It's almost time... ...for another Backlog Burner -- the event where you try out games you've always wanted to play (but haven't yet -- for whatever reason). The Backlog Burner for November 2025...
It's almost time...
...for another Backlog Burner -- the event where you try out games you've always wanted to play (but haven't yet -- for whatever reason).
The Backlog Burner for November 2025 will officially begin in two days on November 1st.
If you're new to the Backlog Burner, check out our previous events to get an idea of what's going on:
Backlog Bingo is back (of course) and better than ever!
If you participated last time, clear your old card and start fresh with a new one. If you're new to the event, click the link above to generate your card (if you want to -- playing a bingo card is NOT required to participate).
New Category List
We've got Flux for those of you that like to get specific with their cards.
We've got Flow for those of you that like a bit of wiggle room.
We've got Free for those of you that take the "anything goes" approach.
And now, our newest addition: Form
This set is a list of genres, letting you fill your bingo card with God game, Tactical RPG, Visual novel and 89 other choices! Go for the bingo of your choice, as long as your backlog has the game types to fulfill it...
New Site Features
u/Wes, coding wizard that he is, has added some incredible new features to the site:
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AI Integration: Why rely on a boring set of predetermined, carefully curated, energy efficient categories when you can instead harness the unlimited cognitive power and water usage of an AI? Use Bingie, our new Bingo companion. It can not only set up a card to your liking, but it can actually play the games for you! Trained on millions of hours of League of Legends matches, Bingie is ready to smugly gloat when it wins for you and get shockingly, offensively salty when it loses. Why game yourself this month? Have Bingie do it for you.
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Blockchain Babies: Think Beanie Babies, but digital. No, even digitaler than that. We've decided to extend you an exclusive offer to join us on this journey. Just let us know how many Blockchain Babies we can put you down for. Our initial offer begins with a limited edition of our most popular baby: Doomscrolling Dolphin! You'd better rush if you still want to get in on the ground floor of this growing empire. Blockchain Babies: they put the fun in non-fungible.
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Deception: What do you do when the site is already beautifully functional and it doesn't need any updates? You lie about it in hopes of attracting investment money by using key buzzwords like "AI integration" and "blockchain." We've incorporated these lies directly into our changelog by leveraging cross-functional bandwidth to verify ecosystem stability and ensure stakeholder alignment. Our holistic ideation sessions empower dynamic pivoting and scalable content delivery to future-proof our market positioning while streamlining KPIs and deliverables.
Backlog Bingo: we blackout the competition.
In all seriousness, Wes didn't need to do much with the site because it's already pretty much perfect! No major updates this time, but everything from last time is still there. It's still wonderfully functional, and still completely private! All data is stored only on your device.
Of course, with that in mind, I'll be using another seeded card this time, on the off chance that I end up wiping my computer again.
Shameless Cross-Promotion
ATTENTION ALL CGA PARTICIPANTS: The Backlog Burner event and our Colossal Game Adventure are not only cross-compatible, they are in fact symbiotic. CGA puts games on your backlog; BB takes them away! Beautiful? Or devious...
This month CGA is having its first Arcade Special with a collection of five different PlayStation oddities.
Hmmm, five games all together? That seems like the perfect lineup for a Bingo (if you get lucky with your card, that is). It's almost like it's the perfect time for CGA folks to hop on the Backlog Burner train! :D
Notification List
If you are interested in participating in the Backlog Burner, please comment in this topic. Anyone commenting/replying here will automatically be added to a notification list for the Backlog Burner, unless you specify otherwise.
Start Planning (or Playing)
Technically the event starts in two days, so you have time to roll your cards (if you're playing Bingo) and plan out what you'd like to play for the month. That said, if you're eager to jump right in, and start early, I certainly won't stop you!
Let's get ready to burn through these backlogs!
Backlog Burner FAQ
What exactly is the Backlog Burner?
Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences, scratch some long-standing itches, and knock a few titles off our to-play lists.
It runs every May and November. New discussion topics will go up once a week during those months.
You do not need to sign up in advance -- the topics are open to all. If you would like to be included in the notification list, comment in this topic to be added.
How do I participate?
- Choose some games from your backlog and play them.
- Then tell us about your experiences in the discussion thread for the week.
That's it!
Optionally: you can play Backlog Bingo which is a fun way of cutting down the choices you have to make and playing games you might not have normally selected on your own.
Do I need to finish the games that I play?
Nope! Not at all.
There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game.
Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!
Can I make multiple posts in the same topic?
Yes! Each discussion thread stays live for a full week, so feel free to make multiple comments in the topic as you play different games. This isn't considered noise -- it's considered valuable participation in the event!
Backlog Bingo FAQ
Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will delete your card. You can use the export feature to make backups or move your card between devices.
I'm a returning player. How do I reset my previous card?
If you've already created a card and wish to start over, click the Settings button in the header to access your card settings. Then click the Reset button, and confirm the prompt. This will irrevocably delete your present card, allowing you to start fresh.
Where is my data stored?
All data is stored by your browser in local storage. There are no accounts, and nothing is sent to the server, so it's privacy-friendly by design. This does mean that you are responsible for not deleting any browser data on wescook.ca, either manually or through automatic cleanups performed on browser close.
Backlog Bingo is open-source, and licensed permissively under MIT.
What is the difference between the "Standard" and "Golf" modes?
In Standard Mode, each square on the bingo card corresponds with one single game. Duplicate games cannot be entered into different squares. A winning card would have a row of five different games that each filled in one square.
In Golf Mode, duplicates are not only allowed -- they are encouraged! The purpose of Golf mode is to try to find a single game that will fill multiple categories at the same time. For example: Stardew Valley might fulfill You got it on sale, A solo-dev project, and Has romanceable characters all at the same time. A winning card would have all twenty five squares filled, but possibly only six or seven different games.
What is the star space in the middle?
That is the "wildcard" or "free space."
In Standard Mode, there are no requirements to fill it. You can choose any game you want! Anything goes!
In Golf Mode, it does not need to be filled. Because Golf is all about stacking up categories on a single game, any game used in Golf would fill it automatically, meaning it has no real function. As such, the square will be pre-filled for you if you play in Golf mode.
The new Free list defaults to having this space turned off. Because you already have full freedom in how you fill the squares, having a free space is redundant (though if you miss it or just like the aesthetics, you can certainly turn it back on!).
Can I create custom bingo categories for this, or other events?
Absolutely! The Backlog Bingo app reads in simple JSON files which define the available categories. We've created a couple prebuilt lists for this event, but you're free to tweak our categories, or create completely new ones. You could even use them for books, anime, movies, recipes -- anything!
If you are interested in learning more, you can find documentation on the wiki, and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!