Running until February 13th, you've again got a while to cram in trying out as many demos as possible in Steam Next Fest - February 2023 edition. Not only is there plenty to play but this also kicks off a full week of developer livestreams and chat, which you can see on the event page.
Valve also did a fresh trailer for the event:
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Just a few of the demos that are worth looking at. As always I try to push out some of the less-obvious stuff, to give some gems a chance to shine. These all have Native Linux support too:
- Capes - superhero turn-based strategy.
- Townseek - a relaxing exploration-trading game.
- Spirited Thief - a tactical stealth game.
- Tiny Life - a pixel-art take on The Sims.
- Whisker Squadron: Survivor - imagine a repeatable shooter like Star Fox 64 with upgrades.
- Zid Journey - a hand-drawn adventure game with a strong, classic 90's vibe.
- Hot Heat Reset - a maze action game.
- Octane Remix - a fast paced, non-stop Obstacle Hell Roguelite Racing Game.
Now for some more personal picks (playable with Proton):
- Planet of Lana - a cinematic puzzle adventure framed by an epic sci-fi saga that stretches across centuries and galaxies.
- Desynced - a sci-fi survival strategy game where you gather, build, explore and fight to survive using fully customizable units and behaviors.
- Plan B: Terraform - Terraform a lifeless rock into a lush and habitable world.
Be sure to leave a comment if you find a particularly good demo for Linux Desktop and/or Steam Deck!
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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16 comments
Philadelphus Feb 7, 2023
Edit: adding "PROTON_USE_WINED3D=TRUE %command%" to the launch options got it running with Proton Experimental. Now to test it out!
Last edited by Philadelphus on 7 February 2023 at 3:32 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Edit: adding "PROTON_USE_WINED3D=TRUE %command%" to the launch options got it running with Proton Experimental. Now to test it out!Had no problem here with Proton 7, ran out of the box.
1 Likes, Who?
I played a few demos yesterday and, overall, there's a lot of stuff that's interesting. Also a few metroidvanias that are borrowing heavily from Hollow Knight 
Still, I'd add to Liam's list Gravity Circuit and Takara Cards which are both native and have proven to be fun.
Still, I'd add to Liam's list Gravity Circuit and Takara Cards which are both native and have proven to be fun.
2 Likes, Who?
Thanks for highlighting Hot Heat Reset - maze games (usually maze-chase games, specifically) are one of my jams, so I'll have to try out the demo for this one. 
1 Likes, Who?
Bit of shame that I have too many other things to do than play demos right now. Maybe I could still try to play few.
0 Likes
Linux native and Deck-ready.
Yes, they don't advertise the Linux build of Coven on the Store Page but it's there and a blast to play! The game is a little too dark by default so I push the brightness slider all the way up, but aside from that I'm enjoying hacking the bad guys and eating corpses.
Looking forward to the full release
0 Likes
Kuduzkehpan Feb 9, 2023
Desynced
Plan B terraform works out of the box. Thus very hard mechanics to play with.
Plan B terraform works out of the box. Thus very hard mechanics to play with.
0 Likes
Tiny Life has been on Itch for quite a while now, I've had my eye on it. Not that I ever played The Sims in the first place, but this seems like a good implementation of the idea.
0 Likes
Tried Townseek, and there's a lot good there. But it throws a lot of info at you immediately, and has really annoying chat and UI sounds that just irritate the hell out of me. I think maybe it's a bit dense on the text for an otherwise cute and chill game.
Also tried Dungeon Drafters. It's also pretty cute, and seems to have some good ideas, but I ran afoul of the fact that there seems to be no re-deal mechanic. Basically once you've used your cards, you just have to sit there and let the monsters kill you I guess.
Also tried Dungeon Drafters. It's also pretty cute, and seems to have some good ideas, but I ran afoul of the fact that there seems to be no re-deal mechanic. Basically once you've used your cards, you just have to sit there and let the monsters kill you I guess.
0 Likes
I eventually tried out the demo for Hot Heat Reset, but I was a bit disappointed. To be clear, though, that's absolutely not the fault of the game or the developer!
Attempting to play the Linux version threw an error message about the executable being missing (ok, fair enough, it's a demo, these things happen), and, though there's nothing wrong with the game, I'd say that's it's a lot closer to a puzzle game than a maze-action title, so I went in expecting something that it really wasn't.
The various maze-game subgenres don't get a whole heap of entries these days (for the most part, the only surviving franchises are really just Pac-Man and Bomberman, though there is 2019's excellent Ape Out, which turned out to be a nice surprise), and this one just wasn't for me - maybe I'll have better luck next time.
Attempting to play the Linux version threw an error message about the executable being missing (ok, fair enough, it's a demo, these things happen), and, though there's nothing wrong with the game, I'd say that's it's a lot closer to a puzzle game than a maze-action title, so I went in expecting something that it really wasn't.
The various maze-game subgenres don't get a whole heap of entries these days (for the most part, the only surviving franchises are really just Pac-Man and Bomberman, though there is 2019's excellent Ape Out, which turned out to be a nice surprise), and this one just wasn't for me - maybe I'll have better luck next time.
1 Likes, Who?
I eventually tried out the demo for Hot Heat Reset, but I was a bit disappointed. To be clear, though, that's absolutely not the fault of the game or the developer!I bet if they added bombs you would love it
Attempting to play the Linux version threw an error message about the executable being missing (ok, fair enough, it's a demo, these things happen), and, though there's nothing wrong with the game, I'd say that's it's a lot closer to a puzzle game than a maze-action title, so I went in expecting something that it really wasn't.
The various maze-game subgenres don't get a whole heap of entries these days (for the most part, the only surviving franchises are really just Pac-Man and Bomberman, though there is 2019's excellent Ape Out, which turned out to be a nice surprise), and this one just wasn't for me - maybe I'll have better luck next time.
2 Likes, Who?
I bet if they added bombs you would love itActually, bombs are one of the main gameplay mechanics.
1 Likes, Who?
Okay, tried a few more and I have thoughts.
Townseek - Very bright and appealing. Good art style and the world is whimsical. But it throws a LOT of information and tasks at you right away which can be overwhelming, and it's kind of hard to get to know the characters since you're so busy with quests and trading. World seems very....small, given you're in a pretty fast airship. Could be a gem with some development. Didn't work properly with Steam Controller.
Dungeon Drafters - Pretty standard mystery dungeon with a deckbuilding mechanic. Kinda cute and mechanics seem solid, although I didn't know there's no reshuffling your deck. So when you run out of cards, I guess you just wait for the monsters to kill you? Frustrating in that sense. Didn't recognize Steam Controller.
Planet of Lana - Very pretty. Solid mechanics, characters seem likeable and well animated, puzzles make intuitive sense. A lot in common with games like Out of This World and Limbo, but not nearly so gruesome, even though you can die fairly easily. When I tried to alt-tab to another window, when I came back I got sound on a black screen that I couldn't get rid of without forcing Steam to quit. Not happy about that.
Plan B: Terraform - Same problem as Philadelphus. Unresponsive black screen (same as when alt-tabbing on Planet of Lana) on startup. Adding the startup command he did seemed to solve it, although I wasn't using Proton Experimental. As to the actual game, about what it says on the tin. Build industry and then terraform. Good mechanics, although the tutorial isn't as helpful as I'd like (why do I need to build 10 extractors all at once?).
Radio the Universe - Solid post-apocalyptic action-RPG with robots. Very mysterious setting and only one surreal cutscene for background. Great mechanics. Lo-fi, glitchy aesthetic so can be hard on the eyes, but a lot of fun.
Desynced - Worked great out of the box. A lot of mechanics reminiscent of stuff like Starcraft (set up mining, make drones, etc.). I think the real focus is on automating your drones and production, although I barely touched on that. Very nice style, fun once I started to figure out what was going on. Someone smarter than me (a low bar) would pick it up pretty quick, I think.
Townseek - Very bright and appealing. Good art style and the world is whimsical. But it throws a LOT of information and tasks at you right away which can be overwhelming, and it's kind of hard to get to know the characters since you're so busy with quests and trading. World seems very....small, given you're in a pretty fast airship. Could be a gem with some development. Didn't work properly with Steam Controller.
Dungeon Drafters - Pretty standard mystery dungeon with a deckbuilding mechanic. Kinda cute and mechanics seem solid, although I didn't know there's no reshuffling your deck. So when you run out of cards, I guess you just wait for the monsters to kill you? Frustrating in that sense. Didn't recognize Steam Controller.
Planet of Lana - Very pretty. Solid mechanics, characters seem likeable and well animated, puzzles make intuitive sense. A lot in common with games like Out of This World and Limbo, but not nearly so gruesome, even though you can die fairly easily. When I tried to alt-tab to another window, when I came back I got sound on a black screen that I couldn't get rid of without forcing Steam to quit. Not happy about that.
Plan B: Terraform - Same problem as Philadelphus. Unresponsive black screen (same as when alt-tabbing on Planet of Lana) on startup. Adding the startup command he did seemed to solve it, although I wasn't using Proton Experimental. As to the actual game, about what it says on the tin. Build industry and then terraform. Good mechanics, although the tutorial isn't as helpful as I'd like (why do I need to build 10 extractors all at once?).
Radio the Universe - Solid post-apocalyptic action-RPG with robots. Very mysterious setting and only one surreal cutscene for background. Great mechanics. Lo-fi, glitchy aesthetic so can be hard on the eyes, but a lot of fun.
Desynced - Worked great out of the box. A lot of mechanics reminiscent of stuff like Starcraft (set up mining, make drones, etc.). I think the real focus is on automating your drones and production, although I barely touched on that. Very nice style, fun once I started to figure out what was going on. Someone smarter than me (a low bar) would pick it up pretty quick, I think.
4 Likes, Who?
Philadelphus Feb 12, 2023
I should actually put some reviews of the stuff I played:
Capes
So, as I said in the article about it specifically, it's pretty much superheroes-themed XCOM 2 in tone, XCOM: Chimera Squad in mechanics (by which I mean, your units and the enemy units all get places in the turn order which can shift around, but you control one unit at a time rather than your entire team). I turned off the auto-advancing dialog boxes option, as it felt a bit weird to have auto-advancing text boxes, but it was workable after that. Combat seemed decent from the two missions I played, and there was an interesting system where characters could have some of their moves buffed in different ways by the nearby presence of a teammate (e.g., character A made one of character B's moves do more damage, while character C made another one of them have a short-range teleport effect, that sort of thing). Enemy goons sometimes had weapons which made them much more dangerous than their unarmed companions, and most characters had a dedicated way of disarming people, which made for an interesting additional level to combat. On a personal and subjective level, I wasn't sold on the art style, though it's hard to put my finger on why (something about the animations of the characters bugged me a bit; like everyone was sort of constantly hyper and fidgeting or something).
Plan B: Terraform
I'm something of a sucker for games about terraforming, it seems (I have Terraforming Mars, Surviving Mars [with the Green Mars terraforming expansion], Terraformers, and Per Aspera in my library), and this game seems like it'd be right up my alley. I like the fact that it randomly generates Mars-like planets rather than just being flat-out Mars again (I'd love to see terraforming games in future that focus on other types of planets, like Venus-like, but that's a digression for another time). I also like that it directly models the temperature based on the atmospheric composition and pressure, something the other games I have don't exactly do. The demo shows a peek at an expanding tech tree where you steadily extract raw resources and process them into increasingly-complicated products. It seems like a pretty solid game…and I'm just not sure I'll be able to handle it, given how I always run out of steam in games like Satisfactory as the complexity scales beyond what my brain is willing to spend computation time on in my relaxation periods. We'll see if I pick it up, but if you like terraforming and Factorio/Satisfactory/similar games, you should probably at least check it out.
Capes
So, as I said in the article about it specifically, it's pretty much superheroes-themed XCOM 2 in tone, XCOM: Chimera Squad in mechanics (by which I mean, your units and the enemy units all get places in the turn order which can shift around, but you control one unit at a time rather than your entire team). I turned off the auto-advancing dialog boxes option, as it felt a bit weird to have auto-advancing text boxes, but it was workable after that. Combat seemed decent from the two missions I played, and there was an interesting system where characters could have some of their moves buffed in different ways by the nearby presence of a teammate (e.g., character A made one of character B's moves do more damage, while character C made another one of them have a short-range teleport effect, that sort of thing). Enemy goons sometimes had weapons which made them much more dangerous than their unarmed companions, and most characters had a dedicated way of disarming people, which made for an interesting additional level to combat. On a personal and subjective level, I wasn't sold on the art style, though it's hard to put my finger on why (something about the animations of the characters bugged me a bit; like everyone was sort of constantly hyper and fidgeting or something).
Plan B: Terraform
I'm something of a sucker for games about terraforming, it seems (I have Terraforming Mars, Surviving Mars [with the Green Mars terraforming expansion], Terraformers, and Per Aspera in my library), and this game seems like it'd be right up my alley. I like the fact that it randomly generates Mars-like planets rather than just being flat-out Mars again (I'd love to see terraforming games in future that focus on other types of planets, like Venus-like, but that's a digression for another time). I also like that it directly models the temperature based on the atmospheric composition and pressure, something the other games I have don't exactly do. The demo shows a peek at an expanding tech tree where you steadily extract raw resources and process them into increasingly-complicated products. It seems like a pretty solid game…and I'm just not sure I'll be able to handle it, given how I always run out of steam in games like Satisfactory as the complexity scales beyond what my brain is willing to spend computation time on in my relaxation periods. We'll see if I pick it up, but if you like terraforming and Factorio/Satisfactory/similar games, you should probably at least check it out.
0 Likes
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