www.techingames.net - A Game Feature Tracker and Comparison Database

[Arwin]

Managed to get updating values to the database working. So change a value in the feature tree checkboxes, textboxes and what not, and they are automatically created or updated in the database using Ajax. And when loading the up again, it will remember what had been filled in. It's amaaazing.

Now just a bit of cleaning up to do and a rudimentary way to show a set of games/versions in a meaningful, but this is a big breakthrough for me - my first website that has web definable forms. Will certainly be able to use that for a lot of other stuff. It's all downhill from here, hopefully - this was the part that I was the most worried about if I'd be able to get it right.

 

[Billy Idol]

Managed to get updating values to the database working. So change a value in the feature tree checkboxes, textboxes and what not, and they are automatically created or updated in the database using Ajax. And when loading the up again, it will remember what had been filled in. It's amaaazing.

Now just a bit of cleaning up to do and a rudimentary way to show a set of games/versions in a meaningful, but this is a big breakthrough for me - my first website that has web definable forms. Will certainly be able to use that for a lot of other stuff. It's all downhill from here, hopefully - this was the part that I was the most worried about if I'd be able to get it right.

Cool! Am curious what you cook up here...

 

[Arwin]

Ok, the very basics that I was looking for for data entry seem to be working. Now comes the tuning, reporting and comparing, and beautifying. I wanted to publish this for beta-testing, but it seems I've mixing up my credentials somewhat, so please hold a bit on that while I wait for support ... (I feel old and stupid)

 

[Arwin]

Ok, site is up at www.techingames.net ... currently it's still very open, you can just register without any confirmation and have at it. Be gentle, obviously this will change.

 

[Shortbread]

Ok, site is up at www.techingames.net ... currently it's still very open, you can just register without any confirmation and have at it. Be gentle, obviously this will change.

Cool. Hopefully I can get you some more information, or an updated file with sources included.

 

[Arwin]

Managed to get a bit further so you have some nice links eg see al game versions that have data on a specific feature, like 3D support, local multiplayer etc. Feel free to register, I will allow a few people to register and then probably will disable registration until I have an approval system working.

 

[zed]

>>Arwin van Arum<<

great name, love it, just gotta growl it out 'arwin van arum' ha ha love it
you've got the right idea do something wiki like. So no console for me so can't help out with data and the like

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I would offer to test but I've no time.

 

[Billy Idol]

Ok, site is up at www.techingames.net ... currently it's still very open, you can just register without any confirmation and have at it. Be gentle, obviously this will change.

Nice! Very cool! :smile:

 

[Arwin]

Ok, did some updates and users have to be verified now. Not hugely secure yet, but it's a start. I'm not having much success yet with the registration confirmation emails going out (I've got that to work with my other sites, not sure yet why it doesn't work here), but I can manually verify users. So if you've created an account after this message and are not getting a confirmation email, just drop me a pm.

 

[Arwin]

Mods, a small request, could you make the title something like 'Arwin's database for tracking game features' or something a tiny bit more descriptive like that?

Lots more updates done for today, including a full audit trail (currently only visible to me, but it's there). This will also become the basis for a reputation based system, probably.

Unfortunately I won't have another opportunity to work on the site until late Sunday at best, so I've done my best to get the site in reasonable shape for working on getting data in there. I may be able to approve a user here and there, so if you want to contribute don't hesitate.

 

[scf]

Arwin, it crashes when I select DRIVECLUB link.

 

[Arwin]

Arwin's database for tracking game features

What browser? I've been entering new data for a bit during the last few days and didn't encounter any real problems.

Ah I get the error now too. Perhaps I changed something in the feature dictionary in a breaking way, will try to check/fix.

 

[Arwin]

Arwin's database for tracking game features

Fixed, I changed tearing from a percentage to a combo with none, rare etc and DriveClub had an invalid value after that change. I could fix it using the site itself, no dev machine needed.

 

[Cjail]

@Arwin

Friendly opinions.

The site collects some non-technical (genere, network features, etc...) details about games but doesn't actually "speak" about "the technology used in games" as you say so you either should re-name it or just stick to purely "technical details" like resolution, frame-rate, AA used, etc...
At this point in history Wikipedia is the first and preferred source for non-technical info/details on games so you should focus on providing the info that Wiki doesn't provide or your site will unlikely be popular or emerge.

 

[Arwin]

I just confirmed two new accounts.

And thanks, opinions always very welcome!

Entering features allows a description of the feature, but this isn´t shown anywhere yet. This will become a pop-up or something similar. I will probably expand that with links and samples showing the technology - though in many cases linking to wikipedia will generally be enough for background, here we would need something specific for deciding the proper data entry.

I don´t have any genre data in there right now. I actually think it could be interesting at some point to define a genre by having an x amount of a certain set of features, and that way be able to automatically give more meaningful input on the genre than otherwise.

Wikipedia is a great source for data, but it isn´t a feature database. There´s a big difference there. If you write in wikipedia that a game uses a historical present narrative, you can´t then click on a link that shows what other games use that narrative, for instance (at least, not as far as I know). Someone else also suggested that eventually you would be able to make really interesting graphs about trends in certain features over time, genre, etc.

As I said, I primarily want to be flexible enough to track any information that is worthwhile tracking. Is a certain peripheral supported? Wheels, VR-glasses, etc. And track it by version of a game, which almost no site currently uses. E.g. version 1.02 of AC: Black Flag is the version that introduced 1080p. I just got a 3D TV, what games currently support 3D on consoles, I just got a new 3DS model, what new games require or have enhanced features for the new more powerful 3DS? And so on and so forth.

So mostly very technical stuff, but I definitely also like to be able to track something like what games support wall-jumps, double-jumps, and so on. We'll see if that takes off, but it should be possible without hurting the needs for people that are interested in something else. So once I have a fair share of features in there, I can start making some nice reports, or better, work on a report builder that makes the best of this. Choose a few features that you want to show for a certain selection of games by feature values, platform, etc. and generate a table, graph, or whatever.

 

[Arwin]

Ok, I updated resolution and framerate details for just about all larger next-gen releases, with thanks to shortbread. I went to the original articles, checked the developers and publishers in wikipedia, and if I knew something more about a game because I own it for instance, I added info about for instance local coop. You can get a quick overview if you go to features tab, and then click on one of horizontal, vertical or target framerate, for instance.

I think this is a good start, when I get back to my dev machine in a few days, I will start on some nicer reporting features, probably including some rudimentary graphs, and add links for sources, show feature explanations etc.

Perhaps I will add options for adding issues as well.

 

[Arwin]

I've updated the site so that sources can be added.

See it live: http://www.techingames.net/Games/Details/48

EDIT: now supports youtube embedding as well (use a https://www.youtube.com/embed/phF14Jrryzk type link), and I've also updated the games page to look nicer, paged, with phone friendly more support, and be fully searchable.

 

[Arwin]

Also added very rudimentary graph support. Will need a lot more work, but it's fun

 

[Cyan]

Also added very rudimentary graph support. Will need a lot more work, but it's fun

Rudimentary or not, I am impressed with your skills. I thought you'd keep it simpler but the design you chose is more complex than I thought it'd be, as seen with the Sunset Overdrive entry. cheers!