Publishing guide

There are two ways to ship a game with NEShim. Choose the path that fits your situation:

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Pre-built release

Download a packaged NEShim binary, drop in your ROM and assets, and configure config.json. No compiler or .NET SDK required.

Use this path when you want to get a game out quickly and do not need a custom exe icon or the signing key baked into the binary.

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Building from source

Clone the repository, customise the project, and build your own binary.

Use this path when you need a custom exe icon embedded in the file, want to rename the underlying assembly (NEShim.dll → MyGame.dll), or want the signing public key compiled into the binary rather than read from config.json.

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Multi-game / DLC

An additional step layered on top of either path above — not a third alternative to them. You still build/publish the engine binary via the pre-built or source path exactly as described there; multi-game mode adds a games/multigame.json manifest plus one independently-packaged games/<gameId>/ content folder per game, each shipped as a separate Steam DLC depot.

Use this when you’re shipping a curated collection of games from one engine binary, selected at runtime via a front-end carousel, rather than one game per publish.