Announcing the Tildes Backlog Burner event for 2023: Shrink your unplayed games list this November!
What is this?
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!
How do I participate?
Choose a game (or several) from your backlog and play it/them. Then tell us about your experiences in the discussion thread for the week! If you're not sure what you might write, take a look at our 2022 or 2020 events to get an idea.
Do I need to finish the games 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?
I will post an update thread weekly, each Wednesday, all through November. At the end of the month, I think it would be neat to tally how many collective games we all removed from our backlogs, as well as what the best finds were from our collective digging into our libraries. I expect we'll turn up some good hidden gems, as well as interesting insights.
Do I need to sign up?
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. Also, because this is ongoing, it is okay to make more than one top-level post if you're updating the thread with new information.
Do I need to wait until November 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!
But November has Big Name Release coming out. Why this month when people will be focused on that new game?
I'm doing the best that I can! A "problem" with 2023 is that it has been an absolutely stacked year for gaming releases. There simply hasn't been a "slow" month. With limited time left, I figured November was at least better than December. Think of this as an opportunity to cut down on your backlog before all the end-of-the-year sales hit.
What if I have trouble deciding what to play?
You're in luck! I'll be debuting a Backlog Bingo Card card system when the event starts. It'll hopefully help people cut through the difficulty of choosing and make decision-making easier for those of who are cursed with both big backlogs and unhealthy doses of analysis paralysis.
For those interested in participating, I'm looking for ideas for my Backlog Bingo Card system.
The idea is that we have a bunch of different categories that can be slotted into Bingo cards. People can then try to complete five in a row, four corners, a full blackout, etc. Here's a book-focused example (PDF) if you need an idea of what I'm going for.
I've got a whole list of categories I've come up with already. For example:
Still, I want to open up the idea to the community for brainstorming. I like the idea of having a long list of them (way more than the 25 slots on a Bingo card) and then people can roll their own individualized random card for the event.
If you have any good ideas for categories let me know below.
(Also, for those that don’t like this idea, the card system is 100% optional. You can still participate without using it at all.)
A game you own on physical media
A game already installed on your computer or console
A downloadable game not found on any digital distribution service
A licensed game
An arcade game
A ROMhack or other significant mod
A co-op game or campaign
Game #20 in your Steam library list, from the top
La Mulana, you wuss
A game that hasn't been released, ported, remade, or re-released in at least 20 years
An 18+ game (free space)
This is a great list with interesting categories. Thank you!
I legitimately chuckled!
I chuckled again, but I'll leave this one out of the bingo card. I want to make sure the event is friendly to all ages.
I'd like to suggest:
Request for help from all of the knowledgeable techy folks here:
I'd like for people to be able to randomize the list of categories for themselves and then dump them into a bingo card formatted in Markdown so that it can be easily posted in their comments here.
At present, the best I can do is find a tool for randomizing the list and a separate tool for creating the markdown table. This is doable but requires a bit of legwork.
I know this is a complete shot in the dark, but does anyone know if there's an all-in-one tool that could do both parts in one fell swoop?
I could probably spin something like that up. I'm just wondering, how exactly do players "fill in" the bingo card? Do they replace the text with the name of the game they played, or maybe just fill in a checkmark emoji?
Editing markdown tables can be a little technical, so I wonder if just generating the initial bingo sheet markdown is enough, or if an editor to fill in their information would be required as well.
The second step would require some extra dev time to build, and I likely wouldn't have it ready for the start of the event. Just the generator shouldn't take too long though.
Oh wow, that's awesome, Wes! No obligation or anything, but if you want to go for it, please do!
My vision is the following:
Here's a short, incomplete example: (side note: is it possible to do a Markdown table without header rows?)
2x2 Example
As to your question, my thought is that they would strikethrough the category name and add the game name. With some bolding, an emoji checkmark ✅ (great idea that I stole from you, by the way!), and a
<br>tag, it comes out looking pretty clean IMO:In Progress Example
Recommended by someone on TildesLa Mulana
Beatable in one sittingSuper Hexagon
A licensed gameGarfield Kart
To me, the biggest hurdle would be the initial setup of the table. Once the initial table is made, it's easy enough to edit it, especially because most people will only be editing one cell or two at a time as they play games.
If you want to make something that does everything, that's incredibly above and beyond, but I think in terms of scope the initial table generation is the biggest bang-for-your-buck.
Gotchya! I need to go out for a few hours, but here's an early version.
Web app: https://wescook.ca/BacklogBingo/
Source: https://github.com/WesCook/BacklogBingo/
It still has some lorem ipsum for testing the selection. I'll work on cleaning up the UI and code once I'm back. Just wanted to give you a chance to comment first.
ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE, Wes! You are a saint.
I was going to wait to launch my category list with the launch tomorrow to keep some mystery alive, but I legitimately didn’t expect someone to come along and make a custom web app for the event! And so quickly! You’re a saint and a wizard.
Here’s my current list. It ended up being a bit more than 50. I’ll keep you informed of any edits if other people suggest additions/tweaks:
Category List
You have to tinker in order to get it running
You wanted to play it when you were younger but never did
You can complete it in one sitting
You can complete in only a few hours
Known for its soundtrack
In a genre you don’t normally play
Recommended by someone on Tildes
Recommended by someone IRL
Chosen for you by someone else
Begins with one of your initials
Begins with the first letter of your username
Owned for more than one year
Owned for more than two years
Owned for more than three years
Owned for more than four years
Owned for more than five years
"When the hell did I buy this?"
Has DLC
Has no DLC
Has achievements
Has no achievements
Has minigames
Has cute, feel-good vibes
Has creepy, unsettling vibes
You can save/pet/care for animals
Considered a “classic”
Considered a “cult classic”
Considered a "disappointment"
From now-defunct dev studio
Has one-word title
Has a non-human player character
Has an animal player character
Has an aggregate review score above 90
Has an aggregate review score below 70
Has number somewhere in the title
Has “Super” in the title
Has the letter X somewhere in its title
Has the letter Q somewhere in its title
Has punctuation somewhere in its title
Came out more than 5 years ago
Came out more than 10 years ago
Came out more than 15 years ago
Came out more than 20 years ago
Is one of the oldest games you own
From a developer in a different country
From a studio you haven't heard of before
Solo-dev project
Won an award
You don't think you'll enjoy it
You chose based on title alone
You paid full price for it
You got it on sale
You got from a bundle
You got it as a gift
You own on physical media
You can't remember where you got it from
You regret buying it
From a series you’ve never played
From a series you have played
Part of a trilogy
Already installed
Not found on any distribution service
Licensed game
Arcade game
ROMhack or other significant mod
Co-op game or campaign
Unplayed game #x in your library list (use dice/RNG)
Hasn't been re-released, ported, remade, or re-released in 20+ years
You've been meaning to give a second chance
You've been meaning to go back to
Not super popular (e.g. <50 user reviews on Metacritic)
Your friend swears it is the greatest game ever
La Mulana, you wuss
Great! I'm glad to hear I was on the right track. I've implemented your suggestions, and cleaned things up a little now. Changelog:
It should feel a little more polished now. The only thing left on my checklist is maybe cleaning up the spacing on the Markdown output to make it easier to work with. I'm still trying to decide the best way to do this. If we line up all the pipes in the tables using spaces, it can create extremely long rows. That may actually be more difficult to work with on mobile devices. Let me know if you have any thoughts on that!
Update looks great!
The event has officially started so I'm excited that people will now get to use it.
As for the markdown, I'm thinking it's fine as is. Trying to line it up would end up creating issues when people go to fill in categories anyway, and like you said, it would make it more difficult for mobile.
Double commenting to say that I did a couple test runs and the tables come out splendidly. I also wondered what would happen if I tried to generate one with not enough categories selected, but you already thought of that and prevent it from happening!
I also loved the third step which includes info and examples about marking things complete. You’ve made a full tool and tutorial!
One thought: on mobile, selecting the text to copy is cumbersome in the way that selecting text on mobile is always cumbersome. Is it easy to add a “copy to clipboard” button that would make the table pasteable without needing to highlight it? (If this is a lot of work then just ignore this suggestion, by the way — the last thing I want to do is give you more to do — especially after you’ve done something so nice and selfless).
I’m genuinely blown away that you made this, and I’m honestly honored that you took the time and effort to do so. Thank you.
A game your friend swears is the greatest game ever.
Perfectly timed for a rash of games I have in my backlog that I themed together, installed, and intend to play next. They are...
Evil West
Hard West 2
Weird West
West of Dead
...not hard to guess the theme here. If you have any other western games you think I should try out let me know, no promises they'll be played in this month (or anytime soon as it's called a backlog burner for a reason).
These games kinda lead into a Ultramodern 5e Western-esque campaign I'm about to enter with some friends. Thinking of either playing a Snake Oil Salesman Healer or a 49er/Prospector Assassin, thoughts or ideas on others I should consider?
Maybe West of Loathing as a palette cleanser?
This sounds like the making of an hour long YouTube video I would watch.
A funny or silly game, a cozy or relaxing game, a horror game
Oh this is a great idea! I actually have a couple games that I was already planning on playing. So this works out perfectly!
Oh, this is fun. I've been basically doing this myself all year and I'm actually to the point where I'm... Just about caught up. But I've got some games to go through still and I'll post about some others I've played recently too!
I'd sure like to give this a go. My backlog is bloody massive and it's a bit of a problem...
Not sure what to pick, but Wuppo is a given seeing as I got it some weeks ago, made some progress and then neglected it somewhat up to today.
It took me far too long to realize this was video game focused. Am I alone in having too many board/card/ttrp games that haven't been played? I'll have to participate in this next year
You know, I don't think there is anything stopping you from doing board games! The bingo card isn't really going to work, but you could certainly participate with games of the non video variety. I also have a dozen that I want to play; maybe after I fill my video card bingo later this week, I'll add in a board game.
The next six weeks are some of the busiest at work for me. But I'm hoping to have some downtime over Thanksgiving and the winter break. I won't "make" it this year but I'm loving the idea of doing it next time
I'm very excited to participate in this. I recently split my steam games up into completed, backlog, and a need to try collection. I have 40 games in my need to try with 40 in my backlog. So this is going to be fun.
Do I qualify if I coincidentally started playing some of my backlog in mid-October? I've already got a few under my belt, be a shame to "waste" them as I'm now working on a bigger title.
There's no particular rules - you certainly qualify! Join in, burn some backlog, use a bingo card, or don't, it's all good.