Next Fest February 2025 Discussion

[ZedClampet]

Discuss your demo madness, and whatever, here.

 

[ZedClampet]

wow, so many indie developers have no shame. Doesn't bother them at all to copy/paste someone else's successful game. They aren't even trying to do something different with it. If it wasn't in the original game, they don't put it in their game. I'm so disgusted I'm not sure I'm going to play any demos today.

 

[Johnway]

nothing on the surface stands out for me, but thats to be expected. I've had a quick snoop around and so far nothing good yet. I'll be digging around the dungeon crawler section to see if there is anything worth playing. maybe dip into the RTS and puzzle sections and the action adventures.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've talked before about World's Adrift, a game I positively loved that was shut down a few years ago. I even sent the developer a certified letter proposing to buy the IP.

Well, I found out yesterday that they are brining it back as a singleplayer/co-op game called Lost Skies. The new trailer starts out cartoony and is mostly fan service, but reading the description, they are including the stuff I loved about the game. The only thing they didn't mention were the dungeons, but I'm sure they wouldn't leave those out.

Of course, it won't be quite the same without the MMO part. Some of the most fun I ever had was piloting a ship into the PvP area with Guido, who's the best shot I've ever seen, manning the guns and taking down the griefers who were camping the spawn point. Between my piloting and Guido's shooting, we never lost an encounter, and never really even took significant damage.

Still, the thought of being able to design and sail my ship through the floating islands again is pretty exciting, even without taking on the griefers. The description mentions bosses, which were not a part of the old game, and these will do just fine assuming the AI is solid.

The only time we ever lost a ship was when I was playing by myself and fell asleep at the wheel. I woke up and the ship was being torn to bits because I had sailed too low and hit the "out of bounds" area. It's funny now. It was not funny then, particularly since that ship had our entire inventory on it.

Anyway, can't wait!

Lost Skies has a demo available now:

Lost Skies Demo on Steam

Chart a course in a breathtaking, but fractured world. Explore ancient ruins, master advanced technology, and craft your very own skyship to brave nature’s fury and colossal threats in Lost Skies. Team up with friends or go it alone in this awe-inspiring cooperative survival adventure.

store.steampowered.com

 

[ZedClampet]

Lost Skies has a demo available now:

Lost Skies Demo on Steam

Chart a course in a breathtaking, but fractured world. Explore ancient ruins, master advanced technology, and craft your very own skyship to brave nature’s fury and colossal threats in Lost Skies. Team up with friends or go it alone in this awe-inspiring cooperative survival adventure.

store.steampowered.com

Thank you so much. It feels stupid to say it, but this game means a lot to me, and I probably wasn't going to find that demo. Going into the demo right now

Well, F**K, there's a bug preventing me from getting into the demo. Had to file a bug report.

Edit: Woohoo! I fixed it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Lost Skies Demo on Steam

Chart a course in a breathtaking, but fractured world. Explore ancient ruins, master advanced technology, and craft your very own skyship to brave nature’s fury and colossal threats in Lost Skies. Team up with friends or go it alone in this awe-inspiring cooperative survival adventure.

store.steampowered.com

Thought it was fantastic. Since they don't have to worry about 1000 player servers, they've been able to do better graphics and put extra effort into the story, islands and dungeons. I'd pay for it now if I could. The best grapple hook in any game has returned. I'm currently playing Community Manager and helping people with bugs.

Farming & Supermarket Simulator Demo on Steam

Embark on a relaxing yet challenging journey to manage your own supermarket. Grow organic crops, care for your animals, and sell products to your customers. Build and expand your shelves. Can you transform your supermarket into an empire?

store.steampowered.com

I thought this was going to be more different from the other shop sims because of the farming, and I suppose it is, but the farming is just very basic. You plant a seed and about a minute later there is a box of food in front of the plant. Kind of disappointing.

Fish Shop Simulator on Steam

Run your own aquarium shop in a cozy New York neighborhood. Buy and sell fish, aquariums, and decorations to friendly customers. Create beautifully decorated tanks and make a profit by selling them!

store.steampowered.com

Another fish store game launched last year but was not good. This one is much better, and I was sad when the demo ended. Will be looking to buy this when it comes out next month.

 

[ZedClampet]

Supercar Evolution 2025 Demo on Steam

The first-ever true MMO supercar racing game is here! Play with up to 14 friends for now!

store.steampowered.com

Standard racing game. UI is a bit clunky, but workable. I was supposed to be racing other humans, but apparently there were none available. AI is not competent enough to give you a challenge at this point. Driving is arcade and not overly fun. I'll take a pass on this one.

Marble Dash on Steam

Ready to play one of the greatest marble platformers? Compete against your friends and other players worldwide! Mastering intricate tracks filled with obstacles and custom shortcuts. Discover unique abilities and secrets to customize your marble in Marble Dash!

store.steampowered.com

Marble race against the clock game. The challenge is staying on the track. But I found it impossible to control the camera using mouse/kb controls, and it doesn't appear to support controller. I spent most of my time trying to get the camera right (and sometimes it moves on its own). Would have been far better if they just had a fixed camera angle

I'm not really interested in this. I thought it was going to be one of those things where you tilt the table to get the ball rolling and change directions. Instead you just use WASD to move.

Mashina Demo on Steam

A little robot digs to repair her world. Dig, build, discover and mend in a chill, stop-motion world.

store.steampowered.com

This was cool. You have a robot, who is apparently female, and you dig around kind of like in the old arcade game Dig Dug. You can also use explosives and other tools. There is a mine foreman on the surface who gives you missions. I'm sure there are quite a few things I didn't get to or which weren't in the demo.

 

[Pifanjr]

I added the demo for Monster Train 2 and Nice Day for Fishing, but I haven't tried them out yet.

I've heard good things about Monster Train and it's been on my wishlist for a while, so I thought it would be a good idea to try a demo before buying it.

The second game is based on the Epic NPC Man series from Viva La Dirt League, a YouTube channel I've been following for years.

 

[ZedClampet]

Weeb Store Simulator Demo on Steam

Become the ultimate otaku store manager in Weeb Store Simulator! Sell games, consoles, manga, and more with friends in co-op multiplayer. Start small, unlock licenses, and grow your otaku paradise. Let’s build the ultimate anime haven together!

store.steampowered.com

No

 

[Pifanjr]

I've heard good things about Monster Train and it's been on my wishlist for a while, so I thought it would be a good idea to try a demo before buying it.

I tried the demo just now. It's good, but it should really have an undo button.

EDIT: according to the FAQ there is an undo, so either I'm an idiot and missed it or it isn't in the demo yet.

When you start combat, you get to put several minions down, split over three floors of your train. For some reason, you can't move these minions after you put them somewhere, even though it wouldn't impact the game at all if you could. And putting a minion in the wrong spot could easily ruin your whole run.

And the same counts for the cards you play during combat. I accidentally played a card on the wrong minion in the very last combat of the run which messed up my strategy completely. That's the kind of stuff that would make me quit a game and never come back.

Now if a card has a random effect or reveals additional information, like when it lets you draw a card, I agree that being able to undo that card gives the player an advantage, but I've only had that happen once in my entire run. In 99% of the cards I played it wouldn't have mattered if I was able to undo it.

 

[ZedClampet]

I tried the demo just now. It's good, but it should really have an undo button.

EDIT: according to the FAQ there is an undo, so either I'm an idiot and missed it or it isn't in the demo yet.

When you start combat, you get to put several minions down, split over three floors of your train. For some reason, you can't move these minions after you put them somewhere, even though it wouldn't impact the game at all if you could. And putting a minion in the wrong spot could easily ruin your whole run.

And the same counts for the cards you play during combat. I accidentally played a card on the wrong minion in the very last combat of the run which messed up my strategy completely. That's the kind of stuff that would make me quit a game and never come back.

Now if a card has a random effect or reveals additional information, like when it lets you draw a card, I agree that being able to undo that card gives the player an advantage, but I've only had that happen once in my entire run. In 99% of the cards I played it wouldn't have mattered if I was able to undo it.

Welcome to my world. Anyway, I bought this and just installed it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided to give the Monster Train 2 demo another try. This time I chose the other champion in the demo and a slightly harder difficulty setting. Then when I got into my first battle, the game helpfully pointed out that there's an undo button right beside the "end turn" button. It would've been nice if they had pointed that out the first time I played...

Luckily I only made a single mistake this time. Unluckily I only noticed after I pressed the "end turn" button, which meant I couldn't undo it any more...

At least it wasn't a fatal mistake this time and I managed to beat the final boss.

I like this game better than Slay the Spire. It's a lot easier to change your deck, upgrade your cards and choose which artifacts to use. It took me over an hour for the entire run, so it's not something you can squeeze into a short break, though you can always play a single battle and continue later of course.

 

[ZedClampet]

I decided to give the Monster Train 2 demo another try. This time I chose the other champion in the demo and a slightly harder difficulty setting. Then when I got into my first battle, the game helpfully pointed out that there's an undo button right beside the "end turn" button. It would've been nice if they had pointed that out the first time I played...

Luckily I only made a single mistake this time. Unluckily I only noticed after I pressed the "end turn" button, which meant I couldn't undo it any more...

At least it wasn't a fatal mistake this time and I managed to beat the final boss.

I like this game better than Slay the Spire. It's a lot easier to change your deck, upgrade your cards and choose which artifacts to use. It took me over an hour for the entire run, so it's not something you can squeeze into a short break, though you can always play a single battle and continue later of course.

You beat the game in the demo? That's a generous demo. Or was it just the final boss of the demo?

 

[Pifanjr]

You beat the game in the demo? That's a generous demo. Or was it just the final boss of the demo?

From what I understand the runs are shorter in the demo, but beating the boss once is also not the end of the game. Just like Slay the Spire and Balatro you unlock new difficulty levels as you win and there are multiple different starter decks to play with.

 

[Johnway]

So far i've got a couple demos i want to play. So far i've only grabbed 2 of the smaller ones , in this case Neo Junk City (for its arcade 16bit charm) and red cap squad (which appears to be an autobattler of sorts)

Neo Junk City on Steam

Sinister tides are rising in the Drowned City. Dive into a cyberpunk action-RPG with fast-paced shoot-outs and retro arcade racing. Uncover the truth behind a murder you don't remember committing!

store.steampowered.com

Red Cap Squad: Zombie Source on Steam

Red Cap Squad: Zombie Source is a challenging survival roguelike auto-shooter game. Assemble a unique team, strategically utilize traps and mechanisms, and endure the endless waves of zombies to emerge victorious!

store.steampowered.com

updates as and when i play it...

 

[ZedClampet]

The most popular Next Fest demos (with player counts)

• Mecha BREAK Demo – 317,522 players
• Fellowship Demo – 16,721 players
• RoadCraft Demo – 12,599 players
• Gothic 1 Remake – Demo (Nyras Prologue) – 10,222 players
• The First Berserker: Khazan Demo – 4,439 players
• Bongo Cat Demo – 3,886 players
• Solarpunk Demo – 3,728 players

Needless to say, people shoot each other in Mecha Break. I'd never heard of it tbh

 

[Pifanjr]

The most popular Next Fest demos (with player counts)

• Mecha BREAK Demo – 317,522 players
• Fellowship Demo – 16,721 players
• RoadCraft Demo – 12,599 players
• Gothic 1 Remake – Demo (Nyras Prologue) – 10,222 players
• The First Berserker: Khazan Demo – 4,439 players
• Bongo Cat Demo – 3,886 players
• Solarpunk Demo – 3,728 players

Needless to say, people shoot each other in Mecha Break. I'd never heard of it tbh

I'm pretty sure my wife downloaded Mecha BREAK a couple of months back, but I'm also pretty sure she never actually played it.

I added the Solarpunk demo to my library. It reminds me a bit of Subnautica and The Planet Crafter, but with more farming.

 

[Johnway]

Ok played the 2 games. Red cap squad is a miss for me. it tries to do something different to vampire survivor but its frankly not as good mechanically. Rather then having weapons for one person, its forming a squad that can die. whilst its in EA its not as compelling as its all zombies where as vampire survivor is more coherent and varied. a Miss for me.

Red Cap Squad: Zombie Source on Steam

Red Cap Squad: Zombie Source is a challenging survival roguelike auto-shooter game. Assemble a unique team, strategically utilize traps and mechanisms, and endure the endless waves of zombies to emerge victorious!

store.steampowered.com

Next up Neo junk city. The best way to describe it? a point and click adventure with retro 16 bit elements like a shooter and an outrun clone. it does have sierra habits with multiple deaths etc. It does have some sharp writing some nice graphics and gameplay to break up the point and click elements. So i'm adding to wish list.

Neo Junk City on Steam

Sinister tides are rising in the Drowned City. Dive into a cyberpunk action-RPG with fast-paced shoot-outs and retro arcade racing. Uncover the truth behind a murder you don't remember committing!

store.steampowered.com

So what else catches my fancy?

Total chaos looks kinda cool:

Total Chaos on Steam

Fort Oasis is no paradise—it's a decaying terrormare where reality crumbles. From the creator of Turbo Overkill comes a survival-horror stacked with mysteries and monstrosities. Scavenge scraps to craft weapons and follow a cryptic voice on your walkie-talkie through the island's depths.

store.steampowered.com

Deliver at all costs looks fun. Might not be able to run it though.

Deliver At All Costs on Steam

Deliver At All Costs is a thrilling action game where destruction, absurdity and intrigue collide! Step into the shoes of Winston Green — a down-on-his-luck courier with a fiery temper and a mysterious past — as he delivers highly unconventional cargo, leaving a trail of havoc and chaos behind him.

store.steampowered.com

Asian inspired dungeon crawler with PSX aesthetics ? downloading this one right now!

Labyrinth Of The Demon King on Steam

Venture through the Labyrinth Of The Demon King, solving puzzles and fighting fearsome monsters in an epic quest to track down the demon who betrayed your lord and end its life.

store.steampowered.com

Beyond the ice palace2 a nice metroidvania but wheres is the first game?

Beyond the Ice Palace 2 on Steam

Arise from the dead as the 'Cursed King' in an enthralling action platformer. Wield the chains that once imprisoned you to vanquish foes and traverse your fallen kingdom. Uncover hidden areas, strategically level up, and reclaim your throne by banishing colossal bosses!

store.steampowered.com

katanaut - an astronaut with a katana. Looks fun

Katanaut on Steam

Katanaut is a fast-paced action-roguelite blending fluid combat and cosmic horror. Slash, dodge, and wield powerful abilities as you battle through a station sprawling with twisted, once-human horrors. Adapt, survive, and descend into the shadows to uncover its darkest secrets.

store.steampowered.com

 

[ZedClampet]

I added the Solarpunk demo to my library. It reminds me a bit of Subnautica and The Planet Crafter, but with more farming.

Solarpunk on Steam

Solarpunk is a survival game in a technically advanced world of floating islands. Alone or together with your friends, you can construct buildings, grow food, craft gadgets and hop on your airship to explore distant islands in the sky.

store.steampowered.com

Played this but had to leave after 30 minutes and there was no indication that it had saved anything. The first 30 were sort of a relaxed survival game where you unlocked recipes and crafted a variety of things and started farming. It seemed like I was about to make my first airship when I had to quit. I may go ahead and start over later.

The only negative, really, was that there are no key prompts yet, nor a list of of keys anywhere, so I had to press all the buttons on the keyboard to figure out what did what.

Dark Fracture on Steam

Dark Fracture is a psychological horror experience in which you explore an ever-changing world where reality and nightmares collide. Walk on the edge of madness in the shoes of a tormented soul as you descend into the darkest depths of the human psyche, and question everything you see.

store.steampowered.com

Horror game. I played a demo for this in 2020 during Covid. Not surprisingly, he's made a lot of progress since then.

Nested Lands on Steam

Nested Lands is a ruthless medieval RPG game featuring in-depth village building, large-scale social management and combats. Gather survivors, build a settlement, craft, master your skills, survive, and endure alone or in online co-op.

store.steampowered.com

A survival city-builder during a time of plague. Very atmospheric. I didn't play too long because it became obvious that I had found my true love, and I'm saving myself for marriage. Unfortunately, they won't tell me when I may be able to consummate this relationship and just say it's "Coming Soon".

Technically this is an alpha playtest.

 

[February's Ghost]

Played more demos than ever this time around, and liked a few, but kinda meh on most


The Good -

Twisted Tower (A fun, creepy circus-like shooter)
Post Trauma (Great Silent Hill Vibes so far, excellent look and feel)
Stygian Outer Gods (Has the makings of a good Lovecraftian game)

The OK -

Total Chaos (Looks great, plays ok, will check back, weird FOV feeling)
Deliver At All Costs (Interesting premise and fun, novelty might wear off quick)
Solasta II (Don't think I'm ready for another die roller. First fight with crabs I went three rounds and not one of my party scored a hit. Not sure I'm up for that while still havent finished BG3)
Railgods of Hysterra (looks interesting and a great premise, KBM controls feel a bit clumsy, controller doesn't appear to be fully supported of fully functioning yet, as expected very early gathering and crafting and building just turns me off. Prolly gonna skip this one.

The Bad -

Dragonhold (ug, the voice acting and dialog...yuck)
Kalyska (the menu/interface is awful, barely works at all and some doesn't work, never even got in the game)

In the queue -

Deck of Haunts (card battles arent my thing, but haunting eople is, so we'll see)
The Horror at Highrook (looks a little complex for my taste, much like Book of Hours, but I'll give it a shot, it looks very interesting)

 

[Pifanjr]

Deck of Haunts [/B](card battles arent my thing, but haunting eople is, so we'll see)

Ooh, card battles! Added to my library.

 

[ZedClampet]

Played more demos than ever this time around, and liked a few, but kinda meh on most


The Good -

Twisted Tower (A fun, creepy circus-like shooter)
Post Trauma (Great Silent Hill Vibes so far, excellent look and feel)
Stygian Outer Gods (Has the makings of a good Lovecraftian game)

The OK -

Total Chaos (Looks great, plays ok, will check back, weird FOV feeling)
Deliver At All Costs (Interesting premise and fun, novelty might wear off quick)
Solasta II (Don't think I'm ready for another die roller. First fight with crabs I went three rounds and not one of my party scored a hit. Not sure I'm up for that while still havent finished BG3)
Railgods of Hysterra (looks interesting and a great premise, KBM controls feel a bit clumsy, controller doesn't appear to be fully supported of fully functioning yet, as expected very early gathering and crafting and building just turns me off. Prolly gonna skip this one.

The Bad -

Dragonhold (ug, the voice acting and dialog...yuck)
Kalyska (the menu/interface is awful, barely works at all and some doesn't work, never even got in the game)

In the queue -

Deck of Haunts (card battles arent my thing, but haunting eople is, so we'll see)
The Horror at Highrook (looks a little complex for my taste, much like Book of Hours, but I'll give it a shot, it looks very interesting)

Those are some good finds. I used to play horror all the time, so I might check those out, and everything under your "ok" list.

 

[ZedClampet]

Deliver At All Costs on Steam

Deliver At All Costs is a thrilling action game where destruction, absurdity and intrigue collide! Step into the shoes of Winston Green — a down-on-his-luck courier with a fiery temper and a mysterious past — as he delivers highly unconventional cargo, leaving a trail of havoc and chaos behind him.

store.steampowered.com

OMG that's hilarious. I loved it. Talk about the $h!t hitting the fan, hahaha. The moment you start that first delivery it's complete madness. I used kb/mouse for walking around and picked up the controller for driving and it worked seamlessly.

 

[ZedClampet]

Cargo Delivery Simulator Demo on Steam

Build your cargo company from scratch in this demo, where you can test the basic mechanics of the game. Start as a worker. Receive, deliver, and ship packages. Grow your cargo business by expanding your office and purchasing new storage units.

store.steampowered.com

The Myth of Sisyphus in game form. If I get game time in Hell, this is what they'll let me play.

Bounty Off Road on Steam

Bounty Off Road is inspired by early 2000s Offroading games. Complete trails to earn money, customize your vehicles for better performance, and ride together with people in massive open worlds. Rain, storms , snowstorms, sandstorms are sure to keep you immersed!

store.steampowered.com

But only if this completely broken pre-alpha game with Kafkaesque controls isn't available.

 

[Pifanjr]

Solarpunk on Steam

Solarpunk is a survival game in a technically advanced world of floating islands. Alone or together with your friends, you can construct buildings, grow food, craft gadgets and hop on your airship to explore distant islands in the sky.

store.steampowered.com

Played this but had to leave after 30 minutes and there was no indication that it had saved anything. The first 30 were sort of a relaxed survival game where you unlocked recipes and crafted a variety of things and started farming. It seemed like I was about to make my first airship when I had to quit. I may go ahead and start over later.

The only negative, really, was that there are no key prompts yet, nor a list of of keys anywhere, so I had to press all the buttons on the keyboard to figure out what did what.

I tried this today. I did get key prompts and occasionally there was a short notification in the top right that the game had saved, so maybe they updated the demo.

Sadly, it's not like Subnautica or The Planet Crafter. I spent a lot of time just waiting, either for my crops to grow or my furnace to smelt stuff. You're stuck to a tiny island until you get your airship, so there isn't anything to explore either while you wait. It seems the game intends for you to spend your time waiting on chopping down trees, collecting sticks and stones and mining for ore, as you'll need a lot of them.

Then when I finally did get my airship, the demo didn't let me explore any of the other islands. I could only go to a merchant platform and I couldn't interact with anything there either, the game just gave me a couple of automation tools to play around with.

Flying the airship isn't fun either. You just point your airship in the direction of an island and wait until you arrive. If you're lucky you get the wind in your back and go faster, if you're unlucky you have to fly against the wind and it takes even longer. And this time you can't even hit trees while you wait.

It does seem like the game has a lot of automation available, so eventually you won't have to spend most of your time gathering resources and I assume you'll spend most of it exploring islands, but since you can't visit any in the demo it's impossible to tell if that will be worth it.

Deck of Haunts [/B](card battles arent my thing, but haunting eople is, so we'll see)

I tried this out today too. You play as a haunted house that tries to consume the people that explore you. Each phase you try killing a bunch of people by taking turns playing hands of cards while the people wander from room to room semi-randomly. You have to prevent them from reaching the heart of the house or escaping, which they'll attempt if they see a corpse or the heart. Sometimes you get special people who beeline straight to the heart and damage it further each turn they're there.

Afterwards, you get to add a card to your deck, then you can expand/change your house, adding new rooms, moving rooms, deleting rooms, making rooms bigger and adding rooms with special effects. Making the path from the entryway to the heart longer makes it easier, but the game balances this by taking an upkeep per room that increases the further a room is from the heart.

It's pretty fun, but I do hope the full game has a bit more content. I managed to beat the demo on my first try and it doesn't seem like there are all that many viable builds. At least not ones that really change the way you play the game.