May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion

kfwyre
Tue, 30 Apr 2024 23:06:59 +0000

The blaze has officially ignited!

The May 2024 Backlog Burner is officially live. Use this topic to post about the games that you play.

Etiquette:

It is fine to make multiple top-level posts throughout the week.

It is also fine to respond to your own posts.

If you are playing Backlog Bingo, you can share your table either by markdown or through screenshots.

Gameplay guidelines:

Goals for this event (if any) are entirely individual and self-determined.

You do NOT need to finish games unless you want to. The point is to try out games and have fun, not force ourselves to play things we're not interested in.

Backlog Bingo: It's back and better than ever!

Backlog Bingo is a completely optional way of participating in the Backlog Burner. You can generate a random bingo card with different gaming categories such as Has a fishing minigame or Your friend loves it. You then play a game that meets a given category and fill in that square.

A conventional bingo win happens when you have filled in a full row, column, or diagonal. If you complete a full bingo with time to spare, you can go for another one on the same card. You can also choose to play with the "blackout" win condition if you're feeling extra adventurous, which means that you need to fill every square on the board to win.

In order to help out with this, our amazing @Wes has singlehandedly made an open-source Backlog Bingo web app from scratch! (and here's the GitHub repo, for those interested).

The site will:

Generate a random bingo card for you

Save your bingo card state as you enter games

Export your bingo card to markdown for easy copy/pasting into the discussion thread

But wait, there's more!

It has both Standard and Golf rulesets, as well as completely custom rules

It allows for resizing the bingo card, so you can play a 3x3 or a 7x7 if you want

You can choose which categories you want to allow on your card

The categories now have groupings which limit similar ones from appearing on the same cards

Wes could have stopped there, but he didn't:

The site is private by design; all user data is kept in local storage and does not touch the server

The site can import custom JSON files so that people can make their own custom categories

Because of this, people can use the tool for other events: a yearly reading challenge; an anime bingo month, etc.

What's that? You thought Wes was done? Nope. He kept going:

It supports "dynamic" entries which allow for randomization within specific categories (e.g. "a game you've had for more than RANDOM[2,7] years")

It has both light and dark modes

It looks great in screenshots, so if you hate markdown tables you can post pictures of your card instead

It has some other fun surprises as well

We've also updated the category list for this year to hopefully make it even better than the last. So, try it out! Generate a card and get gaming!

Let's burn through these backlogs!

Backlog Bingo FAQ

Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will irrecoverably delete your card.

Is the Backlog Bingo site privacy-friendly?

Yes! The site is coded by our very own @Wes who made it private by design. It is open source, all data is stored client-side, and the only information entered is the names of games. It does not require an account nor link to your Tildes username.

My browser deletes data on exit. How do I save my card between sessions?

You need to whitelist data from wescook.ca in your browser. PLEASE test this before committing to a card. Once a card is deleted it cannot be recovered.

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.

Can I make my own custom categories?

Yes! The Backlog Bingo site generates its categories from a JSON file. We prepared a default one for the event that everyone can use, but you are welcome to create your own JSON file with whatever categories you want and use that instead!

If you are interested in doing this, you can find documentation in the wiki and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!

Can I use the Backlog Bingo site for something other than games?

Yes again! Because it will accept custom categories, you can use it for books, anime, movies, recipes -- anything!

If you are interested in doing this, you can find documentation in the wiki and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!

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.

How do I participate?

Once the event starts on May 1st:

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.

Is Backlog Bingo a requirement to participate?

No! You can choose or play games however you like.

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!

What's the timeline?

The event begins on May 1st and runs through May 31st. I will post an update thread weekly, each Wednesday.

The next Backlog Burner event will be in November 2024.

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!

Do I need to sign up?

No. You don't have to do anything to officially join or participate in the event other than post in these threads! Participate in whatever way works for you.

Do I need to wait until May to get started?

Technically yes but I won't police it. The first official discussion thread will go up on Wednesday the 1st, but feel free to kick things off here if you're wanting to pre-game the month!

Comments URL: https://tildes.net/~games/1g0f/may_2024_backlog_burner_week_1_discussion

Votes: 23

Comments: 38