HI i've been doing THREADS on all the COOLEST GAMES in STEAM NEXT FEST

and there's a FEW THAT I MISSED. Unfortunately the next fest ends like, today, so there's a pretty good chance these demos might be gone. BUT THIS DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD IGNORE THEM, SOME OF THEM ARE FUCKING AWESOME. Maybe at least check them out, or give them a wishlist?

And i'd especially recommend that for this first one, an amazing horror game called

My Work Is Not Yet Done

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I had heard good thing about this one, but I still wasn't ready for it. Some games are strange and confusing and janky in ways that make you think they're unfinished, and others are strange and janky in ways that just drag you deeper into their strange, strange world. This is one of the bets examples of the second type I've seen in a long time. Even if it didn't have some of the best pixel art I've ever seen, I'd still be raving about it's storytelling, worldbuilding, and incredible design. The demo was like, 10 minutes at most, and I'm already more invested in this horror game then any I can recently remember.

Octopus City Blues

I feel like this game exists just to make me feel bad about calling the last game "some of the best pixel art I've ever seen", lol. This shit is GRODY. Absolutely fucking disgusting, some of the most disgusting pixelated pustules i've ever seen animated, and they're everywhere. The game itself is very much of the "go and solve puzzles by talking to people who suck" adventure game genre, with lots of hints at the weird horror behind everything you see. If you like story-focused games with a heavy focus on mean sarcasm or you love when pixel art manages to make you go "OH that's SICK, EUGGGGH", gotta recommend this one. Never seen a game with such an... enthusiastically animated cockroach squishing scene.

Go Mecha Ball

Sometimes you don't want to think about your game. Sometimes you want to slam on buttons and watch pretty lights and constantly be going as fast as possible, and Go Mecha Ball has you covered. It may look like a twin stick shooter roguelike, but at it's core this is a game about moving from spot to spot as fast as possible and ramming into enemies at high speeds with your morph ball. If you think Rush Attacks where you Ram the enemy are the coolest thing a video game can do, or you just want to zone out as you slam on arcade buttons and kill little robots, this is the game for you.

Songs Of Silence

4X games and it's board-game styled strategy games have a problem they've never really solved: combat always fucking sucks in them. I don't know if Songs of Silence solves this, but it's certainly one of the more interesting attempts i've ever seen. While the main game has your standard hexagonal "move your troops to take key locations" board game style, the combat has your troops just running around on a mini battlefield completely automated while you play Cards from your hand to do things like "summon giant meteor". Is it good? I'm not sure. Is it something I haven't seen before? Yep.

(NOTE: I'm being informed this MIGHT be similar to heroes of might and magic? idk. never played that one)

Peripeteia

When I booted this up and came across a ladder and realized it wasn't actually programmed as a ladder, but rather that they had programmed in ledge grabbing and then just made a bunch of ledges on top of each other, I knew this was some eurojank. I still wasn't prepared for just HOW eurojank it was. This demo is going to be nearly unplayable to most people and absolutely glorious to a very small number of others. It took us 5 minutes to figure out how to equip guns. I immediately got lost in a seemingly infinite staircase and had to give up at which point my gf excitedly downloaded the game herself. She then described it as, quote, "eye divine cybermancy for transfemmes who want to be peed on in a club basement while russian bass plays".

I can't recommend this one. But hopefully in describing it like that i won't HAVE to recommend it to the people who want it. You're already drooling, I'd assume.

Little Goody Two Shoes

LADIES AND LADIES WE GOT YURI!!! WE GOT BISHOJO YURI LIKE ACTUAL GIRLS DATING GIRLS WE GOT IT

Okay for real tho this demo was AMAZING. The horror spooks were scary, the many different management systems were interesting, it feels like one of those real great things where someone took the base mechanics of a visual novel/dating sim (managing your time/resources, talking to specific girls at specific times, progressing the story in specific ways) and then built enough game mechanics around them to make it something really special. If you at all like the idea of a spooky/story heavy game like this (and can stand a lot of reading), you GOTTA check this one out. I'll be playing it because it lets me be a shitty arrogant girl who goes OHOHOHO but also wants to date all the cute girls she meets, and also cause it's a fucking awesome game.

KarmaZoo

Every few years someone new takes a crack at the "what if all your friends played the same wacky platformer at once" genre, and karmazoo is one of the best entries i've seen in a while. It's charming, it's cute, it's really fun to play with some randos, and like all these games, I have no idea how well it will hold up over time. Still, it'll probably be a ton of fun with the right large group, or to just play with a bunch of goofy randos (so long as the community doesn't die out too fast...)

Deep Rock Galactic Survivor

I mean. It's vampire survivors but deep rock galactic. There's... really nothing more to say here. If you like vampire survivors and deep rock galactic, this game combines those things fantastically. If you can't stand one of them, it's not very good.

I wish i had more to say, but it's just a real good combo of the two.

Robocop: Rogue City

Tbh the most shocking part of this game is that it ISN'T just a terrible tie in game. No, it's a shockingly... "slightly more then mediocre" tie in game. It's got like. A full open world? It's got sidequests and upgrades? And it feels EXTREMELY robocop, from the "so over the top it becomes funny again" attempts at satire to the way you just kinda walk right into gunfire and shoot guys to the fact that they made over the top animations when you shoot somebody in the dick. I don't really think this is like... "everybody has to play it" tier, but if you like robocop, i can safely say the devs of this ABSOLUTELY do as well.

HOLSTIN

I am sorry to say that I only played the first half of this demo, and thus skipped the WILD looking combat in the trailer. Still, what i played was a pretty solid resi-evil style horror thing, with some really pretty voxels and some pretty okay puzzles. This one could be interesting!

RAPID FIRE:

Lastly, here's a list of demos I played that i'm NOT doing a full writeup for, because... i'm tired, i've played SO MANY DEMOS, and a lot of them i skimmed over. I'm sorry i couldn't server you as you deserve

• Earthless: Actually really interesting, it's just the "space deckbuilder roguelike" spot in my heart has been so completely filled by cobalt core. Go play cobalt core. Go play it
• Tevi: A pretty interesting looking metroidvania with cute girls but i gotta ask holy shit girl what are you WEARING. What is that steampunk ass outfit does your corset have overall straps???? what da
• Buy Me Some Soup: I'm So Meta, Even This Acronym. Eh.
• Wild Country: I'm not sure if i was just too tired to understand this board game or the board game was actually pretty badly thought out, but either way I didn't get it
• Slime 3K: Shockingly weightless for a survivors style game.
• Empty Shell pretty roguelike with an interesting aesthetic, but uhhhh i already own teleglitch
• Ending Tau: I'm a sucker for a good roguelike and this one seems like it could be something, but needs some more time to cook.
• Make Way didn't get to play because no friends to play with, but "ultimate chicken horse but it's a racing game" is a great pitch. please be good
• Seablip: oh you want to be stardew valley soooo bad, oh you want to be stardew SOOOO bad- honestly coudl be cool, just needs a lot more time to cook and build out some mechanics
• Makoto Wakaido's Case Files: we were very tired and this did not grab us fast enough
• Tunnet: tbh i STILL don't know how this game works. What was going on in it. I still don't get it.
• Phantom Rose II : Oh this one was actually pretty great. I'm out of "deckbuilder roguelike" space but yeah this one was really interesting. If you like anime girls, well, play little goody two shoes, but this exists too
• Forgive me Father 2: Started playing it, rememberd i didn't like forgive me father 1, got stuck in a wall, gave up, bon appetit.
• Solium Infernum: "board game about hell from the creators of armello" should be a surefire hit for me. And I think it would, if the game could run on my computer lol. My baby is old and tired....
• While We Wait Here: "narrative focused game about hanging out in a diner at the end of the world" is a great pitch, but the bad voice acting turned me off even before i softlocked the demo 2 minutes in.