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Native Badge Support for Custom Fields

LaunchBox for Windows

📋 Summary

Add official support for using Custom Fields to generate badges in LaunchBox’s native badge system (under Badges > Game Attributes). This would allow users to visually tag and distinguish games with personalized metadata—such as Homebrew, ROM Hacks, Texture Packs, or any other user-defined classification—without relying on third-party plugins.

❗ Problem

Currently, the badge system in LaunchBox only supports a fixed set of built-in attributes. While powerful, it lacks flexibility for users who want to surface custom metadata like:

  • Games flagged as Homebrew or ROM Hacks

  • Games enhanced with Texture Packs, Widescreen Mods, etc.

  • Region-specific versions (e.g. “Japan-Only”)

  • Special categories like “Untranslated,” “Fan Translation,” or “Early Access”

Although the Custom Badges Plugin offers this functionality, it’s complex to set up and doesn’t fully integrate with native Big Box theming or filtering.

💡 Proposal

Enable support for generating badges from Custom Fields in LaunchBox:

  • Add a new “Custom Fields” section to Badges > Game Attributes

  • Let users choose one or more custom fields to monitor

  • Show badges based on custom field values (e.g., if CustomField = Homebrew, show a Homebrew badge)

  • Optionally support simple icons or label-based badges

  • Include toggles to control badge visibility in LaunchBox and Big Box separately

🧩 Use Cases

  • Homebrew Titles: Easily tag and identify unofficial games

  • ROM Hacks: Highlight games that are modified or fan-edited

  • Enhanced Games: Display badges for games with texture packs, widescreen patches, HD audio, etc.

  • Localization Tags: Tag “Fan Translations,” “Untranslated,” or “English Patched” games

  • Custom Collections: Create visual indicators for personal tags like “Favorites,” “Streamed,” or “Review Complete”

✅ Benefits

🔄 Native integration—no need for external plugins

🎯 Makes personalized metadata useful at a glance

🧩 Works cleanly with Big Box themes and badge display logic

🗂️ Improves library organization and custom playlist filtering

💡 Empowers users to build richer, more meaningful collections

Posted by Nokiaman ·
Status: Open To Community5 comments

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Comments5

  • AstroBob changed status to Open To Community
    Team•

    May 22, 2025

    Pinned

    Hi there!

    Thanks so much for submitting this request and for taking the time to explain your use case — that context is always super helpful.

    I’ve gone ahead and fleshed out the main idea using the info you provided, and I’m opening it up to the community for further discussion and feedback. Please let me know if this fleshed-out version doesn’t match your original intended request.

    I also want to point out that there is currently a 3rd party plugin that you could use to create custom badges if you’re inclined to check it out

    Feel free to let me know if you have any extra thoughts, examples, or edge cases you think might be relevant!

    Cheers,
    The LaunchBox team

    • Nokiaman

      •

      May 22, 2025

      Thanks! I had no idea.

  • JoeViking245

    •

    Aug 9, 2025

    An aside note for Custom Badges and Big Box integration: All badges that can be shown [in Big Box] are manually placed in the Themes xaml file, one-by-one.

    Example:

    The Completed badge needs the lines

    <Condition Binding="{Binding ElementName=Completed, Path=HasBadge}" Value="False"/>

    and…

    <DataTrigger Binding="{Binding ElementName=Completed, Path=HasBadge}" Value="False">

    (as well as several other supporting element lines)

    That’s 1 of approximately 24 other badges that currently are (can be) shown.

    This, of course isn’t an end-user issue/concern. (well, based in this ticket, may be a “concern”. 😉) But lends towards badges cannot be dynamically added to a theme. (Yet?)

  • AstroBob

    Team•

    Aug 2, 2025

    HI there, thanks for the wonderful suggestion here. We have a request for displaying badges for custom fields that this would very much fall under. I’ll go ahead and merge your request into that one, so that you can follow along with it’s updates.

    Native Badge Support for Custom Fields

  • AstroBob

    Team•

    Aug 2, 2025

    Hi folks,

    We’ve expanded this request to support custom badges for any custom fields, rather than just fixed tags like Homebrew or ROM Hacks. This broader approach allows for much more flexibility—covering the original use cases mentioned here and enabling many more.

    Please let us know what use-cases would be important to you