dannydotcafe's recent activity
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentAt this point I'll probably play it safe the rest of this month, but depending on what happens between now and November, I might consider going full chaos the next time around!At this point I'll probably play it safe the rest of this month, but depending on what happens between now and November, I might consider going full chaos the next time around!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI'm starting to think that random picks from the dark depths of our libraries is the way to go! Backlog burning is out, it's all about dirty laundry airing now! (and the thrilling conclusion has...I'm starting to think that random picks from the dark depths of our libraries is the way to go! Backlog burning is out, it's all about dirty laundry airing now!
(and the thrilling conclusion has been posted, so don't miss it!)
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentA Leap of Faith: the Result! I was sure this experiment would end in a complete disaster that would be fun to write about. Statistically speaking, it should have been. Perhaps there a time when...A Leap of Faith: the Result!
I was sure this experiment would end in a complete disaster that would be fun to write about. Statistically speaking, it should have been. Perhaps there a time when the average unplayed game in my Steam library was a quality title, but these days the ratio has certainly shifted.
So it was much to my surprise that I had a very enjoyable time with a game I never would have touched otherwise.
DeckRoulette's inner machinations saw fit to present me with Nex Machina a twin bullet shooter hell stick. The game has strong arcade roots, right down to the "attract mode" showing example play when the main menu is idle (and currently looping on my screen as I write the first draft of this post). Thankfully, the easier difficulty levels forgo the limited continues of arcade purism, so even someone as unskilled as me can move through the game without frustration.
I will say, wholeheartedly, that Nex Machina is a whole lot of fun. From the start it immediately drops you into the action. You control a little guy on the ground, so undefined that I can't even provide a visual description. It doesn't matter anyway, because you know his position as the source of the bright blue blasts that emanate outward in all directions. Enemies are a shade of red, and there are also green glowing humans you rescue simply by walking into them, which I like to think makes this game a spiritual successor to Zombies Ate my Neighbors
The game looks and sounds great. It uses voxels extensively (if not exclusively) to great effect. A defeated enemy crumbles like a tower of blocks. Pieces of the level explode in a hail of tiny multi-colored boxes when shot. They bounce and slide, lending fights a sense of chaos without being completely overwhelming. I initially played on the small screen of the Steam Deck, where (after adding required launch parameters) it looked great, ran great, and was perfect. Later I switched over to my desktop to play on my ultrawide monitor at 1440p and 144fps, and it was also perfect.
Why don't I normally play games like this? I sometimes think of interactive media on a spectrum between games and an experiences (though I'm truly in need of better terms). To give examples outside of video games, the purest example of the latter might be the with narrative immersion and worldbuilding of Dungeons and Dragons. On the far other side of the spectrum is a Rubik's cube, a toy that's also a skill you can master. Nex Machina and its genre are very much games in this sense. There's so much I love about them, but when choosing game I crave an experience.
I can't be happier with the results of this experiment though. I had originally promised to play for an hour, expecting to a slog. But instead I kept playing until hitting credits (though that took less than two hours). I briefly entertained another run at higher difficulty, but only lasted a few minutes. The challenge was beyond me, and I think that's totally fine. Sure I could practice, get better, but that doesn't interest me. The 100 or so minutes I spent on a game I never planned to play were perfect, do I really need anything more out of it?
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI find that very rarely it will break on an update and I'll have to reinstall from command line. But other than that it's very stable for me. It seems more stable than I remember from a few years...I find that very rarely it will break on an update and I'll have to reinstall from command line. But other than that it's very stable for me. It seems more stable than I remember from a few years ago, though it was never especially bad for me, so take that for what it's worth!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI find it interesting that by your description of the game it sounds exactly like something I would love. But then when I look at the Steam page, I see multiplayer focus, loot systems, etc and it...I find it interesting that by your description of the game it sounds exactly like something I would love. But then when I look at the Steam page, I see multiplayer focus, loot systems, etc and it all sort of turns me off of it. I wonder if they're marketing the game at someone other than me, while the game itself might just actually be for me!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe (edited )LinkFlow Custom bingo 5/9 Causality ✅ Strange Horticulture Complexity ✅ Nex Machina Legacy ✅ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood ✅ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Harmony ✅ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood Trust (to be...- Exemplary
Flow Custom bingo 5/9 Causality Time
✅ Strange HorticultureComplexity Trust
✅ Nex MachinaLegacy Peace
✅ Wolfenstein: The Old BloodPerspective
✅ Wolfenstein: The Old BloodHarmony Conflict
✅ Wolfenstein: The Old BloodTrust (to be continued)
Reading is an act of trust. You open your mind to the book, you trust the author's words won't be used to harm you. This is a paraphrased quote from a book I read a long time ago, which I can't even remember the name of, but the sentiment stuck with me much longer than its original context. And its the first thing I think of when considering the idea of trust in media.
If you read my essay on violence last week, you know I'm not going to argue that we're all helpless to the influences of our entertainment, though I emphasize thinking critically about what those influences are. And for all the talk of what games might be exposing us to, its interesting to consider books in contrast. Reading might be the most intimate of media consumption: there tends to be a single author, whose words silently enter your mind and commandeer your inner monologue. I can point to specific books like Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, and Le Guin's The Dispossessed having influenced my perspectives and worldviews in ways no game or movie or tv show has.
So maybe games don't require the same level of trust as written word. There's another kind of trust though - that of trusting the experience. The Nintendo Seal of Approval, reviews and ratings, even genre labels all contribute to some sense of trusting that your time and money will be well-spent on a particular game. On one end, there's earned, safe trust. Games that will never let you down. I have friends who work long hours at stressful jobs, but have thousands of hours in Dota and Destiny. They trust those games absolutely for the consistent experience they'll provide. While I think they miss out on the rich variety of game type out there now, I also can't fault their reasoning.
At the risk of betraying my mellow stance, I'll declare that this kind of trust is not in the spirit of a Backlog Burner! But trust comes in another form too: the leap of faith; trusting despite the risk.
So I'm going to do the video game equivilent. I have a plugin on my Steam Deck called DeckRoulette which will select a game at random. I can point it to a dynamic collection of the games in my library that have never been played (an embarrassingly high number). I'll play the first game that comes up, open my mind to it, and spend at least an hour. There is some risk here! Compulsive bundle buying in the past means that in the dusty corners of my Steam library are piles of games I have no interest in whatsoever. But this week, they're back on the menu.
What game will that be? Will my trust be rewarded with an enjoyable time? Or will I suffer, an hour of my far-too scarce free time wasted, betrayed by my chosen game while somewhere its sinister developer watches, cackling sadistically at my naivety. Tune in [as soon as I can play the game and write something about it] to find out!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentThis is a very interesting looking game, multiplied by the fact that it only exists in one place outside the mainstream. But mostly I'm just excited to see a reference to the Arcane Kids...This is a very interesting looking game, multiplied by the fact that it only exists in one place outside the mainstream.
But mostly I'm just excited to see a reference to the Arcane Kids Manifesto! Bad is more interesting than good, and Stop listening to advice are probably way bigger influences on how I live my life than I'd like to admit!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentThank you! Honestly, trying to understand what draws me to certain looks/mechanics/genres and not others is the long-term project I'm doing across these backlog burners (and the games I've been...Thank you! Honestly, trying to understand what draws me to certain looks/mechanics/genres and not others is the long-term project I'm doing across these backlog burners (and the games I've been playing in between but unfortunately not taking the time to write about). Your mention of compulsion really hits home. It was fairly recently that I heard on a podcast (roughly paraphrasing), "I'm playing the game I feel compelled to play instead of the one I want to play." Somehow I'd never had it so clearly presented to me before, but in retrospect the different between the two things is so obvious. It really changed a lot about how I approach games.
If you do want to do what is essentially the reverse of my exercise, the Wolfenstein games are spectacular to play. Over the top, but not to a cartoonish degree. I'd love to see your take if you do!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI was right there with you in the Jack Thompson era, sometimes I wonder if he had been less of a performative clown, there might have actually been a crackdown back then. I'm glad they didn't, and...I was right there with you in the Jack Thompson era, sometimes I wonder if he had been less of a performative clown, there might have actually been a crackdown back then. I'm glad they didn't, and I find it heartening that research has shown its a giant leap to go from media violence to real violence. I think its a lot harder to study the subtleties of how we assimilate everything we're exposed to, how it contributes to our worldview, etc. That's probably different for every person anyway, so most important is just to ask the question!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI went into Hue a while back with the lowest of expectations. It looked like yet another slow paced puzzle platformer, one of the (probably) millions created post-Braid and Limbo. But it got me...I went into Hue a while back with the lowest of expectations. It looked like yet another slow paced puzzle platformer, one of the (probably) millions created post-Braid and Limbo.
But it got me with some really cool scenes. The one that stuck out the most was running, Indiana Jones style, from falling rocks, while switching colors on the fly to just barely escape. Like you said, a really cool game that does a lot with a little!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 2 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe LinkI started writing about Conflict and Peace, and afterwards realized I'd included Perspective as well. I'll allow myself this rare 3-card elimination since I don't anticipate any more multi-card...- Exemplary
I started writing about Conflict and Peace, and afterwards realized I'd included Perspective as well. I'll allow myself this rare 3-card elimination since I don't anticipate any more multi-card weeks.
Flow Custom bingo 4/9 Causality Time
✅ Strange HorticultureComplexity Trust Legacy Peace
✅ Wolfenstein: The Old BloodPerspective
✅ Wolfenstein: The Old BloodHarmony Conflict
✅ Wolfenstein: The Old BloodPeace, Conflict, Perspective, and Wolfenstein
A couple years ago I stopped playing games with guns.
It started with a realization. Ever since I got a burned copy of Half-Life from a friend in 8th grade, the most constant feature of my entertainment has been shooting and killing. That's decades of non-stop guns. So I stopped. I never planned it to be permanent, or even especially strict. So many of my all-time favorites: the Fallouts, the Dooms, the aforementioned Half-Lives, are undeniably gun games. I never became violent myself, quite the contrary. But I know from experience that when we immerse ourselves in a culture, we adapt to it, it assimilates us in infinite small ways. What effect had these years of virtual shooting had on me? I can certainly name a few: I knew the names of real-life guns like they were Pokemon. Gunshots and blood and explosions were so normal I didn't given them a second thought. I would refer to the particular way blood splashed and enemies crumpled as satisfying, even a sign of good mechanical game design. I even used the word headshot like the most natural thing in the world. That's all at least a little messed up, right?
Anyway, I've been playing Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, a game all about shooting. This is a smaller side game serving as a prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order. And let me tell you, this game, like the rest of the new Wolfenstein series, really makes shooting a whole lot of fun. You can dual-wield assault rifles that tear your enemies apart. Not enough? There's plenty of ways to make enemies explode in magnificantly gory ways. Need to reload? Get close for a beautifully choreographed melee execution. Bodies pile up in your wake, breadcrumbs that show where you've been and where you're going.
Of course these are Nazis we're talking about, and even worse they're equipped with sci-fi technology with which to enact their evil deeds. I'm inclined to agree that perhaps nothing is more important than stopping Nazis, normal or supercharged. But the game really wants me to take this a step farther, to revel in the carnage. Or at least to act out the game's hero, B.J. Blazkowicz taking joy in the destruction of his enemies.
Despite what he does when under the player's control, William Joseph Blazkowicz doesn't ever indicate that he enjoys killing, but he certainly doesn't voice any qualms about it. He even readily takes part in torture and executions. Perhaps he, like the players, has had violence so normalized that its no more enjoyable or painful than brushing his teeth.
One interesting aspect The Old Blood is that in it, you're fighting a losing war. The mission itself is a desperate effort to identify the source of Hitler's anachronistic technology, giving the allies one final hope for victory. When speaking to other characters, B.J. is resolute. "America will never fold," he says. Privately, in his narration, he seems less confident. His voice is weary; melancholic. I can't stop thinking about the opening words of the game.
This war is a disease. Passed through blood spilled by warriors.
Wars happen for reasons both good and bad. But regardless of their justification, the elemental particles of war are acts of violence, some of the most terrible things humans can do to each other. This happens every day in the real world, and I find it, and the willingness of so many to be complicit in it truly horrifying. The increasing regularity of political violence in the United States is terrifying, and I'm deeply uncomfortable with the glorification and fetishization of guns in so much of American culture. These are convictions I've developed through a life of experience.
I think that is the essential nuance. I won't revel in video game carnage because its depicting a just war. Normalized fictional violence is only normal until I step back and think about it. And think about it I do! Enjoying a violent game doesn't betray my convictions any more than watching Armageddon betrays my belief in physics.
B.J. Blazkowicz literally can't even exist outside of war. He's a video game character. If the good guys eventually prevail and bring about peace, the game will end, and B.J. will cease to exist outside of the imagination and memory of players.
I, on the other hand, have the luxury of existing, and of being able to consider my perspective. I write all this not to denounce anyone who enjoys violent games. But we should all consider what things our environment makes normal, mundane even. Taking a break from guns was important for me to contemplate this, ultimately reaffirm what I believe and who I am. And now, I'm having a whole lot of fun with Wolfenstein: The Old Blood.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI wish I could force my company's IT team to play Textorcist with HJKL keys! Just kidding, I love those guys (I write from my work computer). Aside: I just looked at my notes from when I played...I wish I could force my company's IT team to play Textorcist with HJKL keys! Just kidding, I love those guys (I write from my work computer).
Aside: I just looked at my notes from when I played this a year or so ago, and I wrote "Switching back and forth for movement and typing is hard. Should try with vim or emacs keys." Never got around to trying it, but fun that I basically arrived at the same conclusion as you did!
My game idea was really pretty similar to Textorcist, in the sense of typing out words/sentences to fire them at an enemy while dodging projectiles. I wanted to poke fun at internet arguments and say something about the persistent idea that political debate is some gold standard of discourse. The player character is a master of winning fights on reddit, deciding to change the world by speaking truth to power. Of course, not all words can be available from the start. "You're literally Hitler" is a top tier line that one-shot ends arguments, but obviously requires a hero's journey-esque ordeal to be able to wield. I was playing around with implementing logical fallacies too, maybe a high-risk high-reward move (because they hit hard, unless you get called out on them). All just thoughts of course, rough ideas that I might be able to mess with at a game jam or something.
Unfortunately, my game dev experience is limiting to messing around a bit with Godot every couple of years, and I don't have it figured out intuitively enough to be able to throw together prototypes with any sort of efficiency. But designing is still fun, even if I never do anything with it!
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentAs someone who played Bastion once in 2016 (and admittedly loved it), but has constantly listened to the soundtrack ever since (even buying the vinyl release), I can say that listening to...I've probably spent more time listening to their games than playing them.
As someone who played Bastion once in 2016 (and admittedly loved it), but has constantly listened to the soundtrack ever since (even buying the vinyl release), I can say that listening to Supergiant games is a completely valid way to experience them.
But also I really need to get back into Hades.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI just have to say that you're so close to reinventing vim keys! If you're going to train anyway, this will give you an extra skill for the next time you SSH into a container with nothing but vi...I just have to say that you're so close to reinventing vim keys! If you're going to train anyway, this will give you an extra skill for the next time you SSH into a container with nothing but vi to edit a config file with!
My story about Ray Bibia: for years I'd had an idea floating around in my head to prototype a game with a combat system based around words. I iterated a bunch on the ideas but never got around to actually building something. Then I played the Textorcist, and it was a point-at-the-screen moment. They'd actually made exactly what I'd been trying to come up with. Its encouraging at least that I got pretty close design-wise to what they implemented. Ah well, one of these days I'll actually follow through with an idea.
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentI'll admit this is the first I'd heard of Indie Pass. There's some aspect of channel surfing obscure games, essentially panning for gold, that deeply intrigues me. But yeah, that's a floodgate I...I'll admit this is the first I'd heard of Indie Pass. There's some aspect of channel surfing obscure games, essentially panning for gold, that deeply intrigues me. But yeah, that's a floodgate I don't need opened at the moment, I'll stick with my much more finite Steam library and wishlist. It does look like they have noble intentions, so hopefully they can resolve some of these issues (if they are indeed platform issues and not just bad luck!)
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Comment on May 2026 Backlog Burner: Week 1 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe (edited )LinkFlow Custom bingo 1/9 Causality ✅ Strange Horticulture Complexity Trust Legacy Peace Perspective Harmony Conflict My bingo board gave me possibly the greatest theme I could imagine for a backlog...- Exemplary
Flow Custom bingo 1/9 Causality Time
✅ Strange HorticultureComplexity Trust Legacy Peace Perspective Harmony Conflict My bingo board
(which I'll post later tonight when I can get it from the browser tab on my other computer)gave me possibly the greatest theme I could imagine for a backlog burner month, be it Mellow or Motivated. The game is pretty cool too.Musings on Time (Strange Horticulture)
"Must be nice to have that kind of time." I still feel a wave of anger when I remember the condescending tone of this phrase. While this has usually been a petty attempt to dismiss as frivolous the things that I enjoy, there's a real question lurking in the background. Are there better things that I should do with the time I have available? As I've settled into the latter part of my 30s, became a parent, and developed healthy habits around cooking and exercise, the amount of time available for anything else seems to keep shrinking. Obviously the answer to the question is that I do spent most of my time on more important things.
Games are special though. I love playing games, reading about games, thinking about games, and thinking about writing about games. For me they're worth making the time, even though it might just be an occasional hour a few times a week. The scarcity of time adds some pressure. I need to choose games I'll maximally enjoy, right? Or worse, I need to compress the games to fit my time, play as fast as I can. Then I get to the next one in the queue faster, right?
Obviously this isn't my philosophy. I know some people like games as systems to break down, understand, and ultimately defeat. I'm the contrary. Games are a place where I can exist, be part of a narrative, or construct my own in a virtual space. When I was a kid I played Age of Empires slowly, more interested the ever-unfolding story of my civilization and its citizens than I was at attaining any win condition. When I discovered custom campaigns on the internet, I realized other people played this way too. Later I would come to love Bethesda games for how dense they are with little environmental details. Things you only notice when slowing down and taking the time to live in the world.
This brings me to Strange Horticulture, a game about running a plant shop in a setting I might describe as low-fantasy Victorian. Each day you fill customer orders for plants from your collection. Knowing which plant to sell involves an in-game guidebook filled with descriptions that are sometimes obvious, but more often require guesswork. You can leave your shop to seek new plants throughout the world, via a map with locations that when selected provide a text vignette describing your experience. This is a game about existing in a world of dusty libraries, mystical forests, and villainous towns best avoided. Yet this is all done so minimalistically, with essentially one screen and a Papers Please-esque interface. The game's music is ambient, almost meditative, but it has a sinister edge. The world is dangerous, its telling you, but your shop, with its vibrant plants well-worn wood furniture is a refuge. It all feels beautifully balanced.
All games use magic tricks to convince the player that they are more than just art and text and code. Once you see through the artifice; realize how the systems work, the illusion falls. At the moment I'm still completely under Strange Horticulture's spell. I know it won't last forever. The game is probably steering me through a linear set of events, I may not have any real choices at all. But for the moment I can stop and listen to the sound of rain while I read a letter, arrange my plants on a shelf for no other reason than aesthetics, peer through a magnifying glass at the names of tiny villages on a map, and feel, just for a few minutes, like there's no hurry. I have all the time in the world.
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Comment on Announcing the Backlog Burner event for May 2026: Shrink your unplayed games list this coming month! in ~games
dannydotcafe LinkI can't believe it's been 6 months. Since I don't think I'll be able to hit anywhere near the volume of games I did last time, I'll make it easy on myself with a 3x3 flow card. My real goal has...I can't believe it's been 6 months. Since I don't think I'll be able to hit anywhere near the volume of games I did last time, I'll make it easy on myself with a 3x3 flow card. My real goal has always been to force myself to write something coherent every week anyway, so the abstractness of the flow board will hopefully spur some creativity (and maybe a few good games!)
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap in ~games
dannydotcafe LinkI'm very glad I was able to take part in this event! Despite limited time for games, I managed to officially play and write about 9, 3 of which I went on finish. Mode: Standard Winning Bingo!...I'm very glad I was able to take part in this event! Despite limited time for games, I managed to officially play and write about 9, 3 of which I went on finish.
Mode: Standard Winning Bingo! Finished 9/25 Has both combat and puzzles Has a lives system
✅ Darkenstein 3DHas multiple playable characters Is mostly text-based Is one of the oldest games you own
✅ WizorbOwned for more than 5 years
✅ Victor VranA solo-dev project
✅ GunpointAn updated version (remake, re-release) of an older game
✅ Grim FandangoFrom a different culture or country
✅ Call of the SeaHas a review score above 92
✅ Baba is YouUses a unique control scheme Focuses on relationships
✅ The Novelist★ Wildcard Chosen for you by someone else A romhack or total conversion mod Randomness determines your fate Considered a classic Adaptation of other media type (e.g. board game, movie)
✅ Indiana Jones and the Fate of AtlantisHas creatures Recommended by someone on Tildes Known for its replay value A modded game Set underwater From a studio you haven't heard of before Has great reviews, but not your usual type A few other games I played didn't make the cut for different reasons, but here's some scattered thoughts about those.
Special mentions (non-bingo games)
I played a bit of the beginning of Kingdoms of the Dump, a game I backed on Kickstarter way back in 2019 which dropped this month. It has wonderful pixel art and seems to hit all the right classic JRPG notes early on, but I don't think I played enough to really get a sense of the game. When I started to write my thoughts, they quickly devolved into ruminations on the passage of time in the past 6 years, so to save everyone the indignity of reading that I left it out.
I also took a stab at a few visual novels. Earlier this year I played Eliza which was the first real visual novel I've played in full, and I really enjoyed it. So I jumped into a couple that have been sitting in my library forever: Go Go Nippon and Analogue: A Hate Story. Go Go Nippon was interesting as basically a tourist guide for visiting Japan. Having visited Japan for the first time in 2014, it was nice to revisit that experience. Unfortunately I think it was a bit too, shall I say, cute-anime-girl-centric? I don't mean to imply there's anything wrong with it, but its all a bit over the top for me, so I moved on. Analogue was more interesting from the beginning. As an admitted notes & audiologs aficionado, I love the idea of piecing together a story from the logs of a derelict space ship. The ship's AI has a cartoon girl avatar, but it avoids the tropiness of the previous game. Unfortunately I found the interface clunky, and the story wasn't quite enough to capture me, so I ultimately put it down after only about half an hour.
As a last stab at VNs, I booted up The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a free game released a few years ago on April Fools day. I actually really liked this one. Visually it was simple Sonic the Hedgehog comic/cartoon styled, though they used some sort of texture that I think made it look wonderful. The dialogue was very well-written, and the story was surprisingly touching. The fact that it was completely linear didn't bother me (sometimes its nice not to worry about making a bad choice or missing anything). Perhaps best of all, it wrapped up in just a few hours! A great game to play over a couple evenings.
My goal wasn't to play a certain number of games, but just to write a bit about games each week, which I accomplished. It was challenging but I enjoyed it enough that I hope I can keep it going between now and the next backlog burner. Speaking of, I'm already thinking about what bingo variant I might try out. I also hope I can spend more time reading and discussing everyone else's updates, as that's the one thing I felt like I never had enough time to do!
Let me think of some highlights off the top of my head:
- Realizing Point & Click Adventure games are bad, only to subsequently re-realize they're good actually.
- Bumping into Geralt of Rivia in the most unexpected of places.
- Reminiscing about the dawn of Steam for Linux and the Golden Age of Humble Bundles.
- The great review score fiasco of 2025.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
dannydotcafe Link ParentIn my mind there was still a whole lot more of this month to go, but I guess I just haven't looked at a calendar in a few days! Thank you so much for organizing this, it was a lot of fun. Forcing...In my mind there was still a whole lot more of this month to go, but I guess I just haven't looked at a calendar in a few days! Thank you so much for organizing this, it was a lot of fun. Forcing myself to write out a few paragraphs was surprisingly challenging in the beginning, but I felt like each week it got slightly easier as my dormant writing skills started to reawalen. Now to keep it going!
I played everything on Steam (for Linux of course). The first 3 weeks were split between my Steam Deck and desktop (technically a server running a Bazzite VM with GPU and NVME passthrough, but we can call it a desktop). Due to holiday travel, games from week 4 were played on my laptop (Framework 14 running Bluefin).
Causality✅ Gods Will be Watching
Time✅ Strange Horticulture
Complexity✅ Ironclad Tactics
Trust✅ Nex Machina
Peace✅ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Perspective✅ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Harmony✅ Beyond Blue
Conflict✅ Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Causality, Complexity, and Harmony: A tale of wandering minds, mechanical monstrosities, and the joys of real life.
Causality: Gods Will be Watching
Since I was a kid I've loved to play what I now call The Causality Game when I found my mind had been wandering for a while. I'd trace back the thoughts to see how far I could go. Each thought was triggered by some previous thought. I only rarely get to the source, some external stimulus that begins the whole process. One result is that by trying to remember them, I'm aware of the sheer number of thoughts that are ephemeral, then gone forever. Contributing nothing other than a link in a chain of thoughts that itself may have no effect on me or the wider world whatsoever. Woah, dude.
I mention this just to preface that I like to ask the question of why I made some decision, either in the past or present. Take a game like Gods Will be Watching, which (spoiler) I played this week and didn't like much. What about it spoke to me in the moment I bought it? It wasn't a bundle or a gift, it was a conscious purchase during the 2015 Steam Summer Sale. I don't think I've ever read anything about it before or since. I only paid $2.49 for it, so its possible the pixel art, cool title, and a Linux build were good enough for me. Unfortunately the full cause is lost.
However one cause I do know is what led to me playing it today: pure guilt. Not the normal backlog guilt of unplayed games though, but in fact a far worse one: that of fraudulent metrics.
Not too long after buying this game, I found myself absent-mindedly playing around with some command line tools that interacted with Steam. Mostly I was just curious about what they could do. It could, for example, download games directly from the depots without involving the Steam client, useful for grabbing Morrowind assets to use with OpenMW. There was an option to "idle" a game as well, essentially convincing Steam that it was open without actually needing to play it, apparently useful for trading card collectors. Without much thought, I tried it, choosing at random Gods Will be Watching. And that's how my Steam account forever and irreparably reports that I spent 7 hours in a game I had until recently never played.
Oh the humanity! This is as bad as the time I left my PS3 connected to a communal TV and some of my roommates used it to play a basketball game, resulting in achievements for the game on MY account! What if an archeologist was reconstructing my life with Steam playtime and Playstation trophies? They would think that I played games I didn't actually play. They would be WRONG!
So obviously I had to actually try the game. I like the art style a lot (though perhaps overexposure to indie pixel art games has lessened my enthusiasm), and the story is intriguing. But once I got to the interactive parts, the game lost my interest. I was surprised that it was essentially a point and click adventure game, but organized around making the right selections among a series of characters that felt more like fiddling with inputs with tenuous connections to my goal. Even after dropping the difficulty down to story mode I still hit a fail state a few minutes in, which was enough for me to drop the game completely.
On the plus side, as I played this game and experienced some mixture of boredom and frustration, my mind wandered toward my bingo board and what game might slot its way into the complexity category.
Complexity: Ironclad Tactics
Tactics games are interesting to me, though I've rarely played them. I can also say the same for Zachtronics games, which are beautifully complex in a way that both draws me to them and pushes me to choose a different game that doesn't require fishing out my printed copy of the manual to remember how to write assembly code.
So when I realized I had a Zachtronics Tactics game in my library, I just had to try. And I shouldn't have been surprised that it was nothing like I expected.
Its not even a tactics game like I had expected: the isometric hex or grid-based setups of Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and the monumental open source game Battle for Wesnoth. Instead you deploy units to one of several lanes where they'll march forward intending to cross to the enemy's side. Your opponent is doing the same from the opposite direction, playing out like a tug of war. Units are deployed, upgraded, and moved between lanes using cards that are dealt as the game plays out. Meanwhile, a story is told about its Steampunk American Civil War setting via comic panels between missions, and I'd say lighthearted comic book is a good description of the overall mood of the game.
I played several missions and while I appreciated the increasing depth of the game, once a difficulty spike hit it felt like the right time to move on. I'd classify this game as another brilliant Zachtronics game that I probably won't play any more of. While games as challenges to learn and overcome is a very valid reason why many (including me sometimes) play, I needed something more meditative, something harmonious
Harmony: Beyond Blue
About 15 years ago I went scuba diving for the first time. By an island off the coast of Central America, I sunk down below the surface into the world of the coral reef. Diving equipment, incredibly heavy and clumsy while on the boat, transforms into a swift and graceful way to move underwater. There are many distinct memories: swimming along the edge of the drop off into the deeper ocean, colorful coral on one side and endless blue on the other; finding myself inside a school of thousands of small fish, who formed glinting silver walls and a ceiling around me; even just meeting a curious sea turtle up close. I don't think my words could ever fully capture the experience, but maybe a game might?
Some games have certainly tried. Subnautica has the visual beauty, and the sense of curiosity on what lies deeper down, but its an imaginary alien world, not our own oceans. Abzu has wonderful movement and locations, but they're abstract and surreal. What about a game set on earth, about diving the way I've done?
Beyond Blue is a short game about a research team following a pod of sperm whales. Its probably better described as an interactive museum exhibit, and will actually teach you about marine biology and conversation, but the action of the game itself is swimming underwater and scanning all the underwater creatures you see.
I enjoyed the game for what it was, edutainment that didn't overstay its welcome. But did it capture the feeling of diving? Unfortunately no. There were too few small fish, while the big ones (whale sharks, hammerheads, sperm and humpback whales) all seemed to swim by so often they became commonplace. I liked the way the game visualized the underwater world, but too quickly it became: swim to the next objective, scan, repeat.
I can't speak too harshly about a game so invested in keeping the ocean and encouraging a harmonious co-existence. But for now, to really experience the ocean I'll still need to put back on my mask and fins and jump into the actual water.
So that's it then? Finishing the month a single game away from blackout? And legacy at that. Couldn't I find a way to make any random game about legacy? Could I load up a SNES rom and play for 10 minutes to count it? Could I just do anything but leave a single uncompleted square on my board?
Of course I could. But that would require a little thing called motivation. Let it be known far and wide that dannydotcafe never betrayed the sacred principles of Team Mellow!