Add a "Tags" field for related games and searching options?

[Madhead]

This has been a bit of an undertaking, but I think it's worth it. I wanted to add tags to games so they can be more easily found both in the similar games section and search bar. I recently wisened up and found that using custom fields and calling one 'Tags' would create a whole new field across the database, and it works!

 

It's pretty good so far and it's quite remarkable how the related games accuracy gets improved when enough tags are present. It stands to reason that this feature would only get better as more tags are added to the database over time. Not only that but they act as kind of sub-genres, ones you wouldn't normally bother creating a whole genre for but can justify adding as a tag.

I've only done racing games so far, so now when looking for similar games to OutRun for example, you'd get Lotus II on Amiga, or Chase HQ, not some random PC racing sim that really isn't similar at all except that they are both technically in the racing genre. And Instead of Need for Speed Underground 2 being similar to Pole Position, you'd get PitStop II for the C64.. you get the idea.

Problem is though, at the moment it's just my own custom field so it's all on me to add potentially hundreds of different tags to my collection. That, and you can't search any of these tags in the search bar. They don't show up. Yet they are recognised as seperate value entry's via a semi-colon like other fields, and show up on the side bar as you can see from the images. So then my suggestion is to add an actual tag field to the LaunchBox edit section where the community can contribute to it, and where they can be searchable. In the meantime I'd hope for you to add the ability to search for custom field values as their use is limited without that option.

It seems like a bit of a project, but hopefully those images show you how they can make collections more cohesive. I can already see the benefits with the few tags i've already added myself. I hope you agree, Thanks.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Madhead

[faeran]

Definitely a cool idea.

Another way you can currently implement this is to create subgenres instead of tags. Within the genre field you would put a forward slash in-between a genre and subgenre (genre / subgenre).

LaunchBox would then recognize the second genre as a sub genre and would help with things like the related games feature and it would display accurately inside of the on-the-fly filter button (This is similar to how a MAME fullset would be handled when importing it into LaunchBox).

Official support for this stuff on the LaunchBox Games Database would be nice, and is definitely somethin we've internally discussed many times. No idea when something like this would eventually make it into the database (it's on more of a very, very long term internal roadmap), but it would be cool to see and just know that it's on our radar.

[Madhead]

6 hours ago, faeran said:

Definitely a cool idea.

Another way you can currently implement this is to create subgenres instead of tags. Within the genre field you would put a forward slash in-between a genre and subgenre (genre / subgenre).

LaunchBox would then recognize the second genre as a sub genre and would help with things like the related games feature and it would display accurately inside of the on-the-fly filter button (This is similar to how a MAME fullset would be handled when importing it into LaunchBox).

Official support for this stuff on the LaunchBox Games Database would be nice, and is definitely somethin we've internally discussed many times. No idea when something like this would eventually make it into the database (it's on more of a very, very long term internal roadmap), but it would be cool to see and just know that it's on our radar.

Yeah I get the whole sub-genre thing. But I actually merged all the sub-genres of mame into one genre for example "Shooter / Vertical scrolling" and Horizontal are all under one genre called "shoot em up", then tagged them with the type of shooter they are. It works just the same as sub-genres without bloating the genre category. Cos thing is tags can be very specific and you can potentially end up having hundreds of them if your collection is big enough.

If the custom field data becomes searchable in the near future with an update then everything youd need to create this setup will be there. Of course will be better when the entire community can contribute to it, but for now I'm glad the custom fields gives you that option albeit they don't show up in search bar.

[C-Beats]

Just so you are aware @Madhead there is both a side bar filter AND a quick filter for custom tags and so you can use either when trying to navigate to games with a specific tag

[Madhead]

2 hours ago, C-Beats said:

Just so you are aware @Madhead there is both a side bar filter AND a quick filter for custom tags and so you can use either when trying to navigate to games with a specific tag

Yeah I use the side bar filters in general. It all works perfectly even for custom fields. I just wish you could search for custom field values too.

[C-Beats]

26 minutes ago, Madhead said:

Yeah I use the side bar filters in general. It all works perfectly even for custom fields. I just wish you could search for custom field values too.

There a reason you're wanting them in search instead of using the quick-filter?

[Madhead]

1 minute ago, C-Beats said:

There a reason you're wanting them in search instead of using the quick-filter?

Just like if you have a big library, you can search for terms like in a search engine and you get results. All the other fields show up when searched so for uniformity I think custom fields should be also. Quick filter is great but then so is the search bar.