November is, as you may or may not know, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). As the name suggests, the goal is to write a novel in one month. Well, writing’s not really what we do here, so instead we’ll be having a tribute to literature with a Novel-Based Games Month, or NoBaGaMo for short.
We’ll be playing games based on works of literature or characters from it, as well as interactive fiction. You can find the list of this month’s games here. Visual Novels don’t count unless they’re also based on existing literature, and we’re also excluding games based on comic books or graphic novels (that would lead to a strong overlap with our super heroes theme from a few months ago).
This month we’ll even count points again based on your achievements and playtime, but we have a new sort of kind of almost maybe finished feature, so you don’t have to post in a submission thread anymore, just set the games to completed or beaten and we’ll see your progress.
FAQ
Do I have to participate in this month’s theme?
No, as with every theme, these are merely suggestions for anyone who is unsure about what to play next. If you already have a battle plan for your backlog and/or don’t like this month’s theme, you’re free to ignore it.
What happens if I don’t participate in the monthly theme?
Absolutely nothing.
What happens if I play all the games from the theme list this month?
Still nothing.
I don’t own any of the games from the game list, how can I still participate?
The game list is most likely incomplete. If you own or know of any other games that might fit this month’s theme, feel free to suggest it under the corresponding post.
I already played all the games I own from the theme list, should I play something again to participate?
If it was an awesome game and you’d like to replay it, sure, go ahead. Only replaying it for the theme won’t help you with your backlog though, so if that would be your only reason you should probably think about trying something else instead. (Although, if you have absolutely nothing else to play, you can still do that, I guess …)
Can I just write a novel instead?
Sure, go ahead. Please don’t forget to share it with us :)
Nice, I’ve been doing Nanowrimo for a few years now. I usually don’t finish but it’s good since it pushes me to write something. Nice theme, not sure if I’ll participate or not though.
Nice! Thanks Nellyneko for this month’s theme :D It will help me to found some games to play this month :)
Well damn you, I own 4 or 5 games from the list so there go my plans to play Grim Fandago and Styx, out of the window.
The hard life of a backlog assassin :D
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Well I’ve been kind of addicted to Skyrim but since I own several games in the list and 3 of them I was actually thinking of playing soon I’ll try to replace some skyrim time with them (even though I have mid term exams in the next 2 weeks)! :D
And glad to know the website is always improving! (Am I the only one who noticed the “history” on Recently played or is that a new feature?)
Nice theme. I own 6 games only (1 already completed), so maybe I should start Witcher series finally… On a side-note about games list: I didn’t see Witcher 3 in the list. Is there any reason for that?
That’s right I forgot about the witcher
Perfect! Not that I really needed an excuse but got a couple of games that I’m incredibly excited to start. :)
Love the title too. :v
Great theme. Already have a lot of the games played. But some of them are still unplayed.
Yayyy,sounds good! Don’t know how much I’ll get through, tho, what with NaNoWriMo and all…
Oh this is going to be an exciting month, great theme, I have a lot of them to play that’s gonna be the perfect excuse :D
Can I just write a novel instead?
Sure, go ahead. Please don’t forget to share it with us :)
I KNEW my wall of text manufacturing skills would be useful one day.
I like the idea! I only have a few games from the current list, but I already see a couple that are pretty high on my want-to-play list. :)
new sort of kind of almost maybe finished feature
HYPE! :D
Take a peek.
That looks nice (: I assume it looks at recently played (and marked completed/beaten)?
There’s a hidden list in the website that shows all games marked as beaten / completed in the current month. So I just read that list from each member and cross-check it with the list of applicable games. And what’s even better: there’s no longer need to rely on AStats’ achievement points (which required a lot of manual syncing before), those points are now retrieved directly from Steam’s global percentages. We’ve been working on this for a few months because monthly rankings are coming to the website in the future (not just for themes).
Cool. Another way for me to see how little progress I’m making :P
Hey, there might be some problems with the listings. I’ve finished my 6th game yesterday and just saw, that the counter went up by 1. But the games with no achievements are still missing from the numbers.
Those with problems are: “I have no Mouth, but I must scream” and “The Novelist”. You can see in this list that they are marked as “beaten”. But they do not appear in the list.
I found the problem: the script only takes into account games that were not previously marked as beaten, and according to our special list, both games were already marked as beaten. I’m assuming you replayed them? I’ll have to add them manually if that’s the case.
nope, played them for the first time this month. They were marked as unplayed before
That’s odd, I’ll have to check with mandrill.
Witcher 1, 2 and 3 count as novel based? witcher advanture board game?
Witcher is based on books, a 5 serie book set to be precise.
Own 9 of them, finished 4. Really nice theme. ^^
Will there be plans to include live ranking? I liked the spreadsheet, because you could see your current ranking during the month and it motivated me to play even more monthly games ;)
ah cool, thanks :D
How does it know which games are beaten/completed? Does it check the categories on this site or does it check Steam for playtime/achievements?
afaik it checks for category changes (to beaten or completed) of games from the list for this month on this site for this month, no checks on Steam. But you may have to ask revil for more info, he’s kind of in charge of the ranking
Looks like the live ranking is not updated correctly. I completed Dracula’s Legacy on Saturday, but it hasn’t been added to my Completed games in the ranking..
Yeah, I’m seeing similar issues - games I’ve beaten/completed (some with achievements, some without) just aren’t appearing in my entries.
Oh, looks like I forgot to take a ending screenshot of “The Novelist”. I could make a screenshot of the credits, but I think they are visible even without beating through the main menu. Better add that to the FAQ next time. Looking at the sheet some other also forgot about that part. I guess especially new members don’t know about that.
This month we’ll even count points again based on your achievements and playtime
Don’t games that give no achivements at all give any points? I beat S.T.A.L.K.E.R. earlier this month, and I can see that it got counted, but I got no points for it.
they should, it’s an issue with the script, revil + mandrill are looking into it afaik
I’ve been quite busy IRL this month and kept a low profile, that’s why I haven’t chimed in yet, but I’ve still had a bit of time to unwind with some gaming, managed to finish both the Alan Wake games for the monthly theme :) Looking forward to seeing where that gets me in the ranking as soon as they have been added.
Nice theme, and for some reason the theme where I had already completed the most number of games before the theme started (compared to the other monthly themes), I have a full nine games on the list finished, eleven now if I count the two I finished during the month :D Earlier months I had 2-3 finished games at the most. Maybe it’s because a lot of these have quite a good story, and I prefer those games, so I’ve already gotten through several of them?
Fail, didn’t play any game from the list. Well, hope next month will be better (holidays and more time at home).
Visual Novels month.
Oh excellent finally, time to slay 30 or so games. ( Let’s make that 3 or 4)
That is if I can stay away from Stardew and Town of Salem.
only, not really: “Visual Novels don’t count unless they’re also based on existing literature”
Ah pity but I will still find some.
I’ll try jumping in with you and raven again, if I get the time!