I’ve tried following trackers: Game Tracker, Sequel, Gamery, and Winston. I have compared the apps by price, how native they feel. All of these apps are available on the Mac via Catalyst or natively.

Game Tracker was the first app I tried. It features native Mac app. I didn’t like Game Tracker design, especially when searching for a game. In terms of look and feel, I like Sequel the most. Sequel also allows you to track TV shows and it has wonderful animations when you make an episode as complete. But I found the $100 one-time unlock price a bit too much, and instead stayed with Gamery, which costs $15. Unlike any other services, it has some extra features: a scanner, and integration with Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation. The only feature which I wish I had is data export and more metadata for adjusting completion date and start date.

In the past, I kept a Markdown file with games I am playing, as well as a wish-list. But using a dedicated app is a bit more fun and motivated me to log 183 games so far across 15 platforms. Nintendo Switch is the indisputable leader with the number of games I own. I like to complete games I play, and this is an extra motivation for me to keep the number of games I am playing simultaneously to a minimum. It spreads my attention, and switching between games forces me to retrain muscle memory.

When working with AppIntents API, if you having issues with Shortcuts app displaying your app icon in the gallery. There’s a small trick which can fix it.

The trick is to return app shortcuts not as array but using the “builder syntax”. I am not familiar with this technique.

Learn from my code example which is based on this gist which I found on Apple forum.

import AppIntents

struct LibraryAppShortcuts: AppShortcutsProvider {

    static var appShortcuts: [AppShortcut] {

        AppShortcut(intent: LogFirstDrink(),
                    phrases: ["Log my favourite in \(.applicationName)"],
                    shortTitle: "Log my favourite",
                    systemImageName: "1.circle")

        AppShortcut(intent: LogLabelledDrink(),
                    phrases: ["Log a drink with \(.applicationName)"],
                    shortTitle: "Log any favourite",
                    systemImageName: "cup.and.saucer")

        AppShortcut(intent: LogFirstDrinkAtCustomDate(),
                    phrases: ["Log with date in \(.applicationName)"],
                    shortTitle: "Forgot to log my favourite",
                    systemImageName: "clock.arrow.trianglehead.counterclockwise.rotate.90")
    }
}

This bug fix will be one of many I am shipping for Caffeine++ 3.