Steam Next Fest has started once again. What good demos have you found?

I spent a good long time browsing through the piles of thumbnails to make myself a tall list. It's a mix of games I'm excited for, games that look interesting to me, and weird games. Since I spent so much time today browsing for games, I haven't actually played much today on day 1.

Some thoughts on my list

Bits & Bops has already had a demo for months now, but for Next Fest, there's a new minigame to play. Also, I backed this game on Kickstarter, so I'm obviously interested in seeing this game be good. And I think it is.
SourceWorld is a Half-Life 2 mod participating in Next Fest! It's an FPS dungeon crawler! The Source engine isn't dying anytime soon.
Oddcore has a really flashy trailer. I actually first heard of it from seeing it get front page attention on Newgrounds. It could be the first game set in "liminal spaces" that isn't utterly boring or crap.
Funi Raccoon Game is on this list because the trailer is stupid and I want to see more of it. I have high hopes.
Why, yes, those are three games featuring a black cat as playable character.

I showed my kid the trailer for bits & bops and he literally did a gasp of delight. Thanks for that :)

I tried a bunch of these today and yesterday. EDIT: also tacked on impressions of demos for After Inc: Revival, Kaizen: A Factory Story, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.

In the "Shut Up and Take My Money" tier:

Bits & Bops - Sure, it's a total Rhythm Heaven clone but, hey, why mess with a winning formula? Still, I worry about devs borrowing this heavily from Nintendo titles these days 😬
Dispatch - I only needed 10 minutes with this to know I'm sold. The animation is gorgeous and it has a hell of a cast. Between this and Expedition 33, how are new studios getting these people!?
Mina the Hollower - Shovel Knight's the best retro game I've seen and I didn't need to see much of Mina to know that Yacht Club delivered again. It's got a Zelda vibe (the jump especially feels just like it did in Link's Awakening) along with all that other 8-bit-with-present-day-game-design goodness. I also cut this one short so I can enjoy it in full later. Day 1 for me.

Pretty good but a couple hiccups:

Forestrike - Hey, PlayStation gamepad glyphs! Always appreciated. Outstanding atmosphere in general. The pixel graphics are interesting; the character design reminds me of old Sierra games. I wonder if at some point during dev they considered just not going roguelite? There's real storytelling talent here and I think a linear game with increasing complexity might have been even better (and helped to not undercut the narrative as roguelite progression tends to do).
inKonbini - Very short demo, but the gameplay seems it'd be good and vibe is cozy. Really strange that the written Japanese is gibberish. It seems too elaborate to be placeholder text, so I wonder what the story there is? It takes me out of the life sim aspect of this a bit.
Kaizen: A Factory Story - I found a lot to like with this. I tend not to like puzzle games, but when I find one that's interesting, I tend to really like it. The setting is also great. After a very short demo, the only thing I'm not sure on is how long the full game is going to be. I'd like to get this, but the price has to be right.
MIO: Memories in Orbit - This one was up and down for me across the board: music, gameplay, systems, visuals. The tutorial sections are outstanding work and worth the download for that alone (there's one right away). While I think the metroidvania design here is good, I wasn't sold on the graphics. At times it's difficult to parse out what's a platform and what's background, and there are weird blind spots with camera on top of that. I also can't believe they went with the map system from Hollow Knight, the only real negative of that game.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - I see this one just went 1.0 after an early access period, and critic reviews have been mixed. Understandable why old Elder Scrolls fans are feeling this is scratching an itch. I think there's a lot to like here, but I might ultimately skip it. The prevailing thought I kept getting through the demo is that this studio's next game is going to be great.

Not for me:

After Inc: Revival - This ended up playing more like a clicker game than I was expecting. This seems not bad, but this isn't my kind of game.
BALL X PIT - The gameplay pacing on this is unpleasant, with the roguelite elements stopping the action too much. Kept wanting to get into a flow state and was constantly interrupted.
Bloodgrounds - All the other demos I played came ready with story and this one feels underbaked in that department. What I played of the demo was almost all gameplay. Didn't see much that sets it apart from the pack.
Dice Gambit - I don't think this strategy game gets the basics down well enough to add on the dice layer. Feels like one move should be guaranteed regardless of rolls (and lack of move undo is unfortunate also). The art style also isn't for me.

Woah! BALL X PIT is shocking to me! This was easily my favorite second favorite next fest game I've ever played, just behind Balatro. The action is insanely cool, the combos are very unique and interesting. Loved every moment of it. Very curious to see how much the full game will have/add.

Jump Ship for sure.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2841820/Jump_Ship_Demo/

Definitely got some rough spots though.

I tried it out and man I hate getting motion sickness from games. Got the ship ready to go and launched and instant hurgh stomach. Unfortunate, as it looks real cool!

I am loving Cleared Hot. It brings me back to my youth when MicroProse reigned supreme.

It felt like picking up Desert Strike with modern controls. Looking forward to this, instant wishlist.
This has been on my wishlist for two years, can you now play it?
- Demo is live
I dig that microprose is going back to it's roots with stuff like Cleared Hot and Tiny Combat Arena. satisfying.

Jump Ship and Moonlighter 2

How is Moonlighter 2? The first one is a game I always felt like I should like but I never really enjoyed the loop of the game for some reason.
- It was interesting. Added a roguelite aspect to the dungeons, which could work if it's implemented well, but is pretty overdone at this point. The shop part is pretty similar with a few additions. Performance was pretty bad and was unplayable on SteamDeck.
  Overall, I'll wait for the full release and see how the reviews look. I like the developers and hope it does well.

Ratatan!

It was surprising to see that it's rated mixed on the store page. It looks like a lot of the complaining is about how it's not like Patapon?
- Maybe because is very different. But i like it. Idk people where so hyped by their nostalgia Patapon and probably feel robbed by the new way you move the character.
  But once you get used to it it feels great. It also felt weird for me at the beginning but I chose to give it a try and don't judge it with the Patapon Glasses.
  With the new mechanics the game relies more on you being able to dodge enemy attacks, you cannot spam that hard. It feels more dificult. Just new mechanics.
- It looks like a lot of the complaining is about how it's not like Patapon?
  Most of it, but not all of it.
  I played a little bit of the demo and was excited for a Patapon clone but it felt...off?
  My main issues with it:
  Moving your own character does not really add anything to the game
  It's really easy for the music to sound off-beat by narrowly missing the timing
  The metronome was replaced by a fixed Guitar Hero-like note display
  There is too much going on at times, mostly due to the more complex art style
  The beat between enemies and yourself does not match, making it impossible to counter some attacks
  You cannot cancel the beat by failing on purpose; If you fail, you have to wait until you can input the next command
  I really hope they can improve things but right now I don't really enjoy it.

Platypus Reclayed
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2912430/Platypus_Reclayed/

Remake of the 2002 shoot-em-up game led by the original creator Anthony Flack.

It felt so good playing the demo. It feels just like the original but with significantly higher fidelity visuals — just how it should be. I have a lot of nostalgia attached to this game and I can't wait for the full game to release.

That's a really cool art style! Maybe it could be of interest to !shmups@lemmus.org

Baby Steps demo is up.

One I've been waiting for for a while, "It has my face" Admittedly I didn't find it on the nextfest page. I found it well over a year ago when it was still DoubleMe. The original was super addicting and I like the direction the story seems to be going in the demo.

Also trying to be patient for Clover Pit

And Gone Fishing has some promise to it. Not everybody's bag, but my buddies and I all found the demo pretty fun.

I am dying to play more Clover Pit, it's so so so good.
Let's go gambling!
N-n-no. I don't have an add-ad-adiction.
Pushes red button
Pulls lever
Also trying to be patient for Clover Pit
clover pit looks like gambling addiction on roids, holy shit did they exploit a good game loop. like, almost scary if you've known anyone who's struggled with it. at least it's not real currency and loot boxes fuck
- Oh yeah... I got caught up in the Overwatch loot box thing when it was still huge. Never had a problem gambling before or since, but I dropped $300 in my last month playing and who knows how much before then. Soon as I realized I had a problem, I uninstalled the game. Couldn't even talk about it for a long time without wanting to reinstall. Fuck Blizzard and fuck loot boxes...

This wasn't part of Next Fest, but I devoured 'Tainted Grail - Fall of Avalon'. Excellent demo.

Jump ship, rogue point, and mycopunk. Pretty solid demos to try out. They definitely need more content for release, but all of them are decently fun.

I want to try disco as dead (rhythm beat'em up) and pioner (mmo stalker looking game)

This one is REAL rough, not much interesting I've seen

I know right. I think it's the worst I've ever seen. I kept scrolling through for something good but all of it is was like those bargain bins you used to see in petrol stations full of old DVD's. Honestly they should be ashamed of this. I went through my whole wishlist to check if any of the games on there had demos and literally none did. Last Next Fest most of them did. That's some impressive enshitification right there...
Actually I was wrong... Probably just needed to eat something and be less grumpy lol. Just found a fantastic demo that I'm downloading now. it's called Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream. Amazing people animation and great dialogue. I love top down games and this is easily better than anything I've seen before. Thanks to a NextFest roundup from Nookrium or I would never had spotted it.
Good, can‘t keep up anyway

This one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3259820/Alices_World_Demo/

It's a nifty little game where the protagonist and the player are treated as separate characters. Some girl found herself in an apocalyptic world, and the player appears as a disembodied voice to lend assistance. What I like about this one is that the protag has some Tales-esque skits to chat with the player directly.

Want to try Cleared Hot and Star Birds (Kurzgesagt game)

I am enjoying Cleared Hot.
Dang, I didn't even notice Star Birds was in Next Fest.
- Yeah got a wishlist mail because the demo was made available

I watched a bit of Life Below played on a stream. If you like colony sims and coral reefs, check it out.

Seeing as Steam Next Fest ends about 12 hours from now, I'd like to describe / review some demos I've played over the week. Hopefully, at least some of these games haven't been mentioned before, apologies for bumping the thread:

No, I'm not a Human: Easily my favorite demo of Steam Next Fest. The game presents a kafkaesque scenario in which you must let in humans, but keep out "Visitors" from your own home. The game is intentionally (and consistently) ugly, in a way where even the humans are ugly. The game has a collage like aesthetic, much like the creepy Nickelodeon show Angela Anaconda. This is my favorite type of horror (eerie and weird!), all without resorting to cheap methods like jumpscares. Aspects of the demo are randomized, so there's lots of replayability.
Bloodthief: Oh man. As a fan of games like Dusk, Ultrakill, Celeste, and Super Meat Boy, this is a game that was made for me. It's like a precision platformer in first person with hack and slash elements... I am going to spend a lot of time on this when it comes out lol
Ball x Pit: basically Atari breakout combat (against tetris shaped enemies) with roguelike elements. Also, you craft and build outside of combat. I'm interested to see how these different genre elements will play out in the final release.
Bits & Bops: Beautiful rhythm based game, thats fun, charming, and family friendly. Apparently a spiritual successor to Rhythm Heaven, which I have not played. Has a native Linux build. I encountered some bugs (the game would sometimes freeze when transitioning from tutorial to game, or restarting a stage)
Project Arrow: Puzzle platformer with some precision platforming elements and combat (involving a bow and arrow). Adorable cat protagonist. Synthwave soundtrack, plays great with mouse and keyboard.
The Adventures of Sir Kicks A Lot: Surprisingly deep immersive sim with hack and slash elements. Despite the Minecraft aesthetic, the animations are surprisingly fluid and funny at times. There's some DNA of Dishonored and Thief in here, where you are rewarded for creativity.
Kity Builder: Simply adorable. It's a calm game in which you are free to build on a remote island. In fact, there are no limits: you do not have to gather resources, farm materials, or grind to build. You can also place as many buildings as you like (and you have to, to get around the island)
Dispatch: Surprising depth to the hero dispatch mechanics. Funny cutscenes (although the humor might not be for everyone). Cutscene interactions remind me of the Telltale games (to be expected, since some of the employees worked on this). Has a star studded cast that makes it feel like you're playing a high budget TV show
Platypus Reclayed: Remake of older 2004 game. Side scrolling ship shoot-em up with hi-res clay models, and has 2 player local coop. Pretty fun.
Evolve Lab: Async multiplayer rougelite in which you (auto-) battle sea creatures that you can upgrade between rounds. Pretty fun for the small amount of time I played
Forestrike: Roguelite martial arts game in which each battle can be rehearsed infinitely in your character's mind (before actually trying it in the real world). You are encouraged to rehearse extensively, since what happens in a real world fight (like getting hit, or having a hostage die) is permanent in your run. An interesting, political story is teased in the demo.
Pigface: Very dark, gritty immersive sim in which you play as an assassin, taking contract jobs. Atmosphere almost feels like Manhunt, although not quite as dark. Feels more like a PS2 game than PS1. AI could use some work but the potential is definitely there.
Wander Stars: Animation and character designs are an obvious love letter to DBZ. Gameplay is turn based combat, where you arrange words to create your attack. You know how in anime they shout words before their attacks? The combat is literally that lol. Note that it's a roguelite so dieing puts you at the beginning of a map (or forces you to load). I'm somewhat mixed on this structure (for this type of game), but we'll see how it goes when the game releases.
Öoo: Cute puzzle platformer and metroidvania where the title looks like the main character lol. You use bombs to break obstacles and reach certain areas.
Ratatan: Rhythm based roguelite where you command a small group of creatures to fight bosses and other enemies. It definitely has a "kawaii" aesthetic, so not for everyone. Overall really fun
The Drifter: Point and click game with an interesting story and great voice acting. I won't mention more, to avoid spoiling the story
Demonfo: The only VN on my list. It is also a point and click game. Interesting story that kind of reminds me of Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Surprisingly funny, at times.

Special mentions:

Undermine 2 and Neon Abyss 2: I'll be honest, I thought these were only ok as singleplayer experiences. However, they look like they might be fun games to play in online coop.

The demo for the update of Camp Keepalive is worth checking out
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3702210/Camp_Keepalive_Endless_Summer_Demo/
It's a nice, casual strategy game that still keeps you thinking.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Wildgate. It's really fun! Different take on the Jumpship idea with a lot better execution (but they're at different stages of dev to be fair!).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2509200/ERA_ONE/

Era One looks interesting, but i don't have time to try it.

I like shareware

My report from day 1

Day 2 of Next Fest is over! Here's what I tried.

::: spoiler !mrak — Super stylish immersive sim
BTW, "mrak" is Russian for "darkness"
Super rough, gritty introduction to a setting drowning in crusty old tech
Unfortunately crashes early in the game
Soft wishlist
- Day 3

I'll plug The Stickman: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2781680/The_Stickman/

It was made by Simple Shark, who I know from his Rocket League Maps and Lethemyr videos.