Ready to have a busy week? Steam Next Fest: February 2022 Edition is officially live and there's plenty of indie developers showing off their latest. Not only can you expect to see a ton of limited-time playable demos (some devs keep them up), there's also a week full of livestreams and developer chats direct on store pages.
Obviously we can't go linking to every single possible demo and no one wants that - so what's around that's worth taking a look at? Here's a few I think could end up being something special:
- Core Keeper has you build a base, mine resources, craft equipment and defeat giant monsters. A bit of everything.
- Fishing Paradiso is a mix of a narrative-driven adventure with RPG-style progression systems. Yes, a fishing game with a proper story. I still can't quite believe it.
- Fist of the Forgotten a platformer set in a harsh, dark world, but that doesn't mean you're helpless.
- Flock of Dogs a top-down, twin-stick, crew game. One player pilots a whale while everyone else rides flying dogs. Sounds hilarious.
- McPixel 3 sounds like it's going to be a good laugh full of crazy little adventures.
- Stardeus is a sci-fi colony management simulator with aspects of automation, base building and space exploration.
- TFC: The Fertile Crescent a classic base-building RTS set in the Bronze Age.
Next Fest runs until February 28th at 10 AM PT / 6 PM UTC.
Be sure to comment with any you find that are particularly great.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Philadelphus Feb 27, 2022
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThat worked. Unfortunately, although it worked, it didn't work. That is, I found the enable-y thing, and it let me download the demo and busily also downloaded Proton and tried to use it and . . . I'm not totally clear from the popups whether it was the demo or Proton itself that didn't happen, but yeah. Demo did not happen. Oh well. Thanks though--clearly in theory you gave me exactly the correct advice.No worries. You said it was IXION you wanted to try, right? You might try forcing it to use Proton Experimental (if you didn't set that when you enabled its use for everything)—IXION itself didn't require it for me, but there were a few demos I downloaded that didn't run until I forced them to use it. And hey, at least you've got it next time you feel like trying a Windows-only demo.
0 Likes
Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: Purple Library GuyThat worked. Unfortunately, although it worked, it didn't work. That is, I found the enable-y thing, and it let me download the demo and busily also downloaded Proton and tried to use it and . . . I'm not totally clear from the popups whether it was the demo or Proton itself that didn't happen, but yeah. Demo did not happen. Oh well. Thanks though--clearly in theory you gave me exactly the correct advice.No worries. You said it was IXION you wanted to try, right? You might try forcing it to use Proton Experimental (if you didn't set that when you enabled its use for everything)—IXION itself didn't require it for me, but there were a few demos I downloaded that didn't run until I forced them to use it. And hey, at least you've got it next time you feel like trying a Windows-only demo.
You might accidentally anyway download the Windows demos. As usual some games have set the native version visible for the front page, but they don't actually have it yet. Or the game is native, but demo isn't native.
Usually I would be playing only native games, but I was playing Control and had the setting already enabled. I will give IXION a try as my plan for today is to play few of the most wishlisted games. Natives so far haven't had the most innovative games (though Liams list could have few, I haven't tried them all yet)
0 Likes
I played the games that people have wishlisted the most and few that I downloaded already earlier. Philadelphus has reviewed both Wandering Village and IXION, I'll just add my own take on them.
The Wandering Village (Proton)
The twist that the city builder is happening on top of a big creature works quite nicely. Creature being on the move adds totally different layer to the gameplay. With right buildings you can control the creature and go on expeditions nearby.
World is also quite hostile, so if you're careful you will kill the creature or your villagers. I haven't finished the demo yet. The poison clouds are still my nemesis, but I know tactic how to minimize the damage. The thing is that disease will spread quite quickly.
Still, it's great. I know it's not native, but this time around finding anything wishlist worthy from natives is bit of a challenge. Only technical issues that I noticed is that Valve hasn't re-encoded the videos. They're not long though, so maybe they don't have anything important.
IXION (Proton)
Nice city builder inside a spaceship mixed in with space exploration. Kind of like Space Haven, but prettier.
Nice touch is that spaceship contains lot of resources that can be reclaimed. Also it's round like a space station .
Performance didn't seem that great, but I did turn all the settings to maximum. Could see what happens if I stick to defaults.
Stardeus
Stardeus also city builder inside a space station. In the demo it largely plays like the other games in the genre, though user interface has nice search, so you don't have navigate through all the menus. I didn't manage to see any automation features in the demo. It's possible that they might be there, demo has two hour time limit and I got bit stuck (which usual for the genre).
If IXION is not an option because it's not native, give this one a go. Though if you have extra time, you could try both.
Tower Offender
Tower offender is tower defense mashed up with platformer. You defend against the heroes and your character is a green pig.
I couldn't get past the tutorial as it's missing button customization and it doesn't list all the controls. If somebody figures out how to switch between trap types, I could give it another go. It might be good, but it's hard to tell.
Last edited by Anza on 27 February 2022 at 11:46 pm UTC
The Wandering Village (Proton)
The twist that the city builder is happening on top of a big creature works quite nicely. Creature being on the move adds totally different layer to the gameplay. With right buildings you can control the creature and go on expeditions nearby.
World is also quite hostile, so if you're careful you will kill the creature or your villagers. I haven't finished the demo yet. The poison clouds are still my nemesis, but I know tactic how to minimize the damage. The thing is that disease will spread quite quickly.
Still, it's great. I know it's not native, but this time around finding anything wishlist worthy from natives is bit of a challenge. Only technical issues that I noticed is that Valve hasn't re-encoded the videos. They're not long though, so maybe they don't have anything important.
IXION (Proton)
Nice city builder inside a spaceship mixed in with space exploration. Kind of like Space Haven, but prettier.
Nice touch is that spaceship contains lot of resources that can be reclaimed. Also it's round like a space station .
Performance didn't seem that great, but I did turn all the settings to maximum. Could see what happens if I stick to defaults.
Stardeus
Stardeus also city builder inside a space station. In the demo it largely plays like the other games in the genre, though user interface has nice search, so you don't have navigate through all the menus. I didn't manage to see any automation features in the demo. It's possible that they might be there, demo has two hour time limit and I got bit stuck (which usual for the genre).
If IXION is not an option because it's not native, give this one a go. Though if you have extra time, you could try both.
Tower Offender
Tower offender is tower defense mashed up with platformer. You defend against the heroes and your character is a green pig.
I couldn't get past the tutorial as it's missing button customization and it doesn't list all the controls. If somebody figures out how to switch between trap types, I could give it another go. It might be good, but it's hard to tell.
Last edited by Anza on 27 February 2022 at 11:46 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
As event is ending quite soon (which means that many of the demos might vanish), I'll my give my recommendations as a summary.
For the Proton titles, The Wandering Village and IXION are easy to recommend for sure. They have reviews right there in the previous post and another review earlier by Philadelphus.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
TFC: The Fertile Crescent
If you're looking for city build and RTS mashup, this seems to win in both genres (if Proton titles are not counted)
Oaken
Pretty enjoyable card battler with hex grid based battles.
For the Proton titles, The Wandering Village and IXION are easy to recommend for sure. They have reviews right there in the previous post and another review earlier by Philadelphus.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
TFC: The Fertile Crescent
If you're looking for city build and RTS mashup, this seems to win in both genres (if Proton titles are not counted)
Oaken
Pretty enjoyable card battler with hex grid based battles.
0 Likes
Philadelphus Mar 1, 2022
Quoting: AnzaCrowns and Pawns: Kingdom of DeceitI didn't play this demo because I'm generally not really into adventure games, but from the trailer it looked really well done and I might put it on the wishlist. I got a good laugh out of the trailer conversation:
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
"Someone broke into my grandfather's place last night."
"Oh, wow. Is he ok?"
"No, he's dead."
"What?!?"
"No, I mean, he passed away a while back. I'm just here to sell his house."
0 Likes
Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: AnzaCrowns and Pawns: Kingdom of DeceitI didn't play this demo because I'm generally not really into adventure games, but from the trailer it looked really well done and I might put it on the wishlist. I got a good laugh out of the trailer conversation:
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
"Someone broke into my grandfather's place last night."
"Oh, wow. Is he ok?"
"No, he's dead."
"What?!?"
"No, I mean, he passed away a while back. I'm just here to sell his house."
If you're interested, demo seems to be still available for download. Puzzles are not too difficult. They might make you scratch your head a little, but you should be able to figure out the solution. I have no idea if they will ramp up the difficulty or is the difficulty to be about the same whole game.
1 Likes, Who?
Looks like Core Keeper has just gone into Early Access if anyone wanted to give a more polished version a shot. I'm also still waiting on Ixion making a similar announcement!
0 Likes
Philadelphus Mar 9, 2022
Quoting: AnzaSo, funny story, I got stuck on the very first puzzle about flipping switches to get the power on.Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: AnzaCrowns and Pawns: Kingdom of DeceitI didn't play this demo because I'm generally not really into adventure games, but from the trailer it looked really well done and I might put it on the wishlist. I got a good laugh out of the trailer conversation:
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
"Someone broke into my grandfather's place last night."
"Oh, wow. Is he ok?"
"No, he's dead."
"What?!?"
"No, I mean, he passed away a while back. I'm just here to sell his house."
Puzzles are not too difficult. They might make you scratch your head a little, but you should be able to figure out the solution.
I couldn't figure out the instructions, and didn't get any feedback on what I was doing wrong (despite finding several configurations that technically fit the instructions as written)…this is probably why I don't play adventure games in general. 
The game looks and sounds great, though, this is definitely on me I'm sure.
0 Likes
Quoting: PhiladelphusYeah, every time I play an adventure game I conclude that I really suck at the puzzles. Only one I've tried in long ages is Grim Fandango (remastered) and I didn't finish it even though I rather liked the characters and general setup.Quoting: AnzaSo, funny story, I got stuck on the very first puzzle about flipping switches to get the power on.Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: AnzaCrowns and Pawns: Kingdom of DeceitI didn't play this demo because I'm generally not really into adventure games, but from the trailer it looked really well done and I might put it on the wishlist. I got a good laugh out of the trailer conversation:
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
"Someone broke into my grandfather's place last night."
"Oh, wow. Is he ok?"
"No, he's dead."
"What?!?"
"No, I mean, he passed away a while back. I'm just here to sell his house."
Puzzles are not too difficult. They might make you scratch your head a little, but you should be able to figure out the solution.
0 Likes
Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: AnzaSo, funny story, I got stuck on the very first puzzle about flipping switches to get the power on.Quoting: PhiladelphusQuoting: AnzaCrowns and Pawns: Kingdom of DeceitI didn't play this demo because I'm generally not really into adventure games, but from the trailer it looked really well done and I might put it on the wishlist. I got a good laugh out of the trailer conversation:
Nicest adventure game in this event that I have played.
"Someone broke into my grandfather's place last night."
"Oh, wow. Is he ok?"
"No, he's dead."
"What?!?"
"No, I mean, he passed away a while back. I'm just here to sell his house."
Puzzles are not too difficult. They might make you scratch your head a little, but you should be able to figure out the solution.
I played the demo again earlier to refresh my memory.
I didn't notice that switch puzzle would have multiple possible solutions, but I wasn't looking for them. That could be annoying if the puzzle accepts only one solution, even when there would be multiple solutions that are correct.
I got stuck on other thing, but I found the item that I missed next day. I guess that's one thing that helps with puzzle games. Just taking a short break.
To be honest though, I have quite many puzzle games that I have taken quite long break from.
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me