Publish your game

You need: a game that runs offline in a browser (HTML + JavaScript), an npm account, a GitHub account, and Node.js 22 or newer.

There are five steps: create the package, put your game in, check it, publish to npm, open a pull request.

Step 1: create the package

npx dsh-game-store init dsh-game-my-game

Replace my-game with your game's name (lowercase letters, digits, hyphens). The command creates a folder holding a tiny game that could go into the store as it is:

dsh-game-my-game/
├── package.json        npm manifest
├── game.json           game manifest: name, summary, entry, pictures
├── cordis.patch.yml    the standard file; leave it as it is
├── LICENSE
├── game/               the game
│   ├── index.html
│   └── game.js
└── store/              what the store shows
    ├── icon.png
    ├── cover.png
    ├── shot-1.png
    ├── about.en.md
    └── about.zh.md

You can also copy the template folder.

Step 2: put your game in

1. Put the game's files in game/. The entry page is game/index.html. Four things to get right:
   - Every script, font, picture and sound is in game/ and loaded by a relative path. Games in the store have no network access.
   - The game fills the window and follows it when it is resized, with no scroll bars. The store gives a running game the whole window and goes full screen.
   - Saves go in localStorage or IndexedDB.
   - The game handles its own languages. Read navigator.language, or offer a language choice inside the game.
2. Edit game.json: id, name, summary, author, languages, controls, players, content rating. Every field is described in section 2.4 of the spec.
3. Replace the pictures in store/:
   - icon.png: square, at least 128×128, at most 256 KB.
   - cover.png: 16:9, at least 1280×720, at most 2 MB. It is the largest picture on the store's front page.
   - 1 to 8 screenshots, each at least 960×540 and at most 2 MB. Use real pictures of the game.
4. Write the description in store/about.en.md and store/about.zh.md. English is required. Use Markdown: what the game is, what is in it, how to play.
5. Edit package.json: name, author, repository, license. Replace LICENSE with the license you chose.
6. If you have a manual, make it one HTML page in manual/, add "manual": { "en": "manual/index.html" } to game.json, and add "manual" to files in package.json.

Step 3: check

npx dsh-game-store check dsh-game-my-game

This runs the same checks as the store's CI. Fix every error; read each warning.

To try the game inside DSH:

cd dsh-game-my-game
npm pack
dsh plugin --profile web add ./dsh-game-my-game-0.1.0.tgz

Restart DSH. The game shows under My Games in the store, with a note that it is not in the catalog. Remove it afterwards with dsh plugin --profile web remove dsh-game-my-game.

Step 4: publish to npm

Push the game's source to your own repository on GitHub. Then:

cd dsh-game-my-game
npm publish

npm accepts each version number once. For every later update, raise version in package.json first.

Step 5: open a pull request

1. Create the catalog entry:

```bash npx dsh-game-store entry dsh-game-my-game@0.1.0 ```

It prints something like this:

```json { "id": "my-game", "package": "dsh-game-my-game", "version": "0.1.0", "integrity": "sha512-…", "repository": "https://github.com/you/dsh-game-my-game", "addedAt": "2026-11-13" } ```

1. Fork the dsh-game-store repository and save that as catalog/games/my-game.json. The file name is the game's id.
2. Open a pull request. CI checks it and shows the result on the pull request page.
3. A maintainer installs the game, plays it, and goes through the review criteria. Questions come as comments on the pull request.
4. After the merge, the site and the catalog update by themselves. Players see your game in the store within a day.

Update a game

1. Raise version in package.json and run npm publish.
2. Run npx dsh-game-store entry dsh-game-my-game@<new version>.
3. Open a pull request that replaces version and integrity in catalog/games/my-game.json. Keep addedAt.

After the merge, players who have the game see "Update to x.y.z".

The package manager DSH uses may wait a day before it installs a newly published npm version. So on the day of the merge an update can fail for some players and work the next day.

Take a game down

To take your own game down, open a pull request that changes the entry to:

{ "…": "…", "status": "delisted", "reason": "Taken down at the author's request" }

Or open an issue in the repository. The rules are in section 6 of the spec.

Common check errors