JV360
Video game news site, fed by automated data collection.
Context
JV360 is a web magazine published by Dreamension, a three-person start-up based in Angers. The site brings together game profiles, reviews, articles and Twitch streams. Its editorial line rests on a simple principle, checking whether the promises made before a game is released are kept. I worked there two years as a full-stack developer and web project manager, as an apprentice alongside my MBA.
What I did
I handled the development of the site and the oversight of its ecosystem.
- A personalized recommendation algorithm. It cross-references browsing history, the genres viewed, the ratings given, the time spent on each profile and the stated preferences. A daily run refines the suggestions.
- Real-time synchronization of Twitch streams with the game profiles. Each page shows the streams currently live on the game concerned.
- An image generation and optimization script. Retrieval of the visuals, resizing by use (thumbnail, banner, article) and compression for the web.
- Automatic updating of the Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus catalogs, about 450 games each. The job runs every morning in five minutes, against several hours by hand.
- A generator of draft game profiles from the collected data, validated in a development environment.
The data collection that feeds all of this is detailed on the Scrapers page.
Outcome
The CI/CD pipeline on GitLab allowed almost daily releases to production. Automation freed the team's writer from data entry tasks. They could focus on content and on the relationship with streamers.