Steam’s June 2024 Next Fest is live! And naturally, that means more demos of more up and coming games. We live in an era of gaming where demos are so easily accessible and so abundant that it’s a crime not to at least give some of ’em a gander—and that’s where this list comes in! Here are some upcoming demos of soon-to-be released games (and some not-so soon-to-be) that I think are cool and worth checking out.
This article was updated on the 17th of June! Check out some of the new games I’ve added below—my desktop PC’s RAM bit the dust. I love PC gaming :)))
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY, PLAY SOME GAMES!
Look down below for a starting palate. And of course, I encourage you to check out the rest of what Next Fest has to offer. You might never know what’s next in line to shred up your free time. To check out a game’s Steam store page, simply click on its header name.
Last but not least, Steam Next Fest will run through the 17th of June—AKA TODAY! Very important, this note, because after Next Fest these demos may vamoosh into a puff of smoke. Be sure to check out what interests you when you can!
Saeko has shrunk you! This mysterious girl has brought you down to the size of her thumb and has thrown you into a drawer with all the other people she’s shrunk down to size. Being appointed as the supervisor, you are left to distribute items to the others and keep them together. At night, you become Saeko’s wallpost, listening to her random whims. Better watch what you say in this oddly terrifying adventure game by SAFE HAVN STUDIO.
FEATURES
- Stunning and unique visuals drawn in two different styles of pixel art
- A world filled with brutal allure inspired by many strange tales, beginning with Fueti Shizue’s work
- An original game system which forces players to make difficult choices and live with the consequences
- A soundtrack heavily influenced by future garage and breakcore, composed by the developer himself
- The deepest journey into a developer’s proclivities in indie game history
‘Intravenous 2’ invites players to a top-down shooter with realistic stealth mechanics and extensive weapon customisation. A sequel to the overwhelmingly positively-received ‘Intravenous’, your path will define you as you run ‘n gun—multiple endings to boot!
FEATURES
- Stealth or Firepower: Your approach is your choice. Sneak through shadows, tamper with lights, lockpick doors, or unleash a hail of bullets. The game adapts to your playstyle.
- Two Protagonists: As Sean unravels the mystery of his father’s kidnapping, Steve pursues his own leads, intertwining their fates in a gripping narrative.
- Customize Your Skills: Progress your skills your way, whether it’s mastering the art of stealth or becoming a gunslinging virtuoso.
- Bullet Time: Sean’s unique ability allows him to bend time, gaining an edge in tense situations.
- Vast Arsenal: Choose from 29 weapons, 17 gadgets, and a range of ammo types to tackle challenges creatively.
- Weapon Modification: Personalize every firearm with suppressors, laser sights, and more, tailoring your arsenal to the task at hand.
- Responsive AI: Engage in intense battles with enemies who react to your actions, seeking cover, using tactics, and calling for backup.
- Multiple Endings: Shape the story’s conclusion through your decisions, your mercy, and your choices along the way.
Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery
Where’s Waldo fans, come take a look at this: Rogueside’s ‘Hidden Through Time 2: Discovery’ has a playable demo for you to try right now. More or less built off the fundamentals of the first Hidden Through Time 2 (one I enjoyed very much!), Discovery is all about searching for the tiniest of trinkets in the biggest of maps. Lets hope they’ve added more music this time around, though. This one is headed to mobile, too!
I actually got to try this one way before Next Fest began. Like its predecessor, you find objects but now its in space. Its cute and is a nice timewaster—some of the objects will definitely test your patience, however!
FEATURES
- Immerse yourself in relaxing gameplay with no timers to rush your exploration
- Travel through time and uncover hidden secrets in beautifully hand-drawn landscapes
- Design your own maps using the intuitive map editor
- Decode cryptic hints to aid you on your quest
- Enjoy a soothing soundtrack as you lose yourself in the art of discovery
- Unlock achievements and sync your progress with Steam Cloud
Yooper Game Studios’ ‘SUPER BATTLE POLYCARS’ has you take on polygonal vehicles and pits you against many a foe as you go head-to-head in this MOVA (multiplayer online vehicle arena)! Use powerups and destroy your foes across multiple modes such as a MOBA-like lane-based gameplay, deathmatch, or free-for-all. Best of all, customisation is plentiful and all future Polycars, abilities, and items will be free with each content update.
Really it almost looks like Twisted Metal.
FEATURES
- CUSTOMIZATION: Equip each Polycar with multiple unique abilities and items to survive against your foes! Make your way through the battle pass or browse the in-game store to outfit your Polycar with the latest and greatest fashion items, paint jobs and hats! Your HUD speedometer is also customizable, and don’t forget to slap on a custom license plate for your rig. Don’t worry, nothing in the battle pass or shop is pay-to-win. All future Polycars, abilities, and items will be free with each content update.
- PHYSICS BASED COMBAT: Take to the skies or hit the pavement with full arcade driving physics powered by Unreal Engine 5! Drift, accelerate, glide around your opponents, lay down suppressive plasma fire, or rain down an orbital strike from above. DOMINATE the competition.
- EARLY ACCESS RELEASE: Stay tuned to our Steam page for early access/playtest announcements! Early Access release planned for June 2024. In the meantime, try out our tutorial demo to get a taste for the polygon road!
Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure
‘Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure’ follows the story of Jemma, a small-town misfit on a journey of self-discovery. Venturing out beyond her stiflingly cozy confines, she finds an inspiring world – but also one ruled by fear, and a strange, immovable ‘static’ force. Can she disrupt a culture of stagnation, and find a place to fit into it?
Yes, I copied the description from the store page—but Furniture & Mattress LLC did a much better job describing their own game than I ever could. Play it, it’s a gem.
FEATURES
- Unique, interconnected gameplay “grid” that snappily unites movement, combat, and exploration.
- A story-driven adventure about a small-town misfit on a journey of self-discovery.
- A breezy RPG without XP or inventory to manage, where everything is handled in-world.
- A nicely-sized campaign with some optional challenges, and various assist options so that you only get as stuck as you want to be.
- Debut game from an all-star development team, featuring the artist behind Braid.
Developer Bolt Blaster Games’ upcoming online cooperative bullet hell title ‘The Spell Brigade’ has you survive hordes of monsters and freaks alone and with mates. Your job is to complete missions, upgrade your skills, and most importantly: survive!
FEATURES
- 8 playable Wizards
- 3 different Worlds with unique hazards and missions
- 9 Enemy types
- 33 Spells and 4 combinable Elements
- Artifacts, Upgrades and Cosmetics
- 4 Difficulties
Tambu Games’ ‘Soulkin’ is a roguelite that combines turn-based combat with monster-collection elements. What you get is a grid-based tactical game that offers cute and scary monsters to collect, all the while offering a rewarding progression system that nets you more powerful abilities as you clear your runs against the corruption that threatens Ankiril.
FEATURES
- Engage in turn-based battles that require tactical positioning and clever use of your Soulkin’s abilities. Adapt your tactics to overcome formidable foes and environmental challenges.
- Befriend and collect all the Soulkins, each with unique abilities and elemental affinities. Strategically build your squad to tackle the ever-changing threats of Ankiril.
- Navigate through challenging encounters and unlock powerful abilities and Soulkins. Your journey will be difficult, but the rewards are plentiful for those who persevere.
- Each chapter offers a fresh and unique gameplay experience with dynamic maps, battles, and events. This ensures varied and exciting playthroughs every time, keeping the gameplay consistently engaging and unpredictable.
Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter
Shiver me whiskers! A sequel to a fantastic action 2D sidescroller, Odd Bug Studio is back with a lust for blood in ‘Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter’. Fully narrated by RPG-legend, Doug Cockle, you are going to be shredding up many a monster across the Ratdom.
FEATURES
- Explore a vast and treacherous, snow-ravaged kingdom
- Master brutal soulslike combat, with dodge-rolls, parry bashes, and gruesome executions!
- Discover a compelling story, narrated by the legendary Doug Cockle
- Overcome savage boss fights against the ferocious leaders of the Dark Wings
- Hunt down giant beasts for rare resources with which to craft devastating equipment
- Customise your attack style with an extensive range of upgradeable weapons
- Personalise your appearance from a significant collection of diverse armour sets with exclusive properties
- Encounter a range of curious companions among the many Northern factions
- Construct and upgrade your own settlement, to unlock new recipes, traps and more
- Complete side hunts to earn additional gold-on-the-side
Imagine Space Harrier but super fast. That’s what ‘Mirage Feathers’ is here to offer—excellent fast-paced gameplay combined with gorgeous anime-styled pixel art makes Mirage Feathers a good time for rail shooter fans.
You are FEATHER
Mirage Feathers is an anime themed pseudo-3D rail shooter. You are Notari, a cybernetic air-superiority fighter of the Federation’s FEATHER program. You will experience fast tempo combat as you destroy enemy aircrafts wave after wave. Even though the whole world is against you, your ammo is infinite. So fight on, and prove your superiority!
Fire!
Notari’s advanced fire control system automatically locks on a target when it passes your crosshair. Your attacks will then home in on the locked targets.
Variable Combat Styles
As the story progresses, AI companion Luciolla will acquire weapons specs from stronger opponents, allowing Notari additional main weapon options. They all have different effects, and offer a range of playstyles.
Initiating OVERDRIVE!
FEATHERs may unleash incredible power by initiating OVERDRIVE, enough to destroy everything in sight. Moreover, when in OVERDRIVE mode, your weapons system will have upgraded performance, all your attacks will be buffed.
Game Modes
This game includes Story Mode and Endless Mode. Story Mode has scripted levels, and explores the characters outside battle with text-based dialogues and cute character art. Endless Mode gives you access to the full arsenal, and pits you against infinite waves of progressively more challenging enemies that spawn randomly.
From the makers of the beloved ‘Myst’ series, Cyan Worlds is back with a reimagining of ‘Riven’. Offering full 3D moment across the gorgeous world of Riven, you’ll find intrigue and uncover betrayal in this challenging puzzler.
Created by the legendary indie developer Cyan Worlds and based on the smash-hit original released in 1997, Riven has been lovingly revisited by its key original visionaries to expand the epic narrative of the Myst universe.
Experience Riven like never before – with free movement through a real-time 3D environment. This brand-new, re-imagined, and expanded version of Riven offers a deeper story, new captivating visuals, and a journey that stays true to the original release while also expanding on Riven’s breathtaking world.
My Liege, your survival is of utmost importance—because in Black Voyage Games’ upcoming tactical roguelike title ‘Lost In The Open’ will have you keep good watch of your King as you fight to keep him alive. It’s a challenging game that will test your tactics as enemies spare no quarter in their pursuit to gib your greatest asset.
FEATURES
- Upgrade Your Party: Spend gold collected through battle and exploration to upgrade your troops’ weapons and armor. Gain experience from battles to acquire powerful skills and perks.
- Lead Your Party: Distribute resources among all units? Or focus and protect a few? Go head-on into all battles or play cautiously, only taking fights you know you can win. At each juncture in the world, you will have half a dozen locations to choose between, so do so wisely!
- Overcome Deadly and Difficult Decisions: Scavenge an abandoned watchtower with pursuers hot on your heels? Take a high-risk battle with the risk of another right afterwards? No outcomes are certain.
- Challenging and Intricate Tactical Combat: Fight in a frontline formation or spread out. Place your best troops in the center or have them overwhelm the enemy flank. Bait the enemy in and counterattack or take the initiative. Minimize losses by using abilities, status effects, and passive bonuses to your advantage, while keeping the enemy from breaking your line and killing your King!
- Outwit a Large Roster of Enemies: You’ll be facing a plethora of different enemies: bandits, royal guards, animals, The Deformed and The Righteous. Both enemies and the battlefield itself vary widely – fighting in a claustrophobic forest and a knee-deep swamp are different beasts entirely.
58BLADES’ ‘Handmancers’ takes you into first-person roguelite deckbuilding action! It’s unique style of presentation and quite literal hand arts means that every run will be different—and your hands are bound to get cramped.
FEATURES
- Customize your cards and build a deck to your liking!
- Equip powerful artifacts
- Choose one of the factions from the powerful tribes of Stone, Parchment or Blades
- Fight numerous unique enemies, watch out for Corruption!
- Create powerful and unstoppable combos, the power is in your hands
- Buy numerous power-ups and potions
Ever wanted to run your own tavern? Of course you do because it is the inherent desire for all human beans to manage something. Well, in One More Time’s upcoming ‘Tavern Manager Simulator’, you’ll start from rags and work all the way to riches. Rebuild a busted old shack off the main road of a kingdom and bring it back to its former glory. Sell ale, foods, keep up with the busy work, hire some hands, and keep busy in this cosy and comfortable 3D first-person dine ‘n dash simulation title!
We actually covered this one sometime back—check out our impressions article here! The demo is available now for you to peruse and has gotten updates since we checked it out.
FEATURES
- Run your abandoned tavern in a fantasy kingdom
- Renovate, improve, expand your establishment
- Pour beer into huge mugs, cook tasty dishes.
- Clean up, wash dishes
- Lots of decorations and furniture to create a unique atmosphere
- Many visitors with different needs and expectations
- Random game events
First-person shooter with a comic book artstyle and roguelite elements, what’s not to love? Dark-1’s ‘Skopje ’83’ (formerly ‘Skopje’) demo is up and you’ve got to try this beautiful shooter a try!
FEATURES
- Dive into Skopje, a comic book styled first-person shooter with rogue-lite elements and an open-ended world gameplay. Explore a city thrust into disarray by an unknown event and survive the hordes of mutated abominations that lurk at every corner.
- Take down the hordes of mutated abominations, gather resources and enhance your weaponry with blueprints that remain with you between runs.
- No matter how hostile the outside world is, you always have your mobile base in the form of a DOM, the bus where you can not only upgrade yourself, but you can also drive it around the city.
- Every time you die and come back, the city is changed. Enemies spawn in different locations, the loot changes, and you have to kill your way through the city again. Different roads lead to different challenges.
- Skopje has its own unique way of revealing its secrets, with engrossing environmental storytelling that pulls you into a world of alternate history Balkans, occult dealings, retro-futuristic science and more!
Uncle Chop’s gotta make rent and that means you need to fix up spaceships lest you get chucked into the bin. Fix, discover, and talk to the residents of ‘Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop’ world. Featuring rash humour, a cruel world, and fun management-style gameplay, you’ve got to give developer Beard Envy’s Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop a whirl.
On an asteroid-bound service station in an unfrequented space lane, Wilbur carves out a paltry living as a mechanic, repairing as many ships as he can to afford the ever-rising R.E.N.T payments to his corporate overlord, Uncle Chop. Where most of his customers find meaning in pastimes like worshipping deranged space gods, feeding random crap to a sentient black hole, endlessly digging for The Treasure™ or mentally enslaving donut shop workers, Wilbur lives a more humble life, fixing the galaxy’s ills one broken ship module at a time.
Check out the full details of the game this way.
Maximum Entertainment’s ‘Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age’ is a 2v2 fighting game. Seriously, not tag-team but all characters battle on the same stage at the same time. With a steampunk style and an added layer of strategy, you’ve gotta give this one a try.
FEATURES
- Couch Co-Op Online! Any mixture of local and online players works.
- FULL STORY MODE: Play through unique stories for every fighter, featuring single player or couch/online play!
- Arcade Mode– A classic arcade style opponent ladder featuring bosses and unique surprise challenges
- CPU! Team up with or take out that nasty AI before they take all our jobs!
- Training Mode! Incredibly robust training options to master the intricacies of each character, including frame data, hitboxes, recordings, save states and much more.
- Combo Trials & More: Test your knowledge and skill with additional challenge modes.
- Drop-In and Drop-Out– Meet up in the lobby, invite friends, and play all game modes by queuing up with friends or randoms, the choice is yours!
- Voice Chat Supported! Coordinate with your team or give ‘em that good ole wholesome FGC banter.
- Spectate! Got someone you love to follow? Follow them and know when they are brawling live!
- Unlimited live spectators with live match controls!
- Live spectating includes all replay features including hitboxes, frame data, and taking control of a character to see what you would’ve done differently! It gives “hindsight is 20/20” a whole new meaning!
Other games too stressful? No problemo, here’s ‘SCHiM’, a fun and relaxing 3D platformer that has you take the form of what looks to be a frog that must use the shadows to traverse levels. Hop, skip, and jump your way through city streets, parks, the whole works as you make your way through a lively city.
FEATURES
- Unique 3D platforming through shadows.
- Animated shadow platforms and environments.
- Each level has its own scenery with small stories.
- A story of a person losing their shadow.
- A beautiful abstract world.
Like dungeon crawling? Decks? Try ‘Dungeon Clawler’, where Stray Fawn Studio’s take on dungeon crawling becomes a claw-gripping adventure. Players will build their decks, fight enemies with weapons and artifacts obtained from a claw machine all to escape these maddening monsters.
FEATURES
- Deck Building: Build your unique deck to effectively fight an array of different enemies. Choose wisely, as certain items interact with each other as well as the claw machine.
- Lucky Charms: Discover powerful good-luck charms that can quickly change the gameplay and greatly help you on your quest.
- Different playable Characters: Choose from a lineup of fun playable characters, each with unique strengths and weaknesses.
- Mystery Locations: Venture into mystery locations and discover treasures as well as strange, dangerous things…
- Push Your Luck: Spend your hard earned coin in the dungeon’s pachinko machines – with a bit of luck you might get powerful items which help you on your quest.
Game developer and music producer ‘Sam Enright’ has come from the deep trenches of space, bringing the 2.5D adventure role-playing game ‘Beyond Galaxyland’ just for you to try. Take on the role of a highschooler who goes by the name Doug as he scours Galaxyland for a way to restore our world back to the way it was after it gets wiped out by “The End”, a celestial destroyer of worlds.
FEATURES
- Explore the many extraordinary worlds of Galaxyland in an adventure to save the Earth
- Experience a thrilling story that pays homage to your favourite retro sci-fi movies
- Form a party of diverse companions to overcome foes in tactical turn-based combat
- Capture enemies in combat to later unleash as allies or buffs during future battles
- Craft new armours and consumables to aid Doug and his pals on their journey
- Engage in over 25 epic boss battles with the Universe’s most-feared adversaries
- A truly unique soundtrack unlike anything you’ve heard (at least on this planet) with over 50 diverse tracks spanning a myriad of genres from electronic to hip-hop to piano-heavy blues.
Like turn-based? Like tactics? What about zombies? Like jazz? Forget the last part, but if you said “yes” to the first three check out Snail Bites’ ‘Dead Season’. Survive this harsh and dangerous world (seriously, you will be test), all hand-crafted by a solo developer with passion.
FEATURES
- UNFORGIVING TURN-BASED COMBAT: Survive at all costs as you complete objectives and escape dangerous situations with weapons you scavenge along the way. Level up and unlock new abilities to survive even in harsher environments.
- HAND-CRAFTED SINGLE-PLAYER CAMPAIGN: Embark on your journey through 16 missions as you tackle new and unique challenges along the way. Immerse yourself in the narrative through captivating motion comics that propel the story forward.
- NOISE ATTRACTS DANGER: Do whatever it takes to survive against the threat of zombies, but beware, the more noise you make, the more trouble it will bring.
- THE RELENTLESS THREAT OF ENEMIES: Face a wide variety of zombies and other hostile survivors as you traverse deeper into the world, offering unique tactical challenges.
- A DARKENED WORLD: Navigate through terrifying nights and grim streets, where destruction, violence, and panic cast deep shadows in the face of the zombie apocalypse.
- MADE WITH PASSION: Dead Season was created and made as a passion project by a solo developer. If you have any feedback or thoughts, let me know!
Ok ok, too much horror, too much unforgiving stuffs, maybe too much tactics. How about snowboarding? Tricky Madness was re-announced, its demo being dropped today ahead of its participation in Next Fest. If you find yourself a fan of SSX and 1080, you owe it to yourself to try Tricky Madness, which follows in the steps of those arcade snowboarding legends. And if you’ve yet to try a snowboarding game in your dreary, potentially miserable little life, why not give it a swing? It might just trick you into madness.
FEATURES
- Build up boost levels by scoring points while from tricks and grinding. Upon landing, unleash a powerful boost for a limited time based on the level you’ve built. Frequent tricking is the key to enhancing your speed for a thrilling ride!
- Build up your Tricky meter with spins, flips, grabs, and grinds then perform Uber Tricks and Uber Grinds to really score big.
- The Superman, The Worm, and The Butt Slide Grind are some of the many Uber Tricks you can unleash as you style on everyone.
- Chain tricks together to score more points based on the number of tricks you performed in a combo. Board presses keep your combo alive in between jumps and rails.
- Extra points earned form combos are held in a separate counter and are cashed in when you stop the combo or completely lost if you wipeout, manage the risk-reward element while you tear it up on the slopes.
- 8 handcrafted standalone maps each with hidden surprises and experiences
- A dedicated campaign mode set on an open-world mountain with secrets and collectibles.
- 8 fully voiced characters with their own backstory, personalities, and snowboarding tricks.
- A voiced in-game DJ commentator, hyping you up as you make your way through the game.
Developer Rablo Games’ ‘Necro Story’ is a lighthearted role-playing game where you play as a (kinda sorta) evil necromancer by the name of Jaimus. Jaimus the Necromancer is headed to the underworld and will raise skelly armies, forge pacts with demons, and capture souls in this amusing little RPG with autobattling mechanics. The watercoloured visuals are also a standout!
FEATURES
- Dive into five schools of magic – Affliction, Darkness, Life Stealing, Summoning, and Dark Pacts – experiment with over 20 spells, each with their own unique skill tree.
- Customize Your Undead Army: Capture the souls of your enemies and add them to your team. With up to 9 members in your party, the strategic possibilities are endless!
- Transform Into Powerful Demons: Sign Dark Pacts to transform and unleash devastating powers.
- Engage in Real-Time Battles: Use your necromantic prowess to outwit and overpower your foes in dynamic battles.
- Unlock Hidden Secrets – Pay close attention to your surroundings, as the game is full of hidden paths you can unlock to gain access to unique equipment & items.
- Witty Banter – Necro Story doesn’t take itself too seriously and is filled with light-hearted interactions with various demons, souls and other silly NPCs.
LemonChili Soft’s ‘Super Farming Boy’ is an exciting mix of action, puzzle, and farming sim, heavily relying on chain reactions and combos. You play as Super, a little boy whose mother and friends have been taken away by the vile Korpo and now you’ve gotta work your land back if you want any chance at seeing your family every again! This one’s got a great art style, too!
FEATURES
- Superhero abilities. Super Farming Boy™ has the ability to walk, run, and even fly! Additionally, he can transform into any tool with a simple push or tap of a button—be it a shovel, pickaxe, axe, or hammer.
- Chain Reaction & Combos. Optimize your farm by harvesting a single crop and witnessing the chain and combo effects efficiently harvest your entire farm at once. However, meticulous planning in your planting efforts is essential!
- Lots of Supertools to Upgrade. All SuperTools and powers in Super Farming Boy™ come in the form of old-school superhero trading cards. Unlock and upgrade them all!
- Outlandish Seasons to Discover. Explore a plethora of unique seasons in Super Farming Boy™, including Spring, Winteria, Volcanic, Radioactive, Underwater (coming soon), and Timewarp (coming soon).
- Idle helpers to collect. Rescue all your pets by purchasing them back from Korpo™®©! Each pet comes with a unique mechanic to help automate your farm.
- No inventory management. Super Farming Boy™ eliminates the need for inventory management. All seeds and helpers are creatures that follow you wherever you go, avoiding the hassle of an ever-filling inventory!
- Beauty Up and Customize it All. Personalize your BlobHouse with fantastic beauty items such as tables, rugs, and beds! Your home will be uniquely yours and look amazing with your creative touch.
- Boss Fights, in a farming game? (coming soon).
- Utilize your crops’ combo and chain reaction powers to defend your farm against evil creatures like crop eaters and Seasonal Bosses!
- Mushroom Boosters (coming soon). Discover all the crazy Mushroom Booster power-ups that provide instant effects, such as Daylight during the night, Instant Weather changing effects, and more mysterious effects. Mix and combine them to see what happens!
- Touch Controls that are actually good. Enjoy intuitive touch controls—drag and drop every item in the game! Alternatively, play with your favorite XBOX/PS or Bluetooth controller.
Mehuman Games’ upcoming vampire simulation title ‘Vampire Dynasty‘ is a unique blend of open world, settlement management, and narrative choices that impact how your game will play out. There’s even coop multiplayer! An ambitious title for sure, but the developer is so confident in their game that they’ll be putting up a demo for Vampire Dynasty on the 10th. Worth checking out for simulation and vampire fans alike—this will be one of the first demos I touch when it drops during Steam Next Fest.
FEATURES
- The mountain ranges, forests, dungeons, swamps, and other areas of the huge game world are filled not only with dangerous enemies and villages to conquer, but offer plenty of secrets and huge rewards for all who are daring enough to tempt fate and explore. Experience the extensive story and the sinister world either solo or together with your friends in co-operative multiplayer.
- You can build and customize beautiful medieval or gothic inspired castles multiple stories high, rivaling the homes of Count Dracula or Vlad the Impaler’s Poenari Castle.
- You decide who lives, who dies and who will be your eternal follower. Leverage their strengths to ensure only the most skilled join your ranks and ensure the expanse of your vampire lineage.
- Superhuman strength, heightened perception, enhanced speed and more. Enjoy the perks of being inhuman – see, hear, and taste the world unreachable to the mortals. You can even control a bat and traverse the vast landscape flying.
- Strike fear into the hearts of your enemies and vassals or become a benevolent ruler. Eternity is yours to shape. Depending on your choices, you can experience a wide variety of possible main story endings, before you continue exploring the open world.
- Invite your friends to become creatures of the night! Unleash your creativity building your base together, explore dark and broody Sangavia, and prove your prowess as invincible fighters.
A survival horror that takes place in the trenches of WWI, ‘Conscript’ will test your survival across intricate levels and daunting gameplay, inspired by horror games of yore. You’ll need every bit of gear you can find to find your brother, with multiple endings to boot. I’ve yet to try this one, namely as I’m terrified of my own shadow—but you’re better than that so give the demo a whirl today!
FEATURES
- Experience classic and methodical survival horror gameplay in a unique historical setting: the Battle of Verdun.
- Highly re-playable with various difficulty settings, multiple endings, unlockable costumes and bonus weapons.
- Fend off a variety of enemy soldiers and combatants with a variety of WW1 melee weapons and firearms.
- Survive in an intense, harrowing atmosphere boosted by a unique pixel art aesthetic and oppressive sound design.
- Navigate intricate level design that promotes item management and route planning, whilst solving complex environmental puzzles.
- Distinct WW1 themed areas that intertwine and overlap.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown
An IP thought gone… Until now. Nacon’s ‘Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’ takes players through the beautiful island of Hong Kong. A staple of the series to recreate locations such as the fabulous Honolulu, you’ll be driving low-end 4Runners to luxury cars as you race your way to success.
‘Blue Prince’ is a strategy puzzler that will test your abilities as rooms shift and change. It’s one thing to do puzzles (and that itself needs strategy) but now you will need to strategise your exploration of the mysterious Mt. Holly. Will you be able to get to the rumoured Room 46 in Dogubomb’s beautiful genre-shifting puzzler?
Your progress each day is shaped by the rooms you select to draft and the tools you find within them. Items in the game can be used in a number of creative ways to fuel your exploration deeper into the house, allowing you to adopt unique strategies to combat the challenges that each day brings. Yet, tread wisely – the house resets each dawn, erasing all but the permanent upgrades to your estate blueprint. That is, if you were clever enough to find one!
As the heir of Mt. Holly, you have been tasked to explore its shifting halls in search of Room 46. Yet as your journey takes you further into the mansion’s depths, you start to discover that there is more lurking under the surface than a missing room. Investigate a past woven with the threads of blackmail, political intrigue, and the mysterious disappearance of a local children’s book author. The deeper you venture, the more you realize that the past is closer than it appears.
‘Machinika: Atlas’ is a direct sequel to ‘Machinika Museum’, placing players in the shoes of a researcher who has just landed on Atlas. First person puzzle solving tied with cryptic challenges and a Myst-like feeling will surely pull you in for a good time. Littlefield Studio’s Machinika: Atlas has their demo available now for your convenience.
FEATURES
- Engage your sharp logic skills and keen sense of observation to conquer puzzles.
- Immerse yourself in a sci-fi ambiance filled with unknowns, where every step brings you closer to unveiling the truth behind the ship’s mystery
- Play effortlessly with intuitive and enjoyable controls, ensuring that the complexity lies within the puzzles, not the gameplay.
- Dive into a mysterious narrative that beckons you to uncover the secrets hidden behind these intricate devices.
Impossible Home’s ‘Whimel Academy’ is a time management simulation game that sets itself in the backdrop of a wizarding school. Play as a student of magic and shape your future in this cosy adventure where you might find yourself engaged too much in working, making friends, or blossoming a budding love. With a pleasantly soft and inviting artstyle, An inclusive world of magic for all awaits!
FEATURES
- Back to Basics: Players must navigate their schedule wisely, balancing classes, extracurricular activities, friendships, and personal well-being.
- Get Working: Earn an income through part-time work, or try crafting and selling your wares for profit! Excel in potion-making, painting, cooking, and more; as you improve, unlock higher-quality ingredients for higher profits!
- Friendships Await: Forge meaningful connections with fellow students and explore romantic possibilities with Whimel’s multiple in-game characters.
- Whimsical Worldbuilding: Immerse yourself in a charming fantasy world filled with delightful details, a cozy atmosphere, and slice-of-life experiences that transport players to a magical realm.
- Find Your Own Path: Tailor your character’s journey by focusing on your interests, leading to over thirty unique endings based on your decisions and accomplishments throughout the game.
- An Approachable Adventure: Whimel Academy strives for inclusivity by featuring a diverse cast of characters and emphasizing personal well-being.
Mácula Interactive’s ‘Mexico, 1921. A Deep Slumber.’ takes player through a narrative adventure during a pivotal moment in Mexican history.
1921 follows the life of Juan Aguirre, a young photojournalist that will be swept by Mexico’s whirlwind transformation to modernity, find himself inside the surreal revolutionary art world, rub shoulders with politicians and discover through his camera why Mexico ain’t no place for the weak.
Explore Mexico during the 1920s now!
A turn-based role-playing game is what ‘Wander Stars’ is. What developer Paper Castle Games’ was also about to say is that Wander Stars’ combat system is all based on words you combine up to your spirit level and what you have on hand. Action, Modifier, and Elemental Words gives you a plethora of options to take down your foes in this wicked-cool RPG with art heavily inspired by late 80s anime.
A Day One Game Pass game with a demo! Microbird Games’ upcoming ‘Dungeons of Hinterberg’ is available to play. The game’s out in a month, but you can try out this social sim slash adventure slash dungeon crawler hybrid for yourself right now!
Metal Slug but with a twist! This time around we’re storming the battlefield in a tactical RPG-style of gameplay, complete with a roguelite twist and the ever-beautiful art the Metal Slug series is known for.
FEATURES
● Discover the first tactical RPG in the METAL SLUG franchise
● Experience a huge replayability with its die-and-retry roguelite progression
● Enjoy amazing pixel art graphics, a heartfelt tribute to the series
● Battle Morden’s Army in 110 hand-crafted maps and 20 different mission types
● Bring the perfect setup for every mission with 36 different weapons and 176 weapon mods
● Choose between 9 iconic characters from the series and create the perfect team
● Experiment with 36 loadouts and combos to outsmart your enemies
● Challenge iconic bosses from the METAL SLUG universe
● Headbang all the way with an amazing soundtrack by Tee Lopes
Thanks for checking out this list! Though I wasn’t able to always keep it updated as often as I wanted to, I’ll definitely be back for another Steam Fest when they roll around. 🙂
