#next fest

[annahollinrake]

Tumblr would you like to play my gay-ass video game???? for free??? WELL GUESS WHAT:

CRESCENT COUNTY HAS A DEMO IN STEAM'S NEXT FEST! WHICH JUST STARTED! SO PLEASE GO PLAY IT!! WE'RE IN THE LAST WEEK OF OUR KICKSTARTER AND IT REALLY HELPS WITH VISIBILITY!

But also let me tempt you with the delights of the game:

VIBEY SUNSETS, mischievous sheep, drifting on a souped up motorbike broom, pizza with friends, earning money, SPENDING MONEY!

Listening to music that hits just right. stylised art, chatting with new buddies, CRUNCHY HAPTICS, lofi beats, flip phones, mysterious text messages,

A nice big island to explore, Getting To Sabotage A Fuckboy, gliding through wind turbines, jokes about onions, the promise of kissing in the future!!!!

ALL THIS AND MORE AWAIT YOU if you play the Crescent County demo as part of Next Fest on Steam!! (please go play go wishlist kisses kisses)

[just-a-carrot]

HUZZAH!!

The demo is here! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

I'm really excited and I hope everyone will check it out!

You can download it on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4329100/Our_Wonderland/

Some fast facts about the demo:

Covers Arc 1 of the game (so around 2-3 hours)

Comes with all the new features and art for Arc 1 (which is more than what was already available in the previous alpha builds from last year)

Progress and achievements will carry over into the full game (you won't actually get any achievements while playing the demo; however, any achievements you would have gotten will be automatically unlocked once you start up the full game)

Includes a super cool exclusive artwork that will only be available in the demo! You'll be able to download it as a wallpaper once you complete the demo  ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

Please consider giving it a go! I'm already so nervous and feeling so overshadowed by the thousands of other popular games also participating in the fest LOL My little game feels so tiny in comparison. But I hope it can do well! And bring in some visibility for the game leading into the launch!

Once the full game launches I'll be removing the demo and also removing download links for the OG game on itchio.

Anyway, that's it for now! I hope you'll enjoy the demo!

[alexanderwales]

One of the game demos I played on Next Fest was one called Retro Rewind, where you're running an independent video rental place in the 90s. It was pretty boring, one of those games where I immediately start thinking "okay, please let me automate this gameplay", but the reason I'd given it a shot is that I've wanted a video rental game ever since playing Tiny Bookshop.

One of the big issues is that in Retro Rewind, all the video titles are made up for the game, which means that there's none of the cultural weight that exists in real life. This was one of the things that I liked about Tiny Bookshop, and it seems relatively simple to implement, because all you have to do is add a mammoth number of tags to a whole bunch of movies, then write some conditional dialogue.

So someone says "Can you recommend a movie for me? I'm a big fan of SNL" and then it's up to your knowledge of your catalog to pick 1) a comedy and ideally 2) that has an SNL cast member in it or 3) is a movie that originated from SNL, though few of those are good movies. The idea is that you're rewarded for pop culture knowledge and being conversant in film.

I'm reasonably sure that you don't need to have all the movies be public domain, though you might run into issues if you wanted to display images for the covers ... not sure how IMDB handles it, though it's pretty obviously fair use in that case.

Alas, making my own game would be enormously time consuming and outside my wheelhouse, but I can feel the pull of it, and that traitorous voice that says "how hard could this be" is whispering in my ear.

[obscurevideogames]

Steam Next Fest Demos - Winter 2025

It's almost over, but here are a few of my favorites to check out while you can:

Beyond the Ice Palace II - excellent Castlevania clone

FUBUKI ～zero in on Holoearth～ HOLOLIVE ALTERNATIVE - fun, nice-looking Japanese pixel girls run 'n' gun, from the developer of the Record of Lodoss War metroidvania

Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark - Inti Creates metroidvania with gorgeous pixel art

Moroi - bizarre top-down action adventure

Nekograms - sliding puzzle game, but it's sliding cats onto pillows

The Perfect Pencil - plays a bit like Hollow Knight, but with some really odd characters

Promise Mascot Agency - a GTA/Yakuza-style game about running a Japanese mascot talent agency

Ruffy and the Riverside - looks like Paper Mario, but plays like Super Mario 64

Twilight Monk - an incredibly fun and well-made kung fu metroidvania/action RPG

[glugslove]

If your looking for a game to try for Next Fest you should check out Rhell >:]

Its a puzzle game where you combine key words to create unique magic effects! It has over 100,000,000 unique spell combos and is all about creativity and having fun!

[cancancanaman]

Hire Adventurers to Take on Quests and Hope for the Best as our indie rouge-like city builder, Gold Gold Adventure Gold Launches into Early Access on June 20th! 🗓️⚔️ Wishlist Now & Dive into the Steam Next Fest Demo from June 9th-16th!

Gold Gold Adventure Gold on Steam

Gold makes god. Embrace city-building chaos. Pet giant monsters! Watch puny adventurers! Bend nature to your will with powerful spells and t

[hergaminghours]

[ambystoman]

Dragon March DEMO!

A demo for Dragon March has been released on Steam and Itch.io!Play it today now and wishlist on Steam!

Been working hard to get this out just in time for Next Fest

Dragon March on Steam

A fast-paced action game like Snake where you traverse levels full of obstacles. You don't stop running forward, so steer to safety and resc