#nextfest — Public Fediverse posts

Steam NextFest 2025 Coverage, Part 9
https://www.youtube.com/embed/9YBoERIZS3c

The ninth part of our (Josh Bycer's) coverage of Steam NextFest 2025 October edition.

00:00 Intro00:26 Curtains the Clown2:16 Archon Soul4:09 Homura Hime5:59 Malleus Maleficarum6:52 Bottom Up Beatdown: Hostile Takeover8:37 Smash it Wild9:58 Broomstick Exorcist12:03 Earth M
https://setsideb.com/steam-nextfest-2025-coverage-part-9/
#indiedevshowcase #indies #2025 #indie #indiegameshowcase #nextfest #steam

Games of NextFest 2025, Part 8
https://www.youtube.com/embed/hu8ej0EhAUo

Part 8 of my (Josh Bycer's) coverage of Steam NextFest, October 2025 edition.

00:00 Intro00:20 The Doppel1:27 Terror Type Alchemy3:09 The Spirit Lift4:45 The People of Sea, Sun, and Salt6:17 Terraformental8:28 Heaven Does Not Respond
https://setsideb.com/games-of-nextfest-2025-part-8/
#indiedevshowcase #indies #2025 #indie #indiegameshowcase #nextfest #steam

Database Detective: Minor Crimes Division, #NextFest demo

A cute, campy little interface-fucking game in which you query toy databases with the Structured Query Language (SQL) to solve heinous minor crimes on a bored constabulary's behalf.

Small, short, sweet, with a few reasonably diverting puzzles and enough amateur comedics for a coupla sensible chuckles. Worth the time.

IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator, #NextFest demo

Investigated after @wgiwf 's positive post. Chances are you've already heard of Iron Nest, darling demo of the NextFest. Well, I'm here to tell you that the love's deserved – Iron Nest's a powerful, fun testament to 'tism that I still think about from time to time, days after trying it out.

It's not perfect by any means – the thing's a mouse-driven simulator that demands you manually fiddle many a big red wheel, which to some will grate quickly. I get the feeling that Nest would shine its brightest as a VR game, and that this was perhaps its original brief. Some of the tooling, like the differently-colored map pencils, are misleadingly introduced, leading to some early gameplay bumps in places that the game can least afford.

But on the basis of its thunderous sound and mechanical design alone, you should definitely give Iron Nest's demo the uninterrupted hour or more it requires.

Virtue and a Sledgehammer, #NextFest demo

Not since 2024's Dustborn have we had such a perfect example of progslop's furious flaccidity. Virtue, published by recent Anita Sarkeesian hirers Devolver Digital, bills itself as "a game about family, traditions, and being a misfit" in which the player is invited to "wield your sledgehammer like an instrument of reckoning" (not as such an instrument, sharper eyes will note) in which "cinematic sequences of interactive fiction will reveal your fears, desires, and your family’s knotty web of virtues and flaws".

It's about being edgy and hating your family, is what they're saying. BORING!

But is smashing up stuff with a huge sledgehammer fun, at least? No, because by deft incompetence they made it BORING!

To be interesting, art needs distance – conceptual space in which to manouvere. Like Dustborn, Virtue has no room to move because it comes from an inland empire the size of a postage stamp; it's self-obsessed, closed-off, tasteless, BORING.

I recommend you play this demo. Not because it's good, nor even because it's bad, but because it's wretchedly, uselessly, impotently, and loudly BORING to a degree that has to be experienced to be believed.

Fuck me, we have to share a planet with these losers...

County of Fortune, #NextFest demo

Sold as something between a city game and a map game – a region-builder, if you will – but deeply disappointing to play. Pretends to be at the scale of settlements, but in actual, mechanical fact each village only produces one thing, so you're really just playing a shallow building-placer. What little simulation is present is not particularly interesting, in spite of one or two good but mishandled ideas.

Technically a bit of a mess, too – didn't even render right until I fought my way into the options menu and enabled the off-by-default(???) UI scaling. Design-wise? The tutorial's directions soft-locked me.

Don't bother.

Normal Golf Game, #NextFest demo

An adventure golf game with quirky, arbitrary setting and fun, unexpected twists on the game of golf and its many simulations? Yes, sign me up!

...coupled behind shallow rage-bait controls whose mechanical purpose is to drift and frustrate ala the venerable QWOP? No, fuck off!

Walk, #NextFest demo

A panel of tiny little fun-size minigames that indirectly tell the story of a pleasantly ordinary stroll. Figure out what each wants you to do, do it, unlock new panels. Walk's more fidget toy than game, but it pretends to nothing more and doesn't overstay – I was in and out of the demo in eight minutes, my brain feeling gently massaged.

TANUKI: Pon's Summer, #NextFest demo

You're Pon, a lazy tanuki who, like any tanuki, enjoys sleeping, snacking, and pulling off sick tricks on his BMX. The run-down shrine whose oversight you've unfortunately inherited is about to have its semicentennial Tanuki Festival... and, guess who spent the shrine's reserve repair fund on snacks?

Pon's Summer is a delightful playground of a game, its town sculpted to invite BMX traversal. The characters are fun, the art bright, the sound tight, the writing funny – just a well put together charmfest that's well worth the time its demo demands.

Earthlings, #NextFest demo

You're a lazy ayyyy lmao delivery driver who, chasing a package negligently tossed onto the planetary lawn of a primitive blue-green planet, discovers that these "Egyptians" are pritty good at carving statues and decides to run a Chariots of the Gods scam on 'em while the scamming's still good.

Gameplay takes place on a flat 2D plane. You have mans. Tell mans gather water, chop wood, mine fis— uh, stone, explore, build house for get more mans. Then tell mans carve statue to beam up into space before your anxiety over being caught and thrown into the galactic slammer for civilizational adulteration has you lose your nerve and flee. Refine resource, find new type resource behind wandering mummy, carve better statue!

You've probably played Earthlings before, is what I'm saying. I'll be very surprised if it doesn't show up on mobile devices at a fraction of its Steam price. But its humor and polish gives it enough sheen to be worth the while of those who enjoy mans-make-number-go-up games.

My Fire Is Bigger Than Yours, #NextFest demo

You are trying to start a campfire, but the Sun is bullying you – says your efforts are in vain, for they'll never produce anything of its size. Show that bloated ball of gas who's the real combustor around here!

Or, don't. Quit. Exit this wretched attempt at an incremental clicker and never look back. Barely ten minutes in, My Fire reduces any goodwill its title and premise stacked to ashes.

Order of the Sinking Star, #NextFest demo

Jon Blow's back with his new programming language's tech demo, the Sokobanoramic Order of the Sinking Star in which four different indie sokoban games – Jonah Ostroff's 2019 Heroes of Sokoban, Alan Hazelden's 2014 Mirror Isles and 2015 Skipping Stones To Lonely Homes, as well as Sean Barrett's 2013 Promesst – are lovingly ripped off (with permission, reportedly via contracts executed in 2018/2019), rendered, and then mechanically recombined in a clash of worlds orchestrated by the titular Order.

But is it any good? I don't know! The three areas I looked at (Skipping Stones wasn't included in the demo) seemed interesting enough, but any credit for that attaches to the original games rather than Sinking Star itself. Presumably the real meat of the game is in the worlds combining, which I couldn't play long enough to reach.

Performance-wise, it ran fine on my Deck, though I've heard reports (from @SuperSnekFriend among others) of less-than-stellar experiences happening with no pattern I can discern. The art direction is pretty enough, too – what's there works well and doesn't get in the way.

You've heard of "progammer art"? Sinking Star's writing and theming aren't that, for that at least might give them a shot at charm. What little of Blow's writing (assuming it's his) is on display in the demo suffers badly from Smartest Guy In The Room Syndrome – it doesn't quite grasp when it's embarrasingly out of its depth. But, as long as you relieve the building exasperation with the occasional powerful roll of the eyes, its ill effects should pass like an embassasing rash. Should symptoms persist, I prescribe topical application of Bradley Lovell's 2022 The Looker, a delightful (and free!) puncturing of Blow's previous game, The Witness: https://bradleylovell.com/the-looker

Nimbit Frontier, #NextFest demo

It's hard to avoid describing monster collector/battlers as "Pokémon with (X)" – a disservice to what I saw in Nimbit Frontier, which seems committed to being its own blend of an... ecological dungeon-crawling monster collection action RPG? If you looked at Pokémon and thought "man, I like the cool monsters but wish this game's action focused around the exploration and ecological study of a Made in Abyss -style natural dungeon plunging into a mysterious forested void", then you're going to want to play this demo.

Be prepared: The SFX is annoying, the character portraits agonizingly over-emote, the on-field character sprites had better be placeholders, and basic annoyance-easing affordances like auto-pickup are absent. But Nimbit Frontier's bones are so promising that I still recommend you give it a look.

Futter für die Steam-Wunschliste: Valve nennt die 50 meist­gespielten Next-Fest-Demos https://www.computerbase.de/news/gaming/futter-fuer-die-steam-wunschliste-valve-nennt-die-50-meistgespielten-next-fest-demos.98065/ #Steam #NextFest

#SteamNextFest recommendation for #KernalHearts, which feels like it wants to merge #Persona and #NierAutomata into a spectacle fighter #RogueLike. I especially appreciated how it made the "choose a path" part of a rogue like into a realtime decision of where you go in the open world(on a timer!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4533500/Kernel_Hearts_Demo/

#VideoGames
#Gaming
#NextFest

Very qualified #SteamNextFest for #VirtueAndASledgehammer

It's not a fun game. It's a #WalkingSimulator where you smash your hometown to pieces as a way processing the trauma it inflicted on you, but maybe you know you're wrong while you're doing it? It's messy and weird, and I couldn't stop thinking about the demo after I finished it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3743260/Virtue_and_a_Sledgehammer/

#NextFest
#VideoGames
#Gaming

#SteamNextFest recommendation for #TanukiPonsSummer

So it's a cozy game where you're a cute animal playing minigames, which is not usually my thing, but it's done well, and the surprisingly well-realized BMX trick system made riding around town a joy.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3218570/TANUKI_Pons_Summer/

#VideoGames
#Gaming
#NextFest

Okay, #SteamNextFest is over. But lots of the demos are still available so I've got a few more recommendations coming, including.

#OnimushaWayOfTheSword - A stylish AAA action game with combat that feels good. I also have a professional admiration for their cloth simulation and dismemberment.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2638890/Onimusha_Way_of_the_Sword/

#VideoGames
#Gaming
#NextFest

A cheeky afternoon (to me) stream on the staycation day of my vacation? Why not!

Gearplexed | Like perplexed, but with gears

#owncast #lgbtqplus #english #AngryDucks #chatty #videogames #gaming #videogames #nextfest #demo #gearplexed

https://stream.synduckate.yachts

Next Fest Demo Showcase 2025, Part 7
https://www.youtube.com/embed/PSE4siith5s

This is part 7 of my (Josh Bycer's) favorite demos from Steam NextFest, October 2025 edition.

00:00 Intro00:23 Servant of the Lake1:25 Painted in Blood3:47 Jackal5:28 Hold the Mine7:28 Amnyam9:19 Keys of Fury10:01 Prince of Darkness Jr10:55 Checkmage!
https://setsideb.com/next-fest-demo-showcase-2025-part-7/
#indiedevshowcase #indies #indie #nextfest #steam

Tape Man, #NextFest demo

I am so glad I pulled Tape Man out of the random pile. This puzzle-platformer has only one rule: Measure an obstacle to remove it. And that's all it needs!

In spite of its minimalism, the game looks good, controls well, and didn't feel stale or overworked once in my time with it. I think Tape Man deserves plenty of exposure and so heartily recommend its demo to you.

Burn-9, #NextFest demo

Metal Gear from the Codec's other end. You are the anonymous and increasingly mucked-about controller of a special ops team dispatched to reconnoiter a secret Antarctic base containing a mysterious, incredibly important thingamajig that has fallen out of contact. Action unfolds as a sequence of CYOA choices presented on a primitive display, dressed up as orders and support passed to the trained unfortunate(s) suffering through the ordeal itself, in between bouts of force politics with relentlessly uninformed, uncaring higher-ups.

It's decently implemented and tense, but in places I felt quite railroaded as the pay-off for leads and strategies I had carefully weighed were yanked away for what felt like flimsy, contrived reasons. Can't go through that door now because it's hot. That corridor has a robot suddenly. Oh, you managed to have your operator shoot down the drone so she can jack a cable to it and give you a shot at compromising its network? Sorry, she has to leave now because snow too cold. It's, like, extra cold there. It cold though! Go fight the gene-wolf, idiot.

Still, if you like the idea, it's worth trying out.

Bulbo's Belief System, #NextFest demo

Bulbo is a lightbulb-man who will believe anything. An apple-man named Newton tells him about gravity, so he believes in gravity and thereafter is subject to its cruelly universal grip... at least, until he passes a TV airing a show about how gravity is a LIE that THEY use to keep you DOWN, MAN.

Bulbo's pitch might be "Baba Is You as a 2D puzzle-platformer". The puzzles were fun enough, its mechanical conciet far from plumbed, and its character animations adorably dumb. Give it a try!

Escape the Baby Alarm, #NextFest demo

Escape the Baby Alarm describes itself as a "cozy puzzle adventure about the chaos and love of early parenthood" that "unfolds like a living comic book" in which you "solve hand-drawn, escape room-inspired puzzles".

Look, I actually like arty shit. I enjoy galleries, installations, and have a very high tolerance for the kinds of mistakes artists make in flinging themselves out where the brackish fuel for art resides. And, when you self-publish, you've got to toot your own horn because nobody else will. But this less a game as it is a multimedia exhibition with interactive works. What it has to say about early parenthood isn't particularly arresting or deep, likely to elicit only a "huh, oh yeah, that's how it was, uh... kinda" from those who've been through it.

If you want to get anything, anything at all from Escape the Baby Alarm's psychedelic visuals, ignore EVERYTHING its creator writes in self-promotion and go in cold.

Ambroise Niflette & the Gleaned Bell, #NextFest demo

Adorable. In this toybox-aesthetic French detect-'em-up, you play the titular wind-up bird detective (complete with clockwork grinding and key turning as you walk) summoned by means of mystery missive to the island village of Touvoir-en-Thym-et-Pomme. But when you arrive, the letter's author knows nothing of it and the crime it reports hasn't yet happened! Then the village's only bridge washes away, and events begin to churn...

Ambroise Niflette's gameplay is nothing you've not seen before: Explore the village, question residents, collect and examine clues, find contradictions and leads, repeat. Alas, the demo wasn't long enough to give a proper taste of this main loop, only hints of what it might be. You're able to present anything to anyone, meaning there's quite a bit of generic "that's none of my business"/"I don't know anything about that"-style responses, suggesting that even the slightest turn off track will plunge the player into brute-force search hell.

I suspect the talents of the team behind this are mainly... how might one put it? Visual. Even with all graphics settings driven to their lowest, Ambroise Niflette still ran choppily on my Deck; a quick glance around the game's environments shows that their backgrounds have been padded out with what look like stock assets. Many, many, presumably needlessly high-definition stock assets. On top of the slop-coded Unreal Engine tax, it's a crying shame to see a game unknowingly pissing its performance away for the sake of trees. Or maybe I'm wrong! But the game still runs like shit, in any case.

I can still recommend the demo, with one caveat: In the middle of Touvoir-en-Thym-et-Pomme lives a NIGGER A NIGGER THEY PUT DARK PEOPLE IN THE GAME DADDY and he runs a quaint little bar, upon one interior wall of which an Antifa emblem is mounted (final pic related). Turmoil in the toybox, indeed.

Dog in the Machine, #NextFest demo

In this cute little tactics game in the mechanical veins of Into The Breach (with Tactical Breach Wizards' infinite rewind), you're a robotic dog who narrowly escapes being scrapped by its traitorous fellow machines, and must fight your way back to your humans. I found everything competently done and the fundamental systems fun, while a steady flow of new twists on mechanical themes and the ability to periodically remix/combine moves kept things fresh and satisfying. The art was attractive and well-polished, with my main criticism being that the heavily geometric enemy designs were slightly less legible on the battlefield than they could have been.

Dog in the Machine was a lovely little surprise that I heartily recommend to those looking for a mid-weight (and surprisingly child-friendly) tactics game.