steam next fest

Boomer shooters, retro FPS games, whatever you want to call them. They’re popular on Steam, and for a good reason: they’re loads of fun. But what if you stepped back into a classic ’80s and early ’90s anime, with big guns and an even bigger need for speed? In Mullet Mad Jack, the gunplay will feel familiar but other mechanics are very unique. Hammer95 Studios’ heart-pounding and action-packed roguelike shooter had a demo as a part of Steam Next Fest, and it catapulted its way into my heart and onto my wishlist. The…

Deep space exploration, spaceship customization, and good ‘ol dude-bashing card games don’t seem like they go together, but after playing the demo for Breachway, I can confidently say this actually makes a perfect trio.  Breachway combines roguelike elements with deckbuilding to create a run-based space exploration game presenting new challenges in every star system. The basic hook has you exploring a large region of space while searching for new ship components and thus adding cards to the deck you’ll use in combat.…

The ’80s and early ’90s were a haven for a very specific type of arcade side-scroller. Ripped heroes brandished blades and vile wizards attempted to stop them at every turn, and that spirit is very much alive in Abathor, which is available to try out as part of Steam Next Fest. Abathor comes from developer Pow Pixel Games, and upon firing the demo up I was whisked away to a world full of bold box art, Fabio’s hair blowing in the breeze. The demo conjures thoughts of games like Rastan, Magic Sword, or even Turbografx-16…

The internet sure does love a cat, as illustrated by games like Stray, and Copycat eagerly jumps on that bandwagon in its demo debut. Thankfully, that never feels gimmicky, and the Steam Next Fest sampling is packed with enough emotion to make the grumpiest grouch’s heart melt. Copycat illustrates a somber mix of both loss and belonging through Dawn, the cat, and Olive, an older lady who adopts her. Dawn isn’t receptive at all to her new home where even the ring of a telephone has the feline racing for cover. Before her…

There are plenty of sampler platters to sift through during Steam Next Fest, but if you’re a Mega Man fan looking for something fast and fun, you need to set aside a half-hour or so to check out the Berserk Boy demo.  Developed by BerserkBoy Games — hey, if you’re gonna put all your eggs in one place this ain’t a bad basket — Berserk Boy currently has a couple of levels available in its demo. After a brief opening that finds our hero learning how to harness his berserk potential, we’re immediately thrust into…

Despite being at the proper age for it, I never caught on with Rugrats. I don’t think it really aired much with my cable provider. I do, however, know the NES quite well, and I can confirm Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland is an NES game. This is despite the fact that the game will also have an HD art style over top of the 8-Bit backbone (not available on NES) that you can toggle on or off. Allegedly. That’s not actually in the demo. All you get is a taste for is the NES version, which strikes me as an odd decision. I…

It’s rare that a demo hooks me in as quickly as Mouthwashing did. Sure, plenty of games have solid slices showcasing a few cool gameplay elements that make me intrigued, curious, or interested to see the final build. But it’s really rare for a demo to feel so crafted that it might as well be a standalone work, impressive in-and-of-itself, outside the bounds of previewing. Horror games are usually the ones that thrive in that space. Some of my most well-remembered demos, like Signalis, Slay the Princess, and the two…

11 bit Studios The first Steam Next Fest of 2024 is here, allowing game developers to share limited-time demos of their upcoming games to get feedback and hype up players for previously unknown games. This Next Fest actually features the demos of some higher profile games, like the first public demos for Appeal Studios’ Outcast — A New Beginning, Surgent Studios’ Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, and Mintrocket’s Wakerunners. The true beauties of Steam Next Fest are the more experimental titles that tend to fly under the radar,…

Every couple of months, Valve holds a Steam Next Fest event on Steam. During that time, lots of indie developers briefly release demos of their upcoming titles to gain more in-development feedback on their games and build some prelaunch hype for the titles. We love trying out some of these games and rounding up our favorites each time a Steam Next Fest rolls around. This year, we’ve already talked about how two climbing game demos really stuck out to us, but that’s not all that’s worth checking out. There…

There are currently a ton of great game demos to try in the wake of this month’s plethora of gaming showcases, but there are two specific titles that should be on your list right now during Steam Next Fest: Jusant and Surmount. While these two titles come from different developers, they share a premise. Both games are about climbing. The basics of their controls are similar, asking players to use the triggers or bumpers to grab surfaces, emulating the feeling of clamping down a hand. Despite those high-level…