Hi, I'm Basile Cornet, the developer behind Games. Big changes are coming to the app, and I wanted to take a bit of time to keep you updated.
I started developing and using Games in 2020, it is on the App Store since March 2022. I built it because I have a growing video games collection (550+ games), and I wanted a nice app to manage and keep track of all of them.
A new database
The app changed a lot since its inception, between the various iOS updates, the new features, the iPad version, it is nothing like it was at the beginning. But one point that always bothered me was the data. Since the start I always wanted a database that would gives me the covers of the game, not just an artwork, this is why I landed on TheGamesDB (TGDB). It might not be the most clean and accurate database, but it have a lot of games, and unlike IGDB it uses game covers instead of artworks. Also the access was free and the rate limit acceptable.
Fast forward 4 years later, TGDB is becoming a paid database, with a small rate limit for free usage. The data are still not perfect, many duplicates, multiple entries of the same game for various editions or regions variants, I needed to find something else.
Unfortunately, I found no options that would check all the requirements. This is where I decided to build my own. Not going from scratch that would not be doable.
Games is now using its own database, which is a mirror of TGDB, so all the current TGDB data are available as it was before. But this is built on new foundations that will allow me to cleanup the data (that will be a long work), and provide a better experience to Games users. The database is kept in sync with TGDB, updates are not in real time, they are done, for now, on a weekly basis, but this doesn't prevent me from adding new entries to this new database myself.
As an example of what we can expect, I've already tried some data cleanup. The Virtual Boy is the first platform to take advantage of this. Searching for Teleroboxer, will present a single entry with a number instead of the region flag, which indicates the number of release for this game.
Tapping on it will open a new screen that will allow you to select which variant of the game you have, in this case there is only 2, the US version and the Japanese version, both with their correct cover and title.
This, I hope, will unclutter the search results, and allow for an easier finding of a specific release.
More regions
Up until now, Games had only 4 regions (US, Europe, Japan and Asia), the new database support a broader set of regions, with country specific ones, like France or Germany, so you should see more search results with more correct country information.
Obviously not all regions variant are in the database, and game previously shown as Europe, could now appear as Spanish (because this is really what the data is), this doesn't change the fact that you can mark it as a French release when saving it an using your own cover. The data are just more accurate.
Pricing change
Since the introduction of Games in 2022, the price didn't really changed. It started at €3.99 and remained like this, until the introduction of subscription about a year ago. At this time I upped the price to €5.99 for the Lifetime purchase and introduced 2 subscriptions tier, monthly at €0.59 and yearly at €4.99, I don't know what I was hoping to achieve with this pricing strategy, but I can say it doesn't work as expected.
Now that Games uses its own database, the cost of running it are going to be different. This is why prices are going to change as follow starting next week, on April 1st. The Games UNLOCK lifetime will be at €19.99, yearly at €5.99 and monthly will remain at €0.59
What's coming next
I have a lot of ideas on how I want the database and the app to evolve. But here are a few:
- Proper handling of editions, right now they are added as plain text between brackets after the game title.
- Separation between official releases and the rest, having homebrews, prototypes, cancelled games is fine, but that adds a lot of noise and should be identified as such.
- Barcode scanning will come, this is part of the cleaning process, since there is not central place for this, this will takes time, and once enough data are available, this will be added to the app.
- At this time, adding new games or entries is closed, and only manage by myself, but obviously this is a lot of work. I plan to open this, either from the app or from a website. The added content will however subject to review before approval, to ensure a minimum level of quality.
I would like to thank you all for using Games, and I'm hoping to make it the best app to manage your video games collection!!
