With the Steam Next Fest Behind Us, There Were a Few Stand Out Demos That Caught Our Eye
Main image courtesy of Steam.
From June 10th through the 17th, Steam brought indie game devs together to showcase their passion for gaming.
The Steam Next Fest is a three times a year gaming celebration where hundreds of small developers put their in-progress work on display, giving the denizens of Steam access to a variety of game demos ahead of full release. This serves as both a way for developers to get early feedback and an opportunity to build an audience for new projects. Devs also got a chance to hop on live streams and talk about their games with new or potential players.
For this month’s Steam Next Fest, about 1400 game demos were made available. It would be impossible to cover all of them. So today we’ll be looking at three demos that we couldn’t put down this Next Fest.
Dungeons of Hinterberg, debut title from Microbird Games, is a cozy Action RPG set in a fantastical version of the Austrian Alps. Your character, Luisa, is on vacation in the town of Hinterberg, taking a break from pursuing her law degree to face the many perils that await in dungeons across the mountain range. You’ll immediately notice Hinterberg’s charming cel-shaded art style, not dissimilar to the Borderlands series.
The Next Fest demo took us through day 7 of Luisa’s vacation, to the icy peaks of Kolmstein. Before stepping foot in the area’s dungeon, we first had to explore the area, meeting a few colorful characters and getting our first taste of combat. Luisa uses a mix of melee and magic to fight off some oddly cute black jelly monsters in locked off arenas. You’ll also unlock the ability to snowboard in this area, the perfect way to traverse a snowy mountaintop.
Once you reach the end of the area, you’ll be greeted by a glowing purple door that takes you to the surreal world of Hinterberg’s dungeons. This particular dungeon had us traverse an interconnected series of planets covered in snow and ancient ruins. Here we completed a series of puzzles, a few combat encounters, and a final boss battle.
With the dungeon completed, we were awarded a stamp that marked our victory and headed back to our homebase in Hinterberg. The demo was capped off with an introduction to the social sim aspects of the game. When you’re not out adventuring, you can make friends in town who offer gameplay bonuses as your relationship strengthens.
In all, Dungeons of Hinterberg shows massive potential. It strikes a great balance between exploration, puzzles, combat, and social simulation. Try out the demo for yourself or keep your eyes peeled for full release in July.
You might like the Dungeons of Hinterberg Next Fest demo if you enjoy:
Ever since Mega Crit’s Slay the Spire jumped on to the scene in 2019, many developers have tried their hand at roguelike deck building. 58BLADES’ Handmancers is another entry in that genre, this time mixing card-based combat with the classic game of rock paper scissors that decided so many childhood (and perhaps adult) arguments.
We started off with Kress, one of three characters available in the Steam Next Fest demo. Her deck focuses on scissor cards. Each run throws you on to a world map with diverging paths, each path having its own unique encounters.
Combat encounters will have you face off against a variety of monsters, each with its own unique abilities and modifiers. You win encounters by reducing an enemy’s health to zero. To do this, you must react to enemy attacks with cards that beat their intent, which is displayed at the start of each turn.
If the enemy intends to use rock, you must respond with a paper card to win the exchange and deal damage to them. Responding with the same intent (rock v. rock) will have neither party take damage. Responding with the losing intent (rock v. scissors) will have you lose the exchange and take damage.
After each combat encounter, you’ll be given three Loot Points that allow you to pick from 8 random rewards. These range from Artifacts that give passive bonuses for the rest of the run or Gems that add bonuses to individual cards in your deck.
You may also upgrade your deck at certain nodes along your path on the world map. Eat a hearty meal to power up a certain card type. Speak with the Siren to alter your Artifact loadout. Finding the perfect upgrades and nodes during your run is pivotal to beating the final boss of the demo, the Corrupted King Frog.
Handmancers so far seems to be doing roguelike deckbuilding right. It takes cues from titans of the genre like Slay the Spire while still having its own unique spin on things. We can’t wait to see the fully realized version come full release.
You might like the Handmancers Next Fest demo if you enjoy:
KILL KNIGHT is the latest offering from up-and-coming indie developer PlaySide. It is a dark top-down shooter that is sure to be of interest to fans of frenetic combat and old-school games.
You're sure to notice KILL KNIGHT’s striking art style as soon as you open the start menu. Everything from the color scheme to the font choice is something straight off a death metal album cover. The game’s description on Steam describes the tone as “eldritch,” but I’d also relate it to biblical horror, in the same vein as Blasphemous.
Only the first level, Solitude, is available in the Next Fest demo, but boy if it doesn’t deliver. You’re dropped into a gray arena as the Kill Knight, an undead warrior stuck in a hellish realm known as the Abyss. Armed with twin pistols, a heavy weapon, your trusty sword, and a number of special abilities, you’ll be tasked with fighting off swarms of bug-like demons.
As you progress through the level, the arena geography will shift into new layouts, forcing you to adapt on the fly as enemies come at you from new angles.
Weaving weapons and abilities together into a deadly dance is core to KILL KNIGHT’s design. Here’s just a handful of mechanics a Kill Knight has to juggle:
Your first clear of Solitude likely won’t be your last. KILL KNIGHT’s score and rating system incentivizes replayability in the same vein as Devil May Cry. Want to get that C rating up to an A? Better hop back into the Abyss, perhaps this time with new weapons and abilities gained from completing challenges.
Want to up the challenge and push your score even further? Turn up the difficulty to Knight, which features tougher enemies and +20% score bonus. Want a more laid-back experience? Turn the difficulty down to Regret and trade 10% of your score for easier enemies.
With an intriguing aesthetic and engaging combat, KILL KNIGHT is shaping up to be a great isometric shooter. We’ll have to wait and see what other horrors lurk in the Abyss come full release.
You might like the KILL KNIGHT Next Fest demo if you enjoy:
This summer’s Steam Next Fest was quite the doozy. From exploring the Austrian Alps, to turning rock paper scissors into a card game, to fighting bug demons in the recesses of a hellish dimension, there was something here for every type of gamer.
If you found any of the games discussed today interesting, head to their Steam pages, try out the demos, and wish list them to get notified once the full game releases. And check out some other demos while you’re at it.
