Game Review Website

Single project – Web application built with Django

This self-developed game review platform allows users to create games, rate them and publish reviews. The project covers the entire development process from concept to implementation.

The goal was to build a user-friendly and visually appealing platform that enables gamers to share opinions and showcase their favorite games.

🔹 Core Features

🔹 Tech Stack & Tools

• Backend: Django
• Frontend: HTML/CSS with template customizations
• Database: SQLite
• IDE: PyCharm
• Additional tools:
  • Pillow (image processing)
  • django-gravatar2 (avatars via e-mail)

🔹 Data Model

The site is based on a relational schema with three main models:

• User: Django built-in authentication
• Review: relation to game and user, rating, review text, timestamp
• Game: title, description, developer, image, average rating

🔹 Code example (upload view)

from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
from django.shortcuts import render, redirect, get_object_or_404
from .forms import ReviewForm
from .models import Game


@login_required()
def upload_review(request):
    game_id = request.GET.get('game_id')
    game = get_object_or_404(Game, id=game_id) if game_id else None

    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = ReviewForm(request.POST, request.FILES)
        if form.is_valid():
            review = form.save(commit=False)
            review.user_id = request.user.id
            review.save()

            calculate_and_update_average_rating(review.game)

            return redirect('game-reviews', review.game_id)
    else:
        form = ReviewForm(initial=dict(game=game))
    return render(request, 'upload_review.html', dict(upload_review=form))

This view handles review uploads and uses a dedicated template — an example of Django’s modular customization.

🔹 Challenges & Solutions

• Form styling: Django forms required manual CSS and template overrides to achieve the desired layout.
• Gravatar integration: Retrieving avatar images via email and fitting them into the layout — solved by template tweaks and using django-gravatar2.

💬 Conclusion & Outlook

The project was a valuable learning experience, especially working with Django, template customization and relational DB design. The site fulfills the initial requirements and provides a solid base for future features like:

• Rating system for reviews
• Filtering & search functionality
• REST API for external tools