Help Build the Mystery Game Database!
Help Build the Mystery Game Database!
Log in and rate your favorite games on the new Mystery Gamedev website!
Happy Mystery Monday!
I’ve got a massive update for you all today, so let’s get right into it.
You can now create your own account on the Mystery Gamedev Website!
I have many more features planned, but as of today you can:
Create an account and log in with a verified e-mail address
Change your password or reset it if you forget
Bookmark mystery games on a list of favorites
Rate mystery games on a scale of 1 to 10
Tag mystery games (10 tags per game per user)
Submit new mystery games to the database
That last one is the most important feature, and let me explain why.
With our goal to spread awareness of under-appreciated mystery games, I always believed it made sense to start by making a mystery game database.
As of this post, there are currently a little over 300 mystery games on the website, and they’ve been visible since April or so. But I know there’s a lot more, whether they’re new indie games or obscure ones from foreign countries made a long time ago.
I really want this to be the most comprehensive catalog of mystery games anywhere — so for this, I’m going to need some help!
Game Submission Process
I think the instructions are laid out clearly on the submission page, but since you’ll need to log in before you can see it, I’ll go ahead and quickly describe it here:
Enter the title of the game. It will autocomplete to suggest titles of games that other users have already submitted (more on this later).
Enter a URL for the game so that I can verify that it belongs in the database. A store page like Steam or itch will do fine, but if it’s not available on either of those, any website with information about the game works too.
Enter a reason for why you think it belongs in the database. This shouldn’t be hard if it’s really a mystery game, but some are less obvious than others.
Beneath the submission form is a table showing all current submissions, but more importantly you’ll also see how many people have voted on them.
So generally, a game that 100 people think belongs in the database stands a much greater chance of getting in compared to a game that only a few people voted for.
But at the same time, a really obscure game might only be known by a few people, so I still need to use some discretion rather than blindly accepting things.
Ideally, people could just contribute the pages themselves (like a wiki), but I’m not quite ready to open that can of worms. So we’ll have to work together for now.
Some behind the scenes stuff
I’ve also created an admin dashboard for myself so that I can approve/deny these requests, plus managing every entry in the database. Along with the dashboard comes a whole slew of features which makes my job much easier and faster than before.
Importantly, the dashboard has been updated so that itch games will now be added to the database. You can already see that I’ve added at least one as a test, but since the website currently only has Steam games, it’s going to be a lot of work to add them in.
So, feel free to submit games that aren’t even on Steam!
The formatting of itch games still need some work, because it's not quite as convenient for finding information, but I'll figure out a way to deal with that soon.
I was really hoping to get all that figured out in April for the Mystery Game Jam, but other time-consuming obligations prevented that from happening.
In fact, I barely had the database working at all back then.
Now it’s a much more robust system, so we’ve really come a long way.
And I say that because I had to rewrite the entire website — not once, but twice! So if it looks a little bit different, that’s why. But it runs much faster now, and the design actually works on mobile devices (for the most part).
Overall, the architecture is significantly better, both inside and out.
And honestly, it’s been a very fun and valuable learning experience for me as a software developer. It’s big enough to make an impact and have its challenges, but not so big that it can’t be done. I’m very happy with the result.
Just please take note — even though I have tested it, anything is still possible. So if any bugs happen, or strange errors pop up, let me know via e-mail or Discord.
So, what’s next?
I had to rush a few things and cut a few features to get it out by today, so I’m going to continue adding them back in and fixing things up through the week. Ultimately I plan to keep going at it as much as I can through October, because I have such big plans for the website beyond just being a database.
For example, I rebuilt the events calendar from scratch (instead of using a pre-built component) so that it can work directly with the user accounts system. So very soon, you’ll be able to register for a community event, and I’ll be able to know how many people (and who) have signed up for it.
I also want to build features that allow users to interact with each other directly on the platform, and some extra features to help developers regarding both marketing and game development. So much to do, so little time!
Anyway, there’s probably a lot more I could say, but I’ve been working on this for the past 15 hours today just to get it done in time for the newsletter (yes, I’m a bit tired) so I think that covers things well enough.
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering: the podcast episode scheduled for today was rescheduled for a time in November, per the developer’s request.
As always, thank you all for your continued support! I am always open to suggestions, so I look forward to hearing your feedback on the updated website. And I hope you have a lot of fun!
Thanks for reading!
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