Game Time Manager vs Gameplay.Science

Game Time Manager is a free Windows PC app that tracks gaming time and play history, with the stated aim of helping users balance gaming with the rest of life. When it detects a full-screen game, it periodically displays how long the user has been playing. The default overlay stays visible for 10 seconds every 10 minutes, and its settings can be changed in config.toml without restarting the app. It records what was played and when. The maker describes it as compatible with most PC games. After installation it runs in the background and starts when the user logs in. Installation requires downloading a release, unzipping it, and running install.ps1 with PowerShell. The project is published under the Apache License 2.0. Listed releases are pre-release alpha versions, with v0.0.1-alpha.3 the newest shown. Play-over-time metrics and game-specific rules are TODO items rather than available features. Its free plan is free and lists Windows 10 and 11 as tested.

Gameplay.Science is an open-source web platform for independent research on video games using behavior data donated by players. It is designed to support studies without requiring direct participation from game platforms. Players can contribute digital trace data through Steam or Discord connections, account integrations such as Steam or Xbox, or GDPR requests. Account linking lets a participant sign in and authorize automatic access to gameplay data. UK and EU players can request data held by a gaming company under GDPR and share it with researchers. The project aims to cover how long people play, what they do in games, and who they interact with. A study using the platform describes Steam authentication through OpenID, public Steam gameplay details, and hourly collection of each game’s incremental playtime. That study says data was stored on encrypted servers accessible only to the research team. Steam and Xbox are listed as supported ecosystems.