Another digital event has arrived with Steam Next Fest, giving you a chance again to try out a bunch of demos for upcoming games and watch live events.
Just like the previous events the main page will allow you to browse through different genres. Developers will livestream directly to their store pages, giving you a chance to watch and chat with them which does make it quite an experience. It's a really wonderful format, that I hope Valve continue for years to come as it's a great thing for developers and players.
Annoyingly, Valve seem to have again forgotten to include a platform list so you can't just see only Linux-supported titles right now. Not only that but quite a lot of developers haven't put up the full demo banner with platform icons on their store pages (only the little demo button on the sidepanel), so you need to check SteamDB (Search for "game + demo") on those to see if the demo has a Linux build.
Here's some of the Linux supported demos to take a look at that might stand out:
There's plenty of other demos, we're just going through what's new for the event. If we miss any that look really good, send us a correction to add it.
I did play Patrick's Parabox in a previous event and that was a fantastic puzzle game, so I can already tell you to absolutely go and check that one out. I'm also incredibly keen to try out Death Trash and Lila's Sky Ark.
Steam Next Fest: June 2021 Edition runs June 16 - June 22. See more about it on the Steam store and the dedicated event page.
Let us know in the comments what you try and what you think of them.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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20 comments
That demo list is always helpful. I installed just seven by browsing the event page and looking for Linux demos that I haven't yet played. Could install few more once I have tried the ones that I found already.
I already tried Unpacked and it certainly was something different. It's basically about unpacking stuff and finding good place for everything. After all boxes are emptied, game checks if things are in correct enough place. It can be bit picky, so might have to try out few places. Especially the kitchen in the demo was bit confusing as there didn't seem to perfectly logical place for everything. I might be bit spoiled though as I have good place where the plates go for example and game didn't have that.
I guess it could be great game for somebody who hasn't played games that much. There's no pressure and game mechanics come mostly from real life (assuming you actually unpack the boxes when you move...). From the demo it's impossible to say though if the final game has enough new mechanics to keep the game interesting.
I already tried Unpacked and it certainly was something different. It's basically about unpacking stuff and finding good place for everything. After all boxes are emptied, game checks if things are in correct enough place. It can be bit picky, so might have to try out few places. Especially the kitchen in the demo was bit confusing as there didn't seem to perfectly logical place for everything. I might be bit spoiled though as I have good place where the plates go for example and game didn't have that.
I guess it could be great game for somebody who hasn't played games that much. There's no pressure and game mechanics come mostly from real life (assuming you actually unpack the boxes when you move...). From the demo it's impossible to say though if the final game has enough new mechanics to keep the game interesting.
2 Likes, Who?
I tried Death Trash, but wasn't immediately hooked. I found the scenery and colour scheme too drab. Gameplay wise there's a focus on combat and not so much on quests and dialogue. Mind, that's just first impressions from 30 minutes or so of gameplay...
The rest of the evening was spent tinkering with the WRC 10 demo in Proton. I got it from immediate error message, to black screen followed by an error message, hurrah! I guess among other things the DX12 support in Proton needs to improve.
(Ironically it doesn't sound as any of the WRC titles are all that good, but it is where all the esports happen so I would love to see it working).
Overall, I'm glad Valve is bringing demos back. But please, keep them in place after the festival is over. There's no way I have time to try out even half the titles that catch my fancy!
The rest of the evening was spent tinkering with the WRC 10 demo in Proton. I got it from immediate error message, to black screen followed by an error message, hurrah! I guess among other things the DX12 support in Proton needs to improve.
(Ironically it doesn't sound as any of the WRC titles are all that good, but it is where all the esports happen so I would love to see it working).
Overall, I'm glad Valve is bringing demos back. But please, keep them in place after the festival is over. There's no way I have time to try out even half the titles that catch my fancy!
2 Likes, Who?
Overall, I'm glad Valve is bringing demos back. But please, keep them in place after the festival is over. There's no way I have time to try out even half the titles that catch my fancy!This came up with another recent article. A lot of game devs believe that if a potential customer is able to satisfy their curiosity with a demo, the dev won't be able to pick their pocket for the full game price. I think that's an abhorrent attitude. But by enforcing the demos being unavailable on launch day to placate the devs, Valve can get them to actually make a demo in the first place.
2 Likes, Who?
A lot of demos can be just manually backed up too and run outside of Steam.
1 Likes, Who?
Not all of the demos are time limited though, too bad it's hard to know which ones are. I checked through demos that I still have installed and it's time limit is quite common.
However I tried one the demos that has expired and running it outside Steam worked fine. So just downloading the demos before they expire might be just enough. No need to make backups unless you're afraid that Steam will uninstall the demo automatically.
However I tried one the demos that has expired and running it outside Steam worked fine. So just downloading the demos before they expire might be just enough. No need to make backups unless you're afraid that Steam will uninstall the demo automatically.
1 Likes, Who?
Thanks for the work you put on that list, save me a lot of time.
0 Likes
This came up with another recent article. A lot of game devs believe that if a potential customer is able to satisfy their curiosity with a demo, the dev won't be able to pick their pocket for the full game price.
(!) Source?
I think that's an abhorrent attitude.Indeed. Hype, or worst.
Am i paying for (or are they really trying to sell me) games just to satisfy my curiosity?
Doesn't make sense, do they know steam allows refunds if you don't like the game?
Last edited by kokoko3k on 17 June 2021 at 8:39 am UTC
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Well Death Trash currently has what looks to be a shader bug, have let the developer know as enemy view cones are bright pink.
Edit: Vulkan fixes it. Use "-force-vulkan" as a launch option for Death Trash.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 June 2021 at 3:22 pm UTC
Edit: Vulkan fixes it. Use "-force-vulkan" as a launch option for Death Trash.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 17 June 2021 at 3:22 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Expalphalog Jun 17, 2021
Not many of these looked that appealing to me this year. Tried running The Wickie, a Lovecraftian horror, through Proton but it wouldn't even launch. Also tried WarTales. It ran fine and the combat was solid but the game itself was rather dull.
EDIT: Went back and tried some more games. Deepest Chamber ran very well once I got past the starting menu (which was incredibly slow to load). Would only recommend it for people who found Slay the Spire to be 'too much.' It's a very watered-down version of Slay the Spire. Which is to say that it was fun, but not very challenging and it just made me want to play StS again instead of doing another run of Deepest Chamber.
Void Tyrant is also a watered-down Slay the Spire except it's charming enough and seems to be aimed at kids so I dig it. In fact, last night, I plunked my 8yo down on my lap and let her play while I gave advice. She adored it.
Last edited by Expalphalog on 19 June 2021 at 3:51 pm UTC
EDIT: Went back and tried some more games. Deepest Chamber ran very well once I got past the starting menu (which was incredibly slow to load). Would only recommend it for people who found Slay the Spire to be 'too much.' It's a very watered-down version of Slay the Spire. Which is to say that it was fun, but not very challenging and it just made me want to play StS again instead of doing another run of Deepest Chamber.
Void Tyrant is also a watered-down Slay the Spire except it's charming enough and seems to be aimed at kids so I dig it. In fact, last night, I plunked my 8yo down on my lap and let her play while I gave advice. She adored it.
Last edited by Expalphalog on 19 June 2021 at 3:51 pm UTC
0 Likes
I tried Death Trash, but wasn't immediately hooked. I found the scenery and colour scheme too drab. Gameplay wise there's a focus on combat and not so much on quests and dialogue. Mind, that's just first impressions from 30 minutes or so of gameplay...Turns out I was dead wrong about Death Trash. Played for another hour and loved it!
Still not too fond of the colour arrangement. Too much brown. Like Quake 2 mixed with early Ubuntu. However, the protagonist has the ability to regurgitate on demand so I can at least brighten up the landscape with colourful spots here and there!
1 Likes, Who?
Tested two games today. Rail Route and Farlanders.
Rail Route is bit difficult train routing game. Bit similar to Mini Metro and Train Valley 2, just somewhat more complicated. Train Valley has bit similar train routing and both require adjusting the routes on the fly. Aesthetics are closer to Mini Metro though.
Playing tutorial and paying attention helps a bit. There's endless and timetable modes and timetable mode will get quite hectic before you end up in gridlock
Could work better with some user interface polish and more gradual difficulty curve. The difficulty makes it bit harder to pick up than Mini Metro.
Farlanders felt bit like Red Planet Farming (which is free by the way). Both are turn based management simulations in Mars and in both space is premium.
Farlanders has bit odd terraforming mechanic. I checked the store page and terraforming makes bit more sense as it's described as a puzzle. Rules are explained in one page that describes the terraforming outcomes. As offered terraforming options are random, it might take several turns until you get what you actually need most urgently.
Seems like it's worth a try. It's by no means Surviving Mars as it feels like its done by lot smaller indie team.
Rail Route is bit difficult train routing game. Bit similar to Mini Metro and Train Valley 2, just somewhat more complicated. Train Valley has bit similar train routing and both require adjusting the routes on the fly. Aesthetics are closer to Mini Metro though.
Playing tutorial and paying attention helps a bit. There's endless and timetable modes and timetable mode will get quite hectic before you end up in gridlock
Could work better with some user interface polish and more gradual difficulty curve. The difficulty makes it bit harder to pick up than Mini Metro.
Farlanders felt bit like Red Planet Farming (which is free by the way). Both are turn based management simulations in Mars and in both space is premium.
Farlanders has bit odd terraforming mechanic. I checked the store page and terraforming makes bit more sense as it's described as a puzzle. Rules are explained in one page that describes the terraforming outcomes. As offered terraforming options are random, it might take several turns until you get what you actually need most urgently.
Seems like it's worth a try. It's by no means Surviving Mars as it feels like its done by lot smaller indie team.
0 Likes
Still not too fond of the colour arrangement. Too much brown. Like Quake 2 mixed with early Ubuntu.
You're thinking of the first Quake: that was the brown one. Quake 2 is grey with whoa! coloured lights slapped everywhere. The early Ubuntu versions were also very brown, though.
1 Likes, Who?
buckysrevenge Jun 19, 2021
My 6yo is enjoying the Haven Park demo quite a bit, lots of exploration at your own pace
0 Likes
I played the Zoria: Age of Shattering demo all the way through. It's certainly rough around the edges. It looks nice, but it could use bit more modern GPU than I have right now. Luckily turning resolution from 2K to HD and turning down the details all the way down made it playable. I know, my computer is quite close to the minimum requirements, but updating is not as simple these days as it used to be.
There were few UI freezes and once game just didn't properly exit combat mode.
Also camera rotation is really needed as objects can block the camera. Rotating the camera can cause bit disorientation until you learn how to manually reset it. One key to reset the orientation would be nice (backspace is quite common). Also old school RPG:s turned objects that blocked the view transparent (they weren't fully 3D though, so rotating the camera wasn't an option).
Also few of the splash screen tutorials were maybe little bit too heavy. Especially the one teaching combat is so full of stuff that it's hard to remember it all. Luckily the combat system feels familiar enough that it's possible to learn by just playing. All the energy and focus stuff can be bit confusing at first, so some patience is needed.
There are few choices that seem to matter. I chose quite near the beginning something that might have affected the combat difficulty, which meant that winning wasn't really guaranteed. That meant that I learned the hard way that while there is autosave, it's very infrequent. So remember to save now and then, especially if you see the enemy, but combat hasn't started yet. There's limited number of save slots, so if you want to keep saves for the key choices, you'll going to run out slots quite soon. Not that all the choices actually might matter that much in the end, in games choice can be bit of an illusion and things are more fun if you don't know it.
In the end Zoria is solid RPG. Storytelling is solid enough, though it's hard to know if the full plot has enough twists to keep it entertaining. Despite it faults, it's still enjoyable.
There were few UI freezes and once game just didn't properly exit combat mode.
Also camera rotation is really needed as objects can block the camera. Rotating the camera can cause bit disorientation until you learn how to manually reset it. One key to reset the orientation would be nice (backspace is quite common). Also old school RPG:s turned objects that blocked the view transparent (they weren't fully 3D though, so rotating the camera wasn't an option).
Also few of the splash screen tutorials were maybe little bit too heavy. Especially the one teaching combat is so full of stuff that it's hard to remember it all. Luckily the combat system feels familiar enough that it's possible to learn by just playing. All the energy and focus stuff can be bit confusing at first, so some patience is needed.
There are few choices that seem to matter. I chose quite near the beginning something that might have affected the combat difficulty, which meant that winning wasn't really guaranteed. That meant that I learned the hard way that while there is autosave, it's very infrequent. So remember to save now and then, especially if you see the enemy, but combat hasn't started yet. There's limited number of save slots, so if you want to keep saves for the key choices, you'll going to run out slots quite soon. Not that all the choices actually might matter that much in the end, in games choice can be bit of an illusion and things are more fun if you don't know it.
In the end Zoria is solid RPG. Storytelling is solid enough, though it's hard to know if the full plot has enough twists to keep it entertaining. Despite it faults, it's still enjoyable.
0 Likes
Expalphalog Jun 20, 2021
I played Zoria during the last festival and it was enough to sell me on it. I avoided it this festival because I just want to wait for full release without seeing anything more than I already have.
1 Likes, Who?
I found maybe bit easier way to find more Linux demos, right from Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/search/?sort_by=Released_DESC&category1=10&os=linux
The trick is to filter for Linux and demos and then sort by release date. As lot of demos were released for the event, something released within or close to event dates is very likely part of the event.
Last edited by Anza on 20 June 2021 at 9:27 am UTC
The trick is to filter for Linux and demos and then sort by release date. As lot of demos were released for the event, something released within or close to event dates is very likely part of the event.
Last edited by Anza on 20 June 2021 at 9:27 am UTC
2 Likes, Who?
Adventure gamers! Don't miss Season of the Warlock. Proton demo only, but the full game should (hopefully) be native.
1 Likes, Who?
Demos I tried today.
Panic Mode
In short you're in charge of keeping idiots secure. Demo basically is just four levels in which building is on fire. There's only three devices available that you can use to get either fire little bit under control or get people to leave the building.
Idea might be good, but demo is so short and simple that it's hard to tell if game is going to be actually good or not.
Fantasy Town Regional Manager
Games is pretty much what you can deduct from the name. Idea is to try to balance food, housing and defense of your town. Each turn you get to buy buildings of three randomly selected buildings. To spice things up, each round there's news (where you can possibly select outcome of the story) and randomly there might be a quest.
Mechanics seem to be there, but hopefully full game will eventually add more complexity.
Insect Worlds
This one seems to be somewhat educational game. There are few problems though.
I'm not sure if the settings did had any difference. Performance was almost more like seconds per frame. Looked pretty though. I'm not sure if poor performance caused controls getting stuck now and then.
Also user interface was half translated. Luckily I remember tiny bit of German, so I was able to work out that Ja means yes...
Store page promises anthill fights etc. so maybe some day it might be good. Didn't finish the demo because of the performance though, so I don't know what demo has actually to offer.
Death Trash
Haven't finished the demo yet, but it looks promising. World building is interesting, there's several mysteries that I doubt will be revealed in the demo. Weakest link is the keyboard controls. At least the weapon switching keys commands haven't been mapped. I didn't find yet if controls can be redefined though, which might solve the issue.
Not for people who get grossed out easily (for example first abilities you get is puking). For others it's worth trying out.
Lila's Sky Ark
This is prequel to Resolutiion, but seems somewhat more approachable. The quirky humor is still there, but the game gives better directions what to do and where to go next.
I liked that you can pick things up and put into your backpack. Also throwing things is essential. Luckily in game tutorial hints that you can do that. How to apply that later in the demo is up to you though.
Enemies quickly get harder and best option seems to avoid them. Didn't finish the demo yet as it crashed and I got then preoccupied with Death Trash. But change of me finishing Lila's Sky Ark seems higher than with Resolutiion.
Because of the difficulty, it's good that the spawn points seem to be where they're needed the most. What actually counts as save point can vary little bit. Might have to play bit further to see if they're always the same after the first one.
Still seems worth a try if you feel that you need Zeldaesque game which is little bit bonkers and also gives some challenge.
Last edited by Anza on 20 June 2021 at 8:04 pm UTC
Panic Mode
In short you're in charge of keeping idiots secure. Demo basically is just four levels in which building is on fire. There's only three devices available that you can use to get either fire little bit under control or get people to leave the building.
Idea might be good, but demo is so short and simple that it's hard to tell if game is going to be actually good or not.
Fantasy Town Regional Manager
Games is pretty much what you can deduct from the name. Idea is to try to balance food, housing and defense of your town. Each turn you get to buy buildings of three randomly selected buildings. To spice things up, each round there's news (where you can possibly select outcome of the story) and randomly there might be a quest.
Mechanics seem to be there, but hopefully full game will eventually add more complexity.
Insect Worlds
This one seems to be somewhat educational game. There are few problems though.
I'm not sure if the settings did had any difference. Performance was almost more like seconds per frame. Looked pretty though. I'm not sure if poor performance caused controls getting stuck now and then.
Also user interface was half translated. Luckily I remember tiny bit of German, so I was able to work out that Ja means yes...
Store page promises anthill fights etc. so maybe some day it might be good. Didn't finish the demo because of the performance though, so I don't know what demo has actually to offer.
Death Trash
Haven't finished the demo yet, but it looks promising. World building is interesting, there's several mysteries that I doubt will be revealed in the demo. Weakest link is the keyboard controls. At least the weapon switching keys commands haven't been mapped. I didn't find yet if controls can be redefined though, which might solve the issue.
Not for people who get grossed out easily (for example first abilities you get is puking). For others it's worth trying out.
Lila's Sky Ark
This is prequel to Resolutiion, but seems somewhat more approachable. The quirky humor is still there, but the game gives better directions what to do and where to go next.
I liked that you can pick things up and put into your backpack. Also throwing things is essential. Luckily in game tutorial hints that you can do that. How to apply that later in the demo is up to you though.
Enemies quickly get harder and best option seems to avoid them. Didn't finish the demo yet as it crashed and I got then preoccupied with Death Trash. But change of me finishing Lila's Sky Ark seems higher than with Resolutiion.
Because of the difficulty, it's good that the spawn points seem to be where they're needed the most. What actually counts as save point can vary little bit. Might have to play bit further to see if they're always the same after the first one.
Still seems worth a try if you feel that you need Zeldaesque game which is little bit bonkers and also gives some challenge.
Last edited by Anza on 20 June 2021 at 8:04 pm UTC
0 Likes
Adventure gamers! Don't miss Season of the Warlock. Proton demo only, but the full game should (hopefully) be native.
I've seen a test version of the demo, and it's working well on Linux, so be optimistic!
1 Likes, Who?
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