Help contribute playlist ideas to the Game Discovery Center 🙌

[AstroBob]

Hi Folks,

With the imminent rollout of LaunchBox 13.16, the game discovery centre is about to be more dynamic than ever before! With this update, you'll start seeing specially curated lists created by the LaunchBox team that offer fresh and seasonal game recommendations that will keep your library engaging throughout the year (and we're even considering opening this up to the community in the future).

For example, you might see seasonal lists featuring hand-picked hidden gems from a specific console generation or cool lists showcasing games where everyone’s favorite plumber, Mario, makes a cameo. You might even find lists that highlight what the LaunchBox team is currently playing.

We'd love to create lists that you would personally find interesting, so we're posing another question for you:

What type of playlists would you like to see in the Game Discovery Center? 🤔

Get creative—there are no wrong answers! Anything from “Games Where You’re the Real Villain” to “Games Where You Can Pet the Dog” is welcome. We also have the ability to time-gate lists, so think about ones that might be relevant at specific times of the year. No need to provide a full list of games, but a few examples of the types of games or series to include will help us flesh it out.

We’d love to hear your ideas and will be curating the best ones to appear in the Game Discovery Center. The more games in a playlist, the better the chance they’ll appear for more users. So, feel free to suggest as many game types as you think would fit! Check out some examples below to get inspired and start sharing your ideas!

Seasonal Lists ⛄ 💐 🏖️ 🍁 

⛄ Cosy Nights In - Games perfect for winter cosy, relaxing winter nights.

• Stardew Valley
• Animal Crossing
• Spiritfarer
• Journey
• Celeste

 💐 Easter Egg Hunt - Games with hidden objects, secrets, or easter eggs to find.

• Donkey Kong 64
• Yoshi’s Island
• Banjo-Kazooie
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Spyro Reignited Trilogy

🏖️ Beach Party - Games set on beaches or involving summer activities.

• Super Mario Sunshine
• Wave Race
• Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball
• Wii Sports Resort
• Beach Spikers

🍁 Harvest Time - Games with themes of farming, harvesting, and autumn.

• Harvest Moon
• Stardew Valley
• Rune Factory
• Disney Dreamlight Valley
• Harvestella

Other Lists 🎲

⏏️ “Gravity Takes a Vacation” - Titles with hilarious or non-existent physics.

• Superman 64
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
• Goat Simulator
• Gang Beasts
• Party Animals

☠️ "Boss Fights for Masochists" - Games with absurdly difficult or unfair boss battles.

• Cuphead
• Dark Souls
• Ninja Gaiden
• Mega Man
• Ghosts 'n Goblins

[MrDeKat]

I don't know if this is the idea of these lists, but the first thing that comes to mind is the game collections (Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Final Fantasy, Asterix & Obelix, Pacman, 007, Civilization, God of War and so many more). The truth is that there are an infinite number of them. 😅

On the other hand, maybe a list of Bizarre Games (Seaman, Bread Simulator, Hatoful Boyfriend, Power Diggerz, Mister Mosquito or Boogerman for example), or of lists of games set in certain regions or eras: Ugh-games (prehistorik games like Bonk's games, Far Cry Primal, The Flinstones, ARK, Disney Dinosaurs...), Japan (Ghost of Tsutsima, Tenchu, Like a Dragon, Yakuza...), WWII (Company of Heroes, Call of Duty, Battlefiled 1942...). In seasonal games, there could be Halloween or Christmas games or event games (games based on movies that won the Oscars with the Oscars, Olympic games, World Cups, Champions League with the finals, American football with the Super Bowl, F1 games wit the start of season, Dakar games, educational games with back to school, romantic games on Valentine's Day...).

[Dan Patrick]

I just want to blow stuff up:

Burnout 3

Boom Blox

Cannon Spike

After Burner 2

Blast Corps

 

It's been a hard day "Easy games": 

Mario & Luigi: Super Star Saga

Kirby Planet Robobot

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Ape: Escape 2

Uncharted 2

 

Oh Japan...Never Change:

Katamari Damacy

Kuru Kuru Kururin

Wario Ware

Incredible Crisis

Chibi Robo

 

My Brain Hurts:

Professor Layton

The Witness

FEZ

BABA IS YOU

Portal 2

[MacReady0088]

How about some introductory JRPG lists? I know people that want to get into it but feel very intimidated by the scope and the menu management. I always recommend Chrono Trigger as a starter point, but there are others that can be broken down in different lists.  

Introduction to JRPGs; Starter Class: 

Chrono Trigger 
Super Mario RPG 
Breath of Fire 1/2
Evoland 1+2
Pokémon Gold/Silver

Introduction to JRPGs; Intermediate Class: 

Final Fantasy 6
Breath of Fire 3/4
Dragon Quest 11
Sea of Stars 
Final Fantasy 7/9

Introduction to JRPGs; Advanced Class:

Final Fantasy 12
Parasite Eve
Sweet Home
Star Ocean The Second Story R
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment/Innocent Sin

-

Survival Horror Essentials: 

Resident Evil HDRemake
Dead Space
Dino Crisis 
Alien Isolation
Silent Hill 

Knuckle Sandwich!:

Final Fight 3
TMNT Turtles in Time
Streets of Rage 4
Battletoads and Double Dragon
Aliens Vs. Predator (Capcom)

I could go on and do more than 5 games and more categories, there are limitless possibilities here! But the post would be too long 

[xevious1974]

That seems a great idea. Having thousand games, it is always interesting having some list to check.

Here my lists:

-Favourites LB staff games!

-Shortest games (for consoles, for example)

-Easyest Retroachievements games (to mine some!)

-The most played subset and hacked games (incredible that some people thinks that are not standalone game...)

-The most religious games list!

-The antihero games list!

-Falling in love list (the most sentimental games)

-The Freezing lists (games that are totaly covered with ice!)

-Do you milk the cow? (games were you control a cow)

-Need a pause? (games that can be played during a coffee pause, for example that have shor level and save data very often)

-Go to sleep (games that are so boring or so text long reading that you'll fall to sleep for sure)

-Have you a good controller? (games that put your controller to the edge)

-Autumnal leaves (are there games that are based on leaves?)

-The most funny games (do  you need to laugh? here it is your favourite game list!)

-Are you going slighty mad? (games that for some reason push you to the limit. Can be ethical problem, strong visual effect, strange controls and so on)

ok, dont bother you more ❤️

 

[Arthurcoutinho600]

hello

this feature (or plugin) is interesting. It would be a great idea to make a playlist of games based on other media (films, series, comics, etc.);

 

here are some examples

 

Games based on Cartoons (It's Cartoon Time):

Looney Tunes (Game Boy)

Tom and Jerry (SNES)

Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction (Xbox 360)

Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights (GameCube)

Woody Woodpecker: Crazy Castle 5 (GBA)

 

 

Games based on Anime or Manga (Otaku Gamers):

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2)

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 (PC)

Yu Yu Hakusho (SNES)

One Piece (GBA)

Jump Super Stars (NDS)

 

 

Games based on Movies (Absolute Cinema):

Aliens (Arcade)

BeetleJuice (NES)

Blade (PS1)

Jurassic Park (Arcade)

Peter Jackson's King Kong (PS2)

 

 

Games based on series (I'm going to watch TV):

Game of Thrones (2014) (PS3)

Robot Wars: Extreme Destruction (PC)

Barney's Hide and Seek (Genesis)

Xena: Warrior Princess (PS1)

Pimp my Ride (PS1)

 

Games based on Comics or Books (Reading a Book):

Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4)

The Godfather (PS2)

Metro 2033 (Xbox 360)

Garfield: Caught in the Act (Game Gear)

Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (Dreamcast)

 

 

There are other great examples about this but the list would be long.

Edited September 5 by Arthurcoutinho600

[DemmyTree]

Silly idea for one but have no clue would assume it would require tags for it. Dynamic playlist called 'The Forgotten ones' games that have not had an active franchise and has not had a remaster/remake for the series/games

[AstroBob]

Love all these ideas, some amazing suggestions here. With the release of 13.16 today, the potential to start implementing these begins!

Our team will be curating some of our own, but we may also pick some cool ones and create community playlist posts like we did during our recent Celebration Event. 

Either way, keep em coming, I'll be sure to update this post as we get these added to Big Box

[Mundee]

As someone who suffers from analysis paralysis, I have a really hard time picking what game to play. I just browse the collections over and over. This kind of thing is a big value to me. Very happy to see this. 
However, curation is something of value these days in general. Having upvoted certain items for users to consider in light of popularity, or recommendation is interesting in itself. Having seasonal live-ops mobile style lists to try and get through in a season is also interesting too. Having community lists on themes, by platform, by genre, or even more cross-genre and cross-generation themes like "Existential RPG" with stuff like chrono trigger and lost odyssey in among 5 or 6 other great games on the topic, could be really interesting. I could see this expanding to a system of some kind to have some escalation to playing some games in sequence, revealing the next, only one at a time. Or 'streaks' or badges or ;'reveal' for completing a set of games in a seasonal or community list. Like maybe at the end of the existential RPG list above, if you play them all at least once, it reveals the runner-ups for the list?

Anyway I think this kind of curation has a ton on value for the platform. It creates community, it helps to highlight top content in an interesting way.
In an age where I can have all my games anywhere, this makes me want to add em all to Launchbox and use them there. 
Which I guess leads me to a question I did not see in the news bits, Does this also take into account current stuff like gamepass, steam, gog, epic, etc. ?
I see it implied, but never stated. 

And I guess a second question, Does the system only show the items for a list that you have, or does it list everything and sort of grey out games you don't have? 

Anyway, this feature set is great. The potential here is massive. Thank you for creating the game discovery center.

[DazStelfox79]

On 8/24/2024 at 2:48 PM, MrDeKat said:

I don't know if this is the idea of these lists, but the first thing that comes to mind is the game collections (Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Final Fantasy, Asterix & Obelix, Pacman, 007, Civilization, God of War and so many more). The truth is that there are an infinite number of them. 😅

On the other hand, maybe a list of Bizarre Games (Seaman, Bread Simulator, Hatoful Boyfriend, Power Diggerz, Mister Mosquito or Boogerman for example), or of lists of games set in certain regions or eras: Ugh-games (prehistorik games like Bonk's games, Far Cry Primal, The Flinstones, ARK, Disney Dinosaurs...), Japan (Ghost of Tsutsima, Tenchu, Like a Dragon, Yakuza...), WWII (Company of Heroes, Call of Duty, Battlefiled 1942...). In seasonal games, there could be Halloween or Christmas games or event games (games based on movies that won the Oscars with the Oscars, Olympic games, World Cups, Champions League with the finals, American football with the Super Bowl, F1 games wit the start of season, Dakar games, educational games with back to school, romantic games on Valentine's Day...).

I agree with game collections in Playlist.

I would also like to see in Game Discovery Center a list of our personal Playlists like all my Sonic games, Mario games, Racing Games etc. Also a Platform Category list would be nice as before using Game Discovery Center I previously started Big Box up in Platform Category View

[Dark Fact]

Be great to see a playlist of Translated games. English Rom hacks, for example.

Sorry if that's too niche. That's what I'd like to see!

Created my own dynamic playlist for them, so I can remember to try them out.

[DemmyTree]

3 hours ago, Dark Fact said:

Be great to see a playlist of Translated games. English Rom hacks, for example.

Sorry if that's too niche. That's what I'd like to see!

Created my own dynamic playlist for them, so I can remember to try them out.

if you could set it for every language id call it the "Sorry no read ______" collection

[MrDeKat]

I've been testing the Game Discovery Center and I found it really interesting. Great job.

I have some some functionality suggestions. Maybe they can't be implemented or are not the path you are looking for, but I leave them here in case anyone be interesting:

• It would be interesting to create different categories for the lists: "best of", "worst of", "discover games", "because you liked", "explore games", "event lists"... Now it's a bit chaotic and interesting lists like "Spooky games for October" can go unnoticed.
• For event lists, it could be interesting show games that you don't have (as happens with similar games or ports). Some games that you may not know existed would be discovered.
• Incorporate a percentage of games played or completed from each list, would encourage to try more games from the list. Like some kind of achievement. If it were related to completed achievements, could be win medals on your profile (something like Retroachievement events).
• It would be fantastic to see lists of RA events (like Achievement of the Week) and the latest games that incorporate achievements. I imagine that there isn't a way to automate this information, but I mention it in case there will be luck.
• Show a logo for the event lists would give a fantastic aspect.
• Give the option to add the Game Discovery Center as one of the platforms or categories that appear when you open BigBox.
• As a user who uses Launchbox more than BigBox, it would be great to have Game Discovery Center in Launchbox. I hope you have it in your plans.

[AstroBob]

Hi @MrDeKat thanks for the great suggestions here. I wanted to follow up on a few of these

8 hours ago, MrDeKat said:

Give the option to add the Game Discovery Center as one of the platforms or categories that appear when you open BigBox.

This is currently already possible. Under `Options > Views > Default Startup View` you can choose the Game Discovery Center as the view that will show when you load Big Box

 

8 hours ago, MrDeKat said:

It would be interesting to create different categories for the lists: "best of", "worst of", "discover games", "because you liked", "explore games", "event lists"... Now it's a bit chaotic and interesting lists like "Spooky games for October" can go unnoticed.

The idea behind the current layout is so that you're bound to see something new each time to visit. That said I do agree it can get a bit unwieldy, and certain lists can go unnoticed.

 

8 hours ago, MrDeKat said:

Incorporate a percentage of games played or completed from each list, would encourage to try more games from the list. Like some kind of achievement. If it were related to completed achievements, could be win medals on your profile (something like Retroachievement events).

I personally love this idea, as I am a big achievement hunter myself. We recognise that not everyone plays games for achievements, but for those who do an easy way to mark games as completed would be really great. Personally, I've actually hijacked the favorite fied to denote games that I've finished, since it put a heart icon over them in Big Box, so something along these lines, but with completion would be great

[MrDeKat]

12 hours ago, AstroBob said:

This is currently already possible. Under `Options > Views > Default Startup View` you can choose the Game Discovery Center as the view that will show when you load Big Box

Thanks, I didn't see the option of Game Discovery Center here.

12 hours ago, AstroBob said:

The idea behind the current layout is so that you're bound to see something new each time to visit. That said I do agree it can get a bit unwieldy, and certain lists can go unnoticed.

I think the orignal idea that it changes every time you enter is perfect. My request was not to replace it, it was to add other options with lists of the same type grouped together. As if it were filtered by keywords that each list had. Maybe it will be understood better with a picture:

[AstroBob]

On 10/24/2024 at 2:08 AM, MrDeKat said:

I think the orignal idea that it changes every time you enter is perfect. My request was not to replace it, it was to add other options with lists of the same type grouped together. As if it were filtered by keywords that each list had. Maybe it will be understood better with a picture:

Thanks for the great mock-up there, I totally agree it would be great to group together similar sections so that you can hone in on those specific playlists if necessary.

I'm not 100% if something like that would be possible to implement with themes since the game Discovery Center is able to be modified for themes. That said, it's relatively new, so not a lot of the theme creators support them yet. 

Either way, really appreciate the feedback there, we want to continue to improve the Game Discovery Center's default them so we'll certainly keep this in mind.

[AstroBob]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for all the amazing suggestions so far. For tomorrow's live stream, we're going to be doing something fun, by voting on and curating some of these playlists LIVE with you, the viewers. The stream will be on Wednesday 27th November, 5pm EST (details here)

To prepare for this, I've curated and fleshed out some of the amazing suggestions people have given and narrowed it down to 5 categories. We're going to be voting on stream which of these we create together, but don't worry, there will be plenty of chances to deviate and we'll probably be doing more than just these 5, so definitely pop along if you can 😄

Here's the list, with some examples for each.

 

• “I Just Want to Blow Stuff Up” - Games where destruction is not just an option, it’s the point.

  • Burnout 3
  • Boom Blox
  • Cannon Spike
  • After Burner 2
  • Blast Corps

• “Games Based on Iconic Cartoons” – Relive the magic of your favorite animated movies & series through these unforgettable games.

  • Tiny Tunes Adventures
  • Quackshot
  • Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction
  • Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights
  • Crazy Castle 3

• “The Forgotten Ones” – A tribute to games that time seems to have left behind, with no active franchises or remakes to reignite their legacy.

  • Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
  • Skies of Arcadia
  • Okami
  • Chu Chu Rocket
  • Vagrant Story

• “Oddities and Oddballs” – A collection of the most bizarre, unconventional, and delightfully weird games ever made.

  • Seaman
  • I Am Bread
  • Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure
  • Mister Mosquito
  • Katamari Damacy

• Gravity Takes a Vacation” - Titles with hilarious or non-existent physics.

  • Superman 64
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
  • Goat Simulator
  • Gang Beasts
  • Party Animals

[AstroBob]

Hi Folks, we had a great time on stream yesterday building some of these lists with y'all. Thanks for the great suggestions, the community votes and I'm happy to say 2 brand new game discovery lists are now live in Big Box, those being

“The Forgotten Ones” – A tribute to games that time seems to have left behind, with no active franchises or remakes to reignite their legacy.

“I Just Want to Blow Stuff Up” - Games where destruction is not just an option, it’s the point.

Thanks @Dan Patrick and @DemmyTree those for those 2 excellent suggestions. 

You can watch the VOD of yesterday's stream below, though it will only be available for 7 days:
🔗 https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2312688942

Keep the excellent suggestions coming, we'll definitely be making more of these with you guys in the future 😊