With this Steam Next Fest I played a great amount of 53 demos. The last post reveiled 8 of my highlights and this time I got 13 more recommendations for you!
Celestial Return || Coming soon
Any indie fan will get it when I say that this game is highly inspired by Disco Elysium. Big intrigues, weird and horrific beings, larger than life corporations — it’s a dying city, that you have to inspect as an experienced yet tired detective.
The demo immediately pushes you into a situation that tears at your moral compass, mixed with fear and confusion. Who is to trust, what is actually happening and most importantly, what will your path be in this huge mess?
To quote the developer: „It’s a manifesto for the forgotten, the erased, the expendable, those never given a chance. It’s about those who were never meant to survive, yet somehow still do.“
In a world where we are ruled by complex forces, that we are partially aware of, yet feel helpless against them; in a world where we constantly have to live in fear that someone in power deems us useless and abandons us; in a world where forces try to silence us, abandon us; we remain. We won’t let the world erase us. I can’t wait to see how well Celestial Return will harmonize with what we go through; and I can’t wait to fight with all of my power, in and outside of the game.
DownSouth || Coming soon
I don’t really get invested in platformers, but there is something about DownSouth that dragged me in the second I started the game. The atmosphere is heavy and raw, the light is damp, it all feels wet and slimy, almost dirty, yet it feels immensely human. The Music, the sounds, the visuals – it all crafts a vibe that couldn’t possibly reflect the human soul any better. Insane, punk, warm, scared. Survival is heavy in this world, as it comes at a great cost. In DownSouth you shape your character, and with it the vibe of the game, with every decision you take. Do you have it in you, to balance self-preservation and morality?
Petrichor || 2026
A quirky RPG that oozes charm and heart. Our protagonist Jobert has a weird dream, a confusing spiral of gloom and doom, that feels like a prophecy. All our brave hero takes away from it is one thing: he needs to buy a new plant; and nothing will stop him! Also, he slept for 3 days after devouring pizza, and when his uncle tells him about how the world around them is changing for the worse and Jobert needs to do something, his thumb curls up and a confident „okay!“ hums with it.
The situation is serious, but it’s all presented with fun characters and tons of humour. The combat is turn based, with a generous QTE for more damage. All of it is wrapped in a nostalgic 90s look with charming enemy design.
CALX || To be announced
One of my favourite games ever is Sable. I am eagerly awaiting more from the devs, but until then I luckily have other indie games that resonate with me in a similar way as Sable. There is Gecko Gods and CALX. The latter is relevant here.
You explore a vast landscape, filled with destroyed structures and ancient technology. Your journey is lonely, melancholic. Freedom and Sadness share your mind. It’s almost peaceful, yet dangerous and foreign being cloud the stillness. The combat is action based, with light and heavy attacks, as well as a ranged move. Outside of battles, you traverse unknown places, scan the area to gain knowledge. The world opens up, the more you learn. You are free to go, wherever your various traverse options take you, each place is more beautiful and fascinating than the prior.
Lootbound || Q2 2026
Envision Slay the Spire but without the RNG and luck base, but with fixed skills and a party system instead. You embark on your journey, where you choose between paths, calculating whether you should go for healing items or a potentially strong new weapon. Starting alone, you get option for companions on the way. Each fight lets you choose one item, among the battle loot, each path lets you wager the risks. There is still a luck component in here. When choosing between three powerful gears, the stronger ones have a higher difficulty class, which means you need to get a high dice roll. If you fail, you don’t get anything. It’s an addictive loop, that is as rewarding as it is challenging, as controllable as it is chaotic. You are in for a good time.
Three Verses || 2026
This one hard to explain, as most of it is surreal and abstract. You play a first person dungeon crawler, where conversations lead you to a verse of poetry, that might be necessary for another person. These verses aren’t always gifted to you. One might need you to fish. My excellent skills lead to catch the grandiose Trash Fish!
Another person needs you to check up on their colleague who got lost in the building. In the church someone wants you to vanish demons. Entering it leads you to a nonchalant janitor, who then leads you to a bathroom and in there are of course — gargoyles!
Realism is boring, and we need more games that make you go „Huh? Whatever, I love it!“. Don’t miss out on being weird.
Mayor May Knott || 05/2026
The title is a great play on words and I adore stupid puns. You play as a girl names May, whose hair is braided into knots. For some reason or another, she arrived in a new town and somehow gets the rights to act as its mayor (with Animal Crossing New Lead, that’s the second time this happens). Her duty is to get the devastated and eery town running again. She is the Mayor May with a Knott, and she may or may not, help the town. It also releases in May! I am sorry, if you don’t find this hilarious, we are not the same.
Inquisitor Shepherd || Coming soon
I adore visual novel mystery games. You play as the titular Shepherd, a freshly appointed inquisitor, who arrives in a secluded village, to investigate suspicious behaviour.
Seemingly bland at first glance, the village seems to hide something sinister, and it’s our job to decide its fate.
If you don’t care about visual novels, I won’t sell you on that, but if you are even mildly curious about mystery novels and intrigues, you will find a deeply fascinating and spectacularly presented story in Inquisitor Shepherd.
Stiff Neck || 03/04/26
Another visual novel! Similarly, as the previous one, this has a great presentation and vibe, although they are both extremely different. Where Inquisitor Sheperd is very stylized, Stuff Neck is minimal. Its sketchy visuals, drawn with soft water colours, all spread across what looks like a mixture of picture gallery and a book.
The story hints at something deeper in the background, but the beginning is calm, introducing the characters and teaching you about their relationships. Our protagonist seems to attract odd people. Some come across as friendly, but with a stoic bitterness, others come across as kind but with a doubtful sense.
Perhaps I am reading too much into it, perhaps there is much more going in than I can imagine right now. All of that will reveal in a month.
Echo Generation 2 || 2026
We start of as a young child, who is involved in some odd experiments done on children. Destroyed walls, burning fire – it daunts on me that we are in the middle of an escape. Before I can even check anything around me, guards come up. Luckily, we are not just any child, we have a gift, a power, that lets us evaporate the guards. The different skills are portrayed as cards in a deck, that we can build up, craft and adapt at any point. The different combinations, synergies and effects, were extremely fun. I was also surprisingly fond of the art style. The screenshots made it look quite bland, but I especially adored the level designs. There is a huge play room, that looked stunning, and offered some insight into the life here.
According to the Steam Page, we will play as the Dad ad build up a party, which makes me even more curious.
Membrane || Coming soon
After years of radio silence, you get a message from your sister. Her writing is obscure, she can’t explain much and needs to meet us in person. It sounds off from the beginning, but we can only oblige.
We arrive in the town and meet her. We apologize. Hands sweating. We are here. We want to help. We kept her in our thoughts. Happiness. Anxiety. Yet, she doesn’t respond to it. She mumbles some words and breaks? How am I to describe the situation? Her face falls apart, mouth dragging down, creating a grotesque look that doesn’t resemble a person anymore. Is she screaming help me? Before we can even think about our next move, we wake up in our bed. It was a dream. Yeah, of course it was a dream. Or was it?
Embark on a GBA inspired journey, to investigate what the hell is actually going on here.
Spy Drops Gaiden || Coming soon
I am a fan of the Metal Gear franchise, and that includes the two Metal Gear Games, before they adapted the Solid tag line. Spy Drops Gaiden, definitely catches the vibes and look of them. You are a spy on a mission to infiltrate the enemies base. Enemies can be knocked out by hand-to-hand combat or a gun, and they can e interrogated for secret intel (weirdly called Dream Catcher here. Must be a reference I don’t get).
There is not much to say, honestly. The stealth mechanic works well, since you can crawl and hide, yet have to pay attention to the sound you make. Combat works well, although I was clumsy with the gun and preferred the good old fist. Metal Gear fans should give it a look!
I Won’t Let You Level Up In My Goblin Town || Coming soon
Every RPG starts with training for experience, most of the time these enemies are slimes, wolves or goblins. What about those low-level mobs though? Surely, they don’t feel happy about this. In this game we are actually standing by the side of a little town of goblins.
Interestingly though, we ourself don’t fight. The town has a talented fighter ready to risk their life. All they need is support. Someone who can analyse the enemy, study the situation, and provide the necessary tools. The town provided gear, different potions, weapons, various items than can buff/debuff.
Our duty is to assess the fight and adapt to it. Through ought the fight we examine the health status of our fighter as well as the enemy. We run through the town and grab two things to aid our friend. Grab a heavy armour to boost defence and throw a potion on the enemy that lowers their defence. Our goblin is a multi-talent by the way. He can wear multiple items and weapons. All we need to do is to throw the items at him. Simple idea right? Well, you will run, tinker and adapt a lot. It gets surprisingly stressful, yet hugely rewarding. It’s a fun concept and the delightful characters really add to the charm.
