a-la-karte/docs/GAMECENTER.md

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# Gamecenter track (Launcher + Game Center)
## Goal
The gamecenter track evolves A-La-Karte from “a launcher” into “a launcher + game center” suitable for a **fully integrated, console-like experience on KDE**.
Key ideas:
- The UI becomes a client of background services.
- Launching and monitoring games is handled by a daemon.
- Runner resolution (Wine/Proton) is handled by a runner manager service.
## Architecture (high level)
### UI (A-La-Karte)
- Displays the library and settings.
- Requests launches via the Game Center daemon instead of launching processes directly.
- Surfaces daemon/service errors to the user.
### Game Center daemon
- Manages game sessions (launch/stop, running state, concurrency policy).
- Tracks/monitors sessions so Steam/Lutris URL-based launches can still be managed.
- Intended to be activatable via DBus/systemd.
DBus service (planned/implemented on the gamecenter branch):
- `org.kde.GameCenter1`
### Runner manager daemon
- Manages “runners” (e.g. Proton, Wine, GE builds):
- install/uninstall
- inventory listing
- resolve launch specs deterministically
- prefix lifecycle helpers
DBus service (planned/implemented on the gamecenter branch):
- `org.kde.ALaKarte.Runner1`
## Branches
- `master` / `legacy`
- Launcher-focused baseline.
- `gamecenter`
- Experimental daemon-based direction.
## Status
This document is intentionally a living overview. Detailed API docs / roadmaps should live in separate documents as they solidify.