other discussions
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/nextfest
June edition is live and my religion prompts me to download as many demos as my ssd can welcome and play them throughout the week. I usually hover around a good hundred, and that's still a very small percentage of all demos available. I like to sort and evaluate them on a piece of paper (pic below from february).
Anyway here are some takeaways so far (still downloading):
- this edition, I'm noticing builds that are heavier than they should (based on what the game looks like), some indie games are approaching 2Gb of download, when I was used to the 500Mb - 1Gb range
- as always the most wishlisted demos aren't the best, upcoming AA games are all looks no essence for up to 30Gb, I usually play them first to get rid of them and make space for more interesting indie games
- Jusant and Cairn had their impact on the industry, there's a bunch of climbing games (mixed with the Only Up / Getting Over It formula) trying to ride the trend
- Noticing a lot of JRPGs inspired games as well, can't correlate with the success of Expedition 33 but my guess is that there's a big audience for those
- You still have a ton of survival crafting / chill farming games, but less than previous editions (I think it was October 2025 that was riddled with those)
- I'll edit this post with more insights as I go through the demos
In this spoiler, the full list of demos I downloaded so far (will update throughout the week), I usually download the ones I already wishlisted (~15 to 20), then go through the trending ones (~10), and finally just doomscroll looking at interesting stuff:
Full list of downloaded demos
| A | B | C |
|---|---|---|
| Over the hill | Screenbound | Penguin Colony |
| AGX GP 🤩 | Shoretiles | The Mound |
| Deepdish Dungeon | Trees Hate You | Toem 2 |
| Ascenders | Order of the Sinking Star | Songs of Glimmerwick |
| Onishuma 👍 | Iron Nest | Moonlight Peaks |
| Wheelmates | Casualties Unknown | Tanuki Pon’s Summer |
| Country of Fortune | Cozy Grove 2 | Monk Took Book |
| We Were Here Tomorrow 🤩 | Valor Mortis ❌ | Enginefall 🤷 |
| W40K Boltgun 2 | Shroom & Gloom | Demon Bluff |
| Chained Beasts | Duskfade | Empulse 👍 |
| Invokyr | Desktop Explorer | Project Doors |
| Object Impermanence 🤩 | Leafy Corner | Hull Rupture |
| Death at Fleming Manor | Design & Conjure | Dungeon Settler |
| Deer & Boy | ~Fantasy World Simulator 🤷 | Arcane Eats 🤩 |
| Zwaard 👍 | Friendly Steps | Sprawl Zero🤩 |
| Bombanana 🤩 | Truck-kun […] | Cozy Cleaner |
| Woodo | They are here | Retrospace |
| Sensory Overload | Sir we have an orc problem | Prelude Dark Pain |
| Stonewards | Kuzan City of Worlves 👍 | Last Pirates |
| Brazilian Drug Dealer […] 👍 | Escape Academy 2 👍 | Hollow Home |
| Cosmic Fear 🤷 | Security 51 | Normal Gold Game |
| Good Heavens | BPM Bitcrushed | Slayblade |
| Otterly Lost | Virtue and a Sledgehammer | Double Dealers |
| Colorbound | Brekekekekex | Cat Me If You Can |
| Sludgineers | Sunset Summit 🤷 | Ambroise Niflette 🤩 |
| Xeno Feels | Wall World Strategy | Trine 6 |
| Cozy Marbles | Sniper Dan | Spies & Soldiers |
| Slayblade | Burn 9 | Ghost//Punk |
| Kaz 🤩 | Type or Die | Heave Ho 2 |
| Offbeat | Beatchip 95 | |
The Next Fest for June 2024 is now live ! Tons of demos to play and games to discover !
(store.steampowered.com)