Homegames history

Homegames started in 2018 with the idea of easily joinable social games played from phones. It grew into a hosted platform and later moved to games that run and can be shared directly from a browser.

The Story of Homegames (short version) ·
Joseph’s retrospective on the project.

  1. 2018 — First prototypes

    The early drawing prototype sent a 320 × 180 pixel image over WebSocket. By December, it sent scene data for the browser to render instead. This became the basis of Squish.

    Drawing prototype · Scene serialization

  2. 2019–2020 — Dashboard and Squish

    A dashboard and Home button connected games within the server. In January 2020, Squish and the browser client moved into separate repositories.

    Dashboard · Squish repository

  3. 2021–2022 — Accounts, publishing and controllers

    The website added accounts, while separate services handled the game catalog and publishing. Work continued on local game installation. Homepad added gamepad support in December 2022.

    Website accounts · Homepad integration

  4. 2023 — Homegames 1.0

    Core reached version 1.0 in July. An Electron desktop app followed in August, providing another way to start the home server.

    Version 1.0 · Desktop app

    Homegames Setup Guide ·
    The setup process in 2023. For current instructions, see Self-hosting.

  5. 2026 — Browser development

    Studio added browser-based editing, previews, media tools and hosted publishing. In July, games gained local browser execution and HTML downloads, and Studio added editing without an account.

    Studio · Guest editing

    Homegames Demo - July 2026 ·
    A demo of Homegames at the time.
    Homegames Studio Walkthrough ·
    Editing, previews, sharing and the former hosted publishing workflow.

  6. October 2026 — Browser multiplayer and portable games

    RTC multiplayer lets friends join a game running in one browser. Games can be exported as editable ZIPs or playable HTML files, and complete copies can be sent directly between browsers.

    The website now serves a static game catalog. Studio saves projects locally, and accounts and hosted publishing are no longer part of the current workflow. Homegames services provide connection helpers; the home server remains available separately.

    Browser RTC · How Homegames works today

Development dates come from repository history; video dates are their publication dates. Older videos show the software as it was then.

More Homegames videos · About Homegames