Release 1.11.1 (Patreon)

Today's release is a big one, and too much needs to be said to fit in a single Discord announcement, so we've written an accompanying post here to go into a bit more detail.

Image uploads

That's right, image uploads is coming out of the beta and is now available to everyone! A huge thank you to our Legends and Myths for testing the feature for us and helping us find bugs! Running this in beta first has really helped us, so we'll be looking forward to letting you guys have first dibs on new features more often!

Legends and Myths will continue to enjoy a slightly better upload quality, as it is them that help us fund this feature in the first place. Details on the image uploads feature can be found in our previous release post here.

Contribution system - Playtime

Our number one feature request - adding data on how long it takes to beat a game to our games. Those of you that upvoted the request and followed the conversation around it will know that the number one source of that data - HLTB - doesn't have a public API which means the data isn’t available freely. Simply taking HLTB data without consent isn't really a great option, especially now that they're owned by IGN.

As an alternative we've looked at using the playtime data on everyone's collection games taken from the various connected services, but that turned out to be incredibly inaccurate without context. So instead, we're going to ask you for help!

We've build a brand new contribution system to collect playtime data for this purpose. Every time you set a game to beaten or completed, you'll get a notification asking you to share how long it took you.

Clicking on this will take you to a page* that lists all your beaten and completed games ordered by last updated, including bundled games and DLC. There will be a field for both beaten and completed times which you can enter if you've met the required completion.

*This page can also be accessed through the user menu under your avatar (or the hamburger menu on mobile).

Bundled games can be entered as either the bundle in its entirety (if you have beaten all games within it) or each game individually, or both! DLC will be listed on their own, so please do not include DLC playtime in the base game.

We hope that many people will help us with this information, as this will be rewarded in the next release! Once we've collected enough information to start with, we'll use this data in various areas on Infinite Backlog. You'll be able to view time to beat on the game pages and even be able to filter your collection on it! Looking for a new game but don't want anything too long? It'll be super easy to find the right game for you with this new data point alongside all of our other existing filters!

Revamped levelling system

Our levelling system was created a long, long time ago. I checked, it has existed since our 0.1.0 release, back when it was just us and a couple of our friends and family using the service. You got XP based on the amount of games you owned and a little more XP for every game you finished. We’ve added so many new features over the years, but never went back to adjust this system, until today. 

Starting today, you will earn XP for more than just owning games. Your game collection is still the core of Infinite Backlog, but simply owning games will not earn you as much XP anymore, as we want you to not just hoard but also play your games! So finishing games will net you a lot more XP than before!

Aside from your collection you’ll be earning XP for participating on the social feed, writing reviews, making lists, participating in challenges and contributing to Infinite Backlog itself with the new playtime data.

Here’s a full list of all the activities that will earn you XP. We will not disclose the exact numbers as we may need to tweak it in the coming weeks to find the right balance.

Collection

• Owned game

• Beaten/Completed game

• Owned DLC

• Beaten/Completed DLC

Social

• Post/poll on social feed

• Comment on post/list/review

• Received comments on your content (not automated posts)

• Received likes on your content (not automated posts)

Activity

• Completed challenge

• Informational list 

• Personal list 

• Rating

• Review

Contribution

• Playtime contribution

• Implemented feature requests

• Resolved bug reports

Everyone’s level and XP has been fully recalculated to take these changes into account. 

Leaderboard

With the changes to the levelling system we couldn’t leave the leaderboards unchanged. Your position in the leaderboards is now static and will be updated every 24 hours. This means that searching for a user can actually show their rank, and your position is also visible on your profile so it’ll be easier to see as you rise in the ranks. Users that haven’t visited IB in over 6 months, have no games or have been marked as untracked in our system will not have a rank and be moved to the back of the leaderboards, but will still be visible and findable with the search. 

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That sums up the highlights in today's 1.11.1 update. As always, check out the changelog for a full list of changes. We're looking forward to seeing your contributions come in and working on using that data to improve the site.

Thanks again to all of you Slayers, Legends and Myths that keep us going!

Until next time!