Next Fest June 2025 - LIVE NOW
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Steam Next Fest is a week-long celebration featuring hundreds of FREE playable demos as well as developer livestreams and chats. Players try out upcoming games on Steam pre-release, developers gather feedback and build an audience ahead of their Steam launch, everyone wins!

Let’s share our lists and opinions on the demos. We’ll help each other find promising games.

This Next Fest runs until Monday, June 16, 10 am PDT.

  • coaleh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    20 days ago

    Surprised nobody has mentioned Wildgate. It’s really fun! Different take on the Jumpship idea with a lot better execution (but they’re at different stages of dev to be fair!).

  • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    22 days ago

    One I’ve been waiting for for a while, “It has my face” Admittedly I didn’t find it on the nextfest page. I found it well over a year ago when it was still DoubleMe. The original was super addicting and I like the direction the story seems to be going in the demo.

    Also trying to be patient for Clover Pit

    And Gone Fishing has some promise to it. Not everybody’s bag, but my buddies and I all found the demo pretty fun.

    • mojofrododojo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      22 days ago

      Also trying to be patient for Clover Pit

      clover pit looks like gambling addiction on roids, holy shit did they exploit a good game loop. like, almost scary if you’ve known anyone who’s struggled with it. at least it’s not real currency and loot boxes fuck

      • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        22 days ago

        Oh yeah… I got caught up in the Overwatch loot box thing when it was still huge. Never had a problem gambling before or since, but I dropped $300 in my last month playing and who knows how much before then. Soon as I realized I had a problem, I uninstalled the game. Couldn’t even talk about it for a long time without wanting to reinstall. Fuck Blizzard and fuck loot boxes…

        • mojofrododojo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          21 days ago

          I’ve seen it second hand; it’s wretched. imho many of these monetization mechanics should be restricted to 21+.

          Soon as I realized I had a problem, I uninstalled the game. Couldn’t even talk about it for a long time without wanting to reinstall. F

          props and respect for recognizing it and getting yourself out. that takes character.

    • woodsie@ani.socialEnglish
      3·
      22 days ago

      I am dying to play more Clover Pit, it’s so so so good.

      Let’s go gambling!

    • shrodes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      22 days ago

      How is Moonlighter 2? The first one is a game I always felt like I should like but I never really enjoyed the loop of the game for some reason.

      • fistac0rpse@fedia.io
        2·
        18 days ago

        It was interesting. Added a roguelite aspect to the dungeons, which could work if it’s implemented well, but is pretty overdone at this point. The shop part is pretty similar with a few additions. Performance was pretty bad and was unplayable on SteamDeck.

        Overall, I’ll wait for the full release and see how the reviews look. I like the developers and hope it does well.

  • innocentpixels@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    21 days ago

    Jump ship, rogue point, and mycopunk. Pretty solid demos to try out. They definitely need more content for release, but all of them are decently fun.

    I want to try disco as dead (rhythm beat’em up) and pioner (mmo stalker looking game)

  • LCP@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    21 days ago

    Platypus Reclayed
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/2912430/Platypus_Reclayed/

    Remake of the 2002 shoot-em-up game led by the original creator Anthony Flack.

    It felt so good playing the demo. It feels just like the original but with significantly higher fidelity visuals — just how it should be. I have a lot of nostalgia attached to this game and I can’t wait for the full game to release.

    • Silverchase@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      21 days ago

      It was surprising to see that it’s rated mixed on the store page. It looks like a lot of the complaining is about how it’s not like Patapon?

      • mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2·
        20 days ago

        Maybe because is very different. But i like it. Idk people where so hyped by their nostalgia Patapon and probably feel robbed by the new way you move the character.

        But once you get used to it it feels great. It also felt weird for me at the beginning but I chose to give it a try and don’t judge it with the Patapon Glasses.

        With the new mechanics the game relies more on you being able to dodge enemy attacks, you cannot spam that hard. It feels more dificult. Just new mechanics.

      • Domi@lemmy.secnd.meEnglish
        2·
        21 days ago

        It looks like a lot of the complaining is about how it’s not like Patapon?

        Most of it, but not all of it.

        I played a little bit of the demo and was excited for a Patapon clone but it felt…off?

        My main issues with it:

        • Moving your own character does not really add anything to the game
        • It’s really easy for the music to sound off-beat by narrowly missing the timing
        • The metronome was replaced by a fixed Guitar Hero-like note display
        • There is too much going on at times, mostly due to the more complex art style
        • The beat between enemies and yourself does not match, making it impossible to counter some attacks
        • You cannot cancel the beat by failing on purpose; If you fail, you have to wait until you can input the next command

        I really hope they can improve things but right now I don’t really enjoy it.

    • Novamdomum@fedia.io
      31·
      22 days ago

      I know right. I think it’s the worst I’ve ever seen. I kept scrolling through for something good but all of it is was like those bargain bins you used to see in petrol stations full of old DVD’s. Honestly they should be ashamed of this. I went through my whole wishlist to check if any of the games on there had demos and literally none did. Last Next Fest most of them did. That’s some impressive enshitification right there…

      Actually I was wrong… Probably just needed to eat something and be less grumpy lol. Just found a fantastic demo that I’m downloading now. it’s called Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream. Amazing people animation and great dialogue. I love top down games and this is easily better than anything I’ve seen before. Thanks to a NextFest roundup from Nookrium or I would never had spotted it.

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      21 days ago

      I tried it out and man I hate getting motion sickness from games. Got the ship ready to go and launched and instant hurgh stomach. Unfortunate, as it looks real cool!