Sure, you’re getting further and further into the game and finishing missions, but the true progress for a zombie shooter is how many zombies you’ve killed, right? [Evan Juras] agreed, so he set off to build a hardware stat tracker for Left4Dead 2!
Left4Dead 2 tracks a bunch of stats and at the end of each level, those stats are updated on your Steam page. [Evan] used a Python script running on a Raspberry Pi to connect to the internet and grab four different stats from your Steam profile. Those stats are displayed on an RGB 16×2 display. To house the project, a case for it was designed and [Evan] had it 3D printed. There are two buttons on the case: one to update the stats and another to cycle through them. If no buttons are pressed then the display cycles through the stats every minute and updates the stats every 24 hours.
The video below shows a summary of the build process and describes the hardware and software used. [Evan] has plans for tracking stats from other games through Steam and his python code is available on Github. Python is becoming the go-to tool for interacting with video game bots and now, stats — see this list of Pokemon Go bots. Also, check out this feature about running MicroPython on an ESP8266 if you wanted to build something similar to this without the Raspberry Pi.
Gotta build me one! Likely, port it to MicroPython, while I’m at it. The problem, of course, is that it’s going to be a year before I actually get to it.
And, as this is likely to attract L4D2 players – add me on Steam, I’m 0crimier0 =)
i’m at 217,418. Still one of my favorite games after all these years.
I’m at 362,414 with 941+ hours played though the other stat says I’ve played 1190hours.
Would be great at LAN parties, have it on a big display, and have one for each player. Person with the lowest count doesn’t get to ride the rescue vehicle, and be left to die with the Tank.
I wish I could’ve given this game to someone who does not own a PC.
Infected killed
82,246
I dislike steam’s nosiness and tracking, I don’t need Valve to tabulate every second I play a game, and I especially don’t need them to share that for me.