Steam Next Fest is a multi-day celebration where fans can try out demos, chat with developers, watch live streams, and learn about upcoming games on Steam. For developers, Steam Next Fest is an opportunity to get early feedback from players and build an audience for a future launch on Steam. There are over 700 demos to try from June 16th – 22nd.
Sable
I have been eagerly waiting to get my hands on. A spiritual successor to Team Ico’s best work in the aesthetic of the late and great Moebius. This is a more slow paced meditative open world game and the design of the world from the graphics to the HUD do a great job of elevating a feeling of zen and wonder. I can’t wait to play more in Sable’s world and zoom around on my motorbike exploring sand covered derelict spaceships and what it means to be fearless.
You can download the demo here https://store.steampowered.com/app/757310/Sable/
Death Trash
Death Trash is, what I am calling, a punk post apocalypse lovecraftian action rpg. It pushes so many of my buttons in all the right and wrong ways. When games try and be thematically dark I rarely ever find them to be such but Death Punk really took me by surprise and made me feel like I was about to fall into a deep dark depressive state, it’s vile, in a good way. The backdrop of the world is just dour and all humanity is legitimately lost.
Oh and you can use throw-up as lubricant to power machines that require human liquids to turn on, so that’s cool.
You can download the demo here https://store.steampowered.com/app/941460/Death_Trash/
Dodgeball Academia
Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if all of these games ended up on my top 5 of the year list. But, Dodgeball Academia feels even more special to me than that. There is just something about this game that filled me with utter joy and wonder. The world building, characters and aesthetic just all come together as one harmonious tone that gave me butterflies. The combat is a fast paced action RPG in the form of middle schoolers with supernatural abilities playing dodgeball. I don’t want to go deeper than that because I think a huge joy of Dodgeball Academia is figuring things out on your own. I highly recommend this one.
You can download the demo here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1422420/Dodgeball_Academia/
Cris Tales
What an interesting take on the traditional JRPG. Alongside being drop dead gorgeous the game has an interesting gameplay and story mechanic where you exist during three points of time. The past, present and future are at your fingertips any moment you want. Do you want to go back in time and save the apothecary from shutting down in the future? Or do you want to save the single mom and her child’s home? During combat you have many more choices like sending an enemy to the future to make them old and less nimble or placing a poisonous plant in their vicinity in the present then forwarding time where the poisonous plant is fully grown and ready to burst. How about making someones armor wet in the present then shoving them in the future to rust it? There are so many possibilities with Cris Tales and I am very eager to see what they do with it.
You can download the demo here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079830/Cris_Tales/
Wolfstride
Wolfstride is a game about the world’s most popular sport, mecha battles. Taking on odd jobs here and there to pay for the repairs of your mecha on top of buying new gear for it so you can potentially beat your upcoming opponent. The main crew are all misfits who used to do crimes together but now they want to go straight and make big money legitimately. Combat plays out on seven squares where you and your opponent are on the opposite ends. Each turn you have attacks to choose from which can push, pull, stun, etc. parts of your enemy. Knowing what part of the mech does what will help you alot during your fight and you’ll learn more about specifics during dialogue and cutscenes. The little slice I played during the demo was just enough to get me interested in this unique title.
You can download the demo here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1331210/Wolfstride/
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