Ok, basis works seemingly bug free now, and an average review score will be shown on the game page if available. Didn't get further than that today. Have to work tomorrow but hopefully will try implementing some filter options Thursday or Friday
www.techingames.net - A Game Feature Tracker and Comparison Database
- Thread starter Arwin
- Start date
hi arwin, in your website can i do something like "list all games that have 60 fps target frame rate"? i tried clickin on the target fps but it brings me to "explanation page" that do have a list of all games with its fps but its mixed.
Yeah, correct. It will list all games that have a target framerate entered, with no options to filter or sort yet. The best you can do right now is use the Chart, where you can disable platforms you are not interested in by clicking on them, and then see all the datapoints on the 60fps line ...
I should start adding some filters like those. But the Chart option is pretty powerful though nonetheless.
I should start adding some filters like those. But the Chart option is pretty powerful though nonetheless.
I've now added a new option for features where you can specify that it is a user value. These features work very similar to the normal ones, but instead of having one value per game version, they have one value per user per game version.
These can be used to track anything user specific, like whether you own the game, what you paid for it, if you started or finished it, etc.
These can be used to track anything user specific, like whether you own the game, what you paid for it, if you started or finished it, etc.
I really appreciate the work you are doing with your database @Arwin
But what we need are framerate averages of different realistic situations often encountered during the game and a global average of all those situations.
Additionally the ideal would be to also have means of: frame-time, % of torn frames and % of judder.
Judging a ~20 hours game from 3 minutes of the very worst moments is not an indication of anything about the game. We need averages of longer plays, much longer than the mere tens of seconds we often have currently for each different situations, if we want to fairly judge one game's performance, particularly compared to another game or version.
But what we need are framerate averages of different realistic situations often encountered during the game and a global average of all those situations.
Additionally the ideal would be to also have means of: frame-time, % of torn frames and % of judder.
Judging a ~20 hours game from 3 minutes of the very worst moments is not an indication of anything about the game. We need averages of longer plays, much longer than the mere tens of seconds we often have currently for each different situations, if we want to fairly judge one game's performance, particularly compared to another game or version.
Did a bit of work again. Now the UserValues are working properly, albeit still very basic. I solved one or two issues with them (among others an issue with versions tab not loading when a user view was added), and now all the features that accept user values will now show on their details page all the games that you've entered values for this. So using this, you can list what games you own, what you are playing, which you've completed, etc., all by going to the details page for that feature. I think the most sense to do next is make report groups, and how your values stack up against the average, etc.
I've also added Google Account integration, so you can logon using a Google account, while still choosing a user id. And I've solved an issue where in some cases a user did not get 1 reputation assigned at login, preventing them from being able to enter anything.
I've also added Google Account integration, so you can logon using a Google account, while still choosing a user id. And I've solved an issue where in some cases a user did not get 1 reputation assigned at login, preventing them from being able to enter anything.
I've cleaned up the game overview page that I messed up a bit when I added the user values - looks better now. I've also added a shortcut so that you are able to quickly add a value to a game's first version from the game overview page, if you see that something is missing (if you're logged in). I've also added on the Feature details page, the first game version that is recorded for that feature. I've also started experimenting with providing the data from the site through an OData interface, should anyone want to consume some of the data for their own sites. I've fixed some issues with the note count / pop-up window as well, but it's still not completely working correctly. Layout at least is somewhat improved though. 
Next up I really want to do some reports/lists, but I'm still struggling a little with how I would most efficiently do that.
Next up I really want to do some reports/lists, but I'm still struggling a little with how I would most efficiently do that.
Ok, I did it! You can now go to a publication or reviewer and add a score modifier. Say add 5 to all Eurogamer reviews, but detract 5 from Dan Whitehead because he generally scores higher than his colleagues. Filtered average scores are shown with the originals. Only the game level scores are shown filtered for now.
- you can now add user reviews to individual game versions, so you can write an updated review for a later version. The current average ranking takes all reviews, so if you started with a bad version on release, but the game got better with newer versions, your aggregate game score will still be lower than when you released the game in that later state. I think I'll eventually change that to only take the score for the highest version number.
- you can now add user reviews to publications, so you can review a site
- you can now add user reviews to reviewers, so you can now review a reviewer
- you can now review individual feature values
I'm still thinking the last one through, on how to organize that information though. But I thought it would be a cool idea, that that would be how you indicate your positives and negatives in the game. That could lead to some very fine-grained information, where you could indicate what features matter to you and how much, and have a score auto-adjust in that way.
- you can now add user reviews to publications, so you can review a site
- you can now add user reviews to reviewers, so you can now review a reviewer
- you can now review individual feature values
I'm still thinking the last one through, on how to organize that information though. But I thought it would be a cool idea, that that would be how you indicate your positives and negatives in the game. That could lead to some very fine-grained information, where you could indicate what features matter to you and how much, and have a score auto-adjust in that way.
I just did a lot of work on incorporating the User Reviews of features as best I could. This means that you can now not only easily review a single feature implementation of a game, but it will show user scores right there in the Game Overview, and the main Category (Controls, Graphics, etc.) will show an aggregate score of ratings of individual features in that category for the game (currently based on the latest feature/version of the game that has user reviews only).
Feature values for a specific feature are now also paged, and you can search them. I've also added a few more style classes for older platforms, so when I (or someone) adds them, they'll look distinctive.
Feature values for a specific feature are now also paged, and you can search them. I've also added a few more style classes for older platforms, so when I (or someone) adds them, they'll look distinctive.
I did add Super Mario Bros as a test and it looks pleasingly like a kart (and man we got it two years late! No wonder Nintendo or consoles in general didn't do as well in Europe - we had our C64s etc and were getting the Amiga and Atari STs by then).
(and man we got it two years late! No wonder Nintendo or consoles in general didn't do as well in Europe - we had our C64s etc and were getting the Amiga and Atari STs by then).
Looking at this more and more, I think this is the best thing I have so far that comes close to being a 'game changer' in the way reviews work. Being able to track and then review individual features really opens up a lot of possibilities, and gives much better feedback on why anyone would like a specific game, what support is like for a particular peripheral (wheel, camera ), if the open-world is good, etc. I need to improve a few things here and there (get auto-complete and auto-add working and such for reviewers will probably be a good help) combined with if someone completed the campaign, what he or she paid for it etc.
I'd say that right now the site has really reached a state for me where it's the best possible site for adding reviews out there. Obviously, the lack of data in there makes it a bit less useful than other sites, but I take my victories, however small.
), if the open-world is good, etc. I need to improve a few things here and there (get auto-complete and auto-add working and such for reviewers will probably be a good help) combined with if someone completed the campaign, what he or she paid for it etc. I'd say that right now the site has really reached a state for me where it's the best possible site for adding reviews out there. Obviously, the lack of data in there makes it a bit less useful than other sites, but I take my victories, however small.
Although it's just a regular workweek night I managed to do a surprising amount of solid work, fixing some long-standing issues I've had with adding and editing features making everything a lot faster and solving a nasty duplication bug (was due to jquery being bundled twice).
I've started building out the gameplay section as a result and have focussed a bit on Super Mario Bros. to start filling that out. Plan is to take some key games through the years to build that out and see if I can keep it orderly. Will probably need to rearrange some features occasionally but that's not a big issue with this setup.
Once I've done a few games the layout will probably get another look over.
I've started building out the gameplay section as a result and have focussed a bit on Super Mario Bros. to start filling that out. Plan is to take some key games through the years to build that out and see if I can keep it orderly. Will probably need to rearrange some features occasionally but that's not a big issue with this setup.
Once I've done a few games the layout will probably get another look over.
Did some small cosmetic fixes yesterday, including showing the actual score color coded, hiding some superfluous data, and messing with the layout of the version overview a bit, made the feature overview a little better to navigate now also for users who are not logged in.
Lots more work done on the aggregate scores. I couldn't find a too crazy way of keeping all the aggregate scores 'live' and being able to sort results efficiently (which is kinda obvious really) so I now update the database game and gameversion entries each time a user or critic review is added, updated or deleted. Too bad this means that if I'd want to add sorting for the modify-filtered scores, I'd probably have to build a table that holds the modified values per user if I'd want to make that something worthwhile. Certainly possible, but that could definitely increase the amount of data being tracked by a lot. Have to think about that a bit more before I dive into that.
Anyway, I've updated the layout of the scores and now show them in as many places I thought made sense. I think that's all working correctly now, except that the per-platform game lists show the score aggregates for all platforms instead of just the scores for that platform, so that could still be improved.
Optimised editing versions and such as well. Everything is becoming nice and fast now (insofar as the cheap SQL hosting I'm currently using isn't being overburdened but performance so far seems good enough).
Anyway, I've updated the layout of the scores and now show them in as many places I thought made sense. I think that's all working correctly now, except that the per-platform game lists show the score aggregates for all platforms instead of just the scores for that platform, so that could still be improved.
Optimised editing versions and such as well. Everything is becoming nice and fast now (insofar as the cheap SQL hosting I'm currently using isn't being overburdened
but performance so far seems good enough).