Welcome to BeatYourBacklog, your personal gaming companion for tracking, managing, and analysing your gaming sessions across your entire library. Whether you're working through a massive backlog, trying to remember where you left off in that RPG six months ago, or simply want to understand your gaming habits better, BeatYourBacklog gives you the tools to take control of your gaming journey.

What is BeatYourBacklog?

BeatYourBacklog is a comprehensive game session tracking system that allows you to record and manage every gaming session you play. Think of it as a gaming journal meets analytics platform — designed to help you document your progress, track your playtime, and maintain detailed notes about your experiences with each game.

Unlike simple time trackers or achievement lists, BeatYourBacklog captures the full context of your gaming sessions: when you played, how long you played, what progress you made, where you left off, and your thoughts along the way. This granular approach means you'll never again boot up a game wondering "Wait, what was I doing?" or lose track of that brilliant strategy you were going to try.

Core Features

Session Recording

Every time you sit down to play, BeatYourBacklog lets you create a session record that captures:

Start and End Times: Precise datetime stamps for when you began and finished playing
Duration Tracking: Automatic or manual recording of how long you played
Progress Markers: Numeric progress indicators to track how far you've advanced
Unit Reached: Text field for specific milestones (e.g., "Chapter 7", "Level 45", "Act 2 Complete")
Session Notes: Freeform text area for recording thoughts, strategies, plot points, or anything else you want to remember

Edit Session Details

Made a mistake? Forgot to stop your timer? Want to add more context to your notes? The edit functionality lets you modify any aspect of a session:

Adjust Timestamps: Correct start or end times if you forgot to log properly
Update Duration: Manually adjust playtime for accuracy
Refine Progress: Update how far you got if you initially logged incorrectly
Expand Notes: Add additional thoughts, strategies, or observations after the fact
Mark Milestones: Record the specific unit or checkpoint you reached

All fields are optional (except start time), giving you complete flexibility in how detailed you want to be.

Delete Sessions

Remove sessions that were logged in error or that you no longer want tracked. The deletion process includes a confirmation step to prevent accidental data loss, and immediately redirects you back to your session list.

Who Is BeatYourBacklog For?

The Progress Tracker

"I'm 40 hours into this JRPG and I keep forgetting which side quests I've completed."

Use the notes field to document completed quests, found items, or story developments. The progress markers help you track numerical advancement (experience points, completion percentage), while unit reached fields can mark specific story beats.

The Game Hopper

"I play 5-6 different games in rotation and can never remember what I was doing when I come back."

Every session note becomes a breadcrumb trail. Write down your current objective, what you were working toward, or where you saved. When you return weeks later, you'll know exactly where to pick up.

The Completion Analyst

"I want to actually finish games for once, not just play them for 3 hours and move on."

Track your sessions over time to identify patterns. How many sessions does it take you to finish different genres? Are you making consistent progress or stalling out? The session history provides accountability and visibility.

The Achievement Hunter

"I'm working through specific challenges and need to remember what I've tried."

Document your attempts, strategies that worked or failed, and incremental progress toward difficult achievements. The notes become a personal strategy guide built from your own experience.

The Nostalgic Archivist

"I want to remember my gaming experiences, not just tick boxes."

Years from now, your session notes will be a time capsule of your gaming life. The boss that frustrated you, the plot twist that shocked you, the moment everything clicked — preserve those experiences.

How Sessions Work

A typical session in BeatYourBacklog follows this flow:

Add A Game To Your Queue: You can add games to your "Backlog", "Up Next", "Ongoing" or "Playing Now" lists
Session Creation: When you start playing click on the "Play Button" that appears over the game in your queue. Click this to start your play session. This will move the game to your "Now Playing" queue if it's not there already (unless it's in the "Ongoing" queue).
Active Play: The session runs in the background, you don't need to keep your browser window open while playing.
Session Completion: When you finish, click on the "Stop" button and fill out your session details.
Post-Play Documentation: Add notes, progress markers, session rating and unit reached information.
Later Updates: Edit any details as needed if you want to expand or correct information from the session list on the game page.

Your Data, Your Way

There's no "right" way to use BeatYourBacklog:

Minimal loggers can simply record start/end times
Detail enthusiasts can write paragraph-long session notes
Progress trackers can focus on numerical advancement
Narrative followers can emphasise milestone and story checkpoints

The system adapts to your tracking style rather than forcing a specific approach.

Importing Your Game Library

You can add individual games into BeatYourBacklog with our quick import tool but that's a pain so you can also bulk import games from Launchbox.

Within Launchbox, connect all of the storefronts and games folders you would like to import then click on Tools > File Management > Create Data Backup. Select a location for the backup zip (which is in 7z format), unzip the file and head to the platforms folder. This will contain several XML files based on the platforms the games are on (Windows, MS-DOS, NES etc.) You then then import each platform in to your account.

Note: I am looking into providing CSV import functionality soon.

Editing a Session

Head over to the game which has the session associated with it. Click on the "Sessions" link and you can now view your sessions and edit them or delete them inline from the sessions table.

Note: You can't currently move a session to a different game, you will need to add the session to the correct game and delete the old one. This is a planned feature enhancement.

Tips for Effective Session Tracking

Be Consistent

Track every session, even short ones. Consistency builds a complete picture of your gaming habits and creates a comprehensive history.

Notes Are Future You's Best Friend

When writing session notes, imagine you won't touch this game for three months. What would you need to know to jump back in? Write that down.

Use Progress Markers Strategically

Whether it's percentage complete, character level, hours played, or chapter number — pick a metric that makes sense for each game and stick with it for consistency.

Update as You Go

It's easier to jot down quick notes during or immediately after a session than trying to remember details days later.

Don't Overthink It

The system is flexible by design. Start simple and add more detail as you discover what information is useful to you.

Future Possibilities

While the current implementation provides core session management, the flexible data structure enables future enhancements. This list is by no means exhaustive but it gives you an idea of what I'm planning on adding:

Move sessions between game
CSV imports from various other platforms
Analytics dashboards showing play patterns
Progress graphs over time
Session tagging or categorisation
Export functionality for backup or analysis
Time goal tracking (e.g., "play 100 hours this year")
Completion predictions based on current progress
Session search and filtering

Support and Feedback

BeatYourBacklog is built to be straightforward and self-explanatory, but if you encounter issues or have suggestions for improvements, please don't hesitate to reach out through these support forums

Happy tracking, and may your backlog someday be beaten!