Do you have your games sorted in categories when you look through them?
When our typical backlogs are gathering more games than one can count up in an instant, it’s normal to get lost digging through the huge pile to get to the desired, next game to play. Fortunately, the OCD part of me enjoys sorting them in different categories for tracking and finding games at a suitable mood.
I’ll let you peek in my Steam library to see the way I do it (on the left side).
The numbered categories are games sorted by 4 interest levels that I have on games.
The “Backlog (genre)” categories are largely self-explanatory. “First-person” includes walking simulators and FPS; games that have unique design or are hard to classify are put under “Puzzle/Indie”; RPG includes turn-based and RPG-focused action-adventure games.
Beatlog: Where all the games I’ve cleared, got satisfied with or given early pass end up in.
Co-op backlog: A list to refer to when I discuss gaming plans with other friends.
Epic Dedication: A list of games that take over 30 hours to finish. I look up the website “Howlongtobeat” to get the numbers.
Era - Ancient: A new category I am experimenting with out of curiosity, where I had an idea to sort games into time settings from pre-historic to sci-fi future. Might or might not stick around.
In Session: Games that are in the middle of playthrough. If I want to remember what games are waiting to be finished, this list is practical.
Max 3h: Like Epic Dedication, it lists games that would take 3 hours or less to finish. Useful if I want something to work through the backlog numbers quickly.
Play Along 2020: Selected games that are prioritized to be played in the near future.
Quick try: A list of games that I’d consider playing through someday on a whim, deciding if they’re time-worthy or go straight to Beatlog.
Rags-to-riches: Personal preference. I’m a fan of games with such story elements.
Replays: Passed games that are worth replaying, either for multiplayer or alternate paths.
Retro style: Personal preference. Mostly 8-bit inspired games.
Series (Franchise): Owned games that share the same franchise end up here, too. In case I want to look up which i would follow through with in the backlog.
The Set categories are sorted by the games’ settings, thematically or graphically.
Do you guys have any categories of interesting sort? With luck, there might be something to inspire my sorting in a new direction, too.
pretty cool you’ve put some time into curation of these little lists and it has a definite Grouvee Challenge 2020 feel to it! Looks like a nice way to find something to play that fits your mood.
To give you an idea of what it’s like on my end (Launchbox):
Not Shown:
Now Playing, (basically games i am playing, pick up and play or trying to complete for 2020 challenge)
RetroAchievements (Incomplete), Games I want to 100%
RetroAchievements (Salsa) = The best developer. creative, fun and challenging achievements.
SlideShows - SNES Roms that have anime, porn, other things. Rather than just delete them this list is made by looking for a tag i assigned and it keeps them from populating the main group of games unless I specifically look for it. (Same with C64 Mags)
Most of my playlists after VR are looking for some field like this and automatically generated. All those arcade things and genres (and unlicensed games) are behaving that way. Some of it i made and some of it I inherited from someone over at Launchbox forums. (I dont exactly want all these lists but dont necessarily want to delete them either cause its handy!) It’s also a bit daunting to tweak genres (i’m manually doing it) but i do clean it up every now and then.
I’m able to do a lot of the things you’ve done just doing a search result for say ‘completed’ or filtering ‘co-op’ in another section of LB. and its pretty fast and fluid on the fly. i have very few handpicked curated lists. the 90’s thing was just for fun
i actually add any game i have that is under 12 hours to now playing by default now
pick up and play games that get retired from active duty go into replay value. LB also has a way to track series and does it by default when applicable but i usually dont bother unless its Mod related (example i wont ever mess with Grand Theft Auto or Mario because i can just search for those things, but i will do it with Doom or Half-Life mods) having a seperate multiplayer replay value isnt really necessary but its just a bit faster when people want to play with or i’m looking to get something going and functions as a Now Playing with friends sort of list.
That’s a thorough, dedicated library sorting you’ve got together there. I think the program “Launchbox” has passed some mentions some time in my life.
Adding games with max 12 hours in length under the “Now playing” category makes for an interesting preference. I would have preferred less hours but on the paper, having it in that category may make the games more compelling to focus on.
Adding a small note, if you are interested in a decent front end to store and access games of all platforms/ files associations, I have and continue to use Launchbox currently and find it to be more than efficient and up to the task than other possibly more popular programs.
When it comes to categories, in my Steam for instance, I am not as in depth as others, or as I could be, and like to be as simple as possible when organizing what games I have through that platform.
I do have a question though. When it comes to Steam I have categorized games that I feel you could play endlessly as they don’t traditionally have an end and instead welcome players to keep at it until they grow tired of playing. In regards to Grouvee, how do you organize those? I haven’t created a separate shelf for them yet, but I have often find my greatest struggle with dealing with such games comes when putting timeframes on play, whether that is just leaving it open or not marking it at all.
Around end of the year for the 2020 grouvee challenge I just did a search for something like “reddit short games list under xx hours” and found lots of posts around ~12 hours of people making recommendations. I just copied and pasted stuff and filtered out what i had played or wasn’t interested in. (I want to say that’s been maybe 25% of the kind of stuff i’ve picked to play this year.) So far, I’ve found many of these games I’ve played so far just are not, 12 hours, and some aren’t even short!
I never did bother to categorize stuff in steam and find I can just use LB instead (to me its worth the hassle to nav to the exe and make a shortcut) I think in steams I would just categorize my games in maybe two or three shelves of games based on frequency of play, and hide the ones i know i wont play again.
On Grouvee I will keep those ‘endless’ games on Now Playing, Replay Value, Replay Value (Multiplayer) or Abandoned depending on how active/frequently I play them. I do not send them to Played unless I ‘beat’ them. I also set the ‘source’ field (in launchbox, click ‘edit game’) to Steam, Amazon Games, or Epic. I find doing it this way lets me avoid having another list for ‘source’. Something i notice a bit of users on here (and other places) tend to do with the state of things they own, where, and what format. Having a Replay Value (Multiplayer) shelf/list is pretty nice. I send stuff there and don’t even wishlist it or anything else. A good chunk of it is these games and a lot of them are games I’m just grabbing weekly from Epic, Amazon Games and whatnot.
Also, I find that for the games I pick up and play once a year or more, more skewed towards Now Playing in grouvee… with the intent they just don’t leave. I did that for LB in the past but this year have retired them to Replay Value lists instead so to clean up clutter and now playing shelf in LB this year has actually become a bit more off course to be a nice mix of the <12 hour HLTB titles i mentioned, other stuff i’ve slotted for the 2020 grouvee challenge (which actually are on Wishlist (High Priority) in grouvee) such as grouvee TOP 250 and for old games, stuff i’ve slotted based on retroachievement sets… (which could be on any shelf or no shelf on grouvee) That makes my Now Playing list in LB more like a mix of now playing and wishlist narrowed down to about 100-150 games. Still, in theory my games still mirror Grouvee, just will take time, lol. (and yea i spend a gosh dang amount of stupid time fiddling with it!)
I got a friend who knows about LB and he uses it for VR ONLY. But he uses something called Playnite for other games. I only looked at it once or twice when i was at his house and it looks like a more simplified version of LB but still had quite a bit of ability, and if he uses it, it’s gotta be less of a time investment. That might be ideal for those who plays a lot of those kinds of games, he kind of has dedicated Playnite to them I think? Also he uses it with XBOX somehow i think for couch co-op with girlfriend (but don’t quote me on that!) So if you have been grabbing Epic and free games and steam sale and find it all daunting with your sudden (and increasing) influx of games, it might be a great solution for you!
Looks like we all have some categories in common, most of all priorities, preferred genres and not to mention replays.
I’ve decided to make four new categories, including two that are in form of game tempo extremes. Games that belong somewhere in the middle aren’t included, due to their dynamic gameplay core (like adventure games with action elements). I made those to quickly find games that would suit my current mood.
The “Calm” tempo is for games that doesn’t take much work from me to progress, in case I’m feeling too tired for intense gaming but want something more relaxing to entertain myself with. That includes puzzle-focused games, point-and-click adventures, low-intensity strategy games and walking sims.
The “Hectic” tempo is for those that take more stress or intense brainpower to progress, for times when I feel up to something stimulating. Typically action, rhythm and horror games apply here.
As for the third category, “Series In Progress”, I listed games that are part of a franchise or series that, obviously, has been started. Practical list to refer to, in case I want to follow up or complete the saga I’ve started earlier.
Finally, I renamed my Beatlog into “Passlog Green” for games that I have gotten over with, whether they’re finished or checked off midway. Despite that, knowing that I have left some games unfinished, there are some that could earn a new chance for various reasons (inspiration, new PC rig, friends, achievements etc). Therefore, I made the “Passlog Yellow” for that reason. Since I want to keep count of passed games, these games are also counted in “Passlog Green” list, too.
I’ve been thinking recently about creating a section for games under the general header “Pick Up and Play” or some other similar title. Sometimes staring at my collection, when I want to play a game for an hour but not be too invested, I bounce around looking at my favorites or my backlog but none of it will do. Also when I have a new controller or setup and just want to test out some hardware, I could really use something that isn’t halfway through a campaign or that requires a tutorial/cutscene before I can start bouncing around.
Pick up and play wouldn’t be exclusive to Arcade type games either, multiplayer games and single player games that drop the player into the action immediately fit under that category as well.
At the end of November, I have added a small but important list related to the Grouvee challenge. It sums up games that I have yet to clear, in order to complete certain groups by the end of the year. Totally 15 games are listed (14 on Steam) and a few of them share the same challenge categories, so one game beaten can eliminate yet another game from the list.
This way, I can plan and keep my backlog queue focused with less confusion, if I am to manage to finish some game groups of the Grouvee challenge in time.
Long time, no see here! Since my last post, I’ve been doing some revision on my categorization.
1 - Bucket List; the place games go that I preferably would like to have played before hitting the bucket. Also includes gifted games, marking my pledge to put the value for what my friends put their money into for me.
2 - Obsession Games; games that motivate to pick up playing earn their high place here for various reasons incl. interesting story, gameplay mechanics, quick to progress in backlog etc. Simply put, games that I’d like to deal with sooner than the rest below the tiers.
3 - Non-essentials; games that found their way into my possession but hold less incentives to be picked up except for special occasions.
4 - What’s This? - Games that have been sitting long enough to outlive my short-term memories of knowing what they’re all about or what they go by. They got their special place there, in case I get bored.
By other changes, the In Session category has been removed; I add active games into the favourites category on Steam instead and remove them when beat or put out of the gaming loop.
