I’ve been lucky enough to attend several big gaming shows. By far, the most thrilling part was to access the booth demo rooms, where developers showcased unreleased games in different states of play.
Steam Next Fest is as close as you can get to that experience without buying a ticket to E3. But it’s probably better than E3: there are over 600 games and demos this year, especially indie stuff.
The streams and demos will only be on until the 28th of February, so take the time to play some of the demos this weekend. I’ll try (who has the time these days?), and if I do, here are twenty games I’d like to try out.
Monsters Domain [Steam Link]
Quite a few games have taken a stab at the ‘be the dungeon’ parts of dungeon crawls, which we should call the dungeon keeper genre. If Monsters Domain pulls off what the store page describes, it’s going to be a high water in this dark hero-slaying neck of the woods. Play first person and slowly build up an army of monsters, kit them out, do research, even go on raids. This game could be excellent if it delivers.
Bio-Gun [Steam Link]
When a scientist’s dog comes down with a deadly disease, he does what everyone would: create a gun-toting vaccine from pig DNA and sends it in to shoot the living hell out of the invaders. Bio-Gun is a full-blooded twin-stick shooter where you rush around the dog’s insides, killing bad things, befriending cells, visiting villages, and buying guns from local shops. So, not exactly an anatomy lesson. But it does look like an insane Metroid-style side-scroller with well-designed graphics.
Builders of Egypt [Steam Link]
Builders of Egypt appears to be the first of not one, not two, but three new city building games from indie developer Strategy Labs. It looks like a pretty in-depth game of creating and managing your urban empire, dealing with local demands, diplomacy, religion, trade and defending your city during wars. I see that Builders of China and Builders of Greece are also in the pipeline, so it’s a classic city builder crowd!
Lost in Play [Steam Link]
Few things give games a charm like hand-drawn cartoon graphics. Lost in Play is all about that, wrapped in a charming-looking adventure game with point-and-click and puzzle elements. Help guide a brother and sister through a strange world that might be a figment of their imagination… or not! Whatever the plot, this looks really sweet, charming and fun to play. It also claims to have no dialogue – everything is communicated visually. That should make things interesting.
Alien Extraction (VR) [Steam Link]
The furthest I ever got in Five Nights At Freddy’s is the first few screens, then it unnerved me. So when I say this game reminds me of that one, I’m out on a limb here. But the concept is similar: you run a console with multiple screens, pressing buttons to influence events you see on the other side. In this case, you have to help a janitor escape alien invaders on a space station. It’s not a horror, so there’s that, and it’s in VR, which looks like a good design choice.
Deadwater Saloon [Steam Link]
If you can recall Deadwood, the awesome and tragically shortened western TV series from around 15 years ago, you know there was only one character you wanted to be: Al Swearengen, the dangerous boss of the Gem Saloon. Finally, someone thought about making that a game: build your saloon in a frontier town, add services, woo clientele, get into regional politics, and try to turn a profit. I’m not sure if this will extend to killing people and feeding them to pigs, but it’s a step closer to becoming the legendary ‘Swin-gin’.
Warhammer 40,000: Shootas, Blood & Teef [Steam Link]
Warhammer 40k lore bores me. I couldn’t care less about some immortal emperor or someone’s heresy or the corruption of whatever race. But I know just about all those major plot points because I frikkin’ adore the Warhammer 40k world and aesthetic. Literal tank space marines? Check. Mean green orc machines? Check. A universe where the slogan is “There is only war?” Who TF is Horus to me? Nobody. But a hand-drawn Orc-themed side-scrolling shooter by the studio behind the Guns, Gore & Cannoli games? This is why I’m a 40k fan.
Memory Lost [Steam Link]
The biggest challenge with fighting possession is that the thing you’re fighting can just jump to someone else. That’s why that priest in The Exorcists jumps out of a window (belated spoiler alert). Memory Lost flips the script – you are the possessing entity in this sci-fi isometric shooter. There are no lives or health packs – you survive by jumping from person to person and laying waste to everyone else. It looks fun, though the demo is an alpha. That means a lot could still change.
The Wandering Village [Steam Link]
When a planet’s surface becomes contaminated by deadly spores, the only place to survive is on the backs of giant roaming creatures called an Onbu. Mine resources and build your colony on the plateau across the back of the Onbu, which keeps moving around into new biomes. You can communicate with the Onbu and even take advantage of it or help it thrive. The Wandering Village looks like a bunch of different great ideas brought together into something unique.
Ixion [Steam Link]
Earth went kablooie or something, and you are on a massive space station that managed to escape the disaster. But it’s in pretty bad shape, so crack those resource factory/colony management knuckles and start getting things together. Collect resources in space and create ingredients to run the ship. Manage the people, crew, jobs, research, exploration and interactions with other factions. Definitely, one to check if ‘space opera space station administrator’ sounds like a dream job.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit [Steam Link]
I’m a sucker for point-and-click adventures, and Crowns and Pawns looks like a serious entry in the ‘classic’ style of the genre, but with a lot of modern touches. The art looks fun, and the plot promises some supernatural or mythological stuff, which is always nice in this format. There’s even some talent involved from the Broken Sword franchise, so this game is one to watch, adventure genre fans.
Hell Pie [Steam Link]
A pint-sized demon with a dumb-looking cherub chained to him – what’s not to like here? Hell Pie is a 3d platformer where you play as Nate, the demon of bad taste. That’s literal – he’s on a quest to collect ingredients for the devil’s birthday pie. Whether it’s also bad taste, as in Conker’s Bad Fur Day, isn’t clear, but it looks fun and well made.
Scathe [Steam Link]
Let’s cut to the chase: Scathe is a demonic-themed bullet-hell first-person shooter with up to 4-player drop-in co-op. I’ve come across so many shooters that either don’t go crazy with the attack numbers or do so but only focus on single-player (Why don’t the new Doom games have proper co-op?). If Scathe can pull this off, it could be the next big thing in that niche since Serious Sam.
Celestial Empire [Steam Link]
Celestial Empire looks like a very ambitious city builder, steeped in the Chinese dynasty eras from the first millennium CE. It has large maps, different biomes and shifting seasons. Run the city and its trade routes, build monuments and make your people the ancient world’s envy. It’s a bit of a cliche that city builders tend to focus on historical periods, but Celestial Empire is about a lot more than that.
The Plague Doctor of Wippra [Steam Link]
I’m a total sucker for pixel art, especially if it’s in an adventure game such as Thimbleweed Park or Darkside Detective. The Plague Doctor of Wippra totally has my attention. It’s all that in a mediaeval noir, where you play a doctor in a superstitious village. Looks good in all its miserable dark age finery.
Tree of Life: Oddria [Steam Link]
Quirky survival games are fun. You still do all the usual chores such as cutting wood and mysteriously fashion radios out of two rocks and twine. But at least they aren’t as serious and morbid as the more grim survival games. Tree of Life has that going for it, plus it supports multiplayer – and will apparently let you run your own servers. Those are all wins for this genre.
Guilt: The Deathless [Steam Link]
First, that’s a cool name. Second, an isometric action RPG with procedurally generated levels and rogue-lite elements sounds worth a whirl. The graphics and art style of Guilt don’t really blow me away. But everything else sounds full of potential. And even though it’s a single-player game, the world is persistent and can be affected by other players.
Far: Changing Tides [Steam Link]
I’ve had Far: Lone Sails on my wishlist for months. I should buy and play it, because here’s the sequel already! These games are atmospheric side-scrolling adventures where you meditatively explore a post-apocalyptic world. I’m not quite sure how it works, but it looks beautiful and immersive.
Gatewalkers [Steam Link]
Gatewalkers wants to take its place alongside Diablo and Grim Dawn, but with a twist. It’s an isometric action-RPG with some survival elements. Up to four players co-op in team-based combat through various environments, each with different survival requirements. Find resources, craft new gear and expand your skills in what looks to be a very flexible class system.
The Matriarch [Steam Link]
Satanic nuns must die! I’m serious: this game is full of satanic nuns, and they must die through crushing by an upside-down cross. Not making this up. In this twisted twist on the hide and seek genre, several players are nuns, and one is the deadly matriarch doing all the nun dispatching. The game also has bots playing nuns and the matriarch has to figure out who the players are. The graphics just clinch this one. It’s like a reverse Among Us, but with satanic nuns. Have I mentioned the satanic nuns? Satanic nuns!
