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Nine excellent Steam Next Fest demos
The Steam Games Festival is here again, but it has been renamed Steam Next Fest to celebrate awesome upcoming indie games. As has been the case with previous Festivals, there are a vast amount of demos and events to enjoy. With over 100 demos, it can be challenging to know where to start, so I created a list of my favourites for the festival. Terra Nil Website | Twitter | Wishlist/demo Genre: Simulation, city builder, puzzle Platforms: PC (Steam) Release date: 2022 Reclaim the wasteland in this reverse city builder. After touching down on barren, bare land, it’s time to get to work and restore the wasteland back to life as a thriving ecosystem.…
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Venice 2089 – First Look
The year is 2089, and climate change has changed Venice’s canals as we know them. The once-thriving tourist city has been devastated by the changing tides, and many people have left. Nova’s grandfather is still there though, Venice is the city he loves, and she’s there to visit. She has her own room, in a cool houseboat on top of his apartment. I’m not sure that’s ever explained in the demo, but it’s an interesting way to live. Nova wants to get away from life, and Venice seems like a quiet place to escape to. There’s just that pesky issue of the changing tides, which change the city’s landscape entirely.…
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Super Steam Game Festival 2021 Demos
The Steam Game Festival is here for 2021, and there are more than 500 demos included! Unfortunately, I don’t have enough clones (or any) to get through anywhere near that many demos, and I imagine you don’t either. I have been able to play quite a few, though, and there’s still time to play even more! Here are my choices of where to start the festival. Beacon Pines Website | Twitter | Wishlist/demo Genre: Adventure, choices matter Platforms: PC (Steam & itch.io) and Nintendo Switch Release date: Sept 2021 Beacon Pines starts in the pages of a book, but this is no ordinary book for no one knows the ending yet, not even the…
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Awesome adventure demos from The BAE
It’s time for the Big Adventure Event! Also known as The BAE (or #theBAE on Twitter), The Big Aventure event is run by Hitcents to celebrate all things adventure and point and click games. There are so many awesome devs involved, games to buy and demos to try. I had a great time with many demos, and my favourites are below. Teacup Website | Twitter | Wishlist/demo Genre: Adventure, point and click, story-rich Platforms: PC, console to be confirmed Release date: 2021 Teacup is a shy, introverted frog who loves staying home to read books and drink tea. Teacup loves tea! Unfortunately, Teacup has realised she’s all out of tea, and she has a…
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Dorfromantik – First look
Adorable and full of charm, Dorfromantik is a lovely hex tile placement town-builder game. Dorfromantik is designed for casual play and would probably work well as a mobile game. To begin the game, you start with a set of tiles to place. Gain points for good placement and get more tiles by completing quests. The game is over when you run out of tiles. I didn’t understand the quest system properly to begin with and had to go back to the tutorial, but it’s quite simple once you get into it. The tutorial does a good job at explaining how to play, and in the recent early access release, you’ll…
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Omno – First look
Take a journey through an ancient world in the atmospheric adventure game, Omno. With a gorgeous landscape and beautiful soundtrack, the Omno demo is a delight for the senses. Adventure through forests, deserts and tundras, and maybe you’ll see a dinosaur along the way! The Omno demo throws you into the world without a much direction, but it does help you along with controls and an objective. Other than that, you’re left to your own devices to explore your surroundings. Fortunately, the surroundings are gorgeous and filled with trees, towering cliff-faces, and the occasional dinosaur. You will also bump into cute creatures who leave droplets of energy to collect as…
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Chinatown Detective Agency: Day One – First Look
It’s been years since she’s been on the force, but you don’t forget an experience like that. You come to expect the worst of people and, what better way to deal with that, than profit? It’s time to get deep into the underbelly of Singapore, who knows what you might see on your first day as a PI. Settle into the new PI agency as Amira Darma, and solve the dirty little secrets that come your way. The demo for Chinatown Detective Agency is an excellent introduction to the game, where you get to try your hands at being a PI in three cases. Interestingly, you aren’t just contained to…
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Autumn Steam Game Festival – (so many) demos to try
The Autumn Steam Game Festival is here, and it brings many new demos to try! I love when these festivals come around because I find out about so many new games I hadn’t heard of before. Nearly every game in my list today is something I didn’t know about before the festival, and now I have more games to look forward to in the future! There are so many games available to try out with the festival, but these were the ones I liked the most from the ones I tried in the last two days. Carto Website | Twitter | Wishlist Genre: Adventure, puzzle Platforms: PC (Humble & Steam),…
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Misc. A Tiny Tale – First Look
Misc. A Tiny Tale is so charming! Follow Buddy, BagBoy and their kitty companion, Flick, on the adventure of a lifetime! The demo opens to BagBoy excitedly telling Buddy to hurry up so they can get going! A bunch of cogs mysteriously fell from the sky last night, and the gate out of Garden Village broke. Now we need to collect up the cogs to fix the game and start this epic journey! Set in a tiny world, Misc. is a super cute 3D platformer with a world made up of robots and random objects like rulers, plant pots and tunnels made of hoses. Buddy and the rest of the…
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Metroidvania month – September Kickstarter spotlight
Do you love metroidvania games? Trick question, everyone loves metroidvania games (probably). This month I came across two awesome Kickstarters that happen to be metroidvanias, and I couldn’t decide which to choose for this months spotlight. So, I chose both! If you’re not sure what a metroidvania is, they’re games where you need to gain abilities to progress to new sections. See a high ledge but can’t jump up onto it? Maybe you’ll get double-jump later. Examples of excellent metroidvanias are Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest. If that sounds interesting to you, check out these Kickstarter campaigns: Haiku, the Robot Kickstarter | Twitter | Wishlist | Demo…
