players, designed to make switching between game versions, modpacks, servers, and accounts effortless. It’s built with Tauri, so it ships as a minimal, secure binary for Windows, macOS, and Linux. No Electron bloat—just fast, native performance. There's an automated updater built-in - Don't worry though, you'll get asked if you want to install the newest update, when an update is released. Why you might like it One-click version switching: Keep multiple game versions side-by-side and swap instantly. Modpack installations: Create separate installations with their own mods, configs, saves, and world folders. Perfect for trying large modpacks without messing up your main setup. Server presets: Save servers with version and modpack selections so you can jump back in seamlessly. Account management: Switch between accounts without retyping credentials each time. Smart updates: Quickly update the game, modpacks, and singular mods easily - It's easy to rollback. Safe by design: Minimal footprint, sandboxed where possible (thanks to Tauri). No background bloat, transparent permissions. Planned and in-progress One-click “Server sharing” to import/export servers (Currently only supported on installations) Crash inspector and log bundles for easier support Backup/restore for worlds and configs Installation templates for popular modpacks Download and source Website (downloads): https://getstoryforge.app/ GitHub (source, issues, contributions): https://github.com/LovelessCodes/StoryForge How to get started Download the installer or portable build for your OS from the website. Sign in with your game account Create your first installation: Pick a game version Add mods or import an installation Optionally bind a server Click “Play.” on said installation - Story Forge will handle the rest and keep everything neat and separated. Call for testers I’m looking for feedback on: First-time setup clarity: Were the defaults sensible? Anything confusing? Version/modpack switching: Smooth? Any rough edges? Performance and stability on your OS Missing quality-of-life features you really want How to report issues or suggest features Open an issue on GitHub: https://github.com/LovelessCodes/StoryForge/issues Or drop your feedback in this thread with your OS, Story Forge version, steps to reproduce, and logs if possible Screenshots https://github.com/LovelessCodes/StoryForge/raw/release/screenshots/Overview.png https://github.com/LovelessCodes/StoryForge/raw/release/screenshots/Installations.png https://github.com/LovelessCodes/StoryForge/raw/release/screenshots/Mod_Browser.png FAQ Is it safe? Built with Tauri for a small, native footprint and reduced attack surface. The code is open source. No analytics by default. Will it break my worlds? Story Forge uses isolated installations by design. Your existing data won’t be touched unless you import/copy it. Always keep backups of important worlds. Mac notes? When first launching the application on Mac, you'll get an error; '"Story Forge" Not Opened', click "Done" here - this is due to some security, since I'm not willing to currently pay $99 to have an Apple Developers account. What you have to do to get it to work, go into System Settings > Privacy & Security > Scroll to the bottom, and click "Open anyway" on the Story Forge application. Roadmap highlights Integrated mod discovery and dependency solver Preflight checks before launching (missing deps, version mismatches) Exporting installations, to share with friends or other players on the same server Thanks for giving Story Forge a try! Your feedback will directly shape the next releases. If you like it, consider starring the repo and sharing it with your server/community. Download: https://getstoryforge.app/ GitHub: https://github.com/LovelessCodes/StoryForge Edited September 22, 2025 by LovelessCodes Accidental smiley 3
Circuit Posted September 22, 2025 Report Posted September 22, 2025 Great stuff! Looking forward to seeing how this develops. 1
Echo Weaver Posted September 22, 2025 Report Posted September 22, 2025 This looks really interesting. Thanks for the Mac support! I'm looking forward to trying out. 1
Meo Posted February 22 Report Posted February 22 (edited) This is so helpful and very user-friendly! Thank you very much for sharing! Edited February 22 by Meo
porkbrick_JR Posted March 1 Report Posted March 1 Ive been looking out for something like this for a long time! so far, ive been able to get an installation set up with a mod list, and Ive started 3 test worlds testing out terrain gen settings. i have a couple of questions: 1- can i import world saves created before the story forge installation? maybe i need to copy/paste the save file? 2- when looking at the main menu, it shows 1 installation and within that it shows 3 saves. however, when i click on the saves it only shows 3 blank slots. Im unsure if that's the way its supposed to be, or are the saves accessed through the game UI only (which makes sense). thanks so much for developing this. cheers
Haltingpoint Posted Saturday at 10:37 PM Report Posted Saturday at 10:37 PM On 2/28/2026 at 8:25 PM, porkbrick_JR said: Ive been looking out for something like this for a long time! so far, ive been able to get an installation set up with a mod list, and Ive started 3 test worlds testing out terrain gen settings. i have a couple of questions: 1- can i import world saves created before the story forge installation? maybe i need to copy/paste the save file? 2- when looking at the main menu, it shows 1 installation and within that it shows 3 saves. however, when i click on the saves it only shows 3 blank slots. Im unsure if that's the way its supposed to be, or are the saves accessed through the game UI only (which makes sense). thanks so much for developing this. cheers @LovelessCodes can you weigh in on this? I just installed StoryForge on my mac, and wanted to import my existing world and mods and configs and such. I also sync my mod and saves folder across my windows machine with SyncThing. What is the "happy path" for me to import things properly? I want to set this up so I can preserve my old world while trying out .22.
Haltingpoint Posted Saturday at 11:25 PM Report Posted Saturday at 11:25 PM Hmmm, I think I got it working actually, however it only shows as a tiny UI in the bottom left corner of my 2018 macbook pro (intel) screen. I tried chatgpting some fixes and nothing seems to work. Is there a recognized fix?
Xplosionist Posted Sunday at 04:38 AM Report Posted Sunday at 04:38 AM @LovelessCodes are you still working on this? I see the release more than a month ago you noted you were already well into a total rewrite that was much better than the 0.6.3/0.6.4 version. Would love to hear if this is something you're still working on. If you have gotten onto other things or run out of time, that's fine, that happens a lot. Just let us know.
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