A new gaming backlog

I like playing video games and developing things. And I also like to writing lists to keep track of various things. Like what I played and when. You can keep track of the games you plan to play, the ones you are playing now, and the ones that you have already played. It is like a task list, Kanban board or project backlog.

The history of my gaming history

Back in the old days, I had a cloud based spreadsheet to keep track of my gaming records. Searching and editing were lightning fast. But it was quite boring to look at it.

Later, I've found a service I used for a long time: Backloggery. Tt has a lot of great features, but it didn't recognize all the platforms I used. Also registering new records and filling in their data required navigating to two different screens located in different places in the app. It didn't find it comfortable.

I migrated to Gremlin after that. I liked it too. It's pretty decent and tracks board games too. The staff is friendly and helpful. It's a community-built database and a social platform at the same time. You can see and like others' progress, reviews and such. But since Gremlin is not international, I've only found a few people with similar gaming tastes.

Creating an onw backlog

These times are about taking back the ownership of your own data. It requires effort, but gives you higher control in return.

I wanted a gaming backlog with some statistical capabilities similar to Backloggery's, but I wanted to edit my data faster. I also didn't want to store covers and screenshots, but I wanted something more than plain text.

So, I decided to create my own database. It's a python plugin for my Pelican static site generator. I record my stuff into a CSV. It's a comma separated table, that can be edited with spreadsheet editors and text editors alike. This method allows me to maintain the data quickly. My plugin generate nice charts from it. Also, my favorite games have their on colored floppy disk icons, that recall some of their characteristic colors.

There is also a rating system. Games start 3 hearts, they can lose and get additional ones. I may later extend the statistics with a tagging system.

You can access it by following this link to the Gaming Backlog or using the Start menu-like menu in the top left corner to check it. I've just made it working.