Steam Wishlist Next Fest
Demos are back, baby! This February saw yet another Steam Next Fest demo bonanza, but for me, it was a chance to take part in my own totally not made-up event: the Steam Wishlist Next Fest.
Instead of diving into recommendation lists from friends and foes and getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of demos available, I focus instead on primarily playing through demos of games that are already in my wishlist!
The result is that I either get more excited about a game I already knew about, or I trim down the wishlist, so it's a win-win. And even if I don't enjoy the game that much, I always get a kick out of trying out a genre I don't play that often and seeing what's happening in that space. I also get to develop a sense of what makes a demo good or "to my taste", and reflect on how a demo can indicate the game's scoping and production approach more broadly.
This time around, I found a handy website for quickly seeing which wishlisted games had demos available: it just takes your Steam ID and spits out a list. Note that you might run into false positives, as sometimes demos get delisted.
Here are the games I liked! Join me next time there's a Steam Next Fest! Or just take a random week where you're less busy, and make it into your own Steam Wishlist Next Fest extravaganza! No one makes the rules but you.
Titanium Court
How can I not mention Titanium Court! A game too many people lauded for me not to try! The now IGF grand prize winner, a demo too good not to enjoy...
I loooved that during the first 20 minutes, you can't quite tell what gameplay you're being led towards, it doesn't map onto anything standard you are used to expect. There's a cutscene, and it turns out it's not just a stylised bit of story, it's actually showing you a preview of the gameplay. Having really no way to predict what's coming next is so exciting.
Being into/in games for a while, I feel like there's fewer things that really surprise me nowadays, so it's such a delight when something does. It shakes me out of feeling doom-and-gloom about the broader industry, and instead I'm fully engaged with this thing someone made and I'm excited about it and games and how much there is still to explore and try!
It also reminded me I wanted to play through Inscryption properly...
Enter the Chronosphere
I don't usually play roguelikes, as I find they get frustrating and unrewarding real quick. I was super impressed by Hades II when I was playing a bit of it in January though, which led to me giving Enter the Chronosphere a chance. And it's great! The concept-- turn-based so you have time to strategise how you'll minimise the effect of the shower of bullets racing towards you-- is cool, it feels fun to play and looks great!
I also discovered by DuckDuckGoing that the game won an IGN reality TV show?? It took me forever to dig this up, but this preview video shows how at the time, the game showcased the gameplay mechanics without any 3D art, with simple but clean-looking graphics. It looks unrecognisable now, and has lovely UI throughout. It's good to see a game that focused on checking the concept first, instead of diving into polishing everything and falling over itself.
Lorn's Lure
I loved playing Peripeteia when it released in Early Access, so Lorn's Lure, another eurojank megastructure exploration game, was a no-brainer to try out and subsequently love. It foregoes Peripeteia's RPG elements for linear traversal-focused gameplay, and adds waypoints and convenient resetting after a fall. And I fell a lot, and always get lost in these things, so this really helps make an otherwise demanding game engaging to play!
In Stars And Time
I've heard a lot of good things about In Stars And Time, so naturally that meant I've been procrastinating actually checking it out. I have now! The demo's good! The game's doing some really interesting things with JRPG-style turn-based combat, and I was initially worried the dialogue would irk me, in the trying-too-hard-to-be-funny-way-- but it's actually quite cute! Looking forward to playing this when I've got RPG brain capacity.
Pup Champs
The demo for Pup Champs is super polished, a compact 20 minutes that shows you exactly what you'll get in the full version. The screenshot showcases how elegantly legible it is-- you can make a good guess at most of the gameplay elements just based on it alone!
This falls in the bucket of "this was fun and good, but I don't see myself playing any more of it", and by no fault of its own. I find puzzle games quite taxing (something about wanting to feel smart and hyperfixating on solving a puzzle?), so I play them irregularly in short bursts, and have enough in my Steam library that I'm unlikely to get to this, so I'm glad I played the demo.
Bad Pixels
I love the keygen/demoscene-style opening screen for Bad Pixels, as well as the framing of the demo as a "taster", which sets expectations nicely. I messed around for 15 minutes, thought it looked cool, and will continue waiting for the full release. Easy peazy!
Wizordum
Wizordum describes itself as a retro FPS, but I would call it "what if Skyrim but funky and pixels". My understanding of Skyrim is that you can have things in both hands and do magic. I think I hit the nail on the head.
I messed around in this for a bit, it tracks level completion time so I'm guessing people speedrun it? The art is nice and colourful, and it feels fun to play, though it took me a while to feel comfortable with the controls. Seems like the kind of thing I'd pick up for a short session of just messing about.
Demos I've played before
Esoteric Ebb
I played the demo for Esoteric Ebb a few Next Fests ago and have been so excited for this releasing ever since-- and it's out now!! I saw a Steam reviewer call it "Disco Elysium but hopecore" and yes. That's exactly what I need: a deep narrative in a wacky fantasy world, with impeccable art direction. I dropped Disco Elysium hard after a dozen hours, when I wandered into the apartments and interacting with some tiny decorative object in someone's flat led to an endless tirade about the history of the political systems at play. Sometimes... objects can just have one-liners... please let me go... As someone who clicks everything, I guess it felt overwritten to me? Anyway. Enough hot takes! Play Esoteric Ebb!
Mermaid's Mask
I'm SO excited for Mermaid's Mask coming out this summer. Tangle Tower was so fun, with memorable characters, top-notch voice acting, and rewarding puzzles. Mermaid's Mask is gonna be more of the same but also better! What will Detective Grimoire and Sally uncover this time...
The ones I didn't like
I was going to write up some thoughts on what the demos I didn't like had in common. However, this post is already long, and it's good to focus on celebrating the games that did have cool demos, so I'll leave it at that for now! Join me next time, and let me know if you try out any of the games above!