DeVuego is not just a video game database: it is a preservation project that actively documents and verifies the information it publishes.
DeVuego runs independent databases for Spain, Portugal and Latin America, all sharing the same data model.
Every game, studio and person has an internally generated unique ID and a stable slug. We never accept external IDs.
Each id is generated by a database auto-increment counter: under normal operation, that counter never reuses an identifier that has already been issued, even if the record is later deleted (only an explicit manual intervention on the database could change this). Additionally, when a game or studio changes its slug, we keep the previous slug and our system automatically issues a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one, so links other researchers make to DeVuego don't break over time.
Our automated import processes validate duplicates and sanitize content before inserting it. For external collaborations we publish formal schemas — see below.
We log who edits what and when, and run an activity monitor that actively verifies whether studios are still operating.
A game, studio or person isn't a single fixed status in DeVuego: we combine several independent indicators instead of one label.
We don't publish any data that reaches us: an entry is added to the database when we can verify its source (studio, developer, publisher, or an identifiable press source) and it fits the project's editorial scope. Crowdfunding details, awards or age ratings, for example, are only added when there's a verifiable source, not an unsupported claim.
DeVuego is not an isolated catalogue: whenever possible, we link each game or studio to its identifier in other reference catalogues, so researchers and other preservation projects can cross-reference our data with theirs. We store, among others, the Wikidata, RAWG, IGDB and Twitch identifier for each game, plus catalogued links to Wikipedia and other networks/sources. We also keep the Steam identifier for each release (encoded in the store URL) and resolve it automatically in our price and rating update processes. This interconnection is actively expanded, not a decorative field: several of our automated processes use it to verify and update data. These processes identify themselves to external servers with their own User-Agent (for example, DeVuegoSteamBot/1.0); you can check the full list of bots and their purpose on our scraper information page.
Every game, chapter or book in our database has a public, self-describing identifier, the DVGO_ID, formatted as DVGO + creation date (YYYYMMDD) + record type (JG/CP/LB) + internal id. It is not an opaque number: anyone can read directly from the identifier when a record was created and what type it is.
You can check the authenticity of any DVGO_ID at /bd/en/verifyid/: the tool shows whether the record exists, when it was created, who created it and who last edited it. This verification currently covers games, chapters and books; it is not yet available for studios.
