Daerphen


Challenge me! Monthly Edition
previous


Wow, it has been a while since we did our last Challenge Me!

I was busy and not really active around BLAEO for a while

Ok so now we start motivated again to assassin some more games. So please go ahead and sign up in the comments, if you want to be challenged. Similar rules as before. If you do no remember them, you can read about them below.

No special rule this time, as we already ask you to include at least 2 SG wins anyway ;)

  • You are allowed to ask a specific person to pick for you, but that person can only be asked to pick for someone specific once. For example: Mandril askes me to pick for him. I do that, but later Nelly also wants me to pick for her. I cannot pick for Nelly anymore, someone else needs to do that.
  • You are only allowed to pick for up to 2 members in total. So if you already picked for 2 and you are asked to pick for someone specific you have to pass and another member should pick the games. Exception: Nobody picked games for 24 hours.

The main goal of this is of course to motivate you to reduce your backlog and help you pick some games to do just that. And you can help others do the same!
If you've used the Steam group forums at all, you may have also seen a suggestion about profile badges, including participation badges for themes. We thought for this additional and hopefully regular) event, we will give out two permanent badges that basically level up the more you participate, one for finishing challenges (up to 2 per month) and one for issuing challenges/picking for others. Since badges are still quite a ways off, we'll keep an internal spreadsheet for now, so if we ever implement that, your "progress" won't be lost ;)

This round will last until June 20th.


Post your application for this month’s challenge as a reply here. Please before doing so, read the corresponding section below. Also, if you decide to pick games for others, read the corresponding section before you do so. If you encounter any problem with the games that were picked for you (either technical or if you think they don’t follow the guidelines) and can’t solve it with your picker, please leave a message as a reply of the first comment.


Applicants’ guidelines

  • Please make sure your games are sorted by completion before applying.
  • If you so desire and you have at least 5 unplayed SG wins, the 5 games can be picked out of your SG wins (instead of only 2/5). Just note it in your application comment.
  • Note in your post if you're ok playing multiplayer only games.
  • Same for Early Access (I know some people want to wait for release).
  • When you finish one (or more) of the games picked for you, please post an update by replying to your picker's comment.
  • If the game has achievements, you can link to either the Steam or Astats page corresponding to your progress.
  • If the game doesn't have achievements, please post a screenshot showing your completion.
  • Finally, if you have completed all the games that were assigned to you but want another go at it, feel free to post another application.

Pickers’ guidelines

  • You can pick for/challenge up to 2 fellow assassins, please refrain to pick more so everybody who wants get a chance at it.
  • You can pick for anybody who has applied and hasn't been given a list yet, unless they specified otherwise (see next point). It is recommended to signal with a "reserved" comment that you're currently picking for that person. This way it'll avoid the situation where you spend time picking games just to come back to somebody's comment 2 minutes prior.
  • Please use the following criteria when picking a list for somebody.
  • Length-wise: at least 2 short games (under 10h to beat) and 2 medium (under 15-20h). You can use HLTB to check the time, or more conveniently the Enhanced Steam browser extension (it shows the HLTB time directly on the game's steam page). That rule can be overridden by the bottom (i.e. pick 5 short games) but not the other way around, as not everybody has the same time to dedicate to gaming.
  • Pick two SG wins unless the person specified SG wins only, in which case pick only in the applicant's SG wins list.
  • Quality-wise: at least 3 of the 5 games should have a positive (or above) rating. You can use this site to quickly sort games in a user's library by ratings (thanks to JaffaCaffa for the suggestion).
  • Please, respect the applicant's choice regarding multiplayer-only and Early access games, as well as other requests (exclusion of certain genre etc.).
  • Please use the code below to post your comment, it's already formatted, you just have to copy/paste & complete the data.

For Pickers. Just copy paste and complete the data :)

* [GAME#1](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#1-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#1-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#2](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#2-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#2-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#3](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#3-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#3-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#4](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#4-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#4-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#5](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#5-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#5-HLTBTIME

FAQ

Do I have to participate in this event?
No, this is an event to help you reduce your backlog. If you already have a plan and don't want anyone to pick games for you, you're free to ignore it.

What happens if I don’t participate in the event?
Absolutely nothing.

What happens if I play all the games picked for me this month?
Still nothing. (You might get a shiny profile badge at some later date. And you can come back for another batch.)

What if I don’t have time to play 5 games?
Don’t worry, one is enough, we’re just asking the pickers to select 5 to give the player a little choice.

One of the game picked for me won’t run on my computer for X or Y reason, what do I do?
If this happens, please notify the picker by replying his comment and ask them to pick a replacement. If the original picker don’t give you an answer within 24h, don’t panic, just leave a comment and we’ll pick one for you. Meanwhile, you could try one of the other picked games if you haven't played them all yet.

I played all 5 games that were picked for me and I want more!
If you have completed all 5 games and reported your completion to the original comment, you can make a new request for another list.

When picking for other people, can I only pick “never played” games?
Not necessarily, you can also pick games that seem to have been abandoned but haven’t been categorized as “won’t play”. No beaten or completed games, or games being currently played obviously.

Why are there so many rules for picking the games? I can’t be bothered!
We’re trying to make this enjoyable for everyone so if you decide to pick games for others, please read and follow the rules. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for the pickers too, but if it’s bothering you too much, remember you don’t need to pick games for others to join the challenge.

I’m new here, can I join the challenge?
Yes of course (and welcome to BLAEO). Please just be sure to have your games sorted by progress before signing up for the challenge, to make it easier for your picker.

Daerphen

Reply here, if there is any problem

86maylin

Yay first Challenge Me for me! :3
No multiplayer games, but I’m fine with early access~And no horror, ever. Also I want all 5 games to be sg wins.
Since I’m participating in both the monthly theme and the “play a game you won on steamgift” event, plus I’m gonna be quite busy for my school project please only pick short ones. (also I’m totally going to count these towards the monthly theme game completion count. >:3)
And sorry for making you dig through my gigantic sg wins. >.<

EvilBlackSheep

There you go :

lmxn

The meeting of the sheep! :spacecat:

86maylin

Dyscourse and Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden beaten. Still need some runs to clean up the achievements. Probably not gonna make any more progress for this challenge me tho sadly since finals are coming up. >~< Also aaaa Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is a semi-horror game aaaa. QAQ You can see from me viewing it as a horror game how bad I am with horror games. Pretty bad……

EvilBlackSheep

Aww sorry i didn’t think it was scary or i wouldn’t have picked it for you. Good luck with your finals.

86maylin

Always with the missing tag of horror. It’s the most cheesy horror too! Like the ones in very old movies, yet I still get scared. Had to turn on my own music to make myself less scared. ><

JaffaCaffa

Sorry to butt in :P but just so ya know if you press the “+” next to the other list of tags it’ll show the rest and horror is listed - if you’re really worried about a surprise horror game and are unsure.

86maylin

Ohh, that’s good to hear. :o There’s a dilemma tho, cuz on one hand, I would have never played Puzzle Agent which is a super great game but has horror aspect if I checked the tag on steam, but on the other, I just get scared so easily. ;-; Why does it gotta be so hard. >~<

bloudeuedd

Challenge me too, please.
No multiplayer only or early access and I would appreciate if they wouldn’t be extra long.
Thank you!

DakotaThrice

All games I’ve enjoyed myself and all wins as a bonus. Nothing overly long though some may take a bit longer than the given times depending on how much extra stuff you do.

bloudeuedd

Thank you! I really appreciate that you picked games that you played and liked. I started with Dyscourse and liked it (done three playthroughs but I’ll do more since I have to get some more achievements) and intstalled all of them. It’s going to be a good month.

Progress:
dyscourse - beaten
sleeping dogs - beaten
Vanishing of ethan carter - completed
Tomb raider - beaten
Call of Juarez: gunslinger - beaten

DakotaThrice

Hopefully you enjoy them yourself.

Blue Ϟ Lightning

Im without my laptop for the long weekwnd and already working on the monthly but hey why not add more to that…

Only restriction i want to add is i broke my controller so please if you’re picking can you find games i can do with just a mouse and keyboard :3

Trilled Meow

I’ve never picked before, and I would be happy to swap anything out for something else. I was thinking of picking The Walking Dead: Michonne or Dreamfall Chapters to get another SG win in instead of Stardew, but Dreamfall seems kind of long for that type of game and TWD is going to be a bunch of timed button presses that might be annoying without a controller. So I ended up picking Stardew mainly because I like it, but you can switch it to one of those or to any good keyboard & mouse game if I missed one in your wins.

  • LiEat - HLTB Time: 4 Hours (I haven’t played this, but it’s my backlog and I want to sometime)
  • Cinderella Phenomenon - HLTB Time: 9 1/2 Hours (Another game I’ve been meaning to play, plus it’s free for the monthly theme)
  • Stardew Valley - HLTB Time: 49 1/2 Hours (I think this is okay without a controller)
  • To Be or Not To Be - HLTB Time: 1 1/2 Hours
  • 1954 Alcatraz - HLTB Time: 5 1/2 Hours
Blue Ϟ Lightning

Thank you <3

Sorry to bother you and its a weird request that I know is bad cause it will just take longer to get to but can you swap out hiveswap? Its a previous challenge me and Ive been trying to do all of these and use it as an indicator of how well I’ve been doing each month and like how it sorts in groups of 5… This list

Trilled Meow

Oops, I meant to not pick the ones you had tagged as Challenge Me already because I’ve seen you request that here before. What about finishing Rabi-Ribi? If you stopped that for a certain reason or if you prefer that with a controller, then 1954 Alcatraz. It’s supposed to be only a couple of hours longer than Hiveswap. Let me know and I’ll update the list in my post.

Blue Ϟ Lightning

I just haven’t played anything this long weekend cause i dont have my laptop…

Actually played like 30 hours of rabi rabi this month already for the current theme so wew if you pick that for a challenge me it almost feels like cheating. I’m fine with either and will try my best to finish as many as possible \o/

Trilled Meow

Okay, then I’ll give you Alcatraz to play instead since you are already playing Rabi-Ribi. Most of the games I picked for you are on my backlog, too, so I guess you’re testing them out for me, lol.

Blue Ϟ Lightning

rabi rabi is great btw-

quick update I’ve played a bit of cinderella and to be or not to be…cinderella is high quality in one regard but I also dont find myself having fun…I’m reading it and stuff but its a bit of a chore despite the fact there is nothing at all wrong with it…like conceptually I should like it but I’ve read it and got a bad ending and kinda feel like just moving on…I should mention I really liked the premise of fairy tales and stuff and its not like I’m opposed cause its a shojou type thing I dont know…

on the other hand to be or not to be is great! Its funny and good and has loads of options and I really do recommend it \o/ not sure how many different endings I have to play to consider it beaten but I’ve already played it 3 times and gotten different results each time :3…it said it had 10 000 endings but idk

disregard that maybe I replayed part of the same arc in cinderella and actually liked it so idk what to say

Trilled Meow

That update was a rollercoaster! Guess i’ll have to try the Cinderella one myself.

Blue Ϟ Lightning

I have stuff crossed out but I actually changed it twice…

basically cinderella is a dating sim so theres multiple guys/arcs…and I like some and dislike others…annoying doctor guy had me skipping through parts and so did the arc with the guy who hates you…and honestly its well written and has this whole everyone is under a curse with a fairy tale which is why I initially wanted to play it but at the end parts were entertaining and parts were not-and each atc is longgg but I wanted cheevos so I had to play them all.

also started LilEat and I’m disappointing theres turn based combat cause its one of the genres I dislike…also getting annoying randomly going to each room over and over again to find the one thing that is different now…actually having more fun now that I’m playing it through the walk through and can just read the story basically.

Blue Ϟ Lightning

I’m not sure if you care about updates but if I am testing out your backlog for you I gotta say,
I do not recommend 1954 Alcatraz. Its funny cause I don’t have any asset flip level trash on my account so I keep categorizing stuff thats meh as bad but okay,

the game is buggy
First achievement unlocked when I played the first 15 min of it like a year ago…but this time around none of the others have despite having played through most of the game.
Considered getting borderless gaming so I could alt tab to a walk through without it crashing but decided it was too much effort. (walkthroughs are important for point and click games that don’t have intuitive puzzles)

glitched so I would continue to walk without stopping being unable to click on anything etc

stopped for good cause it crashed and I lost 20 min of progress and decided it wasn’t worth it to get back to that spot when I have better games in my library.

Trilled Meow

Sorry about that, I didn’t know it was buggy! That kind of sucks. I was hoping it would be okay since it was Daedalic. I can pick a different game for you if you want and think you have time.

Blue Ϟ Lightning

I did play it for a good like 4 hours and got pretty far before losing progress and giving up.

Anyways im playing stardew…and its nice, i started a while ago but just restarted on a multiplayer map with people.

Also would rather not have another this month cause someone gave me nier for my birthday and i cant ignore it

Trilled Meow

I haven’t played Stardew since the last big update or two. I had a few mods, so I wonder if my game still works, lol. I hope it does.

I hope you have fun with Nier. I played the first game, which wasn’t very popular, so I assume this one is a lot different.

LastM

I think it’s time for a challenge. I’d prefer shorter games, as I’m not having much free time lately. I may need more than a month to finish longer games.
I would prefer mostly SG wins/gifts, but you free to pick whatever you want.

ninglor03

I’m on it

ninglor03

Amok - HLTB: 5-7h

Bionic commando rearmed - HLTB: 5 - 13h Kentucky Rote Zero - HLTB: prox 6h (depends on the amount of Acts really)

Legendary - HLTB: 5-7h
MacGuffin - HLTB: 33 min?
Rover The Dragonslayer - HLTB: 7h
Feed and Grow: Fish

Yeah, I tried going ABCish. Didn’t work out that well, right? :D
Hope you can enjoy at least a few of them :] :D

LastM

Do you mind swapping KRZ for something else? The devs still haven’t finished that game, even though they keep promising that they’ll soon…

ninglor03

Uh, sure, no prob :)
Gimme a mom

ninglor03

Like that? :)

LastM

That’s fine. Thanks again! :)

LastM

Don’t mind me, I’ll just edit this post as I finish the games.

MacGuffin - This game is a crazier and shorter version of The Stanley Parable. Took me less than 20 minutes to finish it.
Legendary
Rover The Dragonslayer
Amok - I guess, one guide is worth a thosand words. Thankfully, there was an youtube playthrough that helped me finish this piece of crap game. At least, it’s definitely not as long as HLTB says it is.
Feed and Grow: Fish
Bionic Command Rearmed

ninglor03

THERE! Have Dracula bite you! :]

ninglor03

There is always a bigger fish!

Max Mnemonic

I accept your challenge. Everything’s on the table.

Alizarine

I was very torn between Tomb Raider and TR Underworld since they’re my personal favorites from the series, so you can switch if you’d like.

Max Mnemonic

Sorry, apparently I forgot to put Doki Doki in the completed category. Other than that I’ll get to work!

Alizarine

Replaced with Her Story, not sure if you played or idled it but you had no achievements and I think they were progress based, so I’m hoping it’s okay ;-; If not, let me know, my next choices would be Fran Bow or Gods Will Be Watching for similar length.

ninglor03

Ok, so I haven’t done this in a bit… would someone mind picking games for me? You may as well take some of my wins - I try to get them back to all beaten! - and apart from that… maybe not the longest ones, 20h max?
Thank you in advance!

Selby

DON’T BLINK!
I’m on it!

ninglor03

I WON’T!
Thank you, love! :*

Selby

We tried to keep it short!
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN \o/

ninglor03

Woohooo! Thank you the two of you ;)
I shall keep you informed! \o/

ninglor03

Well will you look at that!
The Uncertain: down
The house of 1k Doors: Family stuff : nailed it
Tacoma: 100%
Undertale - not worthy of the Queen -.- ;)

Selby

Another one bites the dust!

ninglor03

4/5 down!

Selby

Le meilleur pour la fin! (yep! work that French, my Queen!)

ninglor03

I was stupid and had to check “meilleur” and then… IT MADE SENSE!
The best for the end! \o/

Trilled Meow

Can someone please pick some games for me? Treat my unfinished games the same as my unplayed games. Don’t pick Chaos on Deponia because I’m playing that with someone and we seem to be on a hiatus with it, so I’d have to check if she even has time. Thanks!

JaffaCaffa

Lemme know if you’d like me to swap anything out, hope you enjoy the picks! (I was really tempted to put a couple other games on the list like Papers, Please but they’re all on the shorter side or very long.)

  • Beyond Eyes - HLTB Time: 2-3 Hours (SG Win) - A little slow at times but beautiful, I enjoyed it lot more than expected.
  • Highway Blossoms - 6 Hours (SG Win) - On my WL!
  • Outlast - HLTB Time: 5-9 Hours - My favourite horror game, really fantastic + atmospheric.
  • Sanctum 2 - HLTB Time: 12 Hours - Love these tower defense games, underrated imo.
  • System Shock - HLTB Time: 13-16 Hours (Classic or Enhanced)
Trilled Meow

Good picks! I almost started Beyond Eyes the other day because I think the person I won it from particularly appreciates it when people play their wins, and I’ve been feeling bad for not giving it a go sooner.

Papers, Please, lol. I tried it before but wasn’t able to beat it after several attempts. I printed out a cheat sheet (for country flags I think), and I still couldn’t beat it because I think it still took too long to find information on the cheat sheet.

JaffaCaffa

Glad to give you the extra nudge then. :D

Aw really? It can be quite daunting, I think it’s one of those games best played in a short period so you end up catching onto things and memorising stuff after seeing it often naturally. That is quite funny though about the cheat sheet still being too much information still, made me laugh at the irony.

Trilled Meow

Hi, I managed to beat 3 of the 5 games. It started a little late, so maybe I will technically beat System Shock within a full month, as well. I’m a few floors in. I was finding the old interface and lack of explanations kind of difficult at first, but I’m starting to understand it. I’m starting to worry about forgetting how to get to certain places and being lost for hours, lol, but I’m sure someone has made maps or a video walkthrough if it ever comes down to that.

JaffaCaffa

Congrats! Enjoyed reading your review updates. Glad you’re getting into SS more, I feel ya though - I’m terrible at getting lost. Especially if you set a game down for a bit.

Alizarine

Would love to try a challenge again, but since I don’t have a lot of free time lately, I’d like short games (unless you consider something very captivating, like I do Telltale games), and preferably with achievements.

86maylin

First time picking so feel free to ask for swaps. :3 Most of them I have played so I can safely say that I’ll definitely recommend all of them. Some honorable mentions that I didn’t pick because of your preferences are TIS-100, Puzzle Agent, Knights of Pen and Paper +1 and Aviary Attorney.

Alizarine

Totally forgot I had most of these, and I actually had Hacknet in the back of my mind for a while now :D I’ve also heard lots about To the Moon yet stayed away from it until now because it’s an RPG, but I’ll use the challenge as a motivation. I’ll definitely try to at least start TIS-100 as a bonus if I finish the others, I’ve been dying to try it but I feel like I’d quit half way through because I’m bad at hard puzzles haha.

86maylin

Time to finally get on Hacknet. :P And think of To the Moon as more like watching a movie or reading a book, but a bit more interaction. What’s amazing about that game is the story. :3 As for TIS-100, the game is definitely not for everyone as the puzzle concept could be quite hard to grasp if you’re not familiar with coding and stuff, but it’s still a cool game to try and figure out how to solve the puzzles~Still need to get back to finishing it since I stopped midway. xD Good luck with the challenge!

Alizarine

Thank you! If the temptation is too big I might just replace one of those with TIS-100 haha. I do know the basics of programming because of high school so whenever I see games based even loosely on programming I just have to get them but I rarely have time to play ;-;

PeteOzzy

Wow, this month has gone by so quickly. Started so well with playing the leftover wins and then House Flipper happened D: Love seeing that this is still going!

Hudath

I would like to participate, so I hope someone picks me 5 nice games :)

Trilled Meow
  • Puzzle Agent - HLTB Time: 3 1/2 Hours (SG win. I played it about half a year go. AFAIK the only Professor Layton-type game on Steam)
  • Turmoil - HLTB Time: 9 1/2 Hours (SG win)
  • Citizens of Earth - HLTB Time: 14 Hours (SG win. I played this a few years ago and remember it being decent)
  • Whispering Willows - HLTB Time: 2 1/2 Hours (Quick and decent game to beat and get off your backlog)
  • Alan Wake - HLTB Time: 11 Hours (Mostly because I have it left over from the last Challenge Me! and will be playing it, too)

Let me know if you want me to swap anything for something different.

Hudath

Thank you, the games look good!

Lotheneil

As my ABC project is nearing its end (somehow I believe I’ll manage to finish three games till the end of the year :)) I’d like to try participating. Thanks in advance to any brave soul who wanders into the abyss of my backlog to choose something for me :)

What to choose from: the whole “unfinished” category, as that’s where by backlog is located (“never played” is for neverending/duplicated/oddies). Additionally, feel free to select SG wins from “won’t play” category if you think I should get down to playing/finishing it. The number of SG wins to choose - up to you.
What not to choose: early access games that are still actively developed, multiplayer-only titles (unless they can be played solo as well), games in my “Nope” category, Suits RPG (I’m keeping it for a rainy day when I need something short to fill weekly report with), games with really dated graphics (no rotten tomatoes please, but it’s hard for me to find entertainment in old titles with extremely dated graphics - as a rule of thumb, if it’s capable of launching in FullHD, its fine). Long list, I know, but please bear with me :)

86maylin

It’s actually quite hard to pick sg wins, so I only picked Don’t Starve. Feel free to ask for a swap. :3

Lotheneil

No need, I’m perfectly fine with all picks. Thank you very much :)

Lotheneil

All titles apart from Don’t Starve played - I had a lot of fun with Mini Metro and Hand of Fate, would have even more with Life is Strange… if not for the fact that the title ended up being the free first episode only… which I finished anyway and put the full game on wishlist to pick up on nearest sale :)
Ended up dropping Else Heart.Break() - the gameplay style is just not for me, I ended up bored before the game managed to get my attention and let me immerse into the world. Don’t Starve is next on my assassination list :)

I’ve posted some more thoughts about each title on my weekly report.

Lotheneil

And Don’t Starve was finished too, which wraps up the list. Some random thoughts about the title can be read at my weekly report as usual. Thanks again for the challenge, it was really fun :)

Trentevo

Challenge me! I’m open to almost anything, but whoever decides to jump on this may find my backlog is extensive. I have a few SG wins that I haven’t touched, but probably should. I’d also appreciate that at least some of the picks be shorter games. I’m ready to really start kicking my backlog in the butt and that might be easier to begin with. Thanks in advance!

Daerphen

Not many SG wins. Haven’t played any of them, so can’t say how they are.

banikanani

I would love to join, pick some games for me.

Daerphen

They are all SG wins and I can safely recommend each of them

  • Deponia - HLTB Time: 8h (play the complete journey, if you have that in your library. It contains all three games)
  • Two Digits - HLTB Time: 5h (only completionist time available)
  • The Silent Age - HLTB Time: 3.5h
  • Borderlands - HLTB Time: 22.5h (play it Co-op if you can, much more fun. One of the best FPS imo)
  • Deadlight - HLTB Time: 4h