Submitting a game#

Every game on the Hub is published by a publisher, and a game goes on the Hub, with every new version of it, as a zip its publisher uploads: from the publisher dashboard, or with one of the publisher's submission keys. npx -p @unikia/upe-cli uniplay submit does all of it for you; this page is what happens underneath.

Publishers#

A publisher is the name players see a game published under. It has its own name and picture, and a profile in the Hub that showcases its games. One or more Hub accounts are its members and manage it; an account can be a member of several publishers.

• Ask for one with a Publisher profile request from the Feedback window in the Hub, signed in with your account, saying the publisher's name. An admin creates it, with you as its first member, and replies to your account's email.
• Members manage it in the publisher dashboard at /publisher/ (Settings → Publisher dashboard in the Hub): upload zips from uniplay pack and play them before they go live, see its games and versions, set its name and picture, add or remove members by Hub nickname, and make submission keys.
• A publisher uploads new games and new versions of its own. A game belongs to the publisher that sent its first version; the manifest's developers are credits and needn't include whoever uploads it.
• Verified publishers are marked as verified beside their name, in Game details and on their profile.

Submission keys#

For uploading from the command line, UPE or CI. A submission key is uk_sub_ followed by 32 characters. It is private: keep it out of your repository, and treat it like a password.

• Any member makes one in the publisher dashboard's Keys tab, naming what it's for. It's shown once; revoke it there if it leaks.
• A key uploads as its publisher, whichever member made it. npx -p @unikia/upe-cli uniplay whoami says which.
• A publisher can upload 10 times a day, by keys and dashboard together.

Uploading#

Pack the game into its zip, then send it in three steps. First ask for a place to upload it, giving its size in bytes:

POST /api/submissions/uploads HTTP/1.1
Host: play.unikia.es
Authorization: Bearer uk_sub_0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
Content-Type: application/json

{ "size": 296747008 }

The Hub answers 201 Created with where to put it, valid for an hour:

{ "upload": "…", "url": "https://…", "method": "PUT", "headers": { "content-type": "application/zip" }, "expiresAt": 1793000000000 }

Send the zip to url with that method and those headers, and nothing else (no Authorization: the URL carries its own permission, for exactly that size). Then submit it:

POST /api/submissions HTTP/1.1
Host: play.unikia.es
Authorization: Bearer uk_sub_0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
Content-Type: application/json

{ "upload": "…" }

A zip under 100 MB can also go as the body of POST /api/submissions itself (Content-Type: application/zip); bigger ones only reach the Hub the first way.

The Hub answers 202 Accepted with the submission:

{ "id": "…", "status": "pending", "validation": { … } }

validation is the result of the same checks uniplay validate runs. Follow the submission with GET /api/submissions/:id, using any of the publisher's keys. GET /api/submissions/key answers which publisher a key uploads as. A submission's status is one of:

Review#

A game's first version waits for an admin, who plays it before it goes live. After that, each game is Manual or Automated: updates to a Manual game wait for an admin too, and updates to a game an admin set to Automated go live as soon as they pass validation.

An admin may also verify a publisher: everything a verified publisher uploads, first versions included, goes live as soon as it passes validation, with no daily limit. A publisher an admin disabled can't upload, by dashboard or key, or change its profile until it's enabled again; its games stay on the Hub.

Rolling back#

A version that went wrong can be taken back: in the Publisher dashboard's games, pick an earlier version and Make live. Players get it at once, and Uniplay for desktop installs it as an update. The live version and the 3 published most recently besides it (more if an admin raises it) can be downloaded in the app; any older one can still be made live, and becomes downloadable again.

Buds play a game together on the same version, so after an update or a rollback the one behind is offered the update before joining. A game whose versions stay compatible can let any of them play together with coopAcrossVersions in its manifest.

uniplay submit#

npx -p @unikia/upe-cli uniplay submit --key uk_sub_…   # pack the game in this folder and upload it
npx -p @unikia/upe-cli uniplay submit game.zip --wait  # upload a zip from uniplay pack and wait for the result
npx -p @unikia/upe-cli uniplay status <submission id>  # how a submission is doing

uniplay submit takes a game folder (by default the current one, packed as uniplay pack does) or a zip, uploads it and reports its status; --wait checks again until it's no longer pending. Without --key, it reads the key from the UNIPLAY_SUBMIT_KEY environment variable, which keeps it out of your shell history and works in CI.