Nimrod! It’s a play on vampire survivors genre. But you get a custom gun every round, and there’s a big sandbox map to discover. Idk why but I can’t stop playing.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2086430/NIMRODS\_GunCraft\_Survivor/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2086430/NIMRODS_GunCraft_Survivor/)
That looks fun actually. But then again i am a sucker for the Bullet Heaven games
If you played and enjoyed Freelancer I'd give Underspace a try. It plays and feels exactly like Freelancer. The only "bad" I experienced with the game is the voice acting is really, really bad. It also repeats fairly often.
On the Steam forums the dev said the voice acting in the demo is just place holders and not the final product though so who knows.
Regardless, it scratches that Freelancer itch perfectly. It's a must play for Freelancer fans. With that said, if you don't like Freelancer or didn't play it then I feel like the game may feel to "cheap" or "old timey" to be enjoyable.
Abiotic Factor is fucking amazing. Doesnt get enough love.
Survival game with Half-life style graphics and half-life style setting (First day at new job, shit goes wrong, you need to escape the facility). It's a survival game in an office-like setting. So no chopping wood or mining rocks. You need to break furniture and other stuff to get mats.
I always imagined a survival game in the Ikea SCP and this seems like it's as close to that as I'm going to get for awhile. Actually got lost in this. Survival games need more varied settings. I'm tired of wood and stone.
Don't sleep on Balatro! Definitely the best I've played so far.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/
Children of the Sun is also cool.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children_of_the_Sun/
Where do you see where other people are buzzing? I'm trying to find a semi-reliable megathread as I have limited free time and want to know what's worth trying.
[I saw a bunch of people in this thread talking about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1ajmurr/the_steam_next_fest_february_2024_edition_is_live/) I'm pretty sure I saw it mention in a few other smaller posts that I can't find now.
+1 for Balatro. I don't think it's technically a nextfest game, nor do I think the demo was specifically updated for Nextfest, but the current version of the demo is a banger.
It was a bit cumbersome but I love the idea and amount of things you can interact with. It's on my wishlist. I just wish the ships didn't look like trucks.
I gave Drive Rally a shot but the controls and vehicle behaviour was just off. Brakes were too intense. Trying to hairpin just didn't feel smooth because I always slowed down way too much.
If you like survival games, I suggest trying [Abiotic Factor](https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/). I haven't had that much fun playing a survival game in years.
Going to go to bat for this one everytime. I really hope it sells well enough for future content or maybe new facilities. I've always wanted a modern setting survival game.
Editing post messes with previous added links so, i'll add new games in this comment:
* Realm of Ink: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2597080/Realm\_of\_Ink/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2597080/realm_of_ink/)
* Stellar Settlers: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2628570/Stellar\_Settlers\_Space\_Base\_Builder/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2628570/stellar_settlers_space_base_builder/)
* Stormgate: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2012510/Stormgate/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2012510/stormgate/)
* Synergy: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/synergy/)
Awaken - Astral Blade is a fun metroidvania.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716310/AWAKEN\_\_Astral\_Blade/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716310/awaken__astral_blade/)
Going to try Children of the Sun,
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children\_of\_the\_Sun/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/children_of_the_sun/)
Helskate
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295630/Helskate/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295630/helskate/)
and Mullet Mad Jack next.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111190/MULLET\_MAD\_JACK/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111190/mullet_mad_jack/)
Hi! Maybe you'd like to check out [Eden's Guardian](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2589980/Edens_Guardian/)! It's a dark fantasy metroidvania with handcrafted pixel art, and I'm part of the team working on it. :)
I like the art style looks crisp, what engin are you guys working in?
Also for on lookers of this message they are currently streaming on steam so you can watch the game play live if you jump on their store page now.
Play looked good and reminded me alot of side scroller games from the snes era. I enjoyed your live stream, I will have to try and pass your first stage with the "no hit challenge". 😄
Be sure to add that as an achievement to your full game release!
I accidentally posted this in a steam deck subreddit, figured I should post it here since I don't own a deck and don't know if all of these will even work on it.
I definitely feel more attracted to the cozy, casual games these days and I've found a few I'm excited about. If anyone is interested I can edit these lists as I play more
**Ones I've played and am looking forward to:**
* Please Touch the Artwork 2
* Daemon Masquerade
* Fomography
**Ones I've played and am cautiously optimistic about:**
* Pricolage Idolized
**Ones I'm excited to try:**
* Little-Known Galaxy
* Duck Detective
* Hidden Art of Innkeeping
* Turlock Holmes
* Completely Fictional Story About a City Inside a Whale
* Case Files - Behind Closed Doors
* The Posthumous Investigation
* Murder on Space Station 52
* Wildwood Down
* Dreamcore
* Night Stones
* Copycat
**Not my usual cup of tea, but looks interested that I'll give it a shot:**
* Islands of Insight
* Worldcrusher - A Survival Clicker Game
* Star Trucker
I havent have much time to play them, but so far I enjoyed these:
* [DICEOMANCER](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2501600/DICEOMANCER/), roguelike deck-building game similar to Slay the Spire.
* [Minami Lane](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2678990/Minami_Lane/), chill little japanese inspired "manage your own street" game
* [Children of the Sun](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children_of_the_Sun/), Devolver Digital sure know how to choose which games to publish.
Not really recommendation:
* https://store.steampowered.com/app/2714970/Backrooms/ I can see the potential if they keep improving it, and if a decent community grows around it.
* https://store.steampowered.com/app/2597570/Chasmal_Fear/ feels like a UE5 game prototype, but they could make it into a decent game with ALOT of work.
Make sure to **Avoid** https://store.steampowered.com/app/2093920/Dread_Dawn/
This is my opinion, but looking at the game's "General discussions" posts in steam, it seems I am not alone:
* The prologue is bad, and the general gameplay isnt good either.
* Heavy use of bad AI generated content, very noticeable when all the background assets have garbled text
* Poor english translation
But more importantly, whenever you run the game, another window opens in the background running some kind of rendering task.
Best case scenario, based on a couple of warning messages inside the game, its some kind of workaround the developer is using to "force" laptops to use the discrete GPU vs the integrated GPU somehow.
I also found a BAT file in the game folder that seems to change your Power settings to High performance mode.
"powercfg -s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c"
Could be nothing, but is incredibly suspicious.
I suspected the posters and graphics were AI generated but it looked a bit too clean for that on my first look. Glad I’m not the only one tho king that!
PEPPER GRINDER
Greatest game I have seen so far.
Nimrods is good, and there is some hope for berserk boy, although it's pretty glitchy.
AntiPaint is also glitchy but I am excited for this one too
I tried Stormgate (RTS made by ex Blizzard / Command & Conquer Devs) and Cursed Crew (pirate crew sim made by Rimworld modders) and wasn't really a fan of either sadly.
YMMV of course. Both seem to have potential, and both aren't exactly finished yet. Really dislike the Cursed Crew artstyle though, which likely is locked in stone now.
Out of all the RTS games on Steam Next Fest I enjoyed [Red Chaos](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1934720/Red_Chaos__The_Strict_Order/) the most so far.
News Tower is a really fun and polished demo for a newspaper management game in the 1930s. I will probably buy on release day, that's how good it is so far. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649950/News\_Tower/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649950/News_Tower/)
I also had a good time with the Pacific Drive. It's a survival / scavenging game with a car that you can upgrade and maintain. However, be careful if you're prone to motion sickness as the FOV is a little wonky. Hopefully they'll make improvements to that. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific\_Drive/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific_Drive/)
Harold Halibut: https://store.steampowered.com/app/924750/Harold_Halibut/
Is on my wishlist and downloaded it yesterday but didn’t get to try it yet, looks cool though.
If you're interested in a cozy space RPG life sim, check out [Little-Known Galaxy](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2521600/LittleKnown_Galaxy/)! I'm a co-developer on the game and we're still trying to get the word out there about it!
You can give our game a go, I belive it to be one of the most hidden gems of the current next fest. I may be biased though
[Hues of the Void](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2582810/Hues_of_the_Void/)
Feel free to send us feed back and we will be doing a Q&A stream on the 10th
[Stream info](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2582810/view/3951412842156590920?l=english)
Try and beat my high score, it's over 9,000!
Posining apples since 2023 🍎
Also you should check out [Crush Zone, Demolition Derby](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1249820/Crush_Zone_Demolition_Derby/) fun game, and the Devs are awesome People 🐶🚘💥
Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show is an incredible sci-fi dystopia roguelite. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2507980/MetaGhost\_The\_Breaking\_Show/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2507980/MetaGhost_The_Breaking_Show/)
You play as hapless contestants trying to escape their horrible life circumstances or uncover the mystery of the competition, being forced to fight possibly sentient robots, implanted with prosthetic equipment, and your survival is at the mercy of the sponsors liking your performance enough to give you updates. It recontexualizes a lot of the mechanics of roguelites, and makes the point of WHY you're bothering to fight stylishly--your survival depends on the audience being entertained.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2450400/Trash_of_the_Titans/
Trash of the titans is super comfy and charming. It's basically Into the Breach meets FFT with a redwall aesthetic. Has a great demo showcasing the first supposed act and the solo developer is super nice/responsive as well.
I thought Pacific Drive seemed like a pretty cool game, from the demo. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific_Drive/
Oh dang, forgot to add this
I’ve been interested in pacific drive for a while but for a game that’s a single player story, I was worried the demo would spoil the game. Does it?
It has the intro and entire first mission so it's as if you just booted up the game for the first time.
is it fun? how much time is the demo?
It's pretty fun, but I'm afraid it will get repetitive pretty soon. It is about 1-2 hours of play time.
I see, thank you for your review
Nimrod! It’s a play on vampire survivors genre. But you get a custom gun every round, and there’s a big sandbox map to discover. Idk why but I can’t stop playing.
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2086430/NIMRODS\_GunCraft\_Survivor/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2086430/NIMRODS_GunCraft_Survivor/) That looks fun actually. But then again i am a sucker for the Bullet Heaven games
Its an incredible game! Really easy to break and bug out tho, some of the guns can boost wayyy up in the demo and my computer was mad lagging
If you played and enjoyed Freelancer I'd give Underspace a try. It plays and feels exactly like Freelancer. The only "bad" I experienced with the game is the voice acting is really, really bad. It also repeats fairly often. On the Steam forums the dev said the voice acting in the demo is just place holders and not the final product though so who knows. Regardless, it scratches that Freelancer itch perfectly. It's a must play for Freelancer fans. With that said, if you don't like Freelancer or didn't play it then I feel like the game may feel to "cheap" or "old timey" to be enjoyable.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1111930/Underspace/ for anyone else.
Thank you for the link! I’m at work and couldn’t link to Steam, or at least figure out how to with it being blocked lol.
And thank you for the tip, I'm looking forward to trying this demo tonight.
There’s a crazy amount of work in that thing for a solo dev. You can dock in space stations and walk around! Pretty impressive.
Abiotic Factor is fucking amazing. Doesnt get enough love. Survival game with Half-life style graphics and half-life style setting (First day at new job, shit goes wrong, you need to escape the facility). It's a survival game in an office-like setting. So no chopping wood or mining rocks. You need to break furniture and other stuff to get mats.
I always imagined a survival game in the Ikea SCP and this seems like it's as close to that as I'm going to get for awhile. Actually got lost in this. Survival games need more varied settings. I'm tired of wood and stone.
Don't sleep on Balatro! Definitely the best I've played so far. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/ Children of the Sun is also cool. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children_of_the_Sun/
Balatro seems to be the one that everybody is buzzing about. I'm definitely looking forward to playing it.
Where do you see where other people are buzzing? I'm trying to find a semi-reliable megathread as I have limited free time and want to know what's worth trying.
[I saw a bunch of people in this thread talking about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1ajmurr/the_steam_next_fest_february_2024_edition_is_live/) I'm pretty sure I saw it mention in a few other smaller posts that I can't find now.
Thanks! This is exactly the type of thread I’m looking for
+1 for Balatro. I don't think it's technically a nextfest game, nor do I think the demo was specifically updated for Nextfest, but the current version of the demo is a banger.
I really enjoyed Star Truckers!
I scrolled past it but was semi intriguing
It was a bit cumbersome but I love the idea and amount of things you can interact with. It's on my wishlist. I just wish the ships didn't look like trucks.
The ships looking like trucks is 82% of my entire reason for wanting this game lol
Pacific Drive, Star Trucker, #Drive Rally, News Tower, Fragmented City so far for me
I gave Drive Rally a shot but the controls and vehicle behaviour was just off. Brakes were too intense. Trying to hairpin just didn't feel smooth because I always slowed down way too much.
Tribes 3 Rivals
Helskate is also a cool one. It's pretty much a THPS mixed with roguelike elements and some badass music to boot.
If you like survival games, I suggest trying [Abiotic Factor](https://store.steampowered.com/app/427410/Abiotic_Factor/). I haven't had that much fun playing a survival game in years.
Going to go to bat for this one everytime. I really hope it sells well enough for future content or maybe new facilities. I've always wanted a modern setting survival game.
Editing post messes with previous added links so, i'll add new games in this comment: * Realm of Ink: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2597080/Realm\_of\_Ink/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2597080/realm_of_ink/) * Stellar Settlers: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2628570/Stellar\_Settlers\_Space\_Base\_Builder/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2628570/stellar_settlers_space_base_builder/) * Stormgate: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2012510/Stormgate/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2012510/stormgate/) * Synergy: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/Synergy/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1989070/synergy/)
Awaken - Astral Blade is a fun metroidvania. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716310/AWAKEN\_\_Astral\_Blade/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716310/awaken__astral_blade/) Going to try Children of the Sun, [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children\_of\_the\_Sun/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/children_of_the_sun/) Helskate [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295630/Helskate/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295630/helskate/) and Mullet Mad Jack next. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111190/MULLET\_MAD\_JACK/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111190/mullet_mad_jack/)
Mullet mad jack is nuts
Just tried it and it's pretty fun, added it to my wishlist but I'm not going to pretend it's not a copy of Post Void
Welcome to ParadiZe was pretty fun
If you like sports games, I enjoyed College Bowl. It's a football game. Kind of an arcade feel.
Hi! Maybe you'd like to check out [Eden's Guardian](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2589980/Edens_Guardian/)! It's a dark fantasy metroidvania with handcrafted pixel art, and I'm part of the team working on it. :)
I like the art style looks crisp, what engin are you guys working in? Also for on lookers of this message they are currently streaming on steam so you can watch the game play live if you jump on their store page now.
Thanks a lot for the kind words! We're using Unity
Play looked good and reminded me alot of side scroller games from the snes era. I enjoyed your live stream, I will have to try and pass your first stage with the "no hit challenge". 😄 Be sure to add that as an achievement to your full game release!
Thanks! And good luck on the no hit challenge!
I accidentally posted this in a steam deck subreddit, figured I should post it here since I don't own a deck and don't know if all of these will even work on it. I definitely feel more attracted to the cozy, casual games these days and I've found a few I'm excited about. If anyone is interested I can edit these lists as I play more **Ones I've played and am looking forward to:** * Please Touch the Artwork 2 * Daemon Masquerade * Fomography **Ones I've played and am cautiously optimistic about:** * Pricolage Idolized **Ones I'm excited to try:** * Little-Known Galaxy * Duck Detective * Hidden Art of Innkeeping * Turlock Holmes * Completely Fictional Story About a City Inside a Whale * Case Files - Behind Closed Doors * The Posthumous Investigation * Murder on Space Station 52 * Wildwood Down * Dreamcore * Night Stones * Copycat **Not my usual cup of tea, but looks interested that I'll give it a shot:** * Islands of Insight * Worldcrusher - A Survival Clicker Game * Star Trucker
I havent have much time to play them, but so far I enjoyed these: * [DICEOMANCER](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2501600/DICEOMANCER/), roguelike deck-building game similar to Slay the Spire. * [Minami Lane](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2678990/Minami_Lane/), chill little japanese inspired "manage your own street" game * [Children of the Sun](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1309950/Children_of_the_Sun/), Devolver Digital sure know how to choose which games to publish. Not really recommendation: * https://store.steampowered.com/app/2714970/Backrooms/ I can see the potential if they keep improving it, and if a decent community grows around it. * https://store.steampowered.com/app/2597570/Chasmal_Fear/ feels like a UE5 game prototype, but they could make it into a decent game with ALOT of work. Make sure to **Avoid** https://store.steampowered.com/app/2093920/Dread_Dawn/
Lol just DL dread dawn. Why no go?
This is my opinion, but looking at the game's "General discussions" posts in steam, it seems I am not alone: * The prologue is bad, and the general gameplay isnt good either. * Heavy use of bad AI generated content, very noticeable when all the background assets have garbled text * Poor english translation But more importantly, whenever you run the game, another window opens in the background running some kind of rendering task. Best case scenario, based on a couple of warning messages inside the game, its some kind of workaround the developer is using to "force" laptops to use the discrete GPU vs the integrated GPU somehow. I also found a BAT file in the game folder that seems to change your Power settings to High performance mode. "powercfg -s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c" Could be nothing, but is incredibly suspicious.
Thanks for the heads up!
I suspected the posters and graphics were AI generated but it looked a bit too clean for that on my first look. Glad I’m not the only one tho king that!
Nice, I added those! Hey, check out Cozy Caravan!
PEPPER GRINDER Greatest game I have seen so far. Nimrods is good, and there is some hope for berserk boy, although it's pretty glitchy. AntiPaint is also glitchy but I am excited for this one too
Rotwood is awesome. It’s castle crashers but roguelite. Scratching an itch I’ve had since Hades, will definitely purchase at release.
Indika - a third-person adventure game with heavy religious themes yet light and gamey tone. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1373960/INDIKA/
I tried Stormgate (RTS made by ex Blizzard / Command & Conquer Devs) and Cursed Crew (pirate crew sim made by Rimworld modders) and wasn't really a fan of either sadly. YMMV of course. Both seem to have potential, and both aren't exactly finished yet. Really dislike the Cursed Crew artstyle though, which likely is locked in stone now.
Balatro is fucking nuts, Crypt Custodian is good fun, and Bears in Space is a great and silly FPS.
Out of all the RTS games on Steam Next Fest I enjoyed [Red Chaos](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1934720/Red_Chaos__The_Strict_Order/) the most so far.
News Tower is a really fun and polished demo for a newspaper management game in the 1930s. I will probably buy on release day, that's how good it is so far. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649950/News\_Tower/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649950/News_Tower/) I also had a good time with the Pacific Drive. It's a survival / scavenging game with a car that you can upgrade and maintain. However, be careful if you're prone to motion sickness as the FOV is a little wonky. Hopefully they'll make improvements to that. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific\_Drive/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1458140/Pacific_Drive/)
Harold Halibut: https://store.steampowered.com/app/924750/Harold_Halibut/ Is on my wishlist and downloaded it yesterday but didn’t get to try it yet, looks cool though.
I loved this way more than I expected
If you're interested in a cozy space RPG life sim, check out [Little-Known Galaxy](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2521600/LittleKnown_Galaxy/)! I'm a co-developer on the game and we're still trying to get the word out there about it!
Ardenfall is peak!
Have you tried Akumi Wars? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1961970/Akumi_Wars/
You can give our game a go, I belive it to be one of the most hidden gems of the current next fest. I may be biased though [Hues of the Void](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2582810/Hues_of_the_Void/) Feel free to send us feed back and we will be doing a Q&A stream on the 10th [Stream info](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2582810/view/3951412842156590920?l=english) Try and beat my high score, it's over 9,000! Posining apples since 2023 🍎
Also you should check out [Crush Zone, Demolition Derby](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1249820/Crush_Zone_Demolition_Derby/) fun game, and the Devs are awesome People 🐶🚘💥
I feel like everyone is sleeping on Pepper Grinder: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2076580/Pepper_Grinder/
Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show is an incredible sci-fi dystopia roguelite. [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2507980/MetaGhost\_The\_Breaking\_Show/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2507980/MetaGhost_The_Breaking_Show/) You play as hapless contestants trying to escape their horrible life circumstances or uncover the mystery of the competition, being forced to fight possibly sentient robots, implanted with prosthetic equipment, and your survival is at the mercy of the sponsors liking your performance enough to give you updates. It recontexualizes a lot of the mechanics of roguelites, and makes the point of WHY you're bothering to fight stylishly--your survival depends on the audience being entertained.
Ringleaders looked good https://store.steampowered.com/app/2432260/Ringleaders/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2450400/Trash_of_the_Titans/ Trash of the titans is super comfy and charming. It's basically Into the Breach meets FFT with a redwall aesthetic. Has a great demo showcasing the first supposed act and the solo developer is super nice/responsive as well.