It was Steam Next Fest again...
Let's dive into some demos!
I did this last Steam Next Fest as well: I made a thread on Reddit’s /r/indiedev community, offering to try out demos and leave some feedback (and maybe a review), so I’m diving into all the demos offered to me over there… which, as it was last time, were a lot of them.
It took me a while to get through all the demos I was offered and quite a few I found myself, with being sick for the past two weeks - but I’ve done it! I’ve played the demos, gave the devs feedback, and reviewed those I was quite fond of and want to play again.
Which games should you definitely put on your wishlist? And which demos should you try out yourself? I’ll share them in this post!
Archon Soul is a roguelike deckbuilder dice / card game that absolutely hits the spot. The demo features the Gaiamancer, one of four planned classes, whose focus is on nature and growth. You start out with 3 default dice and 3 action cards, and throughout your run, you’ll unlock different dice faces, dice runes and dice bodies to customise your dice with, additional action cards, bonus actions to be swapped, etc. Long story short, a lot of customisation to allow for a variety of builds, ensuring you’ll never get bored!
Art Reborn (Painting Connoisseur) is an RPG about a museum curator who inherits his father’s museum and, through matching minigames, has to continue his father’s legacy. The game features real life art with lots of information about artists, all the different eras in art history and generally feels like a great interactive and dopamine-delivering way to interact with and learn about art all while gaming.
Ribbit Ranch is yet another critter collector that hits the spot. Cute frogs, with a combination of traits, get a pack of frogs, feed them, grow them into adults, sell for profit, rinse repeat. Golden formula, gorgeous artwork, and a lot of croaking. Can’t go wrong!
Pocket Gecko is a desktop pet idler which is, in my humble opinion, the best one I’ve played. Most desktop idle games ask too much of my attention. I can’t just let them sit and do their thing, they take too much interaction and I end up playing them like a cosy game, not an idler.
This desktop companion doesn’t ask for too much attention, just a “hey, help me eat this bug real quick” every once in a while. There aren’t tons of things to do, and in that way, it excels in its simplicity.
I’m loving this demo, I’m buying this game!
Little Aviary is another critter collector game - seems like we’ve accidentally got ourselves into a theme anyway. Gosh, I love birds! Seeing them waddle and fly all over my desktop is not something I thought I’d enjoy as much as I do! Collecting the special coloured birds and milking them for all the coin they’ve got is my new mission in life.
The game also nicely pairs with Pocket Gecko above. Intense double-wielding critter collector power activate!
Deep Space Exploitation
Deep Space Exploitation is, surprising, a game I’m very into!
It’s a physics-heavy mining game that has you steer around an exploitation pod, shooting at asteroids to release gems to then collect, call for an extraction ship to come get you when you’re done, all within the time limit.
I love the old-school aesthetic! The pixel art is great. The storytelling very nostalgia-loaded. Controls run surprisingly smoothly, and special events make the game more challenging, but not punishingly so. There’s a lot of subtle worldbuilding, and in a game this simple, it’s a real treat. And the sassy dialogue from dispatch has Deep Rock vibes that I of course very much appreciate.Bonus points for the David Tennant references.
