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Design Document

The goal of the site is to let users track their game library, progress completing games, time played, scores for games, etc.

Similar works

Existing game tracking sites:

Similar tracking sites for movies/television/anime:

Feature Plan

  • Users
    • Authentication with Devise
    • 2FA (via devise-two-factor probably)
    • Username
    • Avatar
    • External account links (Discord, Steam, Epic Games, Xbox Live, PSN, etc.)
    • Users have a Game Library which contains Games
    • Users have a profile
  • Profiles
    • Profiles can be Public or Private (only visible to Friends/Yourself? Username, Display Name, and Avatar will always be visible.)
    • Bio (a longer-form description of the user)
    • Game Library with scores, completion status, time played, etc.
      • Should there be more granular access options, e.g. hiding time played?
      • Should the user that owns the profile be able to choose what's visible by default in their profile's Library list?
  • Followers/Following
    • Activity Feed
  • Game Library
    • A "plan-to-play" list (different from a Wishlist?)
    • Steam Importer (connect your Steam account and import/sync all the game data from it)
      • Should be able to sync with Steam after you've imported your games.
      • How to handle duplication, e.g. if I add my games and then use the Steam importer?
      • Should also support importing from other platforms, but I don't know how many even have APIs for this.
    • Score (like AniList's multi-score-system system? e.g. have 1/10, 1.0/10, 10/100, and thumbs-up/thumbs-down)
  • Games (General): Games are an entity with a name, platforms, developers, publishers, a cover image, release dates, etc.
    • Name
    • Platform(s) (Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, etc.)
      • Should games have separate entries for each platform (e.g. Team Fortress 2 on Windows is very different from Team Fortress 2 on Xbox 360)?
      • Should this differentiate between, e.g. Steam vs. Discord vs. Epic, etc?
    • Developer (can have more than one)
    • Publisher (can have more than one?)
    • Cover image
    • Release date(s) (note that a game can have more than one release date due to platform differences or due to regional differences This was too complex to implement so games just have one release date)
    • External Links (Steam page, Discord store page, Discord server, PCGamingWiki, SteamDB, etc.)
    • Relationships with other games (sequels, prequels, spinoffs, DLC, Special Editions, GOTY/Complete Editions, Remakes, Deluxe Editions, "sibling"(?) titles (e.g. Pokemon Red and Blue), etc?)
      • For now, this adds too much complexity. Series' are sufficient.
    • Series
    • Official Website
      • Note there can be more than one, e.g. for multiple languages.
    • Genres
      • I don't look forward to figuring out how to manage genres, but it seems kind of necessary.
    • Average Rating
      • Maybe also Median or a more detailed bar graph of the scores?
    • Number of users who own the game / have completed it / plan to play it
  • Companies
    • Companies can both develop and publish games.
    • Developers
    • Publishers
  • Game Purchase: A game in someone's library can be rated, can have time played, platforms upon which it's owned, etc. It is essentially a subclass of Games (General).
    • Rating
    • Time played (hours)
    • Platform
    • Owned
      • Boolean? This is complicated by the fact that you can own a game on multiple platforms.
      • What about previously-owned?
    • Completion Status
      • Unplayed, In-Progress, Dropped, Completed
      • Should there be a status like Completed (100%)? I can see that being useful, but it also feels unnecessarily complicated.
      • Some games can't be completed (e.g. Overwatch, Counter-Strike, etc.), should that have a specific status?
      • What about games that are in development, like Early Access games?
      • Also worth noting that you can rent or borrow games, so you may not own them but have completed them.
      • Maybe also have Completed*, which is "Essentially Completed" for games where you didn't quite complete it, but you feel you're finished with it?
    • Start Date / Completion Date
    • Comments (any notes you want to add about the game, essentially a mini review)
    • Replayed (A counter for the number of times you've replayed a game)
    • Favorite (you can favorite games in your library, which is tracked separately from your Score)
    • Physical/Digital
      • I'm really not sure how to handle this, theoretically you can own a game for Switch digitally as well as physically.
  • Exporter, for exporting your games list as JSON
  • Build the initial system for importing game information from another source (build the game database from the GiantBomb Wiki? Wikipedia/Wikidata? PCGamingWiki? A combination of these? Somewhere else?)
    • Ended up getting data from Wikidata, as well as covers from PCGW and MobyGames.
  • API
    • GraphQL API
  • Game creation / modification
    • AniList has a concept of "moderators" that can update information on anime, e.g. adding missing genres or tags, changing the release date when it's delayed, etc.
    • We'll need some way for the user to create a game when a new one comes out.
    • All users can create games, but usually games are created when they're imported from Wikidata once every few days/weeks.

Some decisions that need to be made:

  • Should scores work like AniList's multiple-score-types system? e.g. have 1/10, 1.0/10, 10/100, and thumbs-up/thumbs-down, you can theoretically represent all of those integer values of 1-100, but converting between some formats to others can be "lossy", though it doesn't have to be.
    • A: Right now it's only a 100-point scale, though those other representations are still worth considering.
  • Should there be an API? If so, should it be a REST API or use GraphQL?
    • A: Yes, GraphQL.
  • Should games have separate entries for each platform (e.g. Team Fortress 2 on Windows is very different from Team Fortress 2 on Xbox 360)?
    • A: No. One game entry that covers all platforms.
  • Should this differentiate between, e.g. Steam vs. Discord vs. Epic, etc?
    • A: Not really, though you can set which store(s) you own a game on.
  • How to handle completion statuses, especially for games that are multiplayer with no real "win state", e.g. Counter-Strike or Overwatch.
    • A: It's pretty much just N/A for multiplayer games.