diff --git a/backend/launcher.js b/backend/launcher.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc522cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/launcher.js
@@ -0,0 +1,472 @@
+const fs = require('fs');
+const path = require('path');
+const os = require('os');
+const { exec, execFile } = require('child_process');
+const { promisify } = require('util');
+const axios = require('axios');
+const AdmZip = require('adm-zip');
+const { v4: uuidv4 } = require('uuid');
+const crypto = require('crypto');
+
+const execAsync = promisify(exec);
+const execFileAsync = promisify(execFile);
+
+function getAppDir() {
+  const home = os.homedir();
+  if (process.platform === 'win32') {
+    return path.join(home, 'AppData', 'Local', 'HytaleF2P');
+  } else if (process.platform === 'darwin') {
+    return path.join(home, 'Library', 'Application Support', 'HytaleF2P');
+  } else {
+    return path.join(home, '.hytalef2p');
+  }
+}
+
+const APP_DIR = getAppDir();
+const CACHE_DIR = path.join(APP_DIR, 'cache');
+const TOOLS_DIR = path.join(APP_DIR, 'butler');
+const GAME_DIR = path.join(APP_DIR, 'release', 'package', 'game', 'latest');
+const JRE_DIR = path.join(APP_DIR, 'release', 'package', 'jre', 'latest');
+const CONFIG_FILE = path.join(APP_DIR, 'config.json');
+
+function getOS() {
+  if (process.platform === 'win32') return 'windows';
+  if (process.platform === 'darwin') return 'darwin';
+  if (process.platform === 'linux') return 'linux';
+  return 'unknown';
+}
+
+function getArch() {
+  return process.arch === 'x64' ? 'amd64' : process.arch;
+}
+
+function createFolders() {
+  const dirs = [
+    APP_DIR,
+    CACHE_DIR,
+    TOOLS_DIR,
+    path.join(APP_DIR, 'release', 'package', 'jre'),
+    path.join(APP_DIR, 'release', 'package', 'game')
+  ];
+  
+  dirs.forEach(dir => {
+    if (!fs.existsSync(dir)) {
+      fs.mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true });
+    }
+  });
+}
+
+async function downloadFile(url, dest, progressCallback) {
+  const response = await axios({
+    method: 'GET',
+    url: url,
+    responseType: 'stream',
+    headers: {
+      'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
+      'Accept': '*/*',
+      'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
+      'Referer': 'https://launcher.hytale.com/'
+    }
+  });
+
+  const totalSize = parseInt(response.headers['content-length'], 10);
+  let downloaded = 0;
+  const startTime = Date.now();
+
+  const writer = fs.createWriteStream(dest);
+
+  response.data.on('data', (chunk) => {
+    downloaded += chunk.length;
+    if (progressCallback && totalSize > 0) {
+      const percent = Math.min(100, Math.max(0, (downloaded / totalSize) * 100));
+      const elapsed = (Date.now() - startTime) / 1000;
+      const speed = elapsed > 0 ? downloaded / elapsed : 0;
+      progressCallback(null, percent, speed, downloaded, totalSize);
+    }
+  });
+
+  response.data.pipe(writer);
+
+  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+    writer.on('finish', resolve);
+    writer.on('error', reject);
+    response.data.on('error', reject);
+  });
+}
+
+async function installButler() {
+  createFolders();
+  
+  const butlerName = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'butler.exe' : 'butler';
+  const butlerPath = path.join(TOOLS_DIR, butlerName);
+  const zipPath = path.join(TOOLS_DIR, 'butler.zip');
+
+  if (fs.existsSync(butlerPath)) {
+    return butlerPath;
+  }
+
+  let url;
+  const osName = getOS();
+  if (osName === 'windows') {
+    url = 'https://broth.itch.zone/butler/windows-amd64/LATEST/archive/default';
+  } else if (osName === 'darwin') {
+    url = 'https://broth.itch.zone/butler/darwin-amd64/LATEST/archive/default';
+  } else if (osName === 'linux') {
+    url = 'https://broth.itch.zone/butler/linux-amd64/LATEST/archive/default';
+  } else {
+    throw new Error('Operating system not supported');
+  }
+
+  console.log('Fetching Butler tool...');
+  await downloadFile(url, zipPath);
+
+  console.log('Unpacking Butler...');
+  const zip = new AdmZip(zipPath);
+  zip.extractAllTo(TOOLS_DIR, true);
+
+  if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
+    fs.chmodSync(butlerPath, 0o755);
+  }
+
+  try {
+    fs.unlinkSync(zipPath);
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.log('Notice: could not delete butler.zip');
+  }
+
+  return butlerPath;
+}
+
+async function downloadPWR(version = 'release', fileName = '1.pwr', progressCallback) {
+  createFolders();
+  
+  const osName = getOS();
+  const arch = getArch();
+  const url = `https://game-patches.hytale.com/patches/${osName}/${arch}/${version}/0/${fileName}`;
+  
+  const dest = path.join(CACHE_DIR, fileName);
+
+  if (fs.existsSync(dest)) {
+    console.log('PWR file found in cache:', dest);
+    return dest;
+  }
+
+  console.log('Fetching PWR patch file:', url);
+  await downloadFile(url, dest, progressCallback);
+  console.log('PWR saved to:', dest);
+  
+  return dest;
+}
+
+async function applyPWR(pwrFile, progressCallback) {
+  const butlerPath = await installButler();
+  const gameLatest = GAME_DIR;
+  const stagingDir = path.join(gameLatest, 'staging-temp');
+  
+  const gameClient = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'HytaleClient.exe' : 'HytaleClient';
+  const clientPath = path.join(gameLatest, 'Client', gameClient);
+  
+  if (fs.existsSync(clientPath)) {
+    console.log('Game files detected, skipping patch installation.');
+    return;
+  }
+
+  if (!fs.existsSync(gameLatest)) {
+    fs.mkdirSync(gameLatest, { recursive: true });
+  }
+  if (!fs.existsSync(stagingDir)) {
+    fs.mkdirSync(stagingDir, { recursive: true });
+  }
+
+  if (progressCallback) {
+    progressCallback('Installing game patch...', null, null, null, null);
+  }
+
+  console.log('Installing game patch...');
+  
+  if (!fs.existsSync(butlerPath)) {
+    throw new Error(`Butler tool not found at: ${butlerPath}`);
+  }
+  
+  if (!fs.existsSync(pwrFile)) {
+    throw new Error(`PWR file not found at: ${pwrFile}`);
+  }
+
+  const args = [
+    'apply',
+    '--staging-dir',
+    stagingDir,
+    pwrFile,
+    gameLatest
+  ];
+  
+  try {
+    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
+      const child = execFile(butlerPath, args, {
+        maxBuffer: 1024 * 1024 * 10,
+        timeout: 600000
+      }, (error, stdout, stderr) => {
+        if (error) {
+          console.error('Butler stderr:', stderr);
+          console.error('Butler stdout:', stdout);
+          reject(new Error(`Patch installation failed: ${error.message}${stderr ? '\n' + stderr : ''}`));
+        } else {
+          resolve();
+        }
+      });
+    });
+  } catch (error) {
+    throw error;
+  }
+
+  if (fs.existsSync(stagingDir)) {
+    fs.rmSync(stagingDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+
+  if (progressCallback) {
+    progressCallback('Installation complete', null, null, null, null);
+  }
+  console.log('Installation complete');
+}
+
+async function downloadJRE(progressCallback) {
+  createFolders();
+  
+  const osName = getOS();
+  const arch = getArch();
+
+  const javaBin = path.join(JRE_DIR, 'bin', 'java' + (process.platform === 'win32' ? '.exe' : ''));
+  if (fs.existsSync(javaBin)) {
+    console.log('Java runtime found, skipping download');
+    return;
+  }
+
+  console.log('Requesting Java runtime information...');
+  const response = await axios.get('https://launcher.hytale.com/version/release/jre.json', {
+    headers: {
+      'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
+      'Accept': 'application/json',
+      'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9'
+    }
+  });
+  const jreData = response.data;
+
+  const osData = jreData.download_url[osName];
+  if (!osData) {
+    throw new Error(`Java runtime unavailable for platform: ${osName}`);
+  }
+
+  const platform = osData[arch];
+  if (!platform) {
+    throw new Error(`Java runtime unavailable for architecture ${arch} on ${osName}`);
+  }
+
+  const fileName = path.basename(platform.url);
+  const cacheFile = path.join(CACHE_DIR, fileName);
+
+  if (!fs.existsSync(cacheFile)) {
+    if (progressCallback) {
+      progressCallback('Fetching Java runtime...', null, null, null, null);
+    }
+    console.log('Fetching Java runtime...');
+    await downloadFile(platform.url, cacheFile, progressCallback);
+    console.log('Download finished');
+  }
+
+  if (progressCallback) {
+    progressCallback('Validating files...', null, null, null, null);
+  }
+  console.log('Validating files...');
+  const fileBuffer = fs.readFileSync(cacheFile);
+  const hashSum = crypto.createHash('sha256');
+  hashSum.update(fileBuffer);
+  const hex = hashSum.digest('hex');
+  
+  if (hex !== platform.sha256) {
+    fs.unlinkSync(cacheFile);
+    throw new Error(`File validation failed: expected ${platform.sha256} but got ${hex}`);
+  }
+
+  if (progressCallback) {
+    progressCallback('Unpacking Java runtime...', null, null, null, null);
+  }
+  console.log('Unpacking Java runtime...');
+  await extractJRE(cacheFile, JRE_DIR);
+
+  if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
+    const java = path.join(JRE_DIR, 'bin', 'java');
+    if (fs.existsSync(java)) {
+      fs.chmodSync(java, 0o755);
+    }
+  }
+
+  flattenJREDir(JRE_DIR);
+
+  try {
+    fs.unlinkSync(cacheFile);
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.log('Notice: could not delete cached Java files:', err.message);
+  }
+
+  console.log('Java runtime ready');
+}
+
+async function extractJRE(archivePath, destDir) {
+  if (fs.existsSync(destDir)) {
+    fs.rmSync(destDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+  fs.mkdirSync(destDir, { recursive: true });
+
+  if (archivePath.endsWith('.zip')) {
+    return extractZip(archivePath, destDir);
+  } else if (archivePath.endsWith('.tar.gz')) {
+    return extractTarGz(archivePath, destDir);
+  } else {
+    throw new Error(`Archive type not supported: ${archivePath}`);
+  }
+}
+
+function extractZip(zipPath, dest) {
+  const zip = new AdmZip(zipPath);
+  const entries = zip.getEntries();
+
+  for (const entry of entries) {
+    const entryPath = path.join(dest, entry.entryName);
+    
+    const resolvedPath = path.resolve(entryPath);
+    const resolvedDest = path.resolve(dest);
+    if (!resolvedPath.startsWith(resolvedDest)) {
+      throw new Error(`Invalid file path detected: ${entryPath}`);
+    }
+
+    if (entry.isDirectory) {
+      fs.mkdirSync(entryPath, { recursive: true });
+    } else {
+      fs.mkdirSync(path.dirname(entryPath), { recursive: true });
+      fs.writeFileSync(entryPath, entry.getData());
+      if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
+        fs.chmodSync(entryPath, entry.header.attr >>> 16);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+function extractTarGz(tarGzPath, dest) {
+  const tar = require('tar');
+  return tar.extract({
+    file: tarGzPath,
+    cwd: dest,
+    strip: 0
+  });
+}
+
+function flattenJREDir(jreLatest) {
+  try {
+    const entries = fs.readdirSync(jreLatest, { withFileTypes: true });
+    
+    if (entries.length !== 1 || !entries[0].isDirectory()) {
+      return;
+    }
+
+    const nested = path.join(jreLatest, entries[0].name);
+    const files = fs.readdirSync(nested, { withFileTypes: true });
+
+    for (const file of files) {
+      const oldPath = path.join(nested, file.name);
+      const newPath = path.join(jreLatest, file.name);
+      fs.renameSync(oldPath, newPath);
+    }
+
+    fs.rmSync(nested, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.log('Notice: could not restructure Java directory:', err.message);
+  }
+}
+
+function getJavaExec() {
+  const javaBin = path.join(JRE_DIR, 'bin', 'java' + (process.platform === 'win32' ? '.exe' : ''));
+
+  if (fs.existsSync(javaBin)) {
+    return javaBin;
+  }
+
+  console.log('Notice: Java runtime not found, using system default');
+  return 'java';
+}
+
+async function launchGame(playerName = 'Player', progressCallback) {
+  createFolders();
+  
+  saveUsername(playerName);
+
+  await downloadJRE(progressCallback);
+
+  const javaBin = getJavaExec();
+
+  const gameLatest = GAME_DIR;
+  const gameClient = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'HytaleClient.exe' : 'HytaleClient';
+  const clientPath = path.join(gameLatest, 'Client', gameClient);
+
+  if (!fs.existsSync(clientPath)) {
+    if (progressCallback) {
+      progressCallback('Fetching game files...', null, null, null, null);
+    }
+    console.log('Game files missing, downloading and installing patch...');
+    const pwrFile = await downloadPWR('release', '1.pwr', progressCallback);
+    await applyPWR(pwrFile, progressCallback);
+  }
+
+  if (!fs.existsSync(clientPath)) {
+    throw new Error(`Game client missing at path: ${clientPath}`);
+  }
+
+  const uuid = uuidv4();
+  const args = [
+    '--app-dir', gameLatest,
+    '--java-exec', javaBin,
+    '--auth-mode', 'offline',
+    '--uuid', uuid,
+    '--name', playerName
+  ];
+
+  if (progressCallback) {
+    progressCallback('Starting game...', null, null, null, null);
+  }
+  console.log('Starting game...');
+  console.log(`Command: "${clientPath}" ${args.join(' ')}`);
+  
+  const child = exec(`"${clientPath}" ${args.map(a => `"${a}"`).join(' ')}`, {
+    stdio: 'inherit',
+    detached: true
+  });
+
+  child.unref();
+}
+
+function saveUsername(username) {
+  try {
+    createFolders();
+    const config = { username: username || 'Player' };
+    fs.writeFileSync(CONFIG_FILE, JSON.stringify(config, null, 2), 'utf8');
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.log('Notice: could not save username:', err.message);
+  }
+}
+
+function loadUsername() {
+  try {
+    if (fs.existsSync(CONFIG_FILE)) {
+      const config = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(CONFIG_FILE, 'utf8'));
+      return config.username || 'Player';
+    }
+  } catch (err) {
+    console.log('Notice: could not load username:', err.message);
+  }
+  return 'Player';
+}
+
+module.exports = {
+  launchGame,
+  saveUsername,
+  loadUsername
+};