Themes - custom collection standardized naming

[hooperre]

I think a 'gems' folder for hidden gems in a large game list would be amazing.

[incunabula]

Some collections i'll be making for myself that might be useful for others:

fishing
rpg
enix
dnd (for licensed Dungeons and Dragons games on the NES, Intellivision, DosBox, etc.)
marvel (for Marvel Comics-licensed games)

[TMNTturtlguy]

I have updated the ComicBook theme to match the current naming conventions in this thread.

[meleu]

@dmmarti Great idea. The only one I would change is kof instead of kingfighter.

[dmmarti]

@meleu -- I don't have any issue with that....but would most folks know what kof would stand for?

Sounds good to me to use kof instead.

[meleu]

@dmmarti it seems to be the "standard" acronym for The King of Fighters games.

By the way, look what happens if I type kof for google:

[pjft]

Well, I'm surprised I'm the one bringing this up, but any consideration for an achievements folder?

I personally also have a backlog folder in my collections, and will likely have a completed games one as well.

[EctoOne]

@pjft huh, now that you mentioned a complete collection, that sounds more like a automatic collection to me (if we could get someone to add that as a tag for the gamelist). And while we're at it, why not have a Never Played collection too? That sounds easy to me when it looks for an missing lastplayed tag.

[dmmarti]

@meleu -- haha....awesome!

I've updated the list above ... kof it is!

[pjft]

@ectoone Well, sure... they'd be easy to add.

I suppose the key "usable" concern with the "never played" collection is that, in most users' collections [citation needed], this will be an absurdly long list of thousands of games, not that dissimilar to the "All Games" list sorted by "times played". It could be an option, but I'm not sure about adding one such auto collection - unless there's a lot of requests for it. Just to confirm, what I have in "Backlog" is not as much "All games not played", but rather "games I'm currently working through, or are on hold". :)

The "completed" collection could certainly be based on metadata, if we'd choose to add that bit of metadata to the files. I'm not planning on adding that at the moment - once again, unless there's a lot of requests for it, but yes, those are good ideas.

But, by the same token, the "Kids" collection will eventually be metadata as well, and can be an automated collection, as there is a precedent for it in the ES-Kids branch, and a lot of users request that every now and then.

So yeah, I was just mentioning some other collection ideas, though I'm fine with currently having them under the "Collections" menu. :)

Good job anyway!

[EctoOne]

@pjft said in Themes - custom collection standardized naming:

"games I'm currently working through, or are on hold". :)

I use favorites for that. ;)
Speaking of lists generated from Metadata, @meleu suggested one for games with achievements.
And since we already have the option to select which auto gamelist we want to see, why not have all? Just kidding.
But you're right this is kinda of topic for this thread.

[pjft]

@ectoone We will likely have an auto one for achievements. That being said, I'm personally not keen on adding more metadata without a specific use-case in mind - and that was also a point of discussion that we addressed on the achievements side.

So it's not as much a matter of not having them all, is more what needs to be done beforehand (and is it worth it) to have them all. :)

[EctoOne]

@pjft Yeah, I can see the issues with adding more Metadata. Yet for completed games that beforehand work would use a method that we have. Since I don't know how favorites work, it might be either that method or based on Metadata. And Never Played would use an already existing tag (or non existing in this case). Yet again I have no idea of what needs to be done for that, and maybe some of the auto collections could also be achieved with filters. But that's another thing I know nothing about and what's possible with that system.

[twd]

If retropie gets like hyperspin I will stay on a old version. Hyperspin was a mess too many people from that sinking ship are pushing retropie in the wrong direction in my opinion.. I think maybe document how to add custom collections in a tutorial, and if they cannot do it then that's up to them. How convoluted do retropie have to keep getting.

[herb_fargus]

@twd lots of feature creep but people want their options. I personally despise hyperspin

[alphatoanant]

What to do you think of these for additional genre type collection names?

• platformer
• strategy
• puzzle

[TMNTturtlguy]

@alphatoanant I think we might be getting way out of control on standard naming for all of these custom themes. I am already starting to think of retiring from theme making. Before we had custom themes we had about 100 different systems and people would always be asking for us when we would add them. I know all of us who make themes and agree with that. I fear that by creating this standardized list, users are just going to expect us to create themes for each of them. Where as themers and developers do we draw the line on what is "Standard" and allow users to create there own systems, and if themers feel the desire, for them to create their own unique systems?

[twd]

@tmntturtlguy no you must make a theme for every single game search for art and compose it all in a handy turnkey solution click to install all for free..... Didn't you sign up to do this.

[hooperre]

@tmntturtlguy said in Themes - custom collection standardized naming:

@alphatoanant I think we might be getting way out of control on standard naming for all of these custom themes. I am already starting to think of retiring from theme making. Before we had custom themes we had about 100 different systems and people would always be asking for us when we would add them. I know all of us who make themes and agree with that. I fear that by creating this standardized list, users are just going to expect us to create themes for each of them. Where as themers and developers do we draw the line on what is "Standard" and allow users to create there own systems, and if themers feel the desire, for them to create their own unique systems?

These are all valid points and I fully understand your frustration. It's important for us, the users in this scenario, to remember that it's a hobby for you. It's cliche AF but, "Don't let the haters get you down." You added, quite possibly, the gold standard of themes and you should really only just do what you want and be comfortable in that. It's not meant to be an ego stroke, but we should be grateful of whatever you decide to share with us. Just my two cents though.

On the flip side, in this thread there are people throwing out ideas and seeing what sticks for the themers. Both are entitled to their opinion.

Anyway, thanks for your contribution thus far.

[pjft]

@alphatoanant I tend to side with @TMNTturtlguy on this one. The idea of custom collections started out as a way to prevent theme makers from having to create all of these but rather focus on the design.

While I won't object to individual theme makers having specific sets of systems, I'd be careful with embarking on a "standard" definition as - by definition - it may create the wrong expectations from users on what will a theme have or not.

I think the thread started with standardized names as the scope, for those who may want to implement them in their themes, so for those that may be slightly non-debatable names, we might just not need to discuss them so that we also don't create the wrong expectations for the wider audience. :)

@twd I think everyone gets by now that you don't like this thread and what's being discussed. Comments and feedback are appreciated, but sarcasm Is probably not the way to go about it.

These are just a group of people trying to give something to the community on their spare time. You're not forced to take it, and it's not as if others getting it will in any way make your own experience worse.

Please consider that.

Thanks.