Work

RuneGains

A penguin wearing a Max Cape from RuneScape, and holding a Dumbbell. In the background is the RuneGains website.
C#
ASP.NET MVC 5
Microsoft SQL
Entity Framework
Knockout.js

Due to frustration with a couple of other similar sites (outdated, not adding new features) I set out on a new project which would replace the other sites as well as add those newer features.

This project was born out of the frustration of other alternative websites that were available (RuneTrack/RuneTracker). My main problem with these sites were that they looked outdated, typically didn’t track “XP” correctly and didn’t have a real way to create goals. So myself and a friend (Matthew Chamberlain) set out to try and create RuneGains.

Features

There were a few features we focused on, which set us apart from some of the other options out there.

  • A way to customise a “profile” view, via module based components allowing a ton of flexibility
  • Custom forum to facilitate direct engagement and communication with users. Giving a feeling that the users were more in control of features/development
  • Ability to set “Goals” for skills, giving a sense of achievement and purpose above what was available in the game itself
  • Support for multiple game modes; Ironman, Hardcore Ironman across RuneScape 3 and Old School RS (6 modes total). Game modes were a newly introduced feature to RuneScape, which meant existing trackers couldn’t track this.

Hiscores

Since the website was all about tracking XP and other sites offered a feature like this, it made sense to include our own hiscores.

One thing that set us apart was that you could quickly and easily switch between the various game modes (all 6 in total) and skills without needing to wait for page refreshes (SPA style).

Forum

One major feature that I thought was important was to introduce our own forum.

The forum was there to promote player discussion, report any bugs, request features and for website staff to communicate news.

The forum was built from scratch and supported all the ‘normal’ things like creating a topic and posting. Administrators had access to edit user posts and create pinned topics.

Also had some support for [b]BBCODE![/b], oh it didn’t work here…

Profile

The profile page is where we stood out from the competitors by offering a truly customisable page.

When you log into your profile, you can enter an edit mode where modules can be moved around to your liking. So if you’re interested in the monthly breakdown, drag it to the top.

This modular approach allowed us to introduce modules that could be plugged in at any point, such as tracking of goals towards