CouchGamingApp

A fullscreen windows app for selecting PC games with a focus on local multiplayer games (couch games)

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Problem

Choosing what couch game to play with friends who may not know what each game is from the icon/banner image.

I had tried Steam 'Big Picture Mode' but it lacked any videos and was too generic. I also tried Launchbox with BigBox mode and though it had videos it was still too generic so i decided to create something specific to couch gaming.

Requirements

Main app

• Simple, intuitive UI to scroll through games
• Focus on Couch Games
• Show how many people can play ('? players')
• Show genre and game modes ('VS' and/or 'CO-OP')
• Show video of the game
• Launch games from the app
• Filter games by minimum amount of players

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Launching game

Once you clone the repo, there is a shortcut under the dist folder called "CouchGames" that will launch the app

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Project Architecture

• React UI
• Gamepad is the only input device currently
• Windows only (can be for other platforms if you add the binaries)
• Webpack build system
• Used prettier.js for code formmating
• ESlint also used
• Yarn

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Folder/File Layout

• src

  • data - this is where the json data is kept for media urls and game executable locations
  • ui - React UI for the app
    • App.js - core react component that manages the state
    • components - presentational components
  • main.js - the 'system' side of the electron app
  • renderer.js - the 'ui' side of the electron app, mounts react app, links comms from gamepad and main.js
  • gamepad.js - js library imported to handle gamepad inputs

• dist - contains windows binaries for electron app

  • resources/app - dist files from the src folder

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Todo List is located on Trello