Steam Next Fest February 2026 Discussion

[Frindis]

Greetings community!

Time to play demos! Post and discuss those Next Fest demos to your heart's content.

First demo I have tried is pretty chill and perfect for kids, with one caveat that there is proximity chat, but it can be toggled off.

"Sledding Game is a multiplayer snowsports hangout game with proximity chat. Go sledding, relax and see what else there is to do. There’s also ragdoll physics so the crashes look terrible really really good."

Sledding Game Demo on Steam

A demo for a game about sledding and hanging out with friends :)

store.steampowered.com

 

[Frindis]

Tried out Forbidden Solitaire. Short demo, but it was fun while it lasted. I liked some of the sound effects, as they share some similarities with those from the horror movie SMILE. The card game itself is pretty straightforward, but it is done with a bit of fun and some cool "gory" details.

• Delve into a 90's FMV-inspired digital hellscape of dungeons and death with visuals, story and music from the creators of Home Safety Hotline.
• Survive the horrors with bloodletting solitaire gameplay from the veteran indie team behind Shadowhand and Regency Solitaire.
• Purchase upgrades from the friendly eye that watches you from the walls.
• Uncover a variety of game-changing Jokers - some helpful, some malignant.
• Uninstall the game before it's too late.

Forbidden Solitaire on Steam

Forbidden Solitaire is a card-slashing horror game about unearthing the contents of a cryptic 1995 CD-ROM that should have never existed. From the creators of Ancient Enemy and Home Safety Hotline.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Colif]

I haven't played this yet but I will

Darkhaven on Steam

Darkhaven is a next-generation ARPG brought to you by many of the original creators of Diablo and Diablo II. Explore a procedurally generated and fully destructible open world unlike any other in this solo or multiplayer adventure.

store.steampowered.com

Demo released yesterday

I wonder if any of these ex Diablo 1/2 Devs made Torchlight 1/2 or they all seem to remake the same game type... Guess Blizzard have forgotten or probably never knew.

 

[Frindis]

I tried Darkhaven last week, and it was all right. The building and destruction system is interesting, but the weird camera angles made it a bit difficult to traverse some of the obstacles. Combat was ok, but the skills and weapon upgrades were not. It definitely has potential, but a lot needs to be worked on, and I think they still need to find out what direction they are going with the game.

 

[Zed Clampet]

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest

A co-op pirate survival game where your crew sings sea shanties? Aye!

The demo for Windrose is a rollicking pirate adventure—once you've chopped down enough trees, that is.

www.pcgamer.com

Devs behind GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and TimeSplitters are done with big shooters after getting burned by Embracer, so their next game is a Balatro-like twist on Scrabble—and you can try the demo now

Beyond Words is part of Steam Next Fest.

www.pcgamer.com

After playing the free demo of this bloody medieval carve-'em-up, I'm praying the devs deliver a holy gaming experience

Vengeance will be mine

www.pcgamer.com

The creators of Rain World were tired of making something so depressing, so their next game is a 'loud and dumb and fast' cyberpunk racer you can try in the Steam Next Fest

It's like if F-Zero broke up the races so you could have Smash Bros. brawls.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[BeardyHat]

I was playing this last week and really enjoying it. I would love to play some more, but I'm going to wait for full release on it.

A Bumpy Ride on Steam

Take a jaunt into the world of A Bumpy Ride, a casual train-driving and exploration game! Inspired by railroading of the 19th century with a whimsical spin, you'll adventure around the open frontier in your trusty little train, picking up passengers and freight.

store.steampowered.com

Gonna give this one a go as well. I really have no interest in the Beat-Em-Up/Platformer stuff, but the art style makes me nostalgic for the Tiger handhelds when I was a kid, so I just want to see it moving on my screen.

Future Knight on Steam

Frenetic action and LCD aesthetic! In this 2D Shoot 'Em Up, switch between a robot hero and his benign tumor to stop a bizarre cult. You have 8 hours to save humanity's memory: defeat grotesque bosses, ride the skies on your Future Board, and master the chaos in a retro-futuristic Tokyo.

store.steampowered.com

Can't download much more this week, I'm at 90% of my bandwidth limit this month, so I'm trying to take it easy until it ticks over.

 

[Johnway]

I've been looking into a variety of games. namely psychological horror, desktop simulations and dungeon crawlers.

First up The Window 8:Millennium

The Window 8:Millennium on Steam

Hey player, It's the day before the Millennium. Follow me, I will give you a unique psychological horror experience. This isn’t just a game—it’s a doorway. Trust me, and I will lead you to see the god.👁‍🗨

store.steampowered.com

Honestly, mixed feelings. I think there is more to it and i am intrigued by the game. but also i'm equally bored by it. The game breaks the fourth wall as you have to dig into your own system files to find answers or try things.

 

[Johnway]

came across another Desktop simulator style demo. this time its called New folder

New Folder on Steam

You log on to a computer having no clue of what lies within. Explore its files, solve puzzles to recover missing pieces, and decipher passwords to enter otherwise prohibited folders. As you delve deeper into its content, you’ll find that there is a greater mystery to be solved.

store.steampowered.com

its not the longest demo. I finished it in less then 10 minutes. Not much to see in the demo, but i'll add it to my wish list to watch it and if it drops to a rock bottom price, i might consider it. The games does suggest theres some deep story here, but too little here to see whether this game might be good or not.


EDIT: Just finished another demo: Bad Pixels.

Bad Pixels on Steam

Back in the days of the wild west, everything was much more rudimentary and raw. Drinking water had bits in it, shoes had holes in them, and computers only had 8-bits of processing power. With limited colors, resolution and audio, you too can relive those gritty days of old. It was Bad, Bad Pixels.

store.steampowered.com

A game that harks to the c64/amstrad/spectrum days. Play as a law man shooting up bandits. Lacks real substance atm. The gimmicky visuals does little to mask the lack of gameplay. Just shoot the same looking bandits and head to exit. Rinse and repeat in samey desert towns. can't even buy ammo atm. Like the retro graphics to pull at my nostalgia strings, but a miss for me i think.




Well i'm off to play another demo. Will update later or tomorrow...

 

[BeardyHat]

I did end-up trying Future Knight.

I liked it, I think it's surprisingly charming and there's more to it than just the art style. That said, I chose to drop it because it has some tedium to it. You have a little guy you can pop out of the main character to access different spaces and it only has one hit point; if it dies, you restart the entire level. More than once I made it decently far, my little guy died and I was forced to start over; on the third go of this, I decided I was done.

It has potential for those who like these style of games, but it's definitely not for me.

 

[Zed Clampet]

'We couldn’t even have imagined this': Co-op pirate survival game Windrose has been wishlisted over 1 million times

The swashbuckling survival adventure is a hit before it's even out.

www.pcgamer.com

Windrose is having a BIG Next Fest with over 1 million wishlists. The world has needed this game since Atlas was so poorly handled.

 

[Zed Clampet]

SpaceCraft on Steam

The Universe is yours. SpaceCraft is an online space exploration and building game. Explore a vast galaxy of solar systems and planets, mine and craft resources, design and build ships, automate planetary bases and interplanetary logistics, trade and cooperate.

store.steampowered.com

I couldn't really play this because the text was too small for me. I used my magnifying lens since there was no option to increase the font size, but I quickly got tired of doing that.

What I played, played fine, but apparently the demo doesn't allow you to do the things the store page emphasizes, like base and ship building. The forums are full of strangely angry people. I mean, if you don't like the demo, that's fine. There's no reason to become furious about it. Overall, I don't understand the ever growing gamer outrage that is contaminating everything.

 

[Zed Clampet]

BULK on Steam

Collect cards, mix them, watch them rise their rank, sell for gold, and invest in upgrades. Stack, mix, sell and repeat... The machines in this dark fantasy factory keep humming, and the profits are waiting for you...

store.steampowered.com

Strangely addicting. Played it to the end, which was 102 minutes. To be honest, having played the demo, I feel like I've fully experienced the game, and there isn't enough depth for me to want to play the full game when it comes out.

 

[Zed Clampet]

EONIA Revelations on Steam

Explore a fascinating world of six vast biomes, where you can draw creatures, gather ingredients, solve ancient puzzles, and delve into a deep story in which fantasy crosses paths with science fiction as every step pulls you further and further into its secrets.

store.steampowered.com

This is an action/adventure. I'm not sure why I tried it. I don't like action/adventure. The only thing I know is that I found the writing painful and the opening quests were simple annoyances.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Echo Generation 2 Demo on Steam

Embark on a sci-fi tactical turn-based adventure. In this demo, step into a world of secrets, psychic power, and unknowable forces lurking just beyond reality. Collect cards, craft your character and break free from a shadowy facility.

store.steampowered.com

@Pifanjr Here's a deckbuilder that I really enjoyed.

 

[Pifanjr]

BULK on Steam

Collect cards, mix them, watch them rise their rank, sell for gold, and invest in upgrades. Stack, mix, sell and repeat... The machines in this dark fantasy factory keep humming, and the profits are waiting for you...

store.steampowered.com

Strangely addicting. Played it to the end, which was 102 minutes. To be honest, having played the demo, I feel like I've fully experienced the game, and there isn't enough depth for me to want to play the full game when it comes out.

I tried it out. I managed to buy every upgrade in 35 minutes and I agree that I don't see what the full game could add that would make me want to play more.

Echo Generation 2 Demo on Steam

Embark on a sci-fi tactical turn-based adventure. In this demo, step into a world of secrets, psychic power, and unknowable forces lurking just beyond reality. Collect cards, craft your character and break free from a shadowy facility.

store.steampowered.com

@Pifanjr Here's a deckbuilder that I really enjoyed.

I'm going to give it a try now.

EDIT: I softlocked myself because I didn't realise the green marks were the amount of times you could use a card in a fight and I couldn't go back to before the fight (though I didn't try losing on purpose).

It seems okay, but I'm not a fan of having to comb through a room manually just to make sure I didn't overlook any loot.

 

[Johnway]

ok more desktop/puzzle/simulator things:

First up, Cd Rom - There are 10 CDs locked away. Solve the puzzle to find the code to unlock the next CD.

CD-ROM on Steam

10 CDs, 10 passwords. Find hidden messages, text, numbers to unlock next CD to continue your steganography puzzle journey.

store.steampowered.com

Visually its quite appealing but its more a puzzle game with pictures at this point. no real story or animation etc so meh. pass.


Second game, Lost Wiki: Kozlovka . You're a journalist hired to investigate an old mystery. Pulling files from an old archived wiki can you solve the mystery as to what happened?

Lost Wiki: Kozlovka on Steam

Explore a wikipedia-like database and solve a small town mystery in Eastern Europe. Step into the shoes of a journalist in the 90s as you sprawl through articles and uncover the secrets that have been laid in front of you.

store.steampowered.com

Premise is intriguing but its more of a glorified comprehension test. Read the articles, drag the key words on the report and hopefully it makes sense and is correct. So maybe not that interesting.


lastly, Hark the Ghoul. Think of this as Kings Field / hollow knight/dark souls as you're a revived undead bug exploring the world. Out of the games so far, this has the most promise and will play more of the demo to see if it holds up.

HARK THE GHOUL on Steam

Slash, kick and magick your way through an adventure brimming with secrets and curious encounters! HARK THE GHOUL offers a meticulously handcrafted world to explore.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

I tried it out. I managed to buy every upgrade in 35 minutes and I agree that I don't see what the full game could add that would make me want to play more.

Did you find a use for the grey cards that didn't have numbers on them?

 

[Pifanjr]

Did you find a use for the grey cards that didn't have numbers on them?

It took me a while, but I eventually figured out you had to put them above the button that combines the three cards, making the result a silver card that sells for twice the price.

Then once you get gold cards you can use three of those to upgrade a silver card so it's worth thrice the price. You also unlock something that then triples a golden card again after 30 seconds or so.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It took me a while, but I eventually figured out you had to put them above the button that combines the three cards, making the result a silver card that sells for twice the price.

Then once you get gold cards you can use three of those to upgrade a silver card so it's worth thrice the price. You also unlock something that then triples a golden card again after 30 seconds or so.

No wonder it took me so long. 😆 I tried to stick them in a couple places and just set them down and planned to come back later. How about "7s"and over? That's another one I just tossed aside.

On the deckbuilder, I didn't mind looking for the cards, but the feature similar to Expedition 33 where you can take a defensive action when the enemy attacks needs to work differently. Every single time, it told me I was perfect, and then I proceeded to get clobbered anyway. It needs to be much harder to get "perfect" and when you do it needs to be much more effective. And, no, I won't be surprised if you tell me I misunderstood the whole thing. Due to my rather severe attention problems, it takes me forever to learn games these days.

 

[Pifanjr]

No wonder it took me so long. 😆 I tried to stick them in a couple places and just set them down and planned to come back later. How about "7s"and over? That's another one I just tossed aside.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, I don't think it was possible to get anything larger than 7.

On the deckbuilder, I didn't mind looking for the cards, but the feature similar to Expedition 33 where you can take a defensive action when the enemy attacks needs to work differently. Every single time, it told me I was perfect, and then I proceeded to get clobbered anyway. It needs to be much harder to get "perfect" and when you do it needs to be much more effective. And, no, I won't be surprised if you tell me I misunderstood the whole thing. Due to my rather severe attention problems, it takes me forever to learn games these days.

I had the same experience, a perfect block didn't seem to reduce damage all that much. It's possible it affected the debuffs you got though, I didn't check.

Regardless of attention span, it would be nice if these demos at least came with proper instructions.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Aviarium on Steam

Aviarium is a relaxing sky sanctuary simulation filled with cute birds. Manage your floating aviary with click and idle mechanics, collect resources, and enjoy a pleasant experience in a colorful and peaceful world above the clouds.

store.steampowered.com

This game is questionable. It's identical to Chillquarium except it has birds instead of fish, and the biggest difference is that I can't read anything because he uses white text on light backgrounds.

 

[Pifanjr]

Voidling Bound on Steam

Hatch, evolve, and upgrade powerful space creatures in this action-packed sci-fi 3rd person shooter that reinvents the monster taming genre!

store.steampowered.com

I really liked the third person shooter part of this, but I don't care for the level design. I'm not a big fan of linear levels with a bit of platforming and some side paths with extra loot.

The creature evolving/upgrading part wasn't as unique as I hoped, though I'm not sure what exactly more I could've expected. It seems to me like you could swap out the creatures with weapons you could upgrade and get the exact same gameplay, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The amount of customisation the game promises would still be interesting.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Windrose on Steam

Embark on a PvE survival adventure in the Age of Piracy. Fight on land and sea, solo or with friends. Build, craft and explore vast open world filled with dark secrets. Master soulslite combat and take on challenging bosses, command your ship and plunder unspoken treasures!

store.steampowered.com

I am so excited about this. Atlas was one of my favorite games ever, and this is like a solo-coop version. And even better, the devs know what they are doing and give a darn. I only ran into one bug which was easily fixed by restarting the game. In Atlas, something catastrophic would have already happened, like all the islands in a sector disappearing.

 

[Johnway]

ok a few more demos played:

First up Reconquista. A roguelike dungeon crawler. To little content, even in its basic demo i was seeing the same selection of randomlly generated rooms and fighting the same 2 monsters: skeletons and rats. A miss!

Reconquista on Steam

A fast-paced dungeon boomer shooter with melee combat, magic, and seed-based generated levels.

store.steampowered.com

next up i decided ot play Starship troopers: Ultimate bug war

Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! on Steam

Lock and load into the Starship Troopers universe and join the Mobile Infantry in the most realistic depiction of war ever made! Experience an original story in this action-packed, first-person retro shooter. Would you like to know more?

store.steampowered.com

The game play is sort of like MOH: Allied Assualt. You may have one main insertion zone on a huge map and its up to you where you go first to complete objectives. A fun little game to be sure. its a bit primative in places like NPC AI is near non existent. i wonder if this would play better in COOP mode? part of me also wonders if there could have been a WH40k edition of this? you know the Imperial Guard dropping into a warzone, you and your men completing various objectives like clearing out trenches and bunkers in the first wave assualt, followed by defending against counter attack, then hit a comms bunker to stop enemy reinforcements and call it your own etc etc.


An update on Hark the Ghoul. I played a bit more of it and i must say i found it pretty good. Ok, its nothing exciting but i found it strangely compelling. The story suggests there is something big going on and the map itself is filled with secret passages and areas to explore. I sort of stopped playing as i think i will get it when it comes out.


EDIT: just throwing another one to the played list: Dungeons of Dusk. A dungeon crawler based on the Dusk game. I put a solid amount of time playing it and as a dungeon crawler its pretty humdrum. besides shooting the same enemies and key hunting there's barely anything unique or interesting about it. Compare to the likes of say, Legend of grimrock and this is primitive and barebones. its only getting traction trading on more successful IPs like Dusk.

then again, what was i expecting from 68k studios? Looking at their other games its the same forumla repeated. Will i be able to stomach 30 levels of sewers? i somehow doubt it.

Dungeons of DUSK on Steam

Dungeons of DUSK is a classic turn based dungeon crawling RPG that takes place canonically between the episodes of the cult classic FPS. Are you... WORTHY?

store.steampowered.com

 

[Johnway]

Ok i spend lunch time playing another demo this time its Nox Mortalis

Nox Mortalis on Steam

Nox Mortalis is a retro-style open world survival game where you must gather resources, craft essential gear, and explore sinister dungeons. Face hellish creatures and fight to survive in this world.

store.steampowered.com

Think Minecraft with a quest. Players are dropped in an open world with a home and tasked with defeating a demon at the bottom of some dungeon. Start by gathering sticks to make logs and use those logs to make tools proper.

once you've got some tools/weapons built its time to go dungeon exploring. Every 5 floors a new biome and a checkpoint. gather more resources to build better weapons and explore deeper. Along the way, get exp and level up your character.

It was entertaining enough that i was playing it for 2 hours, but it needs a lot of work. The dungeons are very primitive and atm lacks variety. Mostly a bunch of random rooms, with random stuff in them. Additionally not everything is destructible. Boxes can be damaged, but barrels cannot. Additionally once you craft your weapons theres very little reason to go back to certain ores. For example, once you've created your copper weapons and tools (an axe and pickaxe) theres very little else to make besides keys. Can't even craft armor!

The second thing is that its still very basic in features. Touching water kills you instantly for example. The open world biome isn't all that different. just forests, mountains and a few ruins dotted around the area. Along the way you do see the odd npc but nothing significant.

So will i get it? meh, put it in the maybe pile. After some huge updates and after i've played everything else i'll consider it. For now, let it pass and take the time to refine.