5 Steam Next Fest Demos To Grab Before They’re Gone

Hey there, folks! 

We made it through another week, and almost through another Steam Next Fest. It officially runs until June 22, so there’s still time to find some favorites. 

I don’t know about you, but this Next Fest has felt a little… muted. While my wishlist has expanded tenfold, it doesn’t feel like there has been that one standout title that everyone’s shouting about. Maybe that’s because after the excitement and positivity of Summer Game Fest, the news cycle shifted: Xbox is about to slash hundreds of jobs and close studios, and other places like Ubisoft are undergoing mass layoffs. Maybe it’s because 5,000 games is untenable for anyone to wade through, especially when that number has been inflated by clones and games made using gen-AI and there are limited filtering options.

It’s a sad and disruptive time in the video games industry. But there are still many developers creating incredible pieces of art for us to experience and enjoy and there will be many good news and success stories to come, so let’s continue to celebrate that. 

But before we do, a little bit of lfg housekeeping. If you’re a paid supporter, your bonus newsletters will start from next week. We needed a sec to get the tech working, so thank you for your patience. Next Friday‘s issue will also be a deeper dive into an upcoming game, a conversation with its creator, and demo keys for you to try.

I’ve also been working on short-form video content for IG Reels and TikTok, if you’d like to check those out. 

Housekeeping over! Here are more demos I enjoyed over the last week.

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If you'd like to join a community of like-minded game enjoyers, consider becoming a lookingforgame supporter! We have a lovely Discord full of lovely folks sharing game recommendations (and excellent pet pics). Becoming a Supporter will also get you extra newsletters!

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over the hill

I love a road trip. Admittedly, I can’t drive, so I get to enjoy being a passenger princess, but it's a role I take very seriously. I will find the next rest stop and direct you to it with minimal fuss, I will pay for fuel, and, crucially, I make a mean playlist. 

But when I’m not fulfilling those duties, there’s something about a road trip that makes me unwind. It’s less about the destination, more about the soothing rhythm of the car’s movement, the soft thrum of the engine, and the ever-changing sights. over the hill captures the best parts of a road trip perfectly, providing a meditative driving experience where wonder lies around every corner. My advice is to go where the road (and often off-road) takes you.

WOIM

One of my early core gaming memories was completing Snake 2 on my mum’s Nokia 3330. Sure, in hindsight, it might not be that difficult to do, but as a child, seeing that snake fill the whole screen filled me with an enormous sense of pride and the immediate urge to restart the game to beat my score, an affliction I still suffer from years later. 

WOIM is a puzzle game that’ll feel familiar to those of us who grew up playing Snake in concentrated bursts on our parents' phones. Guide the worm (or woim) toward apples; doing so increases its length, allowing you to hit buttons to open doors and complete levels. The challenge ramps up when you have to start moving eggs to weigh down the buttons, twist around ever-constricting tunnels, and even get chopped in half so you have two worms to control.

Guncrypt

This next one comes at you from Halfbrick Studios, who you might recognize as the team behind mobile classics Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja. In Guncrypt, your gun fires bullets in the order you stack them, so while half the joy is in zipping around taking out the crypt’s monster horde, the other half lies in build crafting a magazine with powerful and unexpected bullet interactions. 

There are many bullethell games and even more roguelikes available on Steam these days, but I think this one has some real potential. I found myself saying "just one more run" more times than is healthy, which is how you know it's got the sauce.

Hack ‘95

I adore a Fake OS game (so much so that Kurt and I hosted a whole showcase dedicated to them not so long ago!), and while I’m eagerly awaiting the full release of Desktop Explorer, Hack ‘95 was a fun surprise for me in this Next Fest. 

Not content with its deckbuilder hacking minigame, Hack ‘95 also weaves a riveting conspiracy story about a missing elite hacker, a corrupt tech company, and the government agency with its evil eye on all. Hack into people’s computers, nose through their documents, and chat to other hackers, all the while listening to some perfect drum-n-bass beats via Hacker FM (complete with the game's version of an iconic Winamp skin).

OFFBEAT

This final one came my way via Pantaloon, a gaming newsletter turned publisher led by my pal Jamin Smith. If you like what I’m doing here at lookingforgame, I urge you to check them out, especially if your tastes skew toward zanier games. 

OFFBEAT is exactly that: it's an audio production tool masquerading as a game where you play as a composer taking on odd jobs. Make music for your clients by experimenting with fully simulated instruments, mix tracks, and then even save them locally on your PC. I wouldn't call myself particularly musically inclined, but OFFBEAT gave me a fun, whacky space to experiment with making my own beats, and hey, some ended up being pretty catchy.

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Community recs

If you're a paid supporter, you get access to the LFG Discord, where we talk about games and share what we've been playing recently. Some highlights from this past week include:

• Noskooltoday is interested in the look of About Fishing (can confirm, it's a really cool demo!)
• sortbyfirstname is digging Strange Scaffolding's Truck-kun is Supporting Me from Another World?!
• EmilyMania has been spreading the good word about Cozy Marbles

If you'd like to join us, sign up at the button above for $5 per month!

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That does it for this week, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your Next Fest!

I'm always looking for something new to share, so if you have a game for me to check out, please fill out the form below:

See you next week!