Phoenix is an open-source game launcher for MacOS, created by Shock9616, written in SwiftUI. This launcher was inspired by projects like Playnite and Lutris, and supports any game which can be launched from the command line. (So basically all of them!) It was designed to be small, fast, and not overly complicated. Phoenix is available on GitHub under the MIT license

Phoenix is compatible with just about any game that can be run on MacOS as games are launched by running a terminal command in the background. For example, to launch Hollow Knight through Steam, it would run open steam://run/367520. This approach means that this launcher can launch games installed through the App Store, Steam (and other similar stores), CrossOver, Parallels, and even emulated games! This makes Phoenix the perfect hub for all the games you have on your Mac

To run this launcher, your Mac must be on at least MacOS 13.0 (Ventura). I did my best to make it compatible with Monterey, but with my very limited knowledge of Swift/SwiftUI I wasn't able to make it work without code that only works on MacOS 13. This may change in the future though as the launcher matures so if you aren't able to/haven't upgraded yet, not all hope is lost!

Download the latest release from the releases page and install the app like you would with any other. The first time you open the app, you will get an alert saying that your Mac can't check the app for Malicious software. This is because I'm a broke university student who can't afford an Apple Developer Program membership. I promise it's safe. Close the alert, right click the app in Finder, and select "open" from the menu. You'll get the same alert, but this time there will be an option to open anyways. When you open the app, it will look like this:

You can add a game by clicking the '+' button in the toolbar. Fill in as much information as you can. To run the game, you need at the VERY least a name and a launcher command. All the other things are for making the launcher look nicer. (The above screenshot doesn't look very nice does it? 😅) Once you've added a game you can delete the placeholder game by right-clicking and selecting 'Delete Game'. You can edit a game you've already added by clicking the gear button next to the play button. When editing, leave everything at its default value except for the information you intend to change.

Once you have a game and it's launcher command is configured, you can hit the play button and it will open up!

I know that not everyone has used the terminal before, so here are some templates for some common places to find games:

open /Applications/<App Name Here>.app

or

open ~/Applications/<App Name Here>.app

Steam games are now automatically detected by Phoenix! But, on the off chance that you want to change it or need to enter it yourself, here's the format to use:

open steam://run/<steam app id here>

You can find your game's id by going to SteamDB and searching for your game. The app id will be in the leftmost column.

I don't have any games from these stores, so unfortunately I can't test what commands work for them. If anyone figures out a good template that works, let me know and I will update this section to include it!

If you didn't know, Applications installed in Parallels have Mac apps that act as launchers in ~/Applications (Parallels)/<VM Name> Applications/, so any Windows game you play via Parallels can be launched like this (Using my VM called 'Windows 11' as an example):

open ~/Applications\ (Parallels)/Windows\ 11\ Applications/<game name>.exe.app

Crossover apps are installed to ~/Applications/CrossOver so they can be launched like this:

open ~/Applications/CrossOver/<game name>.app

There isn't a set formula for emulated games, since the games are all run by different apps. That said, most (not all) will work with one of these options:

open /path/to/rom/file

For example, this command opens Metroid Prime Hunters in DeSuME for me:

open ~/Documents/Gaming/ROMs/NDS/Metroid\ Prime\ Hunters.nds

or

open /Applications/<emulator name here>.app/Contents/MacOS/<emulator name> /path/to/rom/file

For example, this command opens Metroid Dread in Ryujinx for me:

open /Applications/Ryujinx.app/Contents/MacOS/Ryujinx ~/Documents/Gaming/ROMs/Switch/Metroid\ Dread.nsp

If you want to build this app for yourself, just download this repository

git clone [email protected]:Shock9616/Phoenix.git

then open Phoenix.xcodeproj in Xcode. You will first have to update the Team field in the Signing and Capabilities section of Targets > Phoenix in the main Project file. You can then create a .app file by going to Product > Archive in the menu bar, clicking Distribute App, selecting Copy App and then saving the folder somewhere easy to find like your desktop. The app will be inside the folder and you can copy it into your applications folder and begin using it!

If you want to be notified when new updates are released here, make sure you "watch" this repository at the top of the page. You can be notified of only new releases by clicking the arrow next to the button, selecting "Custom", and then selecting "Releases" and then "Apply"

If you need to contact us for anything, you can join our Discord Server. There you can ask the devs for help if you are having any issues using our app, and you will be the first to know when there are new releases!

We would love to have you on the team! There are lots of ways to contribute, you can:

• Contribute code

• Help with UI design

• Help test and find bugs

• Submit feature requests

• Pretty much anything else you can think of!

You don't need to be a developer to help make this project the best it can be! Even something as simple as letting us know when something doesn't work as expected is incredibly helpful! To contribute you can submit bug reports to our Issues section here on GitHub, or you can join our Discord Server to discuss ideas, collaborate on code, etc.

We're very excited to see where this project goes, and we would love for the development of this app to be the catalyst for a new community of people who love gaming on Macs!

• App Icon was generated by DALL·E 2 (I'm not an artist 😅)

• As much as I'm embarassed to say it, there is code in this project written by ChatGPT. (I said I don't know much Swift 🤷‍♂️😅)