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Tildes' Game Backlog Burner Event: Final Update Thread
What is this?
See here for full details on the event.
Post Your Update
- How did your week go?
- What books did you get through?
- How did you feel about them?
- What's up next for you?
Also, given that this is the last update thread:
- How was the month overall?
- Did you enjoy the event?
- Any breakthroughs, standouts, or lessons learned?
- If we did something like this again, what would you change or want to see?
My plan at the beginning of the month was to "play the alphabet" using games in my Steam backlog, choosing one game per letter. I wasn't sure whether I was going to finish the alphabet or not, but I did!
Update 1 (A-K)
Update 2 (L-P)
Update 3 (Q-Z)
Here's the full table of what I played, and whether or not I finished the game.
Play the Alphabet
All told, I completed 7 games (technically 6 within the month, as I had finished AER before April started). Of those, my strongest recommendations would go to Little Red Lie and Killing Time at Lightspeed, both of which I'd recommend to anyone that likes more serious, narrative-heavy games.
One thing that I liked from this month was that, in moving from letter to letter, it really cut down on the number of choices I had available to me, which kept me from entering into that sort of "analysis paralysis" phase where I look through my library for something to play and end up not picking anything -- the digital equivalent of looking in a fridge full of food and still feeling like there's nothing to eat.
I liked this method but the letter requirement is a bit too restrictive to be sustainable, so I made a list of games that I pretty strongly want to play from my Steam library, and then threw them into a spreadsheet that will choose 3 randomly from the list for me. I can then pick from among those based on which one I'm most feeling at the moment.
I plan to use this as a sort of "game picker" for me moving forward, which will hopefully help me not only cut down on decision fatigue but will also force me to play some games that I want to play but almost always select against when given the option (e.g. games with long campaigns).
Week 3 Update
Week 4
I didn't have any particular plans for this week, as I had met my goal by week 3. Here's an overview of the games I played, but I'll admit I didn't play that much.
Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut - this is a cute little puzzler similar to Portal. I really enjoyed it, and I will probably try some of the "extra" stuff that is included later, but I'm probably going to move on to Q.U.B.E. 2 first. I give this a solid 7/10
Guild of Dungeoneering - after playing Book of Demons (4/10 do not recommend) I really wanted to play something that scratched the desire I didn't know that I had which was a dungeon crawly card mechanic game. This is the game that I wanted. It's an actual card game, with three main phases - you build your guild with items to recruit guild members; you send guild members into dungeons, where you place tiles, monsters and loot; you battle monsters that you meet along the way. The graphics are adorable, the music is fun, the writing is endearing, the mechanics are good, the card playing is simple, but not so simple that it's unenjoyable. 8/10 but it probably got bonus marks for scratching in itch awoken by an earlier bad game.
Dandara: Trials of Fear - This one was actually a really impressive game. It's one I may come back to in the future to give another shot. It reminds me of Celeste in terms of its artwork and presentation and VVVVVV in its gameplay. Your main character can launch from surface to surface, sticking only to specifically identified areas of levels. It uses this main mechanic and sprawling level design to create a metroidvania with a very unique traversal method. I found that I loved the concept and execution of the game (it's very well made) but didn't love the gameplay itself. I also found it hard to mentally map the game and kept getting lost, even in the early areas. (credit to @kwyfyre who wrote my exact experience before I had it)
I played more of Truberbrook - it's still fun. I didn't spend as much time on games this week as previous weeks; I picked up "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and have been working on that in my free time instead.
Final Thoughts
My overall goal was to play a game from each of the last 12 Humble Monthly Bundles, and I did that. I also took the opportunity to make a library of all the extra keys that I had, but I unfortunately distributed them right before we had an event to distribute keys around people. I also spent a bit of time evaluating if I was going to continue with the humble monthly bundle, and I will be for now. That bit of retrospection was a nice side effect of this.
This was a rough month for me personally - lockdown is starting to grate on me and my family. This event was helpful; it was a very enjoyable distraction from the current situation. There were a few standout games - Evergarden is one that I've returned to for 10 minutes at a time, and I really like Nordheim and am planning to return to that. I really enjoyed this and would take part in another one. Thanks kfwyre!