myLeagueTracker - My Personal ASP.NET MVC Development Series
This will be an ongoing series on the development of myLeagueTracker: an ASP.NET MVC web application that helps manage online First-person shooter (FPS) gaming leagues. As this is my first ASP.NET MVC application, this is a learning opportunity for me, and I hope that you find it helpful.
Introduction
I am an avid computer gamer. Years ago a friend introduced me to Doom and I was hooked. Later it was Quake, Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress Classic, and Counter-Strike. Normally I would play online with a few friends in public servers. It wasn’t until Valve released Team Fortress 2 two years ago that I joined an online community and started playing in a semi-competitive league. Each week, teams of 6 or 7 players would be matched up to do battle with one another. It’s a fun experience involving wits and constantly changing strategies.
The league uses spreadsheets to track and manage players, matches, maps played, and schedules. Of course, there had to be a better solution than a manual process like this. After searching for and finding no available open-source league management tool, I decided to write my own. I wanted to learn more about ASP.NET MVC, TDD (Test-driven development), and DDD (Domain-driven Design) anyway, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to learn something as well as provide something valuable to other gamers and developers alike.
About myLeagueTracker
This morning I posted my first post on a new blog for myLeagueTracker, a web application that will help FPS gaming communities manage their leagues. The introduction from that post says it well:
myLeagueTracker is an open-source ASP.NET MVC application currently in development which aims to provide tracking and management of the numerous facets in online First-person shooter gaming leagues. With the ability to handle multiple leagues across any FPS game, myLeagueTracker will help bring versatile league management to gamers who want to concentrate on gaming and not trying to design their own system. Since I am a gamer myself, I hope to provide a system for gamers that is both flexible and easy to use.
Development Series
Development on myLeagueTracker is currently underway and I will continually work on it when I have the opportunity outside of my normal employment obligations. With that in mind, this is the first post in a continuing series about the programming aspects I am dealing with on this project. All the source code I write is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 and is currently available at myLeagueTracker’s GitHub project site. I want these posts and this project to be resource to you as well as a learning experience for me. I will also be posting entries on the blog for myLeagueTracker which will contain general development progress and support posts geared more towards gamers that wish to use this tool. As always, feel free to send me feedback on either site as I am open to suggestions, comments, and questions. Thanks and enjoy!
