Yes, it's true, I did play more demos and some of them I even liked. A full month after Part 1 (found here) here are my highlights for the second half of my "play 100s of demos" marathon. By now a lot of them probably don't have demos anymore (some are even out), but you can still wishlist them.
The Waking Knot
Tactical puzzles with Broughlike aesthetics. A "messy" version of Into the Breach that really wants you to improvise in more open ended situations. Loved it, and not as scary as it looks.
It really hard to describe without just describing how every “character” works, there are projectiles that are bad for you and the stuff you need to “rescue” (?), but they also transform “yetis” into goals that you actually need. There’s no attacking or anything, it’s really just about pushing stuff around and juggling multiple “threats” at one. Really interesting and unique game.
Sol Cesto
Luck management roguelike with a great art style. Simple choices, and even simplet mechanics, but a lot of potential.
It’s literally just a 4*4 grid and you can only pick a row. Your character will randomly pick a room and attack whatever is in (or collect the loot). But then as things go on you can impact the probabilities, like being attracted to magic enemies for example. You get a bunch of items to help you and a special power that charges up with every x rooms. So far it’s really interesting, and I’d say anything is possible. The game will heavily depend on the kind of diversity those items add to the strategy.
Screw Drivers
Racing game but also car building sim. Racing is just fine, but the building aspect is really cool, and even has parts introductions. I understand gears now!
Really just good car building, and it came out recently for free. People complained that the demo was better because of its progression structure (you did mission and unlocked new parts etc) and the devs added that back in.
The Crush House
Reality TV producer sim. Move around a house and film stuff happening, trying to satisfy different kinds of audiences.
It’s really interesting, and I hope it’s good, I didn’t get to the end of the demo because it was really long. You basically trying to get different shots (drama between people, specific kinds of shots, or just filming some elements of the set) so that enough people are satisfied by the end of the day. I think there’s more stuff going on, as a story outside of the show, but yeah I didn’t get to that. Biggest issue so far is the load times, idk why it takes so long, especially when it’s for displaying a computer interface.
One S'More
Puzzle game about a marshmallow moving around on.. floating cookies? Interesting mechanics, but gets a little overwhelming.
The main mechanic is destroying one tile to make other tiles float away. It leads some interesting puzzles, but also a small issue, where it’s sometimes difficult to predict in which direction multiple surrounding tiles will go. To help, the game has preview arrows, and you can always rewind, but it’s rarely obvious in a simple look.
Dubio
Minimalist platformer where you control a ball that can't jump, but only get bigger. This acts as a jump, but also lets you bounce around.
Small, satisfying levels, and I’m expecting the game to feel similar.
Facehand
Roguelike deckbuilder with autobattler combat and structure. Obviously inspired by Super Auto Pets, same style of synergies and overall pretty fun.
Phantom Spark
Time attack racing game in alien worlds. Very simple controls, and satisfying feel. Basically Trackmania with alien ships and.. a story?
Spent a while on this trying to get gold on every track (3 in the demo), and it helps that the game generates a ghost with a slightly better time for you to focus on if you want.
Wild Seasons
Deckbuilder where your deck is a bunch of plants you have to grow. Some really interesting systems, but lacks some clarity and UI polish.
The theme is pretty good, where the combat are metaphors for the stuff the character encounters during a normal day in her life. Everything comes from your plants, and that’s the one point where I had some questions. You’re organising plants on a grid to get better proximity bonuses but also watering them in a more optimal way. But the watering can has a specific shape on the grid, and it costs money for every use. At first it seems like you’ll have to adapt, but ultimately there aren’t many options for how to use it, and you’re just spending 4 dollars per turn to get mostly everything. The watering phase is interesting though, because each plant has a number of hearts and they lose one per round if they’re not watered. But this can be useful not only to get rid of plants, but also because weed grows on empty spots, filling your deck with less interesting cards, and you usually don’t want to water those.
TORSO TENNIS
Perfectly normal tennis game where you draft new limbs with autobattler style synergies between rounds. Also it's played with multiple balls on a battle network style grid.
It’s a weird game, but also pretty straightforward after a couple of rounds. Your new limbs can help you return balls faster (you just move on the same tile and a small gauge appears), but can also add perks that add trash on your opponent’s side, which will slow them down.
It’s super satisfying when you manage to overwhelm them with a bunch of ball everywhere they’ll never be able to return. But sending multiple balls on the same tile adds to the ball’s value, so another strategy can also be to make them miss one high value ball.
Anyways, it’s just a cool game.
Hollow Floor
Tiny platformer / metroid game where you can't even jump. Some clever platform puzzling, and a pretty cool concept for a power up.
Not much to say here, it’s small and straightforward but still clever, and you should probably try it.
Firefrost
Small tactical pico8 game with an extremely relatable story (you want soup!). It's roguelike movement but your weapon is a flamethrower. Cute and fun.
Another small game that’s just solid and really cute.
Witching Stone
Match 3 RPG roguelike, where matching a specific series of stones lets you cast spells. Very solid overall, and pretty permissive with the matching, so it doesn't get frustrating.
I still got destroyed because I didn’t really know what to expect, but it still feels like there’s a bunch of space for overall run strategy while not relying too much on the matching element.
Rift of the NecroDancer
Rhythm game with Necrodancer enemies coming down towards you. Each one has its own patterns and you need to identify those as the song goes on. Cool but pretty tricky.
So you can have bats that you need to hit multiple times, but will change lanes after every hit, or a “samurai” enemy that stops and attacks on the next beat, independently of where they are on the board.
I honestly don’t know if I love or hate it though. It’s great but really overwhelming, and I wish they didn’t just rely on palette swapped enemies to indicate changing patterns. It just adds a lot of confusion on top of having to predict what will happen.
But the real issue to me is that it’s one of those games where missing one thing makes the rest more complicated. Because the songs are built for for multi hits enemies, some of the patterns get broken if an enemy passes through your line.
It becomes even more of a problem when one enemy would have completed a line: enemies are in three columns, left up and right, but if there’s one in each, you can also press down. So if one of those is missing because you messed up, then you need to press two directions instead of just down, which can be even worse if you’re repeating a song multiple time a start getting muscle memory.
Also, I have absolutely no idea how it would be played on a controller, I quickly switched to keyboard.
Townframe
Puzzle game about recreating specific sceneries from written descriptions. It's cute and not too complicated, but pretty creative.
It’s just a super cute idea, I just don’t know how much of a game you can make of it, but I’m curious to see more.
On each level you have a few spots where you can put different sizes of buildings or trees. For example, on one level you can have a river, and someone will say only small houses were built along the river, with a forest behind the village. Here you’d just add small houses and fill the rest with trees. It usually goes for simpler interpretation, like for example it’s not saying houses where only near the river, but you still only need to consider what’s being said.
There are a bunch of other tools that apparently get added for variety though, so maybe that’ll help.
Dimhaven Enigmas
Myst like by the devs of Quern. Extremely good presentation, funny tone that doesn't overdo it, and already some really cool puzzles.
I just really loved this one. It’s obvious a lot of care went into this and they really know what they’re doing. Every puzzle has some step of interpretation and isn’t just copying a code. Things just make sense in the world, and don’t really feel like arbitrary puzzles. And I really like the way interactions work, you can take pictures of everything and draw on them to take notes, there’s a tactile feel to every item, and you can interact with small things like lamps or shutters which is just a detail, but is also something that could totally be used in a puzzle at some point.
Also: there’s a hint system that’s apparently adapting to where you’re at in the game. I only tried it once and the general hint “is there any item you didn’t use?” was enough, so I’m not sure how well it works, but having multiple tiers of hints already seems promising.
The Horror at Highrook
Boardgame style horror game where you explore a mansion. Everything is represented by cards, reminiscent of the Weather Factory games.
It has the same issue other card games like that have where you’re not sure you’re doing the right thing to progress, except here it’s “lovecraftian” so knowing if you’re just waiting for a book to randomly drop the correct insight or if you should be trying to find new ingredients to cook something special. It’s really interesting though, and I wish they found a way to make it more obvious, or have a pity timer or something, so that you’re not doing the same thing over and over almost randomly.
Grunn
Perfectly normal landscaping sim. Cut grass, dig molehills, smash garden gnomes... wait maybe not that last one. It might have an impact on which ending you get.
I loved my time with this one, it’s just creepy enough but also pretty mundane at first. Exploration feels satisfying, even when you start a new run and notice how things change with the passing of time. It’s a tiny game but it feels really big. Can’t wait to see more of it.
Kitiplant
Cute puzzle game about planting seeds with cats that have limited moves. Clever puzzles and a lot trickier than it looks.
I really expected a simple game where solutions were more permissive, but each level is carefully designed and requires a specific sequence of moves. Pretty satisfying when you manage to make every cat move at the right time, swap items and use them perfectly.
Become the Moon
Deckbuilder autobattler, similar to Hearthstone. Really interesting though a little too punitive. Apparently early demo, changes are coming.
I don’t know this genre at all, but it made me look into HS Battleground so I guess that’s a win so far!
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers
Blackjack deckbuilding with lots of cool systems and wild cards. Lots of possibilities with this one, but the demo doesn't go far enough!!
I thought I tried this one earlier, but I didn’t, and I don’t know why I was worried about the battle aspect of it, but it ended up working really well. You do damage depending on the score difference compared to your opponent’s, and busting makes your value 0, so there’s a real incentive to push your luck. You can’t go far in a run, but it seems like the game will let you really break it with combos, building an engine that makes easy blackjack every turn, or make your opponent bust, etc.
500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ
3D platformer where you need to take out a target with your sniper. Movement seems super limited at first but there are a ton of options you discover by experimenting. Feels very good to play.
I just loved it so much, the game revealed itself slowly and made it seem like there was still a ton to discover. My only complaint is that for a game where horizontal speed can go this high, I would have like a “tutorial” level that was less vertical. But I’m really curious to see where this goes, it could be really special.
Albatroz
Narrative exploration game with a bunch of pretty different ideas. The main thing seems to be a road trip, but you also get first person narrative sequences. Really unique look.
Didn’t finish the demo as it kept going, but I was really impressed by the amount of different sequences. At first you’re driving a car in a valley, it seemed like the main mode but that only lasted a few minutes and it never came back in over an hour. Then there’s a whole sequence of hiking sim, with stamina and hunger gauges and stuff. It was linear but it made it look open while still naturally guiding you. Between all this you get narrative flashback, and then the game takes a surreal turn. This demo made me really curious, I really don’t know what to expect, it feels super refreshing and the devs seem pretty confident.
Tormenture
Pretty spooky game where you’re a kid playing on their atari style console, the game is a version of adventure that seems haunted and full of secrets. The twist being that you can also explore your room, which might also be haunted.
The Inscryption comparisons will be unavoidable with this one, but the escape room style puzzles you get in the 3D world feel more aligned with the secrets-filled adventure game you’re playing in the 2D world. I think any fan of the cursed OS genre of games will absolutely love this one. In the end it’s relatively simple and not doing anything you’ve never seen before, but the way all of this gets combined is surprisingly effective.
DONE!
I did play a little over 100 demos in a few weeks, the others I didn't include in this post were:
Akimbot, Bloodless, Demonschool, Drill Core, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Dustborn, Elation For The Wonder Box 6000, Forgotten Mines, Fowl Damage, Keep Keepers, Kriegsfront Tactics, Mini Settlers, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island, Nirvana Noir, On Point, REKA, Ringo's Roundup, Selfloss, Stratum Descent, Subside, Sunstone War, Supermoves, Technotopia, The Explorator, Typing Simulator, Untraveled Lands: Chantico, ZOE Begone!
And if you're curious about my impressions about any of those, or previous ones I didn't include in highlights, I have an almost 30 pages doc with more negativity here.