The 5 most popular types of apps you can create with Overwolf
By: Liri Katz
Tags: Startup, Apps, App Development, Technology, Gaming

Gaming is on the rise, and user-generated content is becoming bigger than ever.

More than 30,000 creators build gaming apps and mods with the Overwolf platform, and millions of players enjoy them every day. The demand for new and exciting gaming apps is huge, and creating them is now easier than ever before.

So you might already have an established gaming website or product, and you might be asking yourself, “Would it make sense to bring it in-game?” Or, perhaps you have some cool idea for a gaming app, but you’re not sure if it can be built.

In this post we’ll introduce the five most popular types of apps that people build using the Overwolf framework, and we’ll briefly go over some of the tools and resources they use.

And who knows? It might just be that little spark you need to start building the gaming app of your dreams.

1. Analytics and Stats apps

Many popular apps provide in-game statistics, track game progress, and analyze performance.

Porofessor, for example, is a well-known app for League of Legends. It provides players with a variety of detailed statistics: from build recommendations before the game starts; through real-time information about their team members and opponents; and all the way to post-match analysis.

Another popular app you may have heard of is R6Tracker, which provides real-time statistics for Rainbow Six Siege. Players who use it can view in-game information such as level, ranking, number of kills/deaths, win rates, and victory chances.

Both apps started as websites widely used by players, so it made a lot of sense to bring their value in-game, using the Overwolf framework.

Main tools used: Overlay windows

One of the primary Overwolf tools used by these apps, the App Window API, provides the ability to display overlay windows inside a game. Analytics and Stats apps use it to display statistics and relevant in-game information to players, based on their current match and context.

2. Esports and Tournaments apps

Many esports and Tournament organizers turn to Overwolf to build apps for governing the competitions they’re running — apps that monitor who won and who lost, and when a game starts or ends. These apps can then report the outcome to the organizers, without relying on players and teams to report on their own results.

G-Loot, for example, is an esports platform for PC. It lets players complete challenges and compete for prizes, in more than 25 popular games. Players can either compete against other players or play solo, challenging themselves to get better and better.

Main tools used: in-game events tracker

One of the main Overwolf tools used for Esports and Tournaments apps is the Game Events API. This tool tracks key events that occur during the game: Match start, match end, kills, deaths, victories, defeats, damage dealt, in-game currency spent, and many more — depending on the game itself. This means that you can easily build an app for holding tournaments across multiple games. With match events being tracked and reported, all that’s left is for players to compete.

3. In-Game Guide apps

In-game Guide apps are another type of app that utilizes the Game Events API.

These apps can understand exactly what players are facing or experiencing at specific points along the game, and can display the most relevant guide content to assist them. It’s basically like looking up a guide for a game challenge online, just without the looking up part — and without leaving the game.

A great example of this would be Icy Heroes, built by Icy Veins — a leading content website for Heroes of the Storm, Diablo games ,World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone. The website offers extensive guides and strategies for Heroes of the Storm, but to find the content they need - players must leave the game and look it up on the website.

The dev team behind Icy Veins recognized the opportunity and saw great value in having the content available to players in-game. So they decided to use the Overwolf framework and create an In-game Guide app to do just that. The Icy Heroes app supports Heroes of the Storm — and provides players with exactly the right guides and the most relevant information for their chosen heroes. The app also recommends which talent players should choose when they level up.

4. Companion / Utility apps

Apps in this category allow adding sound customization, map layers, and many other special in-game features.

One app that does exactly that is Apollo — an interactive audio app for League of Legends, Fortnite, and Rocket League.

It allows players to add custom announcements and music clips on various game events, giving their own personal touch to the game and enriching their overall gaming experience.

Among Map is another interesting example, its main feature being a high-quality map added as an in-game layer. This allows players to easily navigate through the map and add important notes and markers.

5. Replay & highlight apps

This category features apps that can automatically capture and record game highlights, or enable players to manually do so themselves.

One of the prominent apps in this category is called Outplayed, and that’s exactly what it does — capturing players’ top moments and biggest plays in dozens of games. It also lets players manually record on demand. Once all highlights are recorded, players can browse through the captured clips and easily share them on social media.

Main tools used: OBS game capture, in-app media player and social share

To make all this happen, three Overwolf tools are primarily utilized: the Media Replays API, the Media Player API, and the Social Share API.

First, the Media Replays API. This tool is basically what enables capturing short, OBS-based video replays of the game that’s currently running.

Then, the Media Player API comes into play. This tool allows adding a media player element to an app window and playing video files. In this case, it allows players to play the clip they’ve just captured.

Last for this category, the Social Share API. This is the API that allows players to share the video clips on Reddit, YouTube, Discord or other social media channels.