Desktop Game Updates

I was looking through the documentation for the desktop exports, but I didn't find much information on updating the game. It seems to just say that the wrapper, at least WebView2 is auto updated.

Do the desktop exports connect and try to update the game like the web exports?

Ok, I guess the question should have been can the desktop exports connect and try to update the game like the web exports?

Desktop games bundle all their resources locally. You will have to re-export and re-distribute the project to issue an update.

Thanks for clearing that up, but I guess the next question is how can we take care of automatic redistributing?

Like could we use the app manifest to check a remote url, or are we stuck doing something like that manually via ajax. Or is it best to stick an Iframe in there and let the user decide?

If you want it to work like it does in the browser, then I'd suggest publishing to the web in the first place. If you are thinking of using the desktop export with remote-loaded content, then you're using the desktop export like your own mini browser, so you may as well just cut out the separate download and use an actual browser.

Otherwise you have to come up with your own auto-update scheme, such as checking a URL once a day to see if a newer version is available, and prompting the user if so.

Ok, so I guess its manually by the user on desktop.

Then again I just realized there's auto updates by Steam, and the Itch app which is probably how it gets distributed anyway.

So realistically its better to stay away from self distribution for desktop at least.

newt I use steam so I don't know first hand. But I bet it wouldn't be too hard to make a launcher program that would check on the status of the version the user is running.