Curious to get the community’s thoughts on the demos they loved in the latest Next Fest!
To start things off, here’s a few that I absolutely loved and played through as much as I could (or stopped myself if I knew I’d like it).
Viewfinder - A first person puzzle game a la Portal, The Witness, Antichamber, Entropy Center, etc…I played enough to see the hook of using images to solve puzzles and backed away quickly. This was a game I didn’t want to spoil too much for myself when I saw how cool it was.
Beyond Sunset - This was a “boomer shooter” recommendation I saw on Lemmy and checked it out because it seemed neat. I got really into the storyline and art style of the game and saw it through to the end of the demo. I almost gave up on the final boss but when I said no and wanted to push through, I knew I was hooked!
Galacticare - In the last few years, “simulation games” seem to have become my preferred genre and managing an outer space hospital was really engaging. I enjoyed designing each room and trying to optimize the flow of patients. The style and humor of the game worked well since sometimes the humor can feel a little “try hard” but it came together nicely. I don’t purchase a lot of games Day One any more but this might be one of them.
One Lonely Outpost - I’ve had this on my wishlist since it was announced during a stretch of time I was playing Stardew Valley, but this was the first time it’s been playable. I enjoyed the interactions with the world but I’m not sure what exactly it would build to (since the planet you land on is desolate). It may be about creating the town/outpost yourself. The demo seemed to overstay its welcome a bit BUT Stardew Valley-likes are super slow in the beginning, so I’m in a “wait and see” mode since I did enjoy parts of it and the unique setting.
Anything that ended up on your radar after this Next Fest?
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Neverlooted Dungeon: Comedy dungeon crawler inspired by games like Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis. The demo consists of a tutorial and a small open-ended area to explore, with a focus on avoiding traps and interacting with physics objects to navigate and find loot. The demo doesn’t really show off Arx-levels of complexity, but it’s fun to explore and genuinely funny at times.
Stop Dead: Fast paced first person shooter where you attack enemies by using telekinetic powers to hurl objects and bodies to deal damage. The weapons work kinda like Mirror’s Edge, in that instead of getting your own loadout you pick dropped guns up off the floor and get rid of them once they’re out of ammo. Also, if you stop moving for more than a moment, you die. Demo is quite varied, and ends with a challenging mid-game level to show off the mechanics a bit more.
Mr. Run and Jump: Challenging 2D platformer with a lot of different moves that can be chained together in slick ways. There’s not much of a narrative and the neon visuals kinda look dated in a not-even-retro way, but the movement really carries the whole game.
Echo Point Nova: New shooter by the developers of Severed Steel. Has a lot of the same mechanics (slow motion, destructible terrain, etc), but makes the levels a lot more open and adds a grappling hook and hoverboard for a different style of mobility. There’s a bit of jank, but it’s very satisfying to play.
El Paso, Elsewhere: Indie Max Payne. I’m not exaggerating, it plays like Max Payne 2 and looks and feels like Max Payne 1. Swap out the main character and it could pass as a phenomenally faithful fangame.
Phoenix Springs: Stylised neo-noir narrative-driven point and click adventure. I usually don’t have the patience for these sorts of games, but I found the writing and visuals very compelling.
Fortune’s Run: Sprite based RPG FPS with level design that feels a bit like the classic Deus Ex, but with the fast paced combat of a boomer shooter. Has a Star Warsy rough and gritty sci-fi setting, if you’re into that.
The Next Fests are my favourite Steam event by far, already looking forward to the next one!
I’ve played several, mostly games I’ve been following so no huge surprises. My highlights were:
Lies of P
Great soulslike built on a grim take on Pinocchio. Borrows a lot from Bloodborne, oppressive and interesting world, satisfying combat.Sea of Stars
Super charming JRPG I’ve been looking forward to for a while, great pixel art, fun combat system with timed hits, great music.LunarLux
Very similar to a Mega Man Battle Network game, but combat leans more towards the turn based side of the spectrum. Has some Undertale influences as well. The art being as cute as it is might turn some off, but it’s a plus for myself.Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
Strategy game from the folks behind Shadow Tactics and Desperados. You control undead pirates with unique and fun abilities, and the game encourages you to rewind time as needed to experiment and play around.Honorable mentions go to Eternights and Viewfinder. Fantastic games all around, the following months are looking great!
I really enjoyed Shadow Gambit’s integration of save scumming into the gameplay loop. Took me a minute to realise that the bell ringing wasn’t auto saving but letting you know you could make another save but after that I really enjoyed it. Super curious to see how the different characters interact with eachother!
Ohh so that’s what it was lol, I’d assumed it was auto saving at first as well but got confused when it didn’t seem to generate an actual new save slot. At any rate, I reckon it’s a good thing it was generous enough that I didn’t even register it had limits in place to begin with.
Looking forward to the crew interactions too, seems ripe for a fun time since the game doesn’t take itselt too seriously and they all look interesting and seem to have fun abilities.
The Invincible - A walking sim I guess, not my cup of tea, it looks pretty good though
Little Kitty, Big City - you play as a cat, which is nice, it has some fun parts, but didn’t like this one, I found the controls a bit clunky
Station to Station - a puzzle game where you connect different buildings through a train network. It could be alright, but the two levels I played were a bit boring. The puzzle part comes from limited money I guess, and you get different cards, like cheaper rails or bridges, that you can use
Gunbrella - 2D Metroidvania, you have a gun umbrella, that can shoot different types of ammo, and also for movement abilities, like a sort of double jump or glide. Plays pretty smooth, so I’ll keep an eye out for this.
Three Kindoms Zhao Yun - looks like some sort of ARPG in a Three Kingdoms setting, but it didn’t run very well, I gave up after a few minutes, most of which was cutscenes. You have different skills, but I just didn’t play that much to really say anything about it
I still wanna give Eternights and Lies of P a try, but dunno when I’ll get to them.
Gunbrella is made by the folks who did Gato Roboto, which is a short and snappy metroidvania - super stoked to see they’re working on a longer game with similar vibes!
Some pretty good demos out there:
Lies of P- People said this was like Bloodborne and they were not wrong. I enjoyed this a lot, and that the demo lasted up until the second boss made it fairly meaty.
Fortune’s Run- Interesting pixel art style deus-ex type game. Seems to have a lot of gameplay mechanics, but it was also really hard, I was not able to finish the demo, but I enjoyed what I saw.
En Garde!- Fun sword-fighting action game. The parry system was simple and the use of the environment made fights more interesting. Combat felt a little too samey, unsure if it will expand further as the game progresses.
Goodbye Volcano High- I enjoyed the characters and the voice acting, but the demo was fairly short, so I’m not entirely sure its going to go somewhere interesting, but dinosaurs are cool, so that gives it extra marks.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical- Wasn’t sure what to expect from a musical, but it was definitely different. The demo jumps around a bit to different scenes which threw me off, but I liked what I saw and the singing definitely sets it apart.
Eternights- The gameplay and setup seemed interesting, but I was annoyed at how horny the game was. I feel they went way overboard in that department and was their go to for any light-hearted comedy.
Did you really enjoy the gameplay in lies of p? The controls felt sluggish to me. The animations felt sooo ling that I wasn’t able to react properly to the harder enemies. Might be the demo though.
It took me a while to get into the rhythm of fighting the doll enemies as their movement is really jerky, so its harder to read. Or maybe its the weapon choice that matters here, I picked the Rapier, which I assume is the fastest of the 3 starter weapons. I did not try out the others, so I’m not sure how slow they are.
Little Kitty, Big City - Cute game, nice art, not-so-great camera. Got a little motion sick.
Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical - More or less what I expected after the gameplay reveals on Fig back when it was Chorus, but the dialogue mixing needs work. Levels were all over the place.
Station to Station - Voxel train-based puzzler. The art is quite nice, but the game play loop didn’t draw me in. It’s basically a puzzler of matching inputs to outputs via train tracks.
Paleo Pines - I’d say this is Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing but with dinosaurs! Cute, but couldn’t really get a sense of how it’ll develop; life sims take a bit to get going. Liked what I saw so far. Dinos are really cute too.
Jumplight Odyssey - Star Trek meets FTL meets late 70s/early 80s cartoon aesthetic. Ship management sim, liked what I saw so far. FTL-mechanic of having the big bad chase you might be off-putting to some. A difficulty level slider to tweak the speed of the chase might be welcome.
Glad I wasn’t the only one who thought the audio mixing was a little sub-par on Stray Gods. I’m left wondering if the full release is going to be like that, or if it’s just that the demo was released before they’d done a polish pass on the audio. Hopefully that’s something reviews talk about!
Trepang2 - an okay shooter
The invincible - great atmospheric adventure in space
I’m looking forward to The Invincible. It felt very similar to Firewatch in terms of using the radio to stay in communication with a distant helpful character, and the overall sense of isolation and mystery. And just being walking simulator-ish lol
I tried The Invincible and bounced off it. I think the fact that the demo was in the middle of things vs the start threw me off, especially for a game about building story and vibes over time. I could tell there was something cool there it just didn’t leave a good first impression for me.
The Invincible was the only one I tried and I was really looking forward to it. I love the artstyle and although it does not seem to be a game that´s very “gamey” (if that makes sense), it has the potential to tell a great story in a fantastic setting… but I will wait for the reviews once it is out. But I really liked what i saw in the Demo.
Eternights - A game which takes inspiration from the Persona series, but doesn’t take itself too seriously which really gives a great unique separation from Persona. It is filled with SOVL. Voice actors are absolutely top-tier (Hu Tao’s and Riuji’s / Itto’s VA-s are present as I feel it).
Little Kitty Big City - As a cat, you need to get back to your home which is atop of a tall building. It’s game where you combine Untitle Goose Game and Stray into eachother. It’s a really wholesome and funny game, with some 4th wall breaking lines in the demo. It sold the game for me.
I skimmed over that Little Kitty Big City page thinking the game wasn’t for me, but based on your description I’m very curious now!
Ngl and you made me interested in Viewfinder. ^^
Wizard with a gun - I really enjoyed this one. Can’t wait to try the finished game coop with friends
The Invincible - Looks promising, the story sounds great but the controls were pretty unintuitive
Gord - The Settlers meets Grimdark. I enjoyed it
Grand Emprise: Time Travel Survival - A pretty janky hobbyist project. Pretty impressive for a solo dev but I don’t see it going anywhere
Station to Station - Looked great visually but very easy and very little depth. Not a sim but a simple puzzle game.
Dragonheir: Silent Gods - Clearly fishing for a D&D license. I can smell the microtransactions coming a mile away. Little depth or strategy. No thank you.
While the iron’s hot - Stardew Valley but you’re a blacksmith. I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected.
Sea of Stars - It reminded me a lot of older SNES RPGs from the past (looking at you, Chrono Trigger). I enjoyed this one a fair bit and looking forward to its release.
Enternights - The gameplay was interesting but pushing the whole horny thing a bit too much. The facial animations look like they could use a bit more work as they looked quite jarring/didn’t seem to go with the rest of the game. The music was enjoyable though.
Stray Gods — the demo did a great job of demonstrating what the gameplay will be like! the art is gorgeous and the voice acting is solid. I just have a few minor critiques: the soundscape of the VO felt weirdly empty and echo-y. I would have loved some additional room tone ambience, additional SFX like fabric swishes when characters turn their heads: imo it needs a little something to make it all feel cohesive. The demo was also structured so that you get a taste of later songs, but without clearly communicating that the new gameplay section was from a new part of the game, which confused me. It also made it harder to care about those choices because I’m missing the context.
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood — I can’t believe they let us play for so long in the demo?! I kept thinking ok it’s going to end now but it didn’t! That’s always a nice surprise in a demo. The card design mechanic was enjoyable, and detailed enough to provide room for personalization but not too complex to be overwhelming. The mechanic also appeared in an interlude where I wasn’t expecting it (which also had a later influence on dialogue) - that was a delight, and I think is a good sign of further depth in the full game. I like that the main character has a distinct personality and isn’t a generic character or too self-insert-y. Can’t wait for the full release of the game!
Venba — the demo is short and sweet, but enough to let me know I’ll like the full game. the recipes-as-puzzles is fun, and a neat introduction to the world of Indian cooking. and ofc the art and animation is lovely - I especially loved the menu and options screens.
Saltsea Chronicles — there was clearly a lot of thought and care given to this demo. I really appreciated the initial context they provided around “here’s what’s happened in the story so far”, and the little glossary pop-ups when characters used new words was a great touch. Charming characters and world building. In dialogue choices, it wasn’t clear which character you’re making the dialogue choice for, but as I got further along I think it’s more about the vibe and not picking specific dialogue choices. Keeping my eye on this one for sure!
Slay The Princess — this is an older demo that I hadn’t tried yet. 10/10, this sucked me in for several hours. There are so many interesting options and paths to choose, and the voice acting and art is amazing. I’m very curious where this will go in the full game!
My personal highlight was Genopanic. I cute-spooky pixelart metroidvania-inspired platformer with a good mix of exploration, puzzles and combat. No aspect is super deep, but nicely done.
Do the demos generally become unavailable after the fest is over?
It depends. In my experience, most demos stay up, and the few that are taken down sometimes explicitly say so on the store page or demo announcement.
Loddlenaut - A cute little trash collecting game. It seems pretty chill and fun. I didn’t get to the point of meeting the titular Loddles because I want to save that for release, but the satisfaction of cleaning up the environment and picking up pieces of trash is already a solid loop even without adding additional mechanics. Potato computer friendly.
One Lonely Outpost - It’s a bad sign when you get frustrated by repetitive, uninteresting tasks in the first 30 minutes of the game. From a design perspective, it needs to answer “Why?” a lot better. Why are we gathering archeology fragments? Why are we doing these irritating and honestly unfun tasks? And not in a “Well we’re making the world habitable”, the answer needs to be more direct: “We’re looking for soil analyzer blueprints to be able to tell where to plant our crops”. It might have some magic fun hidden later in the game, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with the demo.
Wizard with a Gun - Neat concept and fairly fun to play. I find isometric non-tile-based games clunky, and this game doesn’t change that feeling. I might pick it up if my friends show interest in playing co-op.
Grand Emprise: Time Travel Survival - Interesting concept, but extremely jank. Poor UI, mechanics aren’t that tight or interesting, animations are extremely clunky and ‘combat’ is laughable. It almost feels like an asset flip.
Paleo Pines - Cute, but something feels off. I’m not sure if it’s the animations, the shaders, or something else, but something gives the game a visually half-finished feel. I’m interested to see where this one goes and what further polish it receives.
Mr. Run and Jump - The transition between the first level and the second was really neat. The gameplay is fairly fun.
Laika: Aged Through Blood for sure. Wild mix of ultraviolence and being a mom for your cute daughter. The motorcycle gameplay is hard but it feels so good when you get it right, and the demo gives you so much to work with
Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery
The remake of the cult classic bakery girl finally gets a demo after it’s 2021 release date came and went. And it was pretty good. Runs well, shows the progress Mica made as a studio. Very excited for the full release to scratch that Fire Emblem style itch that Engage didn’t really satisfy.
