I’ve also played a bunch of demos from the Steam Next Fest, that’s currently going on, but because it’s a lot I’ll split it into a separate comment. The Next Fest is only running for another day, so if you want to check out some demos, you don’t have too much time at this point.

Summerhouse is a builder in the same vein as Townscaper, The Block or Dorfromantik without the scores. You just build a house with whatever parts you want, until you’re satisfied. Not really my type of game, so I’ll pass on this.

Gatekeeper is an isometric rogue-like, similar to Risk of Rain. You do the typical stuff like killing enemies and upgrading your character, nothing you haven’t seen yet. It could be alright, but the demo was a bit samey. I only did one run, but the different levels were all pretty small and looked the same. Maybe things change a bit if you make it further, but I don’t know. I’ll have to look a bit into it, once it’s released.

Mullet Mad Jack is a retro shooter with extremely flashy visuals (I think I heard it described as maximalist). Because of a dystopian cyberpunk setting, where social media controls everything, you only live for 10s unless you kill enemies, so the viewers give you likes for extra time. Then you just run through levels, kick or shoot robots and try to save the girl. I found it extremely unappealing and will not be back for the full release.

Kingsgrave is a top-down, light survival or metroidvania type game, where you control the recently resurrected king and try to rebuild your kingdom. You collect materials, which let you unlock more abilities, so you can get to more parts of the world. This one didn’t really grip me, but if I stumble over it again once it’s release I might check it out again.

Hexarium is like Mini Metro or similar games, where you connect buildings of the same colors to get points. I might have just been dumb, but it seemed like the game didn’t really work properly yet, because I had some seemingly impossible combinations. Like I get a starting point, that’s on the very edge of the map, so I can’t really build anything or points straight into water, where you’re severely limited with what you can build.

Copy Cat is a play-as-a-cat game. In the beginning you’re only inside a house and I don’t know if it’ll open up later. The cat comments on everything (with floating text in the world) as if it’s a human and can understand English. The gameplay was also a bit clunky and I don’t think I’ll be back for more.

Black Dragon Mage is a Survivors-like (dunno what else to call it). It has manual skills and aiming, and as you level up you get more abilities and upgrade existing ones. It was kinda boring, so I’ll stick with the games I already have.

Artifact Seeker: Legend of Aurorium is another Survivors-like, better than Black Dragon Mage. It has the typical Chinese Mobile game look to it (don’t really know how to describe it). One interesting feature is, after each stage you go to a world map and choose where to go next, à la Slay the Spire. You can choose between combat stages or text events where you can get upgrades. This one is a maybe, but I have a bunch of other games like this already bought, that I have to try at least. before I’ll buy more.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a point-and-click adventure game, with isometric 3D environments and 2D cut-out characters, like Paper Mario. In the demo, which is really short, you find clues in single rooms, to solve Mad Libs style puzzles to solve them. So far it’s a tiny step up from something like Frog Detective, but I don’t know if it gets more complex later. Another one I’ll keep an eye on for me.

Pepper Grinder is a 2D platformer, where you play as a girl with a drill arm. You can destroy some parts of the environment, but I guess it’s mainly about burrowing through sand, which is like swimming through water in other games, collecting coins, finding secrets, the normal stuff. It’s level based, which caught me a bit by surprise, because seemingly all 2D platformers these days are metroidvanias. Not sure about this one yet, maybe later down the line, when I’m more in the mood for a game like this.

Finally, News Tower, a building and management game about a newspaper publisher in the 1930s. You slowly build your tower, get more workers for you, either reporters, typesetters, and whatever else you need, send them to work on stories, so you can print something on Sundays. Could be neat, but not something I’m especially interested in.