Contributing data

Native Game DB lives in a public GitHub repository. All data lands as JSON files under data/games/{platform}/, one game per file. Anyone with a GitHub account can propose changes via pull request or issue.

The fast path: open an issue

If you just want to add or correct one game, the easiest path is to open a GitHub issue. We will eventually provide a structured issue template (Phase 4 in the roadmap), but for now a free-form issue with the following information is enough:

• Platform identifier (e.g. gb, fc, sfc)
• The slug of the game if it already exists, or the canonical English name otherwise
• The native-script title(s) you want to add or correct, with their language and script (see the schema spec)
• The source of the information (your own physical copy, a screenshot of the in-game title screen, an authoritative reference, etc.)

Open a new issue

The thorough path: open a pull request

1. Fork retronian/native-game-db on GitHub.
2. For a new game, create a new file at data/games/{platform}/{slug}.json. The slug must match the file name and must be lowercase ASCII with hyphens.
3. Make sure the file conforms to schema/game.schema.json.
4. Open a pull request describing the source of the data and whether you have verified it against a primary source (title screen, original packaging).

Verifying titles

Most existing entries were imported from Wikidata and have "verified": false. We use verified: true only when the title has been confirmed against a primary source — ideally the in-game title logo, the original boxart, or the printed manual. Wikipedia articles and other downstream databases do not count as primary sources.

If you can confirm an existing title against a primary source, please open a pull request flipping verified from false to true and add a brief note in the PR description about how you verified it.

Style and conventions

• One game per file. Do not pack multiple entries into a single file.
• The id field must equal the file name without the .json extension.
• Prefer the English (or romaji) form of the title for the slug. Use the Wikidata QID as a last resort.
• Add the script field to every titles[] entry. Use ISO 15924 codes (Jpan, Hira, Kana, Hans, Hant, Hang, Latn, etc.).
• Do not invent new source values. Stick to the enum defined in the schema.

What not to contribute

• Cover art and other binary assets — we do not host them yet.
• ROM data, hashes, or anything that could be used to identify a copyrighted file (planned for a separate roms layer).
• Translations of native-script titles into Latin script that are not the romaji form printed on the original packaging or the in-game logo.