GitHub - stared/rusted-doom-launcher: Steam-like experience for DOOM mods and wads - works with GZDoom - with Rust and Tauri 2

Rusted Doom Launcher

A modern open-source launcher for classic Doom WADs and mods. Browse community-made maps and episodes, then install and launch them with a single click—essentially bringing the Steam experience to Doom.

The scene is alive and well - see newest releases at Doomworld. I got inspired by gameplaces shared at Doom & Retro FPS Mods Facebook group. For now, the library consists of the top maps from Cacowards - yearly awards for the best Doom maps, megawads and mod releases. I am open to expanding it.

It is currently in alpha. I build it for myself, but sharing it so others may enjoys as well. There are similar apps, notably Doom Launcher, but they are either Windows-only or lack features I wanted.

I use macOS (Apple Silicon) and created this tool specifically for it. There are no builds yet for other systems, but porting should be straightforward. If you want to make it runnable on Windows or Linux, I would be happy to add it to the repo.

Requirements

GZDoom - Doom source port
- works also with newer UZDoom, there is some drama about the GZDoom-UZDoom split
doom.wad and doom2.wad - Doom game data from GOG.com or Steam
- The app can extract IWADs directly from GOG installers using innoextract (brew install innoextract)

Install

macOS

The easiest way is to use Homebrew via my tap stared/doom.

brew install --cask stared/doom/rusted-doom-launcher

Alternatively, download a binary from releases. Since it is unsigned open-source software, you must remove the quarantine attribute before running (otherwise macOS will report it as damaged):

xattr -cr /Applications/Rusted\ Doom\ Launcher.app

You also need a Doom engine. Install it manually or via Homebrew:

brew install --cask gzdoom
# or newer:
brew install --cask stared/doom/uzdoom

Linux and Windows

Not yet!

Contributions are welcome if you can make it work on these systems.

Features

Visual Browsing: Explore WADs with embedded YouTube previews
Instant Action: One-click launch with UZDoom/GZDoom
Mod Manager: Download new WADs directly within the app
Stat Tracking: Track your play stats per level

Development

To build from source, you need pnpm and Rust.

Install dependencies and run:

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev

Build for production:

AI-Assisted Debugging (MCP)

The app includes tauri-plugin-mcp-bridge for AI debugging via Claude Code.

# Install MCP server for Claude Code
npx -y install-mcp @hypothesi/tauri-mcp-server --client claude-code

With the app running (pnpm tauri dev), Claude Code can take screenshots, click elements, execute JS, and inspect the DOM.

Tech

Tauri 2 (it's in Rust, hence the project name)
Vue 3 in TypeScript
Python scripts for some processing
Claude Code and Gemini for vibe coding

Author

Piotr Migdal

License

MIT