GameVault Game Preparation Scripts

PowerShell scripts that automate preparing GOG and Steam games for GameVault by compressing them into .7z archives that follow GameVault's required naming format.

Scripts

Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1

Interactive script that prompts you for game metadata (title, version, release year, game type, etc.) and compresses each game folder into a properly named .7z archive. Use this when your source folders are not yet named per GameVault conventions.

Compress-ForGameVault.ps1

Batch compression script for game folders that are already named per GameVault conventions. Compresses every validly-named folder using maximum compression with no prompts. Runs an integrity check (7z t) on existing archives before skipping them; corrupt archives are automatically rebuilt. Supports parallel compression via -Parallel for multi-drive setups.

Features

• Supports both GOG and Steam game sources
• Compresses game folders using 7-Zip
• Follows GameVault's naming convention requirements
• Supports all GameVault metadata tags (Early Access, Game Type, No Cache)
• Automatically creates destination directories if needed
• Resolves all paths relative to the script ($PSScriptRoot), so the repo can live anywhere
• Auto-detects 7-Zip in standard install locations and on PATH; supports a SEVENZIP_PATH env-var override
• Compresses with multithreading enabled (-mmt=on) for faster runs on multi-core CPUs
• Compress-ForGameVault.ps1 pre-flights folder names against GameVault format; invalid names are reported and skipped before compression starts
• Compress-ForGameVault.ps1 integrity-tests existing archives with 7z t before skipping; corrupt archives are rebuilt automatically
• Compress-ForGameVault.ps1 supports configurable source directories via -Sources hashtable (add Itch, Epic, etc. without forking)
• Compress-ForGameVault.ps1 supports optional parallel compression (-Parallel, PS 7+ only)
• Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1 sanitizes user-typed titles to strip characters Windows forbids in filenames
• Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1 parses existing folder names to pre-fill all metadata prompts — just press Enter to accept
• Both scripts emit GameVault-Ready\manifest.csv (name, source, sizes, compression ratio, duration, optional SHA-256)
• Both scripts support -WhatIf for dry-run and accept -SevenZipPath, -DestinationDir, and other path overrides as parameters

Requirements

• Windows with PowerShell 5.1+ (or PowerShell 7+)
• 7-Zip — keep on the latest stable release for security fixes
• GOG and/or Steam games in source directories
• For GOG offline installers: ensure all installer files for a given game live inside a folder named after the game (e.g. Fallout 2, not FALLOUT_2-1998)

Installation

1. Clone this repository or download the scripts

2. Install 7-Zip. The scripts auto-discover it in this order:

   1. $env:SEVENZIP_PATH if set
   2. C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe
   3. C:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe
   4. 7z.exe on PATH

   If 7-Zip lives somewhere non-standard, set the override before running:

   $env:SEVENZIP_PATH = "D:\Tools\7-Zip\7z.exe"

3. Place your game folders in the appropriate source directories alongside the scripts:

   • GOG-Archive\ — GOG game folders
   • Steam-Archive\ — Steam game folders

Expected layout

GameVault-GamePrep\
├── Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1
├── Compress-ForGameVault.ps1
├── GOG-Archive\
│   └── Fallout 2\
│       └── ...installer files...
├── Steam-Archive\
│   └── Half-Life 2\
│       └── ...game files...
└── GameVault-Ready\           # created automatically
    └── Fallout 2 (W) (1998).7z

Usage

Interactive preparation (Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1)

Use this when your folders are not yet named per GameVault conventions.

1. Open PowerShell
2. Navigate to the script directory
3. Run the script:

.\Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1

4. Choose a session-wide default compression level (can override per game)
5. For each game: press Enter to process, s to skip, or q to quit. If the folder name already follows GameVault conventions, all metadata prompts are pre-filled — just press Enter to accept
6. Title input is sanitized automatically. Game-type is validated; invalid values reprompt. Year is validated against the range 1970–(current year + 1)
7. Compressed archives are saved to GameVault-Ready\; a row is appended to GameVault-Ready\manifest.csv after each success

Batch compression (Compress-ForGameVault.ps1)

Use this when your folders are already named per GameVault conventions. Each archive is named <FolderName>.7z verbatim, so the source folder name must end with a 4-digit year in parentheses (e.g. Fallout 2 (W) (1998)). Folders that don't match this format are reported and skipped before any compression begins.

1. Open PowerShell
2. Navigate to the script directory
3. Run the script:

.\Compress-ForGameVault.ps1

4. All validly-named folders in the source directories are compressed to GameVault-Ready\ using maximum compression; a row is appended to GameVault-Ready\manifest.csv after each success
5. Folders whose archive already exists are integrity-tested with 7z t before being skipped. Corrupt archives are deleted and rebuilt. Pass -SkipIntegrityCheck to skip the test, or -Force to always re-archive
6. Folders missing the required (YYYY) suffix are reported and skipped — rename them or run Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1 to handle them interactively

GameVault Naming Convention

Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1 builds filenames following GameVault's required format:

Title (Version) (EarlyAccess) (GameType) (NoCache) (ReleaseYear).7z

Where:

• Title — name of the game
• Version — optional version number (e.g. v1.2.3)
• EarlyAccess — EA tag for early access games
• GameType — game platform type:
  • W_S — Windows Store
  • W — Windows
  • L — Linux
  • M — Mac
  • A — Android
• NoCache — NC tag to disable caching
• ReleaseYear — required 4-digit year of release

Example: Hades (v1.38209) (W) (2020).7z

For full details, see the GameVault file naming docs.

Compression Options

Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1 offers three compression levels:

Choice	7-Zip flags	Notes
1 Fast	-mx=0 -ms=off	Store only (no compression). Fastest, largest output.
5 Balanced	-mx=5 -mmt=on	Default. Good balance of size vs. speed.
9 Maximum	-mx=9 -mfb=64 -md=32m -ms=on -mmt=on	Smallest output, slowest.

Compress-ForGameVault.ps1 always uses maximum compression (-mx=9 -mfb=64 -md=32m -ms=on -mmt=on).

Output

Final archives land in GameVault-Ready\. Copy them to your GameVault server's /files directory (or your configured ingest path) for import.

Each successful compression appends a row to GameVault-Ready\manifest.csv:

Column	Description
CompletedAt	ISO-8601 timestamp
Name	Archive filename (without .7z)
Source	Source label (e.g. GOG, Steam)
SourceBytes	Uncompressed folder size
ArchiveBytes	Final archive size
CompressionRatio	ArchiveBytes / SourceBytes
DurationSeconds	Elapsed compression time
SHA256	SHA-256 of archive, or empty if -EmitSha256 not passed

Parameters

Both scripts accept these parameters (all have sensible defaults):

Compress-ForGameVault.ps1

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
-Sources	hashtable	@{ GOG=…; Steam=… }	Map of Label → SourceDir. Add any number of sources without forking.
-DestinationDir	string	.\GameVault-Ready	Output directory for archives and manifest.
-SevenZipPath	string	auto-detected	Path to 7z.exe. Overrides $env:SEVENZIP_PATH.
-Force	switch	off	Re-archive even when a .7z already exists.
-SkipIntegrityCheck	switch	off	Skip 7z t test on existing archives before deciding to skip.
-Parallel	switch	off	Fan out compressions across runspaces (PS 7+ only).
-ThrottleLimit	int	2	Max concurrent jobs when -Parallel is set.
-EmitSha256	switch	off	Compute and record SHA-256 of each archive in the manifest.
-WhatIf	switch	off	Dry-run: report what would be compressed without writing.

# Example: custom sources, parallel, 3 threads
.\Compress-ForGameVault.ps1 -Sources @{ GOG='D:\GOG'; Itch='E:\Itch' } -Parallel -ThrottleLimit 3

Prepare-GamesForGameVault.ps1

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
-GogSourceDir	string	.\GOG-Archive	Path to GOG game folders.
-SteamSourceDir	string	.\Steam-Archive	Path to Steam game folders.
-DestinationDir	string	.\GameVault-Ready	Output directory for archives and manifest.
-SevenZipPath	string	auto-detected	Path to 7z.exe. Overrides $env:SEVENZIP_PATH.
-EmitSha256	switch	off	Compute and record SHA-256 of each archive in the manifest.
-WhatIf	switch	off	Dry-run: report what would be compressed without writing.

Security Note

Keep 7-Zip on the latest stable release. Older builds have known CVEs; check 7-zip.org for the current version.

License

Released under the MIT License.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests welcome. For larger changes, open an issue first to discuss the approach.