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Posting because I don't think theres any way to do this:
There should be a way to share reviews. I've started writing reviews of the games I play on here, and wanted to make a link to them on twitter or tumblr, but there doesnt seem to be any way to do that.

Hey Everdred, I know that you've must have read some people talking about a public API since you're pretty active on the forum.

However, you never bothered to give an answer about this subject. I always find that some answer is better than no answer.

So, do you have any plans to release a public API of your website? I know that you might don't want to release all this info to the public web, however, you as a programmer know what the open source has done to the programming environment and how releasing some of your work to the public only makes the niche that you work on better than worse. I mean, programming would not be where we are today without people opening up their work to other people, imagine if javascript, php, ruby and etc where all closed behind doors.

We have giantbomb that have a great API to get info about games that is a contribution of a bunch of users that use their website, just like this one. A public API of hltb would allow other people to work on great things. You can always find abusers and lock their access through their API key or limit what and how people access the way you find best. I'm pretty sure people would not stop using your website because a public API is available, nobody would release public API's if that was the case.

Saying that, I completely understand if you want to keep things behind closed doors, although I don't agree with that.

So, could you give a definitive answer to that public API question? Is there a plan to ever do that or you don't want the info publicly available?

Thanks Everdred, the work you do on this website is awesome, keep it going :D

Hi uzomi. I've comment on it in various places over the years. I'm not necessarily against creating one and likely will at some point but it's not high on my list of things to do. I understand it comes with pros and cons.

Using Giantbomb as an example, they offer plenty of other things outside of their data/api to make their site appealing and interesting. They are also now owned by a major corporation.

HLTB could benefit from some additional exposure through an API but I'm not seeing the benefit outside of that. Now, don't confuse that statement with me saying "my data is so important, I must never share it." because I really don't feel that way. The reality is that it just has very little priority for me.

I'll get around to it at some point. I run the site alone, have a 40+ hour regular job and a 6 month old at home. I'm pretty busy these days.

So I guess if I had to give an answer I would say. "HLTB will have an API at some point but it won't likely be in 2019."

That being said... I also never though I would build the Steam import feature or the light/dark theme, so who knows!

Incredibly minor suggestion which I don't think warrants making its own topic, but I noticed the WonderSwan Color is not listed as a platform option. It was the year 2000 follow-up to the original WonderSwan of 1999, and has 102 exclusive games that only run on the WonderSwan Color (and 2002's SwanCrystal, which was basically a beefed up WS Color with a nicer screen, no exclusives afaik), but they don't work on the original monochrome console..

Ran into this when trying to add "Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit" from 2001, developed by DIMPS for WonderSwan Color. Instead I've now listed my time as on the regular black & white WonderSwan console, under the "Digimon Battle Spirit" page (which was the slightly renamed & translated port to GBA from 2003).
Obviously not a massive problem by any stretch, and it might be so niche nobody else cares haha. But I figured I'd mention it for completeness' sake. :) Thanks for running the site!

Incredibly minor suggestion which I don't think warrants making its own topic, but I noticed the WonderSwan Color is not listed as a platform option. It was the year 2000 follow-up to the original WonderSwan of 1999, and has 102 exclusive games that only run on the WonderSwan Color (and 2002's SwanCrystal, which was basically a beefed up WS Color with a nicer screen, no exclusives afaik), but they don't work on the original monochrome console..

Ran into this when trying to add "Digimon Tamers: Battle Spirit" from 2001, developed by DIMPS for WonderSwan Color. Instead I've now listed my time as on the regular black & white WonderSwan console, under the "Digimon Battle Spirit" page (which was the slightly renamed & translated port to GBA from 2003).
Obviously not a massive problem by any stretch, and it might be so niche nobody else cares haha. But I figured I'd mention it for completeness' sake. :) Thanks for running the site!

WonderSwan Color added.

Hello. There are a lot of games that have the same title, but are different games. This mostly happens with licensed games, but also happens with some of the sonic series games. Sonic Unleashed for Xbox 360 and PS3 has completely different levels to the Wii and PS2 version. (I think the Wii version is actually better.) There are RPG Maker games that get released for free, but then get commercial releases with a lot more content. One extreme case is Peter Jackson's King Kong. It has four games. The main console releases for Xbox, gamecube, and PS2, a simplified PSP version with half the levels, an original DS game, and an original GBA game. I have a lot of these and know about a lot more. The problem is I don't have a ton of time to go beat them timed any time soon. Would you be okay with me submitting them without completion times? I think it would cause less confusion for the group of people who grew up with them.

Hello. There are a lot of games that have the same title, but are different games. This mostly happens with licensed games, but also happens with some of the sonic series games. Sonic Unleashed for Xbox 360 and PS3 has completely different levels to the Wii and PS2 version. (I think the Wii version is actually better.) There are RPG Maker games that get released for free, but then get commercial releases with a lot more content. One extreme case is Peter Jackson's King Kong. It has four games. The main console releases for Xbox, gamecube, and PS2, a simplified PSP version with half the levels, an original DS game, and an original GBA game. I have a lot of these and know about a lot more. The problem is I don't have a ton of time to go beat them timed any time soon. Would you be okay with me submitting them without completion times? I think it would cause less confusion for the group of people who grew up with them.

I know there was a test for games with unique versions, and there is a field for enabling this but I don't know if it was ever finalised.

Hello. There are a lot of games that have the same title, but are different games. This mostly happens with licensed games, but also happens with some of the sonic series games. Sonic Unleashed for Xbox 360 and PS3 has completely different levels to the Wii and PS2 version. (I think the Wii version is actually better.) There are RPG Maker games that get released for free, but then get commercial releases with a lot more content. One extreme case is Peter Jackson's King Kong. It has four games. The main console releases for Xbox, gamecube, and PS2, a simplified PSP version with half the levels, an original DS game, and an original GBA game. I have a lot of these and know about a lot more. The problem is I don't have a ton of time to go beat them timed any time soon. Would you be okay with me submitting them without completion times? I think it would cause less confusion for the group of people who grew up with them.

https://howlongtobeat.com/forum.php?&thread=1089

Thank you. So should I submit these as new games, or post them on that old thread?

I asked this a couple months back, but I don't think I ever got a yes, no, or maybe someday answer. Any chance of getting a Start Date field added Everdred? I'd really like to switch over to using this site for my game times/logging but it is important to me to be able to see exactly when I started a game. I know you are busy, I'm just curious if this feature is on the table at some point?

I asked this a couple months back, but I don't think I ever got a yes, no, or maybe someday answer. Any chance of getting a Start Date field added Everdred? I'd really like to switch over to using this site for my game times/logging but it is important to me to be able to see exactly when I started a game. I know you are busy, I'm just curious if this feature is on the table at some point?

If I'm not mistaken, adding a game to playing tab logs when you started it.

Game Type:
https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=64088&s=edit
https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=57479

It would be nice to add New Edition/Remake and Demo Version.

Game Type:
https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=64088&s=edit
https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=57479

It would be nice to add New Edition/Remake and Demo Version.

I can see the logic with demo, but a remake is either the same game, a different game or a compilation of previous content. I don't see how that would be helpful, though I think it would be best as a separate field from game type if implemented.

If I'm not mistaken, adding a game to playing tab logs when you started it.

From what I gathered from the replies to my post last time, adding a game at all immediately logs that as the date added, whether it is to playing or backlog. A reply said that was why they average 120 days to finish a game, because it is using the date it was added to the backlog as a start date. If that date was editable, it would be a pain but manageable to just switch the date every time I started a game, but I don't believe it is. Since there is an ability to set a 'completion date' optional field, it would just make sense to have a similar 'start date' optional field.

If any of that information I have is incorrect, feel free to correct me. But I'm reasonably certain that is how it works.

From what I gathered from the replies to my post last time, adding a game at all immediately logs that as the date added, whether it is to playing or backlog. A reply said that was why they average 120 days to finish a game, because it is using the date it was added to the backlog as a start date. If that date was editable, it would be a pain but manageable to just switch the date every time I started a game, but I don't believe it is. Since there is an ability to set a 'completion date' optional field, it would just make sense to have a similar 'start date' optional field.

If any of that information I have is incorrect, feel free to correct me. But I'm reasonably certain that is how it works.

Whether I'm right or wrong, I agree with you that adding a custom field would be beneficial.

This isn't a huge deal, but maybe you could add a button on the page for each game where you can add it to your backlog without having to submit it separately. This wouldn't work for the other categories, but backlogging something is just checking a single box and clicking submit. By the way, I've done some web design, and I have to say that this is one of the best designed sites I seen. Thank you.

This isn't a huge deal, but maybe you could add a button on the page for each game where you can add it to your backlog without having to submit it separately. This wouldn't work for the other categories, but backlogging something is just checking a single box and clicking submit. By the way, I've done some web design, and I have to say that this is one of the best designed sites I seen. Thank you.

I think what you're asking is already available - if you click the "Backlog" option from either the search results, or a game's page - it will add it to your backlog immediately without any further confirmation... the buttons I'm referring to are in the images below:

Just want to point out that there appear to be a few new astroturfing advertising accounts participating in the forums lately. I won't name names and be inflammatory but a quick glance around the net makes it pretty evident that's what they are, at the very least. Not sure if this is the place for it but still worth people being aware that the people they are interacting with might not actually be different people.

Maybe consider, in the "Stats" for top games, a minimum # of completions to qualify? Longest games for example has a game with 1 completion logged at the top. Even a minimum 5 completions might be nice.

Just want to point out that there appear to be a few new astroturfing advertising accounts participating in the forums lately. I won't name names and be inflammatory but a quick glance around the net makes it pretty evident that's what they are, at the very least. Not sure if this is the place for it but still worth people being aware that the people they are interacting with might not actually be different people.

You can PM me the names, I have removed some posts recently but they are making it purposely difficult by not being blatant with it.

Hi.
Recently, i could use POST-query with link "https://howlongtobeat.com/search_main.php?" for seach HLTB info for game programmaticly. At now, this query returns 404 code.
This option is disabled or moved to new link?

Is there a way we can like an information blurb on the games? Like a little synopsis or something, could even just copy the wiki if there is one.

Is there a way we can like an information blurb on the games? Like a little synopsis or something, could even just copy the wiki if there is one.

You mean like this?

O ha, sorry I must have missed that don't I feel stupid. :( Well for a non stupid one I hope, is there a way through that description you can click on certain details to pull up a list of games. (for example click on Activision to pull up a list of games by Activision)?

O ha, sorry I must have missed that don't I feel stupid. :( Well for a non stupid one I hope, is there a way through that description you can click on certain details to pull up a list of games. (for example click on Activision to pull up a list of games by Activision)?

Further filtering options? Yeah at the moment you can only filter on game names and user names and platforms.

O ha, sorry I must have missed that don't I feel stupid. :( Well for a non stupid one I hope, is there a way through that description you can click on certain details to pull up a list of games. (for example click on Activision to pull up a list of games by Activision)?

Not by publisher/dev, no. The filtering/sorting options that show up when you press "search options" are what is available to filter with. So you can search only certain platforms and you can filter by hour length of game you are looking for (minimum and maximum hours to beat).

Filtering aside you can sort by other things like most popular, top rated, date released, most played, ect, but no filtering by dev/publisher yet.