I set a goal for 2007 of getting a total of 20,000 Gamerscore on my Xbox 360. The last couple months I have become obsessed with reaching my goal and I needed a good way to track my progress. I was also coveting the API Samurai badge on 360voice.com, you know that place where you Xbox 360 blogs about what games you have played. That and the realization that I haven't built a public web site from scratch since 2002 lead me to start GamerScoreGoal.com (GSG).
The current incarnation of GSG is really just a shell of what I envision for it. I haven't had much time to work on the visible portions of the project, but the back end is really shaping up and is almost complete. Once I have completed a few more internal features I'll start to concentrate on the user interface.
Current features:
- Gamerscore tracking and history - GSG saves your Gamerscore everyday since your account was created. You even can import history from 360voice if you have an account there.
- Goals - You can set yourself a goal like 20,000 point by Jan 1st, 2008. GSG can then use your Gamerscore history and graph your progress compared to your goal.
- Public Profiles - This is the real heart of the web site. Currently it will graph your Gamerscore and goal (if you have one) and display statistics about your progress to your goal.
Planned features:
- Leader boards - Leader boards will bring in a social aspect to the site where gamers can compare there progress to other members.
- Goal Scoring - This will be a system of scoring how difficult a particular goal is compared to others on GSG.
- Forum Signatures - The database for the site has all the required data to create forum signatures and that would be a great way to advertise the site.
Possible features:
- Community Server Integration - I would like to add forums and blogs into the site. I definitely don't what to reinvent the wheel but I have concerns about the added complexity that a Community Server integration would bring.
Concerns
- Scalability - Since I'm not a member of XCDP and there is little hope of Microsoft expanding the program anytime soon there will be a point where I'll need to limit registration and limit features so that I don't over tax my data sources. (Hint: Sign up now)
- Maintainability - I need to automate as much as possible. GSG doesn't pay the bills.
- User Interface - I want to make the site as useful as possible without a complex UI. I view this as a real growth opportunity for myself as a developer.
I feel that the site is really shaping up and will be useful to those that have an obsession with Gamerscore.