Have you ever had the nightmare of your game backlog coming to life and fighting you as payback for spending so much money on games you knew deep down you'd never play? Whether you have or not, one solo developer has turned that nightmare into reality by creating a game where the goal is to fight games you barely play as they try to beat you.
Game Quest: The Backlog Battler
It's called Game Quest: The Backlog Battler, it's developed by Nic Taylor, and it's launching in early access this year. It will be available exclusively on Steam, not only because it's much easier for indie developers to stick to one platform, and that platform is Steam, but also because we're all most guilty of buying games and then never playing them.
It's not the games played that hurt you the most in Game Quest; they are the ones you bought and then hardly played at all. All the games in your Steam library that you've played for less than two hours attack you in waves. You'll be armed with weapons to take them down, but not all of them will be balanced.
No, here comes the bit that will hurt the most, both in real life and in the game. The more you paid for the games that attack you in Backlog Battler, the more damage they can do to you. If you paid a full $70 for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League at launch and then, like many others, decided after 90 minutes that it wasn't worth your time, then brace yourselves, it's coming back with a vengeance in Game Quest, and for how much money you've spent on it, it's going to be a real blow.
The good news is that while KTJL will deal a lot of damage, it won't be one of Backlog Battler's pesky flying enemies. This skill is reserved for rarely played games in your backlog with high Metacritic scores. For example, if you picked up Resident Evil Requiem but still haven't gotten around to playing it, beware. Not only will it be powerful, but hellfire will rain down on you from above. You deserve it too. All that money for a game of the year candidate and it's just sitting there, unplayed. They deserve better.
Unplayed games are immortal, but your most played games are your allies
Your unplayed games are also in Backlog Battler. The “immortal royals” who watch from the stands and for the most part don't attack you, although the trailer suggests they do, in which case I'm not sure how or if you can defend yourself. Best of all, the Steam games you play the most will fight alongside you. If you're the type of person who plays the expensive games you buy but lets the cheap ones on sale rot in your backlog, Game Quest can actually be pretty easy.
If you don't have a lot of backlogs or you're bored of fighting yours, you can also challenge backlogs on your friends list. Find that one person who buys everything but never plays anything for the ultimate challenge. Each of your friends' backlogs will have their own leaderboard, so you can compete against each other to collect as many titles as possible.
There is no firm release date for Game Quest: The Backlog Battler yet, and it will be released in early access once it gets here. Keep in mind that there is only one person working on this game, and it looks like their unique idea is going to start getting a lot more attention. Give them time and be kind when Backlog Battler comes out. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, but there may be some kinks that need to be ironed out. In the meantime, just build up your backlog so you have something important to fight for.
