Upcoming Indie Game Forces You Fight Your Steam Backlog

Steam might be a great storefront for saving money when big sales roll around, but based on the fact that many users have heaps of games that languish unplayed in their libraries for ages, it’s also a great storefront for wasting money. A solo developer has decided to transform this fact into the most meta game about games I think I’ve ever seen, as Nic Taylor’s upcoming indie game Game Quest: The Backlog Battler will allow you to fight your unplayed games in a gladiatorial arena.

This one has taken the internet by storm recently, as several posts have started cropping up on X over the past 48 hours about Taylor’s project. The concept of the game is simple; the more games you haven’t played, the more enemies you’ll face. Game Quest: The Backlog Battler doesn’t just allow you to fight your own Steam backlog, however, as there’s also an option to fight your Steam friends’ libraries of unplayed games (provided they’ve made their shameful backlogs public).

Rude. pic.twitter.com/WgnBleHiMg

— Sea of Thieves (@SeaOfThieves) April 29, 2026

While the full release is set to drop at some undefined point in 2026, a demo for the game is available…so I decided to give it a shot. The combat itself is pretty basic, and the game isn’t exactly a looker, but there are a couple of neat mechanics in here that I hope Taylor expands upon for the full release.

For instance, while your least-played Steam games will accost you during combat, your most-played games will cheer for you in the stands and, occasionally, even appear during the fight to aid you. I admittedly did get a chuckle out of seeing Baldur’s Gate 3 magically appear out of thin air to help aid me in my fight while I was getting my ass beat by Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition.

Can’t help but feel like this game would be a lot harder if I could play it using my Epic Games account, though. All those free, unplayed games would be out for my blood, and the only game I’d have to defend me would be Alan Wake II.