What is VG Logger?

VG Logger is an application for keeping track of what video games you play. It will log when you play a game, and you can enter notes about them as well.

To navigate the site, use the "Menu" link at the top right.

The Note

Notes are the core of VG Logger. The below form is repeated on several pages across the site.

"Game" is the video game for this note.

"Note" is the body of the note. This can contain a precise, concrete observation of a rule, or it can be a messy, half-certain thought. What makes VG Logger useful is the ability to reflect on your prior thoughts.

If you check off a note as a "Checkpoint", then it reflects a point of progress. Use this to enter when you complete a level or achieve a goal. VG Logger will build a history of your gameplay progress for you using checkpoints.

When you click "Show Categories", you can select a number of game design categories that relate to your note. These range from mechanics to level design to economy and more. This will classify your note among a broad selection of game design categories.

The categories are taken from Richard Terrell's game design terminology.

"Tags" help you personally categorize your notes. You can enter tags (separated by commas). When you search and sort notes later, you can use tags to group notes that are about similar topics.

If you have an Imgur account, you can grant VG Logger access to upload images to Imgur. This allows VG Logger to store relevant images with your notes.

Sessions

The "Session" tool logs when you play a game. When you boot up a game, start a session in VG Logger. When you turn off the game, end the session. VG Logger will tally the hours and minutes as you play. The "Session" tool also contains a note form so that you can enter video game observations as you go.

Using sessions, you can keep track of how long you have played a game. The note form will catch your thoughts as you play. Combined with "Checkpoint" notes, sessions also capture how long you take to achieve each goal.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets organize information by columns and rows. In VG Logger, spreadsheets work by using tags. Each row has its own tag, and each column has its own tag. Each cell contains a note relating to its row and column.

Take, for instance, a level design spreadsheet, where each column is a different level, and each row is a different aspect of level design.

Images

If you give VG Logger access to your Imgur account, you can upload an image for note-taking. This tool lets you mark different points on an image and store a note associated with each point.

Again, consider the example of level design. If you upload a map of a level, you can pin points of interest and talk about them in a note.

Videos

If you feed a YouTube video to VG Logger, you can write notes onto the video. VG Logger will let you pin a timestamp in the video, then write notes about that point in the video.

Essays

Notes reflect individual thoughts or observations. The "Essay" tool allows you to organize those notes in a structure. Build an outline. Slot notes into the outline. After that, the tool provides an interface for converting raw notes into finalized essay text.

The header font was obtained from FontSpace.com.