SnowWulF
Hello there, hot on the heels of (not) E3 comes, who could have guessed it? Another Steam NEXT Fest and you lot know what that means!
Once again, I creep out of my hole to give my humble opinion on unfinished video games!
The rules are the same as always:
Me and my Girlfriend try as many Demos as our grubby hands can get on. This will happen in two formats:
- Curated List (We seek out the demos ourselves)
and - Random List (Randomizer FTW)
While the week goes on, I will do a little write up to every demo played and update this very blog entry in real time. So check back from time to time! :)
And lastly, my Girlfriend will stream some of the Demos on Twitch! She will mostly talk on German but she is also capable of speaking English. So, If you have some time check out her channel and say hi when she is online! -> Sashki_kp
Without further do, lets go!
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Curated Demos
Demos which have been recommended by steam to one of us, Demos we saw somewhere which we want to play and Demos from the top charts.
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Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi Demo
Developer: MarsLit Games
Release date: To be announced
Recommend: Maybe
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
?In this demo for Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi, a Guardian and a Monk must work together to defeat the Void corrupting their home. Explore ruined temples, solve environmental puzzles, rescue spirits, and defeat giant Void monsters!
Opinion:
First off, the game looks great, the artstyle works amazingly (at least when it is not as dark as the inside of a black hole) and I like the character/creature designs.
Now with that said ... Game recommends Gamepad but only uses mouse control on menu, combat feels floaty, camera highlights way to go or what to do but game gives pointer to useless stuff (Arrows on Objects which do nothing, unreachable points etc.), collision is a problem and sound is badly mixed.
I stopped playing the demo when I didn´t know where to go anymore, which was a constant problem. Maybe the game could be really cool, but it needs a lot more time in (programming) oven for that to work. So I give them the benefit of a doubt and say it is a "maybe" recommendation.
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PIONER
Developer: GFAGAMES
Release date: 2025
Recommend: No
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
?PIONER drops players into a vast, grim world, where survival hinges on exploration, crafting, and smart resource management. As an MMO FPS, it offers both PvE missions and intense PvP zones, with unique crafting mechanics, hundreds of weapons and a deep story to explore.
Opinion:
In trailers the game looked like a cool stalker-esque game, but it turns out it is more like Remnant.
Graphics are okay, the textures are okay but they are using a ton of particles, which gives it a unreal engine vibe. Gameplay is your run of the mill shooter with melee elements. Of course there is crafting and leveling and all that jazz.
What I don´t understand is that, while looking okayish, my GPU is nearly catching fire, maybe they are mining crypto on the side or something but it is really frustrating when you running around with perfect frames and suddenly you dip into the single digits when combat happens. Like last year, unoptimized games get no recommendations from me. :(
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Played on Stream (Girlfriend only)
Go over to Sashki_kp and watch the VODs if you are interested. (Warning: Most of the stream is in German) :O
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BALL x PIT
Developer: Kenny Sun
Release date: To be announced
Recommend: OH YES
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
BALL x PIT is a brick-breaking, ball-fusing, base-building survival roguelite. Batter hordes of enemies with ricocheting balls and gather the riches of the pit to expand your homestead, generate resources and recruit unique heroes.
Opinion:
We don´t know how they do it, but Devolver Digital somehow manages to publish the best weird rougelike titles on the market. This game is no ecxeption!
They (somehow) combined Brick Breaker with base building/farming and the item + upgrade system from Vampire Survivors ... and IT WORKS! You have to play it to feel the addiction creeping up. A big recommendation from us. :)
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Theropods Demo
Developer: Lost Token
Release date: 2025
Recommend: Maybe
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
Face dinosaurs, solve puzzles and travel back to the time of ginormous lizards and pixelated adventure games.
Opinion:
An interesting looking point & click adventure. Visuals, music and sound effects are top notch.
But the game has a bit of a problem with pacing, which made it kind of boring. Maybe the game gets better at a later point, but Girlfriend, the little P&C Goblin, will probably play it anyways so it is a "maybe" recommendation.
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Consume Me Demo
Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder
Release date: Sep 25, 2025
Recommend: Very Yes
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
did you feel stupid, fat, lazy, and ugly in high school? well i did...but at least i made a life-simulation RPG about it!
Opinion:
A game depicting the struggles of young girls, being judged by their surroundings because of their weight.
The visuals are easy but very charming, it uses what it has to great effect. The gameplay is also very easy, but at the same time very unique, using a mix between having to manage the characters needs and using you mouse for interesting minigames. At the gameshow trailers it looked good and it didn´t disappoint. Thumbs up!
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A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe
Developer: Quail Button LLC
Release date: 2025
Recommend: Yes
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe is a point-and-click adventure game about a Giraffe attempting to live his day-to-day life while not talking to anyone.
Opinion:
For me the game is a tad boring. The character is a giraffe with social anxiety problems, when people talk to you ... you die.
Well, that´s bad so you need to solve little puzzles to avoid getting talked to by other people. The dialog is cool, but the gameplay is not engaging enough for me. Girlfriend on the other hand seems to like it, so it is a recommendation.
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Antioma Demo
Developer: West East Studio
Release date: To be announced
Recommend: Yes
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
The little boy Kiddo has spent most of his life in the hospital. Little does he know what a complicated and fascinating world lies concealed beyond the hospital walls. Today, on Kiddo's birthday, his mom wasn't around. Instead of her, the boy met Shadow, who inspired him to escape from a hospital.
Opinion:
Another Point & Click adventure, this time about a little boy who lived most of his life in the Hospital.
This is going to be a tearjerker at some point, I can feel it. The demo brings us to do horrible things to ourselves and introduces some kind of madness. This could be cool so a recommendation is a given.
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Dead Finger Dice: A Billionaire Killing Game Demo
Developer: Rocket Adrift Games
Release date: Coming soon
Recommend: No (pending?)
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
Play a sinister game of poker against blood-thirsty demon billionaires who’ve trapped you on their mega yacht in this rogue-like dice builder. You have been forcefully stranded aboard The Avarice in order to participate in an underground tournament.
Opinion:
Without a proper tutorial, the Demo is hard to follow, so maybe it is cool but Girlfriend struggled to understand what is going on. Maybe I give it a try later but at the moment it is no recommendation.
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Rusty Foodies Demo
Developer: MYMEStudio
Release date: 2025
Recommend: Yes
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
Rusty Foodies is a puzzle game where you must strategically place various food blocks according to specific rules to achieve the target score. (The demo version includes the opening story cutscene and three stages.)
Opinion:
A game which tries its spin on Tetris.
Here the blocks don´t fall down on their own (for now), so you have more time to make cool combos and cool pixelart visuals are a given. Sadly the demo is pretty short but we like what we saw, so a recommendation is in order.
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Random Games
You know the rules: Randomizer chooses our fate and we have to play the demo for 20 minutes or finish it! (Whatever comes first) :)
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Shattered Divinities Demo
Developer: StellarSoul
Release date: 3 Jun, 2025
Recommend: Yes
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
In Shattered Divinities, embark on an adventure that pits you directly against divinity itself! An ancient War of Gods shattered the world, and their broken power has become the Calamities that consume all life. How will you survive in this land? And how will you uncover the secrets behind the War?
Opinion:
I don´t have that much to say, it is one of many Metroidvania games which are going around steam lately. But, I do like the visuals here. It feels like a game which someone with passion for games but is ultimately at the beginning of his/her career. The controls are tight, only some minor problems here and there. The story is told by interesting characters. If the timer hadn´t stopped me, I would have probably played more. Thumbs up from me!
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White Cat Stories
Developer: Dumpling Game Studio
Release date: TBA
Recommend: No
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
"White Cat Rider Story" is a lightweight 2D platformer game. In this game, players take on the role of brave white cat riders on a journey that is both dangerous and magical.
Opinion:
First, we couldn´t find If there is another language besides Chinese (we presume), second the music is totally not matching with what is shown there (some electro/industrial music with ... fantasy magic world pictures?????), third it feels like some students first game ever and fourth ... it is riddled with bugs. So, four good arguments to not recommend this.
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Indies 2: Burning Kindling Demo
Developer: Fun Square Games
Release date: 9 Jun, 2025
Recommend: Maybe
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
Indies 2: Burning Kindling?? is a top-down 2D roguelite tactics game. Command three heroes in chess-like battles, forging legends through terrain strategy, skill combos, and ever-evolving rogue builds on a dynamic battlefield.
Opinion:
I know someone who would probably like this game. You have three different characters, each offering completely different skills and playstyles. All three characters are played in a final fantasy tactics-esque top-down play-field, your goal is to defeat all enemies. After every stage you get relics for upgrades and money to buy stuff, adding that roguelite element to the mix.
To be honest, the game is not for me, the three characters have little synergy between them, also not be able to switch to other skillssets and stuff feels limiting. Maybe it gets introduced to a later part of the game but it is very uninteresting to me. So, a "maybe" should suffice.
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Void Protocol Demo
Developer: CelestialArk
Release date: Jul 30, 2025
Recommend: NO!
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
Void Protocol is a 3D ??hardcore puzzle?? game built on ??Temporal Imprint??. In an indie-crafted cyberpunk lab, freeze/rewind objects' states (position, activation, motion) to crack ??impossible puzzles??. Manipulate causality—every action sparks solutions or paradoxes.
Opinion:
Well, this "hardcore" puzzle game is so hardcore, that it forgot what a UI is and used the smallest font with the ugliest color and next to none text for its tutorial. Visuals are bland/near non existent, the puzzles are very confusing, not because its hard, but because you only get like one useless sentence to find out what is going on.
Hard Pass!
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Dracule?ti
Developer: Fine Feathered Fiends
Release date: TBA
Recommend: Yes
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
?A job gone wrong traps lawyer R. M. Renfield at Castle Dracula. Sacrifice—others, or your own humanity—to survive, or risk it all for love in this romantic horror visual novel. But Renfield isn’t the only one looking for a way out. Who, if anyone, can you trust?
Opinion:
A visual Novel, about an accountant who is contracted by Dracula to bring him and his followers to London? Sign me (girlfriend) in!
To be honest, the visuals are actually really great. The writing seems good, too. So good one. :)
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Farewell, we see each other for the last time..... Demo
Developer: Drimmar
Release date: Q1 2026
Recommend: I won´t tell you what I think, only that the answer is ... No... but actual Yes
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
A dramatic visual novel about the search for the meaning of life.
Opinion:
Guys! Be Careful! The main protagonist is more edgy than my kitchen knife and she doesn´t stop talking about complete nonsense. Whoever the writer of the game is, the person is probably 14 and really confused.
It is funny ... in a bad way. Well, I want to be real here, I liked it for all the wrong reasons and did have quite the laugh. You want something fun for a trashy evening? Perfect! As an actual game? ... No.
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Prototype Juan: A Tale of Two Mundos
Developer: Marty PixelRod
Release date: 2025
Recommend: Maybe
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
Juan's been banished to the prototype version of his game! He’s gone from a colorful 16-bit hero to a tiny 1-bit homie. Help him platform his way back in this narrative action-platformer—with Juan himself teaching you how to control him through this mini-metroidvania!
Opinion:
It looks like it is going to be one of this "multiple video game eras" game where mechanics always change. Seems to be a cool platformer, but it is SO HARD! A lot of the jumps need to be pixel perfect and for someone who is not that great at platforming games, this is so frustrating. Still can see the fun though!
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Titans of the Past Demo
Developer: Devi's Dozen Games
Release date: Coming soon
Recommend: Disqualified
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
A deep party-based RPG. Crawl dungeons. Battle monsters with your weapons, spells, abilities. Utilize the 'time flows as you move' system to make decisions. Loot, level up, craft, develop your town. Unlock new classes and races, spells, items - to make a party able survive the hardest challenges.
Opinion:
The first game that got disqualified!
Gameplay idea seems great, you have four characters, which have all different skillsets and abilities. Time only flows when you move, kind of like Superhot. Every time you use a spell or attack the character switches, so far so good.
But man, the AI generated character avatars are a big NO NO! Also a lot of the assets don´t look cohesive and therefore are likely bought (or flipped) from stores, which is also not that great. Still we have a strong policy of "No AI generated BS" and that means DISQUALIFIED! (Of course the AI slop could be just for placeholding purposes, but in this trying times better save then sorry.)
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Neon Inferno Demo
Developer: Zenovia Interactive
Release date: Oct 2, 2025
Recommend: HELL YES
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
?NYC 2055: a city beyond salvation. Blast your way through this dense cyberpunk jungle in NEON INFERNO--an explosive fusion of 2D run-and-gun and gallery-shooter--and help the Family dominate the streets!
Opinion:
Hell yeah!
This is great, you have beat em up movement, run and gun gameplay and then switching to good old gallery shooter on the fly. I love it. <3
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AEROMACHINA: Test-Flight
Developer: Meteor Magic Games
Release date: Coming soon
Recommend: Yes
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
Master fight and flight as Bogey the android jetfighter, in this special introduction to the world of AEROMACHINA!
Opinion:
Girfriend wasn´t happy that our randomizer choose this game, she isn´t really into jump & run stuff.
But, her opinion changed and she said it is not to bad. Graphics leaning on PS1 aesthetics, artstyle is inspired by Ace Combat, Metal Gear and Armored Core (at least that is what the characters and UI remind me of), character movement from that (golden) era is here too. Sadly yanky camera placement also did come over, but you can´t have everything I guess. Thumbs up for this one!
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Hiss & Hunt
Developer: Jeferson Belmiro
Release date: Coming soon
Recommend: Neutral
Player: Snowi
Steam description:
?Dive into fast-paced 2D snake battles! Boost through chaos, outsmart rivals, and grow to dominate the arena. Instant respawns keep the action non-stop. Easy to learn, hard to master. Do you have what it takes to survive?
Opinion:
It is like one of those .io multiplayer games which you can play in a browser ... just snake themed.
Somehow the game is charming but at the same time has not much to offer. I am neutral to that.
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Shuruka Boxing
Developer: Naveen Hegde, Arvind Kumar Sahu
Release date: Coming soon
Recommend: Broken
Player: Girlfriend
Steam description:
Shuruka BoxingExperience the most realistic first-person boxing game ever! Dodge, block, and throw powerful punches in intense fights against dynamic AI or real players. Train, rise through the ranks, and become the undisputed champion. Do you have what it takes to win? ??
Opinion:
This is probably the GREATEST BOXING GAME OF ALL TIME, ... If the start button would work. Broken ... :(