RefractTrack Home: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 14:17, 13 September 2026

Welcome to RefractTrack

Pixel Refraction Studio actually made these tools for their own game development. We didn't just make them, we use them every day. We even used them when we were making the tools themselves.

RefractTrack is a task board for game dev teams. Think of it as a friendly, self-hosted kanban board built specifically for tracking the work of making a game — features, bugs, art tasks, sound effects, whatever your team needs to keep straight — across as many separate projects as you like.

Every task gets a short, memorable code like RPG-12 so it's easy to refer to in chat, in commit messages, or in conversation ("hey, did you see RPG-12?"). Tasks live on a drag-and-drop board, organized into columns your team defines, and can be tagged, commented on, attached to files, reviewed, and archived once they're done.

This guide walks through everything RefractTrack can do, organized by what you're trying to accomplish rather than how it's built.

Get set up

Brochure — features and how they will be useful for you
Cost Breakdown — what it costs
Buy it! — go buy it at itch.io
Getting Started — what you need, and how to get RefractTrack up and running
Automated Server Setup — turning a bare Linux computer (even a small one) into a ready-to-go RefractTrack server
Upgrading — moving an existing install to a newer version
License — license agreement when you buy it

The basics

Projects — keeping separate games or teams cleanly apart from each other
Tasks — what a task looks like and everything you can fill in
Board and List Views — the two ways to browse your work
Stages — the columns your tasks move through
Groups — color-coded tags for organizing tasks
Formatting Text — making descriptions and comments easy to read

Getting work done

Bulk Task Creation — creating a whole batch of similar tasks at once
Archiving — clearing finished work off the board without losing it
Approvals and Review — a lightweight sign-off step for finished tasks
Comments and Activity — discussing a task and seeing its history
Attachments — attaching screenshots, reference art, and files to tasks
Export and Import — backing a project up (or bringing one in) as a single file

Running your team

Users — adding teammates and managing their accounts
Permissions and Roles — controlling who can do what
Themes and Branding — giving RefractTrack your own look and name

Everything at a glance

Feature Inventory — a quick checklist of everything RefractTrack can do

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== RefractTrack Documentation ==
+== Welcome to RefractTrack ==
-RefractTrack is a small, self-hosted kanban tool for tracking development tasks across one or more game projects. It runs on plain PHP 8 and MySQL/MariaDB with no framework and no build step, uses Jira-style task IDs (<code><nowiki>PREFIX-123</nowiki></code>) with matching clean URLs (<code><nowiki>/task/FE-12</nowiki></code>), and supports fine-grained role-based permissions, per-project stages/groups/saved lists, CSV/JSON export and import, 15 selectable color themes, and automatic schema migrations.
+[[File:RefractTrack_yo_dawg.jpg|border|right|300px|Yo Dawg.]]
+Pixel Refraction Studio actually made these tools for their own game development. We didn't just make them, we use them every day. We even used them when we were making the tools themselves.
-This documentation describes RefractTrack as of package version '''v99'''.
+RefractTrack is a task board for game dev teams. Think of it as a friendly, self-hosted kanban board built specifically for tracking the work of making a game — features, bugs, art tasks, sound effects, whatever your team needs to keep straight — across as many separate projects as you like.
-=== Getting started ===
+Every task gets a short, memorable code like ''RPG-12'' so it's easy to refer to in chat, in commit messages, or in conversation ("hey, did you see RPG-12?"). Tasks live on a drag-and-drop board, organized into columns your team defines, and can be tagged, commented on, attached to files, reviewed, and archived once they're done.
-* [https://nerdofepic.itch.io/refracttrack Buy It!] - For sale at itch.io
-* [[RefractTrack_Installation|Installation]] — guided wizard and manual setup, requirements, upgrading an existing install
-* [[RefractTrack_Server_Setup|Server Setup]] — the standalone <code><nowiki>prereqs.sh</nowiki></code> provisioning script for a fresh Debian/Ubuntu box
-* [[RefractTrack_Configuration|Configuration]] — <code><nowiki>config/config.php</nowiki></code> settings and Clean URLs
-=== Core concepts ===
+This guide walks through everything RefractTrack can do, organized by what you're trying to accomplish rather than how it's built.
-* [[RefractTrack_Projects|Projects]] — multi-project support, task numbering, soft delete
+=== Get set up ===
-* [[RefractTrack_Tasks|Tasks]] — task fields, task types, bug-specific fields, task codes
-* [[RefractTrack_Board_and_List_Views|Board and List Views]] — the kanban board, drag-and-drop, list/filter view
-* [[RefractTrack_Stages|Stages]] — per-project swimlanes/workflow stages
-* [[RefractTrack_Groups|Groups]] — per-project many-to-many task tags
-* [[RefractTrack_Markdown_Formatting|Markdown Formatting]] — the supported text-formatting subset and task-code auto-linking
-=== Workflows ===
+* [https://refracttrack.com Brochure] — features and how they will be useful for you
+* [[RefractTrack_Cost_Breakdown|Cost Breakdown]] — what it costs
+* [https://pixelrefractionstudio.itch.io/refracttract Buy it!] — go buy it at itch.io
+* [[RefractTrack_Getting_Started|Getting Started]] — what you need, and how to get RefractTrack up and running
+* [[RefractTrack_Automated_Server_Setup|Automated Server Setup]] — turning a bare Linux computer (even a small one) into a ready-to-go RefractTrack server
+* [[RefractTrack_Upgrading|Upgrading]] — moving an existing install to a newer version
+* [[RefractTrack_License|License]] — license agreement when you buy it
-* [[RefractTrack_Bulk_Task_Creation_and_Saved_Lists|Bulk Task Creation and Saved Lists]] — mail-merge style batch task creation
+=== The basics ===
-* [[RefractTrack_Archiving|Archiving]] — archiving/unarchiving tasks individually or in bulk
-* [[RefractTrack_Approvals_and_Review|Approvals and Review]] — the task review workflow (pending / approved / won't do)
-* [[RefractTrack_Comments_and_Activity_Log|Comments and Activity Log]] — discussion and automatic system history on each task
-* [[RefractTrack_Attachments|Attachments]] — file uploads on tasks
-* [[RefractTrack_Export_and_Import|Export and Import]] — CSV/JSON project export and import
-=== Administration ===
+* [[RefractTrack_Projects|Projects]] — keeping separate games or teams cleanly apart from each other
+* [[RefractTrack_Tasks|Tasks]] — what a task looks like and everything you can fill in
+* [[RefractTrack_Board_and_List_Views|Board and List Views]] — the two ways to browse your work
+* [[RefractTrack_Stages|Stages]] — the columns your tasks move through
+* [[RefractTrack_Groups|Groups]] — color-coded tags for organizing tasks
+* [[RefractTrack_Markdown_Formatting|Formatting Text]] — making descriptions and comments easy to read
-* [[RefractTrack_Users|Users]] — accounts, activation, password resets
+=== Getting work done ===
-* [[RefractTrack_Permissions_and_Roles|Permissions and Roles]] — the full RBAC model, role presets, per-user overrides
-* [[RefractTrack_Themes_and_Branding|Themes and Branding]] — the 15 color themes and application name
-* [[RefractTrack_Per_User_Preferences|Per User Preferences]] — what the app remembers per user across sessions
-* [[RefractTrack_Migrations_and_Upgrades|Migrations and Upgrades]] — automatic schema migrations, web and CLI upgrade paths
-=== Reference ===
+* [[RefractTrack_Bulk_Task_Creation_and_Saved_Lists|Bulk Task Creation]] — creating a whole batch of similar tasks at once
+* [[RefractTrack_Archiving|Archiving]] — clearing finished work off the board without losing it
+* [[RefractTrack_Approvals_and_Review|Approvals and Review]] — a lightweight sign-off step for finished tasks
+* [[RefractTrack_Comments_and_Activity_Log|Comments and Activity]] — discussing a task and seeing its history
+* [[RefractTrack_Attachments|Attachments]] — attaching screenshots, reference art, and files to tasks
+* [[RefractTrack_Export_and_Import|Export and Import]] — backing a project up (or bringing one in) as a single file
-* [[RefractTrack_Feature_Inventory|Feature Inventory]] — a flat checklist of everything the app can do
+=== Running your team ===
-* [[RefractTrack_Data_Model|Data Model]] — database tables at a glance
-* [[RefractTrack_Security|Security]] — the hardening measures built into the app
+* [[RefractTrack_Users|Users]] — adding teammates and managing their accounts
-* [[RefractTrack_Architecture|Architecture]] — request lifecycle and where things live in the codebase (for maintainers)
+* [[RefractTrack_Permissions_and_Roles|Permissions and Roles]] — controlling who can do what
-* [[RefractTrack_Known_Limitations|Known Limitations]] — things that are deliberately not supported yet
+* [[RefractTrack_Themes_and_Branding|Themes and Branding]] — giving RefractTrack your own look and name
+=== Everything at a glance ===
+* [[RefractTrack_Feature_Inventory|Feature Inventory]] — a quick checklist of everything RefractTrack can do
+[[Category:RefractTrack]]

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