The Steam Game Festival: Autumn Edition is up with fresh demos to play

Anybody tried Carto? It looks so good but not even with Proton i can start the game.

Also tried Fractal Space, its very very nice!


Last edited by Spirimint on 7 October 2020 at 9:26 pm UTC

Seems like they've fixed the Linux icon on the event page, and icons on the demo banners now. It's a shame there's no way to filter by platform though, as there's so much to sift through, just to find the few games with Linux demos. Additionally, all of the games that are "recommended for you" are Windows games.

I did play a few Linux demos though:

Aurora: The Lost Medallion - a point and click adventure, which seems interesting, but I didn't achieve much before I got stuck. I wish there'd been a button to highlight hotspots, as I'm pretty sure I've missed something.

Sneak In - an arcade puzzler, which reminds me a lot of a game I played on my phone in 2008, called Poppin' Panda. (I wasted an entire day on the couch once, chasing perfect scores, which was of course before I got kids). It's nice enough, but not really to my tastes anymore. I tried it mostly because it's made by the developer of City Game Studio, who develop games on Linux using Godot.

Bots & Belts - toy making simulator, which has been covered here multiple times, I think. It's similar to Overcooked!, but easier to play solo (at least in the demo). In each level, you make multiple units of the same toy, which can get a bit dull, but that might not be representative of the full game. Overall, I enjoyed it, and will probably buy the full game once it's out.

Altered - a very interesting puzzle game, which was my favourite of the games I played. It's sokoban-esque, with the twist that the characters you control can change shapes in various ways to eg. cross gaps, hold a button down while crossing a gate or even pull blocks by turning into an L-shape.

I also downloaded the demo for Backbone, which I backed on Kickstarter, but I haven't played it yet.

Aurora: The Lost Medallion - a point and click adventure, which seems interesting, but I didn't achieve much before I got stuck. I wish there'd been a button to highlight hotspots, as I'm pretty sure I've missed something.

Steam says I played that demo in June 2019 for 55 minutes, with 18/25 achievements. I seem to recall finishing the demo, so it must not have been too complicated?

I also downloaded the demo for Backbone, which I backed on Kickstarter, but I haven't played it yet.

If that's the same as the Prologue, I played that for 45 minutes in May. I ran into some bug related to entering the bar, that prevented me from continuing.

Aurora: The Lost Medallion - a point and click adventure, which seems interesting, but I didn't achieve much before I got stuck. I wish there'd been a button to highlight hotspots, as I'm pretty sure I've missed something.

Thanks for pointing that one out!

(I wasted an entire day on the couch once, chasing perfect scores, which was of course before I got kids).

Those Good Old Times, when you could just sit on the sofa as long as you wanted... :D

Aurora: The Lost Medallion - a point and click adventure, which seems interesting, but I didn't achieve much before I got stuck. I wish there'd been a button to highlight hotspots, as I'm pretty sure I've missed something.

Steam says I played that demo in June 2019 for 55 minutes, with 18/25 achievements. I seem to recall finishing the demo, so it must not have been too complicated?

Probably not, but I don't enjoy hunting for hotspots anymore, so when I'd visited every location multiple times and tried everything on everything I'd found, I moved on to one of the other demos.

EDIT: I just finished the demo, and it was Neemo I had missed. Overall, I enjoyed the game, but I found the occasional story bits a bit jarring. It might just be that it's a bit difficult to explain the universe in such a short format, and I hope it's integrated a bit better in the full game.


Last edited by flesk on 8 October 2020 at 7:45 pm UTC

If you are a Proton-er, Ghostrunner works extremely well.

Oh wow, a VR only game with a native version? Definitely gonna try that.

Aurora: The Lost Medallion - a point and click adventure, which seems interesting, but I didn't achieve much before I got stuck. I wish there'd been a button to highlight hotspots, as I'm pretty sure I've missed something.

Thanks for the suggestion! Quite liked the demo, finished it using 2189 left clicks.

I'm not sure if you got stuck on the same place I did, finding the twins? I had to seek help from a walkthrough in the end. But the issue was more like a design bug than an actual puzzle I think.

Curiously the game does seem to have some kind of hint feature that kicked in (unnecessarily) when looking for one of the other kids.

Arcanium is a fun little game. Sort of a Hearthstone / Slay the Spire mix. It has a few issues that may be due to the alpha state of the game or maybe due to Proton, impossible to say right now, but it's worth checking out.

Aurora: The Lost Medallion - a point and click adventure, which seems interesting, but I didn't achieve much before I got stuck. I wish there'd been a button to highlight hotspots, as I'm pretty sure I've missed something.

Thanks for the suggestion! Quite liked the demo, finished it using 2189 left clicks.

I'm not sure if you got stuck on the same place I did, finding the twins? I had to seek help from a walkthrough in the end. But the issue was more like a design bug than an actual puzzle I think.

Curiously the game does seem to have some kind of hint feature that kicked in (unnecessarily) when looking for one of the other kids.

I updated my just a few minutes before you posted. It was her companion, Neemo, I missed, half hidden in the shadows. Not super difficult to find, I know, but it's too easy to overlook things in games like this, and often that spoils the fun for me.

I didn't notice the hints, but I'll admit, I skipped a bunch of dialogue when I played today, since I got a bit impatient with having to start over from the beginning. I noticed that the game was saved at some point when I played, but that was later in the demo than where I got to yesterday.

My stats are 41:18 minutes, 639 left clicks, 14 right clicks, and 17/25 achievements, but I didn't need as many clicks, since I already knew what I was doing for the first part of the demo.

I played Skellboy Refractured yesterday, which is an action adventure made in a cardboard cutout style. I wasn't sure what to make of it when I saw it, but I thought the story and dialogue was fun, and the gameplay is interesting.

I also played Jumpala, which is a competitive action platformer that can be played against an AI opponent. It seemed pretty smooth to play, but it's really not my type of game.

Fabled Lands is awesome but super short. If you've ever played any of the old solo pen and paper RPG novels like Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series, this is pretty much a graphical representation of that. Lots of dice rolling and decision making with simple turn-based tactical combat. I wouldn't recommend it for everybody, but if you're an old school role player or boardgamer like myself, then you'll love it.

I stumbled upon some gems, but all of the haven't been that inspiring. Some of them haven't been mentioned here yet.

Good

• Aurora: The Lost medallion: seems solid point and click adventure game
• Marble Age remastered: Kind of greek civilization with training wheels on
• Skellboy: Hack and slash platformer with gameplay variety already in the demo
• Space Crew: Spaceship simulator with emphasis on crew management (at the moment requires Proton, though all the signs are there that native version will be available)

Mediocre

• Ampersat: ASCII themed twin stick shooter and hack slash game, has some potential
• Perilous Warp: FPS that doesn't seem to have anything that hasn't been seen already quite many times

Bad

• Jungles of Maxtheria: Puzzle platformer with multiple gameplay issues
• Boy Beats World: Intro that feels like it takes forever and freezes when hugging a tree (I have no idea why I did that twice)