Halo 2 - Game Tracker
Here is another one of my side projects I’ve been working on in my spare time, if there is such a thing. Lately I’ve been thinking about mixing to of my favorite things, web development and video games. That is probably the nerdiest sentence that I have ever written, but that’s ok. Nerd is the new cool right? The only problem with marketing to video game companies was I didn’t really have any samples of work that I’ve done that would translate into the video game market. So I decided to take my favorite game (Halo 2) and create a small application that would take the RSS feeds from the game developers site (bungie.net) and use those to show the stats from some of the previous games that I have played.
You can check out the game tracker here: http://www.test1labs.com/projects/halo2/
My goals for this project were as follows:
- Create a work sample that would have application in the video game industry
- Incorporate the look and feel of the video game that had already been established
- Display the information in a way that enhanced the user experience
- Create a GUI that felt more like a video game then a web application
- Keep the user interface simple and intuitive
Plus it was just really fun to do, and if nothing else me and my friends will use it to check up on our game stats. As you can see from the stats that are displayed when the app initially loads (which just happen to be mine) most of games I play I’d probably like to forget, but every now and then I might want to remember one of them. I’m sure it could still use some improvements but, you get the point when you check it out. I might do some more work on it later if people actually start using it.
October 5th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Great idea. I really like the layout for your halo 2 application.
Keep up the good work
October 12th, 2006 at 11:29 am
WOW i’m impressed. This little app is nice. Any plans of expanind its capabilities? Such as filtering games.
October 12th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Thanks for the feedback. I do hope to expand on the features of the app, unfortuanantly it’s just on the back-burner for now.
October 15th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Any chance you would be able to give this to people for personal use? Also, I have the domain 360fusion.com (had it a long time before xbox 360 was even announced)… I’ve been thinking about making it into a xb360 oriented site… it would be cool to have this on there if I ever get some ideas in place.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Just stumbled upon this site (while looking for graphic design jobs) and I am a great fan of Halo. I love the look and feel and simplicity of this app. Your absolutely right about having more of a video game feel than a web app feel. And you have captured the Halo feel exceptionally well. This is an epic improvement over going to bungie.net and all the trouble getting in, just to look at one game’s stats (no offense bungie). I would greatly appreciate being informed on the progress of this app if you ever get it developed for personal use. I would even pay to have a stand-alone version of some sort. Very very well done. Two thumbs up.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
P.S. - I just realized it was fully functional and I could use my own gamertag! (I’m slow sometimes) Phenomenal!! I plan to make sure all my Halo friends know about this. Take everything I said in the last comment and multiply that by 10. Finally a gamers dream web app. PLEASE keep up the good work.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Thanks for all the kind words Ewell. Not much is going on with the development of this right now b/c I have a lot of going on right now, but if enough people are interested in it I might pick it back up later. Hopefully with halo 3 they will make it easier for 3rd party developers to access game data.