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Steam Next Fest: October 2025 Edition

Tried this last night. I heard Rusty Lake games are pretty good. It's just a point and click puzzle/escape room game. But the vibe is pretty unsettling

 
Indie game had no harsher critic than me. I still classify some games as XBLA slop. But what indies are doing right now on Steam feels like a classic console generation. This is probably the best Next Fest ever for my tastes. I made a thread for the Industria 2 play test. Not a single person posted in it, but I hope some try the demo! I'd expect a game like that to get mass attention. I'm getting old and out of touch apparently. Painkiller looks cool. Downloaded a bunch more. Won't get time to play many until weekend.

Please for the love of God try Road to Vostok. It's an extraction shooter yes, a plain jane extraction shooter at that. Single player only with no plans to add multiplayer. Basically offline Tarkov. It is being made by one single crazy Fin, and it's the purest expression of extraction shooter that you will ever play. I don't know how to explain why it's so good, it just is. For me it ends up playing like a horror game because the tension gets so high. Just trying to take my looted goods back home. Mouses have been inadvertently tossed. There are thousands of us. We can't explain it, just hooked. Hell I even made a Patreon account just to support this dude. Try Vostok. One dude. Imagine what 300 of that dude could accomplish. AI might be really cool for gaming if used right. **Play the tutorial if you want to reload the shotgun**
 
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I like single player games with a story behind them. Most indie games are retro nostalgia bait to be honest.

Not all of them there are actual genuine masterpieces.
 
I also tried Opus Prism Peak last night but the frame rate was really all over the place. The cutscenes are also showing a blank screen. Anybody else had this problem?
 
Tried some games tonight:

Reanimal - Of all the games inspired by Limbo, Little Nightmares and the sequel are probably my favorites (I did like Inside after the twist, but that's such a minor part of the game). This feels like the natural progression of those games by taking into more of a 3D space and not just going from left to right until the end. I love the atmosphere and turned off the demo pretty quickly as I'll play through it down the line when it hits one of the subscription services which is how I enjoyed their other games. Deck performance is a little wonky no matter the low/medium/high preset that is selected.

Skate Story - It's super weird just not in a way that click with me. I can see it gaining an audience though. Performance was pretty great on Deck.

Rolla - Katamari Damacy meets rampage. There isn't much to the demo. I love the visual approach but when you are destroying buildings it doesn't really look like your blob is absorbing them. The level on hand is far too small and you quickly too big for it until the military gets called in and cuts you down to nothing. The level goals are too simplistic and the music is god awful. I think there is something here, but it needs a lot more time in the oven. Deck performance is great.

Ground Zero - The Deck can not handle this game and there aren't a ton of graphics options in the menu to turn down.

Painted in Blood - Really like the visual presentation but I found it dull otherwise.
 

My favorite demo so far. WASD movement, nice hit feedback, physics, and cool spells/items. I was able to beat it without dying despite the disclaimer saying "prepare to die" pretty much. Put it on my wishlist.


^this one is a surefire hit. Only played as Wolverine and Spiderman so far but they both feel really good and tagging them in to continue combos is a blast.
 


Very clever Roguelike/Tetris/Platformer fusion. It goes in the wishlist.

I liked the first one, this is more of the same but there's walls of text and exposition now.

Good recommendation from Wildebeest, this game is super swag. Music and presentation reminds me of 80's Atari arcades.

Unpolished SHMUP with strange ideas, not a fan.
 
I've seen some criticisms of this next fest saying that it is all lazy AI generated games and paid placements but I've been getting more games I like than some previous ones.

This game is basically 90s GTA with a more hotline miami type format.


A devil daggers type game with some more stuff to play with and some pretty good visual design.

 
Images link to storepages.


Shell Soldier - Someone's first attempt at proper videogame, trying to emulate F.E.A.R. but to be honest I wouldn't even give this the time of day if it were free. It looks, sounds and plays like one of those shady browser games. No thanks.


Painted in Blood - This would have been a terrific, dark, boomer shooter but the dev(s) felt the need to stuff it full of story elements along with poor voice acting and shitty fonts as well. I really like the visual style but I have no interest running around dark hallways having to solve puzzles and reading notes scattered about. The latter is especially something I just don't bother with in games any more. It's lazy, contrived and just plain annoying.


It Consumes - Devil Daggers but in the pitch black where you have to 'pulse' manually to see the enemies. Interesting concept but far too exhausting in execution. I'm close to 40yo but this made me feel like double my age. Pass.


SPORTAL - I feel like I'm missing something here as what I played was the most bog-standard arena shooter but sports themed? Boring as hell in any case. Another dud I'm afraid.
 
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Branded said:

Painted in Blood - This would have been a terrific, dark, boomer shooter but the dev(s) felt the need to stuff it full of story elements along with poor voice acting and shitty fonts as well. I really like the visual style but I have no interest running around dark hallways having to solve puzzles and reading notes scattered about. The latter is especially something I just don't bother with in games any more. It's lazy, contrived and just plain annoying.
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Yeahhhhh

It wants to do too many things at the same time. There is AW light mechanics as well which don't feel good with the entire package.

For a combat focus game, it's too dark as well.

Love the art direction but it needs to pick a lane.
 
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Plague Doctor said:
Yeahhhhh

It wants to do too many things at the same time. There is AW light mechanics as well which don't feel good with the entire package.

For a combat focus game, it's too dark as well.

Love the art direction but it needs to pick a lane.
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The light mechanics seem harmless especially once the divine protection spell is available. I would really like a wider field of view without vignette type effect. I am into horror games but rarely dabble in boomer shooters so this game feels like an olive branch in that regard.
 
I feel like someone must have done this before but I haven't seen it. The flip mechanic of VVVVVV but with an added invert mechanic.

 
amigastar said:
I'm looking forward to this game. But beware before you play the demo because you can't save, maybe they will fix it but the game comes out already on the 27th october.
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What year is this!? I remember watching my brother playing the original over 30 years ago. fffuuuu time flies.
 


Almost did not try this game because it looked like yet another Vampire Survivors clone. Glad I did, because it's pretty awesome. A game set in a very loosely based version of Dante's Inferno except everyone are waifu'd. Dante finds herself back in purgatory, somehow expelled from paradiso and it's time to unraveled as to why and rescue the souls of pagan bards and poets. A little bit more story than your average VS, but it's kept snappy.
Developed by Portuguese developer AstralShift, the guys behind Little Goody Two Shoes. The game plays, looks and feel like a PS2 era game with the presentation, the late 90's style art and music. Japanese developers would never sink so low as to use such outdated retro styles. Wishlisted.

Felt gauche to try non-indie games, but it was pretty fricken great. Best Spongebob game. Played it for 30m and wishlisted it. The presentation is top notch.

Strange pachinko style arcade game where you grow cabbage by bouncing balls on them. Pretty good.

Solid Metroidvania with fun dialogue and presentation. Graphics are a bit weak.

Very megadrive'ey graphics, but I'm not feeling it.
 
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It's indie horror for sure complete with the faux ps1 art direction but the fps survival horror mechanics that are compotent.

Could use more variety in monster design, even for a demo.

Reload mechanics were different, made it tense.

Give it a go if you want indie fps survival horror and short demo test.
 

Crisol: Theater of Idols - What is with all of these horrible titles 😭. Anyway I didn't know Blumhouse also had a games publishing side, apparently they formed not too long ago and this is one of the first titles they're publishing. And... it is ass. The gunplay is horrid and the reload mechanic is even worse (hold spacebar to sacrifice your health to get some ammo, wtf). The FOV couldn't be more narrow and mouse input lag makes it pretty much unplayable. I have no idea why so many games still get basic shit like this wrong. What is even the point of a demo if it's not even past the alpha stage and you're still working on making the game run, let alone have it perform at a reasonable level for demo purposes?


Fire At Campsite - A cutesy single-Tower Defence Roguelike that is... boring beyond belief. The upgrades are so lacklustre and seem to mostly consist of damage or projecticle speed inscreases and actual new powers/abilities are far too sporadic. Not engaging whatsoever, more of an Idler tbh.


Ember and Blade - Finally a Survivor Roguelike that tries to shake things up a bit. Aside from the typical ranged auto-attack you also have to option to perform a melee combo. Not sure if it ever progresses past the standard left click affair but along with the flashy visuals and surprisingly good soundtrack I thought this was a breath of fresh air among the Vampire Survivor clones. It almost feels like Hades + Dynasty Warriors had a baby hehe. The VO for the main character is absolutely terrible though lol. Dude sounds like he's voicing an ad for some hip young sports brand or whatever. But yeah otherwise it seems it has a lot of meat on its bones so on the wishlist it goes!


Monsters Are Coming: Rock & Road - Another banger Survivor Roguelike that strays from the pack and does its own thing. In this you slowly scroll down as a character who has to protect (and expand) a moving city from the horde. I love the presentation and building out your city on wheels with all kinds of upgrades, rather than your own character, is a fun idea. In some ways it's the perfect companion game to Ball X Pit, almost the reverse of that really. Wishlisted.

Holammer Holammer you should give these bottom two a shot if you haven't already. I think you'll like them!
 
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No I don't have a demo problem, guys.

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The Jester and the Madman - From the brief glances at the screenshots I figured this looked like a Point & Clicker with high production values. However upon actually playing the game I came to realize it's AI slop. Like, all of it. I quit after 2 mins.


Umigame - A very middling Roguelike that's not doing anything interesting to grab me. Looked decent from the storepage but the actual game isn't that captivating. It has co-op though so that's neat.


Night Swarm - Not a bad VS-like by any means but also not one that isn't doing much else compared to other titles in the genre. For some reason I was only able to equip two weapons and the upgrade paths were all full of meaningless 3.1% increment increases. Like what are we doing here guys, this genre is supposed to be a power fantasy that goes wild and makes the endorphins in my brain go beep-boop. Let me break the game! I'll keep it on my radar though as the overall presentation is really solid and I like the Baroque inspired Metal soundtrack lol.


Deepstone Rift - Speaking of soundtracks, this one seemed to have a royalty free one that instantly put me off. Mindnumbing stuff. The gameplay itself seemed monotonous and a chore as well so I alt f4'd outta there.
 
I don't normally try the metroid type games but this one is easy on the eyes and plays well if a bit basic.


A Gradius type game with a very nice chunky and easily readable style so it seems to be your fault if you didn't spot a missile coming for you. I like the item system where you grapple secondary weapons and key items.

 
Branded said:
What didn't you like about it? I only played it briefly but I thought it was decent so far. Wanted to dive back in to give it a proper go though.
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Every single thing aside from 1 on 1 combat.

Forced co-op (!)
Player character artists went to the Concord School of Art Design. Bigly.
Default difficulty is many times easier than Very Easy in the last two Doom games. The hardest is far too easy. And I'm playing solo in a game balanced for 4....
Even during the heat of the waves, you can literally get bored looking for enemies.
Bad visual composition. Great looking assets, but the enemies blend in with the background big time. Good looking assets and maps in a bubble does not equal a good looking game. This is a prime example of that.
Very undercooked combat design. The bigger demon guys that take forever to chip away, if you shock them into a stun, which is dead simple to do and takes one shot, you can insta kill them with a glory kill. There's no way that is done cooking.



The combat in the moment is good. Weapons feel great. Hits are tactile and feedback is perfect. When you do manage to find a group of enemies, it's a lot of fun blowing them to pieces. Individual assets are really good. Maps are pretty good, but there's no cohesion. The enemies are basically camouflaged because of it. No bueno in a white-knuckle boomer shooter.


EZ Fix:

Ditch all the co-op and the models
Revise the levels a bit
Make it traditional, linear FPS game
Hire someone who been the primary art director on a video game before. Or has ever taken a photograph.
 
simpatico said:
Every single thing aside from 1 on 1 combat.

Forced co-op (!)
Player character artists went to the Concord School of Art Design. Bigly.
Default difficulty is many times easier than Very Easy in the last two Doom games. The hardest is far too easy. And I'm playing solo in a game balanced for 4....
Even during the heat of the waves, you can literally get bored looking for enemies.
Bad visual composition. Great looking assets, but the enemies blend in with the background big time. Good looking assets and maps in a bubble does not equal a good looking game. This is a prime example of that.
Very undercooked combat design. The bigger demon guys that take forever to chip away, if you shock them into a stun, which is dead simple to do and takes one shot, you can insta kill them with a glory kill. There's no way that is done cooking.



The combat in the moment is good. Weapons feel great. Hits are tactile and feedback is perfect. When you do manage to find a group of enemies, it's a lot of fun blowing them to pieces. Individual assets are really good. Maps are pretty good, but there's no cohesion. The enemies are basically camouflaged because of it. No bueno in a white-knuckle boomer shooter.


EZ Fix:

Ditch all the co-op and the models
Revise the levels a bit
Make it traditional, linear FPS game
Hire someone who been the primary art director on a video game before. Or has ever taken a photograph.
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Fair enough. I doubt they'll be able to make any sweeping changes this close to launch or even shorty after it but I can see why people can be put off by some of the issues you mentioned.

I personally don't mind the more evergreen approach to this franchise. Despite really enjoying the first game people get so elitist about it as a whole. We've had about 6 Painkiller games and I don't think any that came after the first reached its quality so am glad that they're at least trying to spice things up a bit.
 
Detective game in the Golden Idol style.


Luminous Arses. I can see how it is Luminuos but I'm missing the arses.


Some good puzzle design here. The difficulty ramps up quite nicely.

 
bender said:
a94nif.jpg


Anyone try the new Pathologic demo on Steam Deck? The previous Quarantine demo was pretty rough from a performance perspective.
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It was good for all the reasons that pathologic 2 was good - atmosphere, writing, interesting systems. I found parts of the gameplay (movement, etc, and one suspenseful scene towards the end) to feel kind of janky. They had lots of questions about the movement in the questionnaire they ask you to fill out post demo.

The faces look worse than in p2, which I'm hoping gets polished before release.

There are a few exciting gameplay directions they seem to be taking it which I am eager to see in full form. The demo is like a chocolate sampler, just a tiny taste of a lot of different flavors.

It is worth the hour to hour and a half of time that it takes. I also may have not seen everything because I, erm, lost at the end. May have been scripted though.

Edit: reading comprehension fail. No clue how it fares on the deck.
 
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Even if you have to repost a game, what's been the gold you guys have found in nextfest?

For me it's this:


But I am biased towards anything that invokes King's Field and Lunacid
 
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DL'd a bunch of demos.

Gold- Reanimal. Headphones on. Lights off. Amazing. If you play this game during day in a bright room with TV speakers you deserve to be beat! Sound design A+, Graphics A, Atmosphere A+. Day1. (why the F not widescreen?!?)

Silver- Ember and Blade. Never played VS. From what I have seen of VS this seems to be a AAA version of that , Hades 2 type presentation and Art. Personally not sure if I like this type of game. Almost all the attacks(while cool and grandiose) are automatic so just controlling movement and (inconsistant feeling)dodging.

Bronze- Mini tank mayhem. Good little Tower Def game seems basic at first but the cards get surprisingly deep with exhaust and destroy mechanics! The art style holds it back a bit. Ill wishlist and prolly bite when its on sale for 20$
 
I downloaded several that have a gamepad icon but then don't work with gamepad. I also downloaded several that need kb/m.

I don't have my desk setup from a recent move. I want to try these few kb/m demos though. I gotta figure something out.


Also notice lots of Ai notes on m I st of these games. Assets/ voices from Ai and what not.
 


Demo released a couple of days before Steam Next Fest, you should still try it because it's pretty awesome. Developed by Fabraz, an indie dev with a history of good precision platformers. I really liked Slime-kun.

Interesting Action Roguelike & Tower Defense fusion, strategic with fast and intense combat. We've come a long way since Atari's Ramparts.
Wishlisted, a good recommendation Branded Branded .

Hollow Knight clone made by furries where they copied HK's aesthetics & gameplay, but forgot to change it a little so players don't notice.
An early interaction in the game made me wonder if it was made by Chinese or Koreans, it was Koreans. Some cultural norms stuff that translates poorly to western audiences. Japanese devs are better at universal ethics.

Another Hollow Knight clone based on the old Gunshow webcomic where you play as Question Hound from the famous "This is fine" meme. Hand drawn art style gives it a Cupheadish look & feel. It's fine, but the levels feel pretty empty visually.
 
Nice! Definitely getting a steam deck when they release a new one, seems silly to me to buy on at this point because of its age.
 
Very short demo but good representation of early 80s arcade design.


There was very high talking to puzzle solving ratio in this point and click but it has a lot going for it if you are a fan of Lucasarts classics.


A spaghetti western game running on GZDoom. This one makes me irrationally happy.

 
Labadal said:
Of Ash and Steel. I was so impressed by the demo, that I might get it day one. I made a thread for the game, but is dead.




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I installed Of Ash and Steel and going to run through the demo. Videos give you Witcher and Gothic vibes. Looks damn interesting, more so vs Gothic Remake.
 

RENANIMAL - I only played a few minutes because it's just straight up Little Nightmares but with actual English voice acting. I didn't even realize it's by the same devs so I was actually kind of dehyped upon reading that. I think LN 1 & 2 are more frustrating than fun imo so despite this being a nice looking and atmospheric title I'll probably wait for a deep sale until I bite.


This is Fine: Maximum Cope - A Metroidvania based on a meme? Sure! The visuals are charming and the animation work is solid as well. However the actual gameplay is quite slow at the moment. They really need to spice things up a bit for the full release with a sprint or dash. Could do with some more character sound effects while you're performing actions as well.


Kotoma and the Academy Citadel - If you look past the waifu trappings then this is actually a very solid and vibrant Metroidvania title. Combat is super tight and enemies all seem to have very clear key animations that make countering a breeze (and satisfying). There also seems to be plenty to upgrade and unlock as well. Definitely sticking this on my wishlist.


Wrack Remake - From the screenshots and trailer I thought it actually looked kind of mediocre but once you play it yourself it's clear how well designed this shooter actually is. It's very much reminiscent of something like Roboquest but without the Roguelike elements. Never heard of Wrack before but another one I've wishlisted now.
 
Dear Indie Devs,

We have more than enough of rogue lite Vampire Survivor clones.

A lesser known factoid: There is actually many other genres of games to use as inspiration and a jumping off point.

Best Regards


(Seriously, there is so many of them this time around)
 
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Plague Doctor said:
Dear Indie Devs,

We have more than enough of rogue lite Vampire Survivor clones.

A lesser known factoid: There is actually many other genres of games to use as inspiration and a jumping off point.

Best Regards


(Seriously, there is so many of them this time around)
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Yep, I started downloading and playing a few then realize going through the list of demos, it seems to never end. That and FPS horror games like Outlast were abundant, although it is October. So those make sense.
 
Plague Doctor said:
Dear Indie Devs,

We have more than enough of rogue lite Vampire Survivor clones.

A lesser known factoid: There is actually many other genres of games to use as inspiration and a jumping off point.

Best Regards


(Seriously, there is so many of them this time around)
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Go to the store front page. Choose preferences from the browse drop down. Look for tags to exclude and add "Roguelite" to it. Adding "Simulator" also relieves you from having to look at the one million asset flip "toilet cleaner simulator" and "vape shop store owner" games every next fest.
 
Plague Doctor said:
Dear Indie Devs,

We have more than enough of rogue lite Vampire Survivor clones.

A lesser known factoid: There is actually many other genres of games to use as inspiration and a jumping off point.

Best Regards


(Seriously, there is so many of them this time around)
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Disagree, because the games are selling. When they stop selling game devs will follow the herd and find new hunting grounds.

IMO the genre like the process of Carcinization is evolving back to more classic active style action roguelikes like Enter the Gungeon & Binding of Isaac, with more mechanical complexity. Being able to direct attacks or dash/dodge is getting increasingly common and indicators showing incoming attacks. In Funguys Swarm it's even possible to charge a weapon.
 
Yerd said:
Yep, I started downloading and playing a few then realize going through the list of demos, it seems to never end. That and FPS horror games like Outlast were abundant, although it is October. So those make sense.
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Yeah, it's just too much and turns me off immediately. A game really needs to do something different with the concept before I'll give it a try.

Wildebeest said:
Go to the store front page. Choose preferences from the browse drop down. Look for tags to exclude and add "Roguelite" to it. Adding "Simulator" also relieves you from having to look at the one million asset flip "toilet cleaner simulator" and "vape shop store owner" games every next fest.
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Smart idea and may have to start doing that. I didn't even touch the concept of the simulator games but they are coming in second in this horserace.

Holammer said:
Disagree, because the games are selling. When they stop selling game devs will follow the herd and find new hunting grounds.

IMO the genre like the process of Carcinization is evolving back to more classic active style action roguelikes like Enter the Gungeon & Binding of Isaac, with more mechanical complexity. Being able to direct attacks or dash/dodge is getting increasingly common and indicators showing incoming attacks. In Funguys Swarm it's even possible to charge a weapon.
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I get they must be selling by the virtue of some many takes on the genre.

I definitely agree I like the ones with varying level that has movement or progression (be it a branching map or connected rooms)

I will say even the ones with dash mechanics adds a little bit, but you are mostly just waiting on the level up to give you a good new offensive ability/upgrades to specific states though. Then build on the metaprogression between runs.

I am talking more that is a vast meaningless map, a time counter that overstays its welcome, and occasioanl shrines or shit.

By the 10 minute mark, I just want out. There are breif moments of renewed interest when I finally unlock a new zone or new playable character. I vastly prefer if it was a hand crafted zone that wants you go from point A to B, open or do something, get swarmed, move to another section that makes sense for the narrative, mid boss, and then end boss. Not just... big ole map, no rhyme or reason. I can see how if a player just wants pure gameplay and mastering the large skills and try to create a good build how it could be zen.

Really, it's not a slam to the concept as this is fatigue of its oversaturation with few doing anything different other than cosmetic/visuals.
 
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I wanted to try and download several more, but I guess I missed it. Too busy with work to check through the list again.

All that's left is the top 50, unless you can find some of the games still available. I just played a few that I downloaded and never got a chance to play. Plus a couple of the top 50. Still going through them.

The Final Sentence was really fun, maybe only for someone like me that uses two finger method. I don't know how fun it is for someone that can actually type.

Another similar one was Zombie Typing which is extremely short and also just as fun, I thought. I'm really looking forward to it. You control the character by typing words on the screen, to move, to shoot, reload, everything you do. Highly recommend if you liked the other typing game.

 
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