Game Chooser is a simple desktop app that helps you organize and launch your entire game collection from one place. Point it at your game folders, and it automatically discovers and catalogs everything—no manual entry needed.
If you have games scattered across multiple folders, external drives, or different launchers, Game Chooser brings them all together. Instead of hunting through folders or remembering where each game lives, you get a searchable, filterable library that launches games with a single click.
- Automatic Discovery - Scans your game folders and finds all playable executables automatically
- Smart Filtering - Installers, updaters, and other utility programs are automatically excluded
- Multiple Libraries - Manage games from different folders, drives, or locations in one unified view
- Advanced Filtering - Browse by platform (Windows, macOS, Linux), genre, developer, or release year
- Fast Search - Instantly search by game title or developer as you type
- Manual Game Support - Add web games (browser-based) or games outside your library folders
- Keyboard-Friendly - Full keyboard navigation with shortcuts for every action
- Persistent Settings - Remembers your window size, column sorting, selected game, and active filters between sessions
- Cross-Platform - Works on Windows and MacOS
When you first open Game Chooser, you'll see a welcome screen with four options:
- Add Library - Point to a folder containing games (recommended for most users)
- Add Game - Manually add a single game or web game
- Preferences - Configure libraries and exception filters
- Exit - Close the app
Most users should start with "Add Library" to let the app scan and discover your games automatically.
A game library is simply a folder where you keep games. Common examples:
C:\GamesD:\Steam Games/Applications/Games- External hard drive game folders
To add a library:
- Click File → Preferences (or press Ctrl+,)
- In the Library Paths tab, click Add
- Select the folder containing your games
- Click Apply to scan for games
You can add as many libraries as you need. The app will scan all of them and combine the results.
For games outside your library folders or web-based games:
- Right-click anywhere in the game list
- Select Add Game
- Fill in the details:
- Title: Game name
- Platform: Choose Windows, macOS, Linux, or Web
- Launch Path/URL: For desktop games, browse to the .exe or executable; for web games, enter the URL
- Genre, Developer, Year: Optional metadata for filtering
Manual games appear alongside auto-discovered games and can be launched the same way.
The main window shows your games in a list on the left and a filter tree on the right. The tree organizes games by:
- Platform (Windows, macOS, Web)
- Genre (Action, RPG, Strategy, etc.)
- Developer (Valve, Nintendo, etc.)
- Year (2024, 2023, etc.)
Click any category in the tree to filter the game list. You can select multiple categories (Ctrl+arrows to move without selecting, Ctrl+space to select) to see games matching any of them.
The search box at the top searches game titles and developers as you type. Just start typing—results appear automatically after a brief delay.
Three ways to launch a game:
- Double-click the game in the list
- Select the game and press Enter or Space
- Select the game and click the Launch button at the bottom
Desktop games open and the window minimizes automatically. Web games open in your default browser.
To change a game's details:
- Select the game
- Press Ctrl+E or right-click and choose Edit Game
- Modify the details and click OK
Important: Editing the launch path of an auto-discovered game converts it to a manually-managed game.
Press Ctrl+ comma (,) or go to File → Preferences to access:
- Add or remove game library folders
- Changes trigger an automatic rescan
- Manage files and folders excluded from scanning
- Add: Exclude a specific file (e.g.,
tools/setup.exe) - Add Folder: Exclude an entire folder and its contents (e.g.,
build/) - Remove: Un-exclude a file or folder
The app has built-in auto-exclusion patterns for common installers and utilities, but you can add more if needed.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+F | Jump to search box |
| Ctrl+N | Add new game |
| delete delete selected game | |
| Ctrl+E | Edit selected game |
| Ctrl+, | Open preferences |
| F5 | Refresh/rescan all libraries |
| enter | launch selected game |
| Ctrl+enter | opens the selected game's folder in explorer/finder |
| ctrl+R | randomly select a game from the filtered list |
| Escape | Clear all filters (show all games) |
Click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to reverse the sort order.
Hold Ctrl while clicking tree items to select multiple filters. For example, select "Windows" and "macOS" under Platform to see games for both systems.
If the scanner missed a game because it thought it was a utility:
- Go to Preferences → Exceptions
- Find and remove the auto-added exception
- Click Apply to rescan
Drag column dividers to resize them. Your preferences are saved automatically.
Press F5 to force a complete re-scan of all libraries. Use this after installing new games or if the library seems out of sync.
The game database (games.json) uses relative paths, so you can copy your library folder and the database to another computer and everything still works.
You can navigate the entire app without a mouse:
- Tab to move between controls
- Arrow keys to navigate lists and trees
- Enter/Space to activate buttons and launch games
- Escape to clear filters
Game Chooser creates two files:
- Located in the application folder
- Contains your game library with relative paths
- Can be backed up or shared between computers
- Windows:
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\GameChooser\ - macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/GameChooser/ - Contains library paths, exceptions, and window preferences
- Not portable (contains system-specific paths)
- Verify the library folder actually contains game executables (.exe files on Windows)
- Check folder permissions—the app needs read access
- Look in Preferences → Exceptions to see if games were auto-excluded
- If the executable moved, the app will prompt you to locate it
- Verify the game executable still exists and hasn't been deleted
- On macOS/Linux, check that the file has executable permissions
- Large libraries (1000+ games) take a minute or two to scan
- Subsequent scans are faster due to incremental scanning
- Add exclusion folders in Preferences to skip large non-game directories
- Press Ctrl+E to edit the game and fix the metadata manually
- Genre, developer, and year are user-editable for all games
- Search only looks at game title and developer fields (not genre or year)
- Searches containing "unknown" return no results by design
- Clear the search box to see all games again
When scanning a folder, Game Chooser looks for executables in this order:
- Files named
game,launch, orplay(with or without .exe) - An executable matching the parent folder's name
- If none found, the first executable in the directory
All other executables in that folder are automatically added to the exceptions list, which you can manage in Preferences.
Game Chooser is smart about how you organize your games. If you already sort games into folders by developer or genre, the app automatically picks up on that and uses it to categorize your library—no manual tagging needed!
Simple Organization
Games/
└── Doom Eternal/
└── game.exe
Result: Game titled "Doom Eternal"
Organized by Developer
Games/
└── Valve/
└── Half-Life 2/
└── hl2.exe
Result: Game titled "Half-Life 2" with developer "Valve"
Full Organization
Games/
└── FPS/
└── Valve/
└── Half-Life 2/
└── hl2.exe
Result: Complete info - Genre: "FPS", Developer: "Valve", Title: "Half-Life 2"
- Put games from the same developer in a folder with the developer's name
- Group similar games in genre folders like 'RPG', 'Strategy', or 'Racing'
- You can mix and match—some games flat, others organized
- Reorganize anytime—just hit F5 to rescan and update
- Spend less time editing game details - Your folder structure does the work
- Your existing organization becomes your game library - No need to change how you organize
- Move games between folders and categories update automatically
- No manual tagging of hundreds of games
Game Chooser is an open-source project. If you encounter issues or have suggestions, please check the project repository for support options.
Game Chooser is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPLv3).
This means you are free to:
- Use the software for any purpose
- Study how it works and modify it
- Share copies with others
- Distribute modified versions
Under the conditions that:
- You provide source code with any distributed copies
- You license derivative works under GPLv3
- You state significant changes made to the software
- You provide a copy of the license with the software
For the complete license text, see the LICENSE file in this repository or visit gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html.
Copyright (C) 2025 Alec Olson