Is it possible to have Series Icons? Similar to Playlist icons and platform icons? I'd like to have my Series section have icons

[PhoenixCF]

Just curious if this is possible

[JoeViking245]

32 minutes ago, PhoenixCF said:

Just curious if this is possible

Your series are going to be either a Platform, Playlist or a Platform Category (depending on how you imported/set them up).

So with your premium license, you can add custom icons for them.  They'll go in (respectively):

• \LaunchBox\Images\Platform Icons\Platforms\
• \LaunchBox\Images\Platform Icons\Playlists\
• \LaunchBox\Images\Platform Icons\Platform Categories\

[PhoenixCF]

No.... they are a series. As in, They exist BECAUSE of the metadata series. I never set up a playlist, platform, or platform category.

[Sbaby]

I, too, have always wanted series to be treated the same as the other features of LaunchBox and BigBox. Whenever I add a game, I always take the time to fix the Series section as well, because I find it great to have all my games organized by series.

Unfortunately, in BigBox the Series section looks rather bare and poor. It would be great if it could be enriched like the playlists, including pictures, videos, and descriptions. And maybe, in LaunchBox, dedicated icons could be added as well.

I should add that I have created playlists based on the Series rule, the thing works but I find this solution an extra step that could be avoided, since series are already playlists, only unfortunately they are not treated as such by the software.

So I join the wish expressed by @PhoenixCF hoping that this functionality will be taken into consideration! 😊

 

[JoeViking245]

39 minutes ago, PhoenixCF said:

No.... they are a series. As in, They exist BECAUSE of the metadata series. I never set up a playlist, platform, or platform category.

Apologies.  I guess I never paid attention to notice that a series could be visually displayed somewhere where an icon could [possibly] be shown.  Honestly, I never look at those myself, so assumed it'd fall under one of the forementioned 3.

[AstroBob]

Hi @PhoenixCF,

Like many of you, I’m a big fan of the Series field and often use it to explore games within a franchise. However, as you’re aware, the Series field needs to be manually populated (with the exception of arcade games, which can pull series information from MAME metadata).

Since Series functions like other metadata categories (e.g., genre, play type, etc.), there’s currently no way to add custom icons when viewing the Series section in LaunchBox. As @Sbaby mentioned, the workaround for this is to create an auto-playlist for the series you want. This allows you to customize it with icons, images, banners, and more.

I understand this isn’t an ideal solution—it adds extra steps and can be cumbersome to maintain. Internally, we’ve discussed enhancing the Series field, but the challenge has always been that everyone categorizes their series differently. For example, some people group games by the main series, others by sub-series, and some want both. If we were to elevate Series to its own view type with dedicated media, we’d need to ensure an easy way to populate that media. This would require a solution that accommodates most use cases right out of the box, which is no small feat.

I know this isn’t a perfect system, but I hope this provides some clarity on why it currently works this way. That said, we’ve seen some fantastic series-based collections created using playlists, complete with custom videos, banners, logos, and more.

Looking ahead, we’re actively considering how we can improve and expand the functionality of the Series field. I often dream of being able to select a series, see a nice timeline of all the games, when they were released, maybe some bio's on the series history, characters involved etc. Okay I'm getting carried away now, but we're certainly thinking about it 😉