Platform Vision

The Goal

A hosted platform where anyone can publish browser games that are instantly playable from a URL. No app stores, no downloads, no plugins.

How It Works (Future)

For Developers

# Build your game
sg build --release

# Package for publishing
sg package

# Publish to the platform
sg publish

Your game appears at your-game.games.siliconghetto.com within seconds.

For Players

Click a link. Play a game. No friction.

Every game on the platform loads in the browser, runs in a sandboxed WASM environment, and requires no installation. Games load fast because they’re optimized for the web from the ground up.

For the Ecosystem

  • Game catalog with search, tags, and categories
  • Developer profiles with published game listings
  • Instant play from any page or embed
  • Community curation and discovery
  • Analytics for developers (opt-in, privacy-respecting)

Architecture

Developer                    Platform                     Player
   │                            │                            │
   │  sg publish                │                            │
   ├───────────────────────────→│                            │
   │                            │  validate manifest         │
   │                            │  store artifact (S3)       │
   │                            │  register in catalog       │
   │                            │  configure subdomain       │
   │                            │                            │
   │  Published!                │                            │
   │←───────────────────────────┤                            │
   │                            │                            │
   │                            │  slug.games.sg.com         │
   │                            │←───────────────────────────┤
   │                            │  serve game bundle         │
   │                            │───────────────────────────→│
   │                            │                            │  play!

Key Principles

  1. Free to publish: Basic game hosting is free. Sustainability comes from optional premium features later.
  2. No lock-in: Games use the open SiliconGhetto engine. Your code is your code.
  3. Self-hostable: The platform code is source-available. Run your own instance if you prefer.
  4. Cheap to operate: SQLite + S3 + single server. No Kubernetes, no managed cloud services.
  5. Secure by default: Per-game sandboxing, CSP, and cross-origin isolation.

Not Yet Implemented

The platform is in the architecture phase (v0.4 scope). Current focus is on the engine foundation (v0.1-v0.3). The platform design informs engine decisions today so we’re building toward the right architecture.

Revenue Model (Future Considerations)

No revenue model is implemented or committed to. Possible future directions:

  • Premium developer features (custom domains, analytics, cloud saves)
  • Featured/promoted placement in the catalog
  • Platform-level services (multiplayer relay, asset CDN)

The engine itself will always be free and open source.