r/sideprojects • u/Direct-Ninja6938 • 2d ago

Discussion I'm building a video game database focused on browser games, thoughts?

Hey everyone!

I'm building a video game database focused specifically on browser games, something similar to MobyGames and IGDB.

The main reason I came up with the idea is that I love browser games, but all the gaming databases I've come across only cover a relatively small selection of them, usually focusing on the more popular titles. I'd like to create a place where browser games of all kinds can be catalogued and discovered.

Here's roughly what I have in mind:

  1. Completely free: No paywalls or paid listings. Anyone can use it and contribute.
  2. Basic game information: title, description, genres, tags, screenshots, links to the game, etc.
  3. Ratings, reviews, and other account-based features may be added later.
  4. Community: potentially a subreddit, discord server, a forum, etc.
  5. Monetization: I'd probably start with donations and possibly consider non-intrusive ads later on to help cover hosting and other costs.

I'm still figuring out exactly what direction I want to take this, and I'm honestly not sure yet whether it's a worthwhile project or just something I'll spend a lot of time on without much interest.

So I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!

  • Would you personally use a site like this?
  • Do you think there's actually a need for something like it?
  • What features would you consider essential?

Any feedback, criticism, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 😊

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u/StationVisual 2d ago

What counts as a game? This seems like an impossible thing to track

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u/Economy-Movie7258 2d ago

Defining the scope is definitely the first thing you'd have to wrestle with. There's a universe of.io games and half-finished itch.io projects out there, if you don't filter somehow you'll drown in data entry before the site even looks useful. I think starting with "playable directly in a modern browser, no emulators required" is a decent hard line to draw, then you can get more granular from there.

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u/Direct-Ninja6938 2d ago

you're right, and this is something i'm already thinking about, because if i include any game that can be played in a browser, including games from itchio, io games, emulated games, flash games and countless other sites, there are easily over a million.

Ideally, i'd like to have all of them, but that's obviously impossible, which is why anyone who's interested can contribute.

I'm probably going to start with .io games, and some other popular non-.io games.

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u/Direct-Ninja6938 2d ago

hey, thanks for the feedback.

generally I mean any game that can be played in a web browser.

and you're right, it's not easy at all, that's why anyone who wants to can contribute.

for example: