A full-stack web application enabling community-driven reviews for video games across all distribution channels—official releases, indie titles, and popular mods.

🔗 Backend Repository | Frontend Repository | The Website

Most gaming review platforms focus exclusively on official releases, leaving a gap for the indie and modding communities. This project addresses that by providing a unified platform where users can discover and review any gaming experience, regardless of distribution method.

Tech Stack: Node.js, MySQL, Docker, Tailwind CSS, Jest, Javascript, Next.js, Express.js, React

Architecture & Features:

• RESTful API with comprehensive endpoint structure for user authentication, review management, and content discovery
• Normalized relational database (3NF) designed to handle complex relationships between games, mods, and user-generated content
• Fully containerized with Docker, enabling consistent development environments across multiple machines and streamlined deployment
• Three-tier MVC architecture separating routing/controllers, business logic, and database interactions for maintainable code organization

Key Technical Challenges Solved:

• Designed flexible data model accommodating diverse game types (official releases, mods, indie games) while maintaining referential integrity
• Implemented authentication and authorization flow securing user data and review submissions
  • Applied secure coding practices including parameterized queries and input sanitization to prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities
• Established development workflow using Docker Compose for multi-service orchestration

Current Phase - Quality & User Experience:

• Expanding test coverage from current baseline to 80% across backend services
• Redesigning frontend interface with improved navigation and responsive layouts
• Implementing email verification for enhanced account security

Next Phase - DevOps & Automation:

• Integrating CI/CD pipeline for automated testing and deployment
• Setting up staging environment for pre-production validation

This project combines my technical growth goals with addressing a real need in the gaming community. Building this platform has strengthened my full-stack development skills while creating something genuinely useful for gamers who explore beyond mainstream releases.