Release Couchlink 0.1.9 (alpha) · cranebeaker/couchlink

Couchlink 0.1.9: the keyboard player's keys stay out of the controller player's game, and a game's settings file no longer stops the start.

Already on 0.1.4 or newer? Update from inside the app: the Update button next to the version, or Settings, General, Updates.

Windows: Couchlink-0.1.9-windows-x64.zip below. Unzip it anywhere and run couchlink.exe. Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit.

Linux (alpha): Couchlink-0.1.9-linux-x64.tar.gz below. Unpack it and run ./couchlink.

Fixed in 0.1.9

Windows: with one player on a controller and another on keyboard and mouse, the keyboard steered both games. The controller player's copy read the keyboard directly. Now, as soon as one player has a keyboard or mouse, the other players' copies no longer see it. With nobody on a keyboard, every copy still gets the PC's keyboard and mouse, as before.
Some games failed with "does not exist yet (start the game once so it makes the file)", even after playing the game normally. That happened when Couchlink was tried before the game had ever been started: each player's save folder was made empty and never picked up the settings file the game made later. Now Couchlink takes that file from your own save folder when a player's folder lacks it.
When a game has not made its settings file yet at all, Couchlink now starts it anyway, and sets the window size from the next start on, instead of refusing to start.

Games that only join through a Steam invite now get an overlay to send it. A recipe can ask for the experimental build of the Steam emulator (gbe_fork), which has its own overlay: press Shift+Tab in the host's game, right-click the other player and invite them; the other copies accept by themselves. Orcs Must Die! 2 uses it.
"Save full report" now also says, for each player, which ways the game reads controllers and keys. If a controller or keyboard reaches the wrong player, press it while the game is still open and send us the file.

This is an alpha. Tell us how your games run on the Co-op Anything Discord; Settings, General, Logs has "Save full report" for when something breaks.
Couchlink works with any installed copy of a game.
A macOS build is in the works.