Announcing the Tildes Backlog Burner event for November 2024: Shrink your unplayed games list this coming month!
It's almost time...
...for another Tildes 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 2024 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 returns again!
Backlog Bingo is a backbone of this event, so it's of course back and better than ever! u/Wes has made some new tweaks to his amazing site, and we've also further developed our category sets.
For this event, you can choose between two different official Bingo lists:
- Flow: A conceptually abstract list of ideas to guide you. Let your imagination flow.
- Flux: A tweaked and updated version of the May 2024 category list.
If you participated last time, clear your old card and start fresh with a new one. If you're new to the event, simply go to the Backlog Bingo site to generate your card.
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 irrecoverably delete your card.
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 Edit Rules
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.
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!
I'm pinging @Wes, my co-pilot for this event, to let him know that this topic is live.
Feel free to leave him messages about how awesome he and his Backlog Bingo site are. He custom-made the entire thing to be used for our Backlog Burner events!
I'm excited to participate again! As always, huge thanks to @kfwyre for curating the category selection and putting this whole event together to begin with.
I've begun planning how I want to play my card for this event. I want to try something like a Golf card, but I'm not sure I'll have time to do a complete blackout. So I may customize my settings to allow duplicate entries like Golf, but with an easier win condition for a bingo. In all likelihood I'll meander around the board until a few days before the end, then panic and get a few final entries in for a bingo. Like usual!
As for the category lists, I haven't decided if I want to play Flow and Flux yet. I may see what everyone else is doing, and choose the less popular option to add some variety. We'll see!
If anyone has any questions about the Bingo app, feel free to ask. kfwyre or I will get you sorted straight away.
I like the Flow idea! A couple of words on my card immediately brought certain games to mind and I'm looking forward to exploring that with the other themes.
I think I'm going to participate this year. I've got dozens upon dozens of random humble bundle games that never got played and my current game rotation is just Minecraft and Backyard Baseball '97. I need to branch out a bit and try some new stuff!
Like I said in the final May 2024 Backlog Bingo thread, I'm going to partake in the fun with the newly-added Flow list. To spice things up, I was initially considering choosing the Golf mode over the Standard one, until yesterday when I noticed that there are two new Bingo lists this time around.
So, Standard Bingo with Flow categories it is! I left every category checked due to not knowing the themes for each video game I own, filled all the cases with the most appropriate ones in advance and let the good ol' randomizer decide on what order I play them.
Coming up with a relevant game for each category turned out to be much trickier than the classic Flux ones. Having a more intimate knowledge for each game becomes essential and can lead to spoilers if not being careful with the research process. To aid myself in this process, I let the Perplexity AI do the heavy lifting for me and picked a good chunk of previously-played games but haven't beat. Given it's been ages since I touched on some of them, I thought it might provide a fresh perspective.
Many of my game choices won't take me over 20 hours to clear, so I should be able to understand very well the gist of them within no more than a couple of hours. Rather than play only one per day at minimum, I'll force myself with two at a time. That way, I should be less likely ending the month with games I've still yet to try, even when I wind up failing to meet that self-imposed requirement for a few days.
By the way, here's what I got on my November 2024 Bingo Card:
J-Chiptunator's November 2024 Backlog Bingo Card
With that out the way, see you on November 1st for my detailed write-up on my first few games!
Unfortunately I won’t be participating this time. The dang Factorio devs went and released space age. I can’t bear the thought of playing anything except that for the time being. Have fun y’all; I will be following these threads.
I was originally intending to do a Golf card with the Flux list this time around, but I’m really feeling the Flow list. I don’t want to do Golf with it either, because I know I’ll just “overfit” games and force them to fill categories they just barely or only tangentially meet.
I’d rather do my Flow in earnest, game by game and square by square.
kfwyre’s Bingo Card (Standard/Flow)
I’m excited to get started! I also have even more games available to me than last time because I’m now in a Steam Family share with my gaming group.
I guess I should participate this year and finally make a dent in my backlog.
Edit to add my card:
Likewise. I've been trying to be good this year and reduce the number of games I'm buying -- I'm at 20 this year, but a third are games I've played before on other platforms or DLCs -- knowing that my backlog never shrinks, only grows. I guess like inflation, I've only managed to slow the rate it increases. Backlog disinflation, I suppose.
Edit:
JCPhoenix's Bingo Card
I'm back after participating in the May event and already set up a new bingo card:
Durinthal's bingo card (standard, flow)
I initially rolled flux a couple of times but kept getting squares that I had in my previous card (could have disabled them, I know) so I switched over to flow for something different. It's gonna be fun to figure out some games to fit the abstract concepts over the next couple of days before I get started.
I think I'll participate this time around! My backlog isn't outrageous but I have a bad habit of playing the same 2 or 3 games and I'd like to work through more of my library. Aiming to split game time between my PC and switch since I have a similar number of unplayed games on both systems
Cannonball's bingo card (Standard/Flux)
Joining for the first time so I'm posting to make sure I commit myself to this. I'm fairly weak to deals and bundles, so I've got quite the selection between Steam, GOG, Epic freebies, itch.io bundles, a Switch, and a PS4 given by my brother after he got a PS5; guess I'll also make it a personal goal to rotate between them.
Decided to go for Standard/Flow: Standard because the backlog is huge, Flow for a little more freedom in the "just do it" sense.
SingedFrostLantern's Bingo Card (Standard/Flow)
Yay it's back! As with earlier this year I have minimal time to play, but will try to strike through a row even if I can't complete anything.
Standard Bingo (Flux) Card
I've never done this before, but I hope to finish at least a few of the games moldering away in the library!
Evie's bingo card (Standard/Flow)
I have always thought that this was a cool idea, so I decided to actually (try to) participate in this one.
CrazyProfessor02's Bingo Sheet
Sorry, can't hear you over several hundred anticipated hours of Factorio Space Age...
Silly me! All this talk of Flow and Flux, but I completely forgot to talk about our Focus category list for this Backlog Burner! Here's a sample bingo card with it so you can grok the vibe. It's perfect for a Blackout! 😂
All joking aside, you and @Weldawadyathink did inspire me to make a custom category JSON file of the achievements for the DLC, in case anyone wants to play a parallel game of Achievement Bingo while they're stuck in Factorio for the month!
This is a cool idea--my backlog now probably consists of more games than I've actually played, and my eyes glaze over every time I scroll through the list deciding what I want to install next. This will definitely help force me to choose what to play.
I like this card but I do think I may run into still having too many games to choose from to fit many of the categories--if that turns out to be the case then I'll try rerolling the card sometime in the next week or so.
Death in Act Three's Bingo Card
Late getting started, decided to go with Bingo card this time instead the previous attempt's Western-only theme. I already started as I saw this post and had this in mind when I started some previously unplayed games, but just now randomly generated the bingo card. Will mark any squares the games I chose did complete in the Week 1 update.
Le Bingo Sheet