kaesual

Why Kaesual exists

Good free games belong on the web, too.

I built Kaesual because a free game that opens directly in the browser — no install, no launcher — is a genuinely good way to make such games easier to discover and share. It started with Luanti; by now an arena shooter runs here as well.

This is still a small personal project. Feedback and careful bug reports are very welcome.

What is behind it

Behind kaesual.com is one coherent stack that covers everything needed to offer games in the browser:

  • WebsiteStart games, manage your account and characters. Worlds and saves stay local, in your browser.
  • Privacy proxyConnects the browser to the game servers. Every player gets a virtual address for that; no game server ever sees a real IP address. The proxy also checks who may reach which server.
  • Game-server managementServers are created, started, stopped and published from the admin interface, including the choice of game and mods.
  • Accounts & moderationSign-up with spam protection, admin roles, and bans that also end a running connection immediately.
  • Included gamesCurrently Luanti with VoxeLibre and Grudgelands (plus your own worlds and ContentDB), and Arena Web, a shooter based on OpenArena and ioquake3.

Two ways to play

  • On a game server.The server runs on a machine somewhere; the proxy connects the players to it. This is how the servers on kaesual.com run.
  • Without a server, browser to browser.One player hosts the world in their own tab and shares their virtual address; the others connect to it directly through the proxy. Nobody needs a server, and nobody reveals a real address.

Open source

The games are free and open source — the originals as well as my web forks and builds of them:

  • Luanti web forkLGPL 2.1
    The engine in the browser. Report engine and browser-runtime issues here.
  • GrudgelandsGPL 3.0
    The game. Report Grudgelands gameplay issues here.
  • Arena WebGPL 2.0
    Browser client and server of the arena shooter.
  • ioquake3 web forkGPL 2.0
    The engine behind it.

The stack itself — website, proxy, game-server management and deployment — is still private today, but its source code will be published soon as well, under a licence for non-commercial use. Commercial use on request. And yes: you will be able to run all of it on a server of your own.

Coming soon: more games

My goal is to bring really good open-source games to the web in versions that do not feel like a compromise. The list of games that run on the Kaesual stack is meant to keep growing.