What data in a game library

[Zabujca]

Hi guys, I'm making a game library application for windows that can organize games that you play/played/intend to play. And I'm pretty much done, but before I start putting it out there I want to get some preliminary feedback.

In a few words, you will need to manually input data into the app, unless devs or other users will share their info files in the future. My first question is what data do you feel like you might need when browsing games and/or looking for something to play. Note that all of the data is simply saved as text, so you don't need to keep constrained by my layout (to a certain degree), though the spaces are visually named to help keep the form uniform.

Things I added so far:
- Banner Image
- Name
- Rating
- Files Directory (With instant start button and open folder button)
- Saves Directory (With open saves folder button)
- Link (with open in default browser button)
- 2nd link (same as above)
- Box with tags (No search yet, but once I get some time)
- Your progress on the game
- Version of the game
- Engine the game is running on
- Art style (useful mostly for sorting since you can save a banner)
- Author/s
- Other info/description

So again, what would you add and why. Or maybe you feel like you see a feature that you would like in such app?

 

[anne O'nymous]

- Link (with open in default browser button)
- 2nd link (same as above)

Two links are too short :

• The Patreon (or equivalent) page, when there's one ;
• The game/studio website, when there's one ;
• The twitter account for the game/studio, when there's one ;
• The facebook account for the game/studio, when there's one ;
• The link to the thread here, when there's one ;
• The link to the discussion thread here, even if it's less and less something that happen.

It can goes from 1 link to 6, and possibly even mores because there's also a possible link to itch.io, vndb.org, and the user can want to keep track of both the Patreon, and SubscribeStar, or BuyMeACoffee, or whatever, links.

- Version of the game

By itself this field isn't enough. It also need a field describing the state of the game.
There's games that start at the version 1.0, as well as games finished at the version 0.6. Therefore, the sole version don't provide enough information.

- Author/s

Can be links (to their personal website, to their account here, to their tweeter, etc) be associated to the name ?

So again, what would you add and why. Or maybe you feel like you see a feature that you would like in such app?

Is there mods, and where to find the last version. And also, are one of those mod used, because sometimes you want to give a try to the original game before seeing if a mod will make it better ; and you can also want to keep an eye on this or that mod, that can finally end having this little thing that would make you use it.

Is there sound, and is this music, sfx, and/or is the game voiced. Also, are those sound part of the game mechanism (like in SpaceCorps XXX by example).

Is there a translation (assumed "in you own language") for the game, and is this translation native, or added by a mod.

A link to the walkthrough.

What kind of game is it. There's obvious difference between a kenetic novel and a Kill'em'all. Difference that are rarely seen in the banner, but that one would use as filter.

There's also many games that have special episodes, or that are released with one new game by episode. How your software handle this ?

Is there animations on the game ?

 

[Zabujca]

Right now I was thinking to have it with the data I looked for when I searched for a game I played or saved to play in the future.
But as you say, devs might want to give more data from the get go, so I will think of a way to incorporate more links to fit the GUI I made, it shouldn't be too hard.


And as for other things you brought up. Keep in mind that it is completely text based, by that I mean it reads Info.txt file that contains all data and puts it into spaces, so if you want to describe version as more than a number, feel free to, if you want to put a link in a Author space, no problem (but you won't get "open" button, unless, hmm... maybe will think of something there).

And whats more, I designed it to be purely offline, semi-manually created "database" it is not using any real database tech, so it is easier to use and manipulate without special tools. Oh and also all sorting is alphabetical, usually in reversed order.

With all that said, you can image that multi-episode games are duplicated entries with names like "Ep 2" or "Chapter 2". But now that you got me thinking about more link spaces, I might be able to incorporate similar structure to executable files, but that one feels hard to nail well, so don't hold me on that.


I don't fully understand you about the mods, but I guess it would be possible to add some kind of a "mods" sub-list in each entry. Not sure if I feel if that's necessary though, since you can easily access F95zone for such info, or put in as additional data in description to keep an eye out for it.

I will add other things that you noticed they seem obvious to have put in but somehow I relied on memory and images for those:

• Audio box (mostly thinking for voiced dialogue, but again you can put anything)
• Language
• Type of game
• Secondary "Style" box for additions like animation or simple sprites

And here's a Image of how it looks like now (miniatures are pretty much images which you can click):

 

[anne O'nymous]

Keep in mind that it is completely text based, by that I mean it reads Info.txt file that contains all data and puts it into spaces, so if you want to describe version as more than a number, feel free to, [...]

Even plain text files can be structured ;

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

, and few others, you can even come with your own format relatively easily, at least by mixing those three. Plus, it's not difficult nowadays to use a XML or JSON file for the storage.
Your app would looks better if the version is always displayed in the same way (like this by example, "0.75.5a WIP") that with a full manual input.

And whats more, I designed it to be purely offline, semi-manually created "database" it is not using any real database tech, so it is easier to use and manipulate without special tools. Oh and also all sorting is alphabetical, usually in reversed order.

And ? Personally I use an application I wrote (that also handle the installation for some engines, back-up and save management) :

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That in place of Database just use a hash (Perl's ones) and store its data on a JSON file. Yet, it have filtering and search features, because when you structure correctly your data (and obviously don't have to face too big structures), you don't necessarily need a database for this. I could have used the couple SQLite/JSON instead, but despite its 2649 entries, I'm still far to Perl's limits, while the search and filtering are still near atomic, so there's no need for it yet.
[Side note: No need to ask me for the source, as said it's in Perl, and it rely on some packages that are both broken and abandoned, so need to be manually fixed.]

Not sure if I feel if that's necessary though, since you can easily access F95zone for such info, [...]

You understand that the same thing can be said to your whole app ? Among all the fields you already handle, only the rating, progression and comments, are personal information that can't be found on the main page of the game thread.
The question you should ask yourself isn't how easily the information can be retrieved, but how convenient it is to not have to search them.

 

[Zabujca]

The question you should ask yourself isn't how easily the information can be retrieved, but how convenient it is to not have to search them.

That last sentence says what I'm trying to avoid. You can have too much information, and sure, for certain entries you would want some additional data but for most of the games basic data for when you search for a game technical/content data is enough in this case. For those more elaborate cases you can fire up a browser (from a saved link) and lookup exact info you needed, or even put summary of what you need in the description box, then go from there.

You understand that the same thing can be said to your whole app ? Among all the fields you already handle, only the rating, progression and comments, are personal information that can't be found on the main page of the game thread.

Well, that's true but it is way more convenient to have all games easily accessible and with personalized info. I'm not trying to compete against but more like work along with the site.


As for your technical tips, thanks, I didn't know that putting a comma between entries had its name and I have been using something similar. The reason why I said all that is to emphasize on the fact that the information formatting is on the user, and the app simply handles it as strings. Also nothing is set in stone, I will probably add in some more features in some time but mods management is not something I intent do deal with for now.