Spring 2020 roadmap discussion - reshaping game pages

Now that PSN sync has been restored (backlog of individual trophy data pending) and we upgraded our server storage to accommodate our ever-growing database, I'd like to talk about a big change I've been working on, coming to PlayTracker this Spring.

Multiple features in the works require reshaping how PlayTracker handles a game as an object and displays data about it. So, we've decided to bundle them all together into one update coming this spring. While this update is still deep in development, we wanted to talk about what it includes so we can gather feedback and ideas, add things to the checklist we might have missed, and make sure we're on the right track.

Games as a link between Social and Insight

In this update, games will be treated as one object across Social and Insight, which mainly means a cohesive and consistent header with a menu connecting the game's pages. The current social page will become the Achievements page, while Insight will just stay Insight. There will also be a new About page containing basic metadata about a game (we will get to that later). Beyond these 3 pages in the spring update, future updates are likely to add features would need their own page. For example, one of the things we want to do is a user review and scoring system.

More meta data on games

You may have noticed some changes to the meta data Insight shows about a Steam game, for example genre, developer, publisher... These are the early stages of our new meta data system, which we hope to expand to games on all platforms and keep it consistent using human input. In addition to this being useful for display on both Insight and Social pages, we will integrate this into our filtering tools for Social and Insight, allowing you for example to view a user's most played action games, or search for the top selling action games recently. Beyond the spring update and in the same vein, we are also looking at:

• standardizing the visual assets we use for games across all platforms
• connecting pages of the same game across various platforms/editions
• allowing users to submit assets for games that don't have them
• offering an API to access the assets, meta data, and insight data we have on a game

Better library management

Improving PlayTracker's game library has long been an elusive goal which slipped ever further as more pressing features were added (like support for more platforms) which stepped on the toes of what little work had been done on the library. The spring update will (hopefully) feature:

• Backlog - users can add games to their backlog, as well as mark games as finished or retired
• Local coop parties - allows users to share achievements with other users that participated in earning them (they show up on both accounts and give XP to all users involved)
• Playflix* - an interface for users to find a game to play based on recent activity and backlog across all platforms

*proper name pending

Smarter achievement pages

PlayTracker already supports enhanced support for some games that are platforms in and of themselves, but that has been limited to profile cards so far. The spring update will bring smarter achievement pages (previously referred to as usergame pages) that adapt to the game being shown allowing custom ways to display data depending on the game. For example, achievements for Guild Wars 2 could be divided into sections depending on expansion and games with DLC could have DLC achievement separated. Additional data could be displayed on the achievement page if available, for example your most played Overwatch heroes on that game's page.

We are also planning to implement a "milestone" denotation for certain achievements. These would be achievements of note between 0 and 100% game completion and could have additional XP and even related cosmetics like profile backgrounds and titles. We intend to use this to create an optional new library filter which would focus on game completion being experiencing all the content in a game and reduce the compulsion to "100%" every game even if this means doing tedious or difficulty achievements some people do not enjoy.

In addition to the listed front-end changes, we are also working on speeding up library sync, improving the responsiveness of the Activity Feed and allowing Insight to reflect real-world changes faster than the current 4-5 day delay. This will likely roll out before the big spring update, as it is independent from the user-facing side of things and can just go live when it's ready.

That's all, for now, I think. Let us know if you have any comments regarding these plans, including but not limited to:

• suggestions for other stuff that should be added to this update or the next
• what you are most excited about
• what you really don't care that much about

Thank you for your support and love of PlayTracker!