An independent game called “Backlog Battler Quest (Inventory Battle/Inventory Battle)” debuted on Steam. The core gameplay is very simple: players do not buy the game, but play the games you already have: in the game, your character must shuttle between various games that have been added to the library but have not been launched, and complete tasks to advance progress. The developer’s source of inspiration is very real: he himself is a typical patient with inventory disease.
The game mechanics themselves are “gamifying your game library”
Characters in Backlog Battler Quest move around an inventory world similar to a Monopoly map, with each space representing a game in the Steam inventory. When you stop at a certain grid and complete the designated simple tasks, the game will be marked as “played” and removed from the to-be-played list. The absurdity and humor of the concept are the game’s biggest selling points, as it taps into a widespread collective anxiety among many players.
Is the birth of the game actually a “data valley self-rescue plan”? !
At first, developers just wanted to find out how many “buy-but-not-play” games they had accumulated in their Steam inventory. After counting and finding that the numbers were enough to cause anxiety, he decided to turn the process into a playable game. This starting point allowed “Backlog Battler Quest” to resonate with players who also suffered from inventory accumulation during the preview stage.
This self-deprecating idea is now gaining more and more attention
More and more independent developers choose to make games based on “their own problems” rather than targeting gaps in the market. “Backlog Battler Quest” obviously belongs to the latter. Its target users are clear and its monetization path is simple: serve this group of core players first, and then spread outward through word-of-mouth and social media.