Steam Next Fest, Feb. 2024 - An in-depth look at the Steam demos of this year

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Miller said:
OK, avoid the game. My apologies.
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tbh who cares tho? if none of that shit is in the game, it doesn't really matter and I certainly have neither the time nor will to triple-check every indie-dev just to "make sure".

The Pulverizer said:
I haven't taken a look at these before, but this year I decided to scroll through 1000 games from the list. Most of the games were survival, horror, visual novels, story-driven, souls-likes, or rogue-likes and rogue-lites. That was a bummer because I have no interest in any of those genres (not that those games looked good anyway). As you'd expect there was a ton of shovelware.
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just a heads up, next fest is every four months (june and then october unless valve changes it). you can also check out the old ones, although the menu is currently removed but should come back after the event.

as for the games, that's just what indies do. they don't have the budget or manpower to do AAA or certain genres. plus sturgeon's law applies anyway. so while many are not personally interesting, there are usually a few gems in there. plus they're usually cheap and not long to make up for it, and usually still more legit in terms of gameplay or effort compared to the average AAA slop. I mean even fucking /v/ has actual ontopic discussions about it which feels like a time-capsule from 10-15 years ago. and the devs are active and you often can talk to them directly, compared to lowest common denominator comittee-design.

also different strokes, I like metroidvanias and there were quite a few very good ones in the past. then you see how everybody jerks off bodyguard of persia which cost 60 fucking bucks, the urge to purge the retards and casuals rises...

regarding demos, haven't really had the time to check it out yet, usually do that afterwards (at least demos are supposed to stay up a week longer now). but I still find good shit even from some older next fests, so...
however my recommendations come with a grain of salt since I even play stuff like https://store.steampowered.com/app/1978150/Kamaeru_A_Frog_Refuge/

some more stuff for my list to check out:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1536090/Echoes_of_the_Plum_Grove/ (fuck you the artstyle is interesting)

EDIT:
protip: https://augmentedsteam.com/
wishlist notes AND you can export it.

also: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1761210/The_Touhou_Empires/ :story:
 
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ZMOT said:
just a heads up, next fest is every four months (june and then october unless valve changes it). you can also check out the old ones, although the menu is currently removed but should come back after the event.
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I don't think I'll do another thread for June and October. I think the February one is the most useful one because you get a better grasp of what games are coming out soon. And it's very much needed considering the AAA output so far this year.
ZMOT said:
regarding demos, haven't really had the time to check it out yet, usually do that afterwards (at least demos are supposed to stay up a week longer now). but I still find good shit even from some older next fests, so...
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You should really check out Demon Spore. The demo was a very fun experience in its own right.
ZMOT said:
also different strokes, I like metroidvanias and there were quite a few very good ones in the past. then you see how everybody jerks themself off over bodyguard of persia which cost 60 fucking bucks, and the urge to purge the retards and casuals rises...
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Casuals ruin everything.
 
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cybertoaster said:
All I care for its Homeworld 3.

It better be good, its been 22-fucking-years...
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I played it and am sad to say it's very disappointing. Controls suck, camera is weird, formations are broken up constantly, pathing is complete shit, and TTK is way down. Also they slapped Denuvo on it, bringing the entire thing from instant buy to hard pass, unlike the excellent remasters they released.
 
I played all of the FPS games from this thread's line-up.

Ceasar's Revenge is a fun first-person-shooter. Like I said in the OP the graphics stay true to the 90's era games it draws inspiration from. The melee combat was also pretty fun. However, the music leaves a lot to be desired. They should've just ripped off God of War's soundtrack.

@TheCrackMonkey Mullet Mad Jack was a really fun game. I was worried about the anime influence, but it worked in the game's favor. Watching the gorgeous death animations is more rewarding than getting a 3 second boost to your lifespan.

@Asian tech support Monomyth was pretty god-awful. Granted, the only Bethesda game I've actually played was New Vegas. Still, it was a very clunky experience. I had found a bunch of answers to problems that I couldn't locate. And the game for some reason introduces dead ends in its puzzles. Like there is a lever you find on the ground, and when you attach it to the thing it opens a gate that you really didn't need to open.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
@Asian tech support Monomyth was pretty god-awful. Granted, the only game of the genre I've actually played was New Vegas. Still, it was a very clunky experience. I had found a bunch of answers to problems that I couldn't locate. And the game for some reason introduces dead ends in its puzzles. Like there is a lever you find on the ground, and when you attach it to the thing it opens a gate that you really didn't need to open.
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Yeah that was the vibe I was getting too. It's about as obtuse and clunky as its aged ilk.
 
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@Belegar Ironhammer Indika is a miserable game. If you can even call it that. It's actually worse than your average Naughty Dog movie/game hybrid because at least those have shooting. This game is like The Last of Us without any shooting. I think it will be successful because you don't see a lot of games make fun of Christianity.
 
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Evil Peter Griffin said:
Stormgate is Warcraft 3. Not its just Warcraft 3 with Marines and Demons.
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Minus the hero units.
Was looking forward to it, but the demo left a lot to be desired. Overall feels like a they mixed Starcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 while removing the fun parts.

On the other hand I really had a blast with Star Trucker and that was very unexpected as space sims usually isn't my genre and I don't really know why I even installed the demo in the first place. But it was quite a lucky accident, because it really clicked with me right from the start. Especially the music (although with a very limited selection in the demo) pulled me into the scenario and I appreciated the fact that you have to directly manage your truck, meaning, going around flipping switches/pulling levers, swapping power cells, etc. instead of just pushing a button.
And for some reason doing deliveries in space is just very satisfying to me.

Another game I tried was Corpus Edax, which is an immersive sim with melee combat and I was looking forward especially to the fighting, but unfortunately it was quite buggy (especially the NPC pathfinding/AI) and aside from kicking around some random NPC that was stuck in the bathroom door of my room I didn't even run into a proper fight, as I ended up being stuck in a room, that I couldn't leave because the door back outside wasn't working for some reason. Loading the last save state put me back in that room with the cherry on top, that I now couldn't even move at all anymore, as it seemed that I clipped into the environment slightly and thus was stuck in the floor/door. Couldn't really be bothered to try it again yet, but some patches have been pushed, so take that experience with a grain of salt as it might work better now.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
@Belegar Ironhammer Indika is a miserable game. If you can even call it that. It's actually worse than your average Naughty Dog movie/game hybrid because at least those have shooting. This game is like The Last of Us without any shooting. I think it will be successful because you don't see a lot of games make fun of Christianity.
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I'm sorry, bro. I didn't mean to put you through that.
 
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This is really demotivating to me as a person who is working on a roguelite.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
I don't think I'll do another thread for June and October. I think the February one is the most useful one because you get a better grasp of what games are coming out soon. And it's very much needed considering the AAA output so far this year.
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next fest threads usually die pretty fast anyway, someone else will probably make a new thread then

>get a better grasp of what games are coming out soon
:story:
some games from a year ago still haven't released. at least valve changed it that games can only ever be featured in one next fest (unless they walked that back).
still, the games have to come out at some point, and since most of it isn't slop it gives me hope for the industry...

Hardline Traditionalist said:
This is really demotivating to me as a person who is working on a roguelite.
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have some fancy graphics and solid mechanics. no need to re-invent the wheel.

also it's inevitable to fail (to a degree). thinking you gonna make the next undertale is a fool's errant. get to a solid state you think you can release it for a good price, then do a sequel or another game.
 
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The Pulverizer said:
I don't think I'll do another thread for June and October. I think the February one is the most useful one because you get a better grasp of what games are coming out soon. And it's very much needed considering the AAA output so far this year.
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Could have a dedicated Setam Next Fest thread...
 
I've been dicking around with Realm of Ink for the past hour or so. It's weeaboo Hades but the ink art is a nice aesthetic. There's nothing wrong with it besides not having rebindable controls. I think there's an attack type that I'm not using because I can't remember the input.
Overall, not bad but nothing groundbreaking.

edit: it's grown on me and I'm recommending you try it if you like Hades, Curse of the Dead Gods, or anything similar.
 
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Gave Touhou Empires a try
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Very boring and uninteresting. I'm very disappointed. They try to make Touhou AoE2 but everything is just plain and worse. I could go into details but nobody wants to hear my autistic rants.

Gave Moduwar a try
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Pleasantly surprised. RTS where you play as this creature; can expand and break, basically blob from SS13 if it could break out parts of itself. Super jank; AI shits itself and units ignore orders.

Toy Shire
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Generic tower defense. It's all presented from the perspective of a kid, and when you scroll over buttons the kid pulls out toys soldiers and talks to them. Really cute and charming.
 
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If you like survival horror games like resident evil and silent hill, you should give Crow Country a try! It plays like those earlier games with an interesting gun aim mechanic and art style reminiscent of early Square Enix 3d final fantasy games. This is one game I might look into buying when it gets released. Been looking for a ps1 survival horror era like game for a while. Not too interested in the ps1 first person horror games that been coming out over the years, but this one seems to be up my alley.

 
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