The latest Steam Next Fest event has commenced, providing a platform for a diverse collection of upcoming games. In line with recent trends, the publishing platform indie.io is featuring several of its titles during the festival. To mark the occasion, indie.io has initiated a special campaign titled the “Next Fest Party.” This promotional event is scheduled to run from October 13 through October 20. As part of this campaign, free playable demos for a total of 12 different games are being made available to the public. The selection of games represents the work of numerous different developers and spans a wide array of genres. The following is a detailed overview of each of the 12 titles, with descriptions of their gameplay, premise, and the content available in their respective free demos.
Monsters and Me
One of the featured titles is Monsters and Me, a 2D top-down shooter with roguelite mechanics. The gameplay is described as chaotic and silly, with a slightly gross 2D art style. In the game’s premise, a city is overrun by slime mutants whose sole objective is to attack the player. The player’s goal is survival, achieved by upgrading weapons and special abilities to fend off the horde. The free demo for Monsters and Me places players in the first level, with the straightforward objective of surviving against enemies for as long as possible.
Kriophobia
Kriophobia is a psychological horror game that also focuses on survival. Players assume the role of Anna, a geophysicist trapped in a frozen Soviet bunker where she is not alone. As a classic psychological horror title, it is designed for players who prefer a challenge without significant tutorials. Combat is tense and difficult, and avoidance is often a viable strategy. The demo consists of a standalone section from the game’s second chapter. In it, players must contend with the cold, mysterious abominations, and narrative elements related to Anna’s past trauma.
Plagun
Plagun is a pixel-art shooter combining bullet-hell and roguelike genres. Set in a post-apocalyptic kingdom, its story involves a failed cure for death that created a plague. The player, a former doctor, uses cursed masks and plague-infused weapons against escalating enemy waves. The demo is a vertical slice designed to convey the game’s fast pace, letting players experiment with different masks and power-ups to understand the core systems.
Dwarf Delve
Dwarf Delve is a first-person extraction roguelite. The gameplay loop involves delving into mines with a “Battlem” tool to collect riches and then attempting a safe extraction. The mines are procedurally generated, ensuring unique expeditions. To navigate dangerous areas, players craft items like support beams and ladders, while using lanterns and floodlights for illumination. The return journey requires players to avoid traps and other hazards to escape with their treasure.
Heistfest
Heistfest is an action game centered on theft and urban destruction. The premise involves robbing a location and escaping during an escalating police chase. Played across hand-drawn environments, the game’s intensity increases the longer a player evades capture. Threats escalate from police cars to spike traps, helicopters, paratroopers, and eventually tanks and airstrikes. The design favors chaotic fun over realism. The demo is a vertical slice of the main loop: rob a bank, trigger the chase, and survive as long as possible.
Locked in My Darkness 2: The Room
Locked in My Darkness 2: The Room is a psychological horror walking simulator. Its design emphasizes atmosphere, exploration, and puzzle-solving. The story follows Yuki Tachibana, a high-school student who moves into a new apartment where a sinister presence awakens, warping reality. Gameplay involves exploring with only a flashlight, finding notes, and solving environmental puzzles to uncover family secrets.
Nullstar: Solus
Nullstar: Solus is a drone-based platformer. Players control Solus, a scavenger drone sent to salvage a “nullstar” from a dying world. The primary gameplay objective is speed. Players must master flying mechanics, including thrusters and momentum, to complete levels as quickly as possible. The levels are designed with a high-risk, high-reward philosophy, requiring players to stay alert to navigate their challenges.
Air Hares
Air Hares offers a unique take on the bullet-hell genre. The main objective is not destruction, but agriculture; the player pilots a plane to seed and water crops to save a starving population. The player’s efforts are opposed by the “Gale Gang,” a group of feathered foes. To succeed, the player must dodge attacks and use their plane to jab and ram enemies, clearing them away to resume farming.
Binary Golf
Binary Golf delivers a chaotic overhaul of miniature golf. The player’s golf ball is used to eliminate targets on the course, with the final target becoming the hole. The courses are unconventional, with mechanics allowing players to jump hazards, teleport, and phase through objects for trick shots. The demo includes the game’s first two episodes, which teach the core mechanics before a boss battle tests a player’s learned skills.
The Cascadier
The Cascadier merges roguelike deckbuilding with a magical coin-pusher machine. In each run, players use a deck of cards to charge coins with elemental powers. These coins are dropped into pinball-like cabinets, where a good drop triggers chain reactions. Players are guided by the goddess Fortuna and her brother Theodan. Each round starts with ten coins and a deck of abilities. Players can scoop up and replay fallen coins to increase their score and ticket count. The round ends if coins run out. Hitting a score goal lets players add new powersets to their deck for the next run. Tickets are spent upgrading Trinkets, which grant new abilities and permanent boosts. The demo features the first cabinet, a nature-themed machine that hints at future elemental powers.
Elemental Brawl
Elemental Brawl is a multiplayer party game about defeating friends with elemental powers. Each round begins with players limited to basic punches and kicks. As time passes, random elemental orbs drop onto the map. Collecting an orb grants powers related to that element, and these can be combined. The game maps are dynamic and can be manipulated by player abilities, such as burning a surface or freezing a puddle. The gameplay encourages creative strategies for eliminating opponents.
Chowdown Kitty
Chowdown Kitty is a puzzle game with simple, addictive gameplay. Players are presented with a board of cat treats. The core mechanic involves connecting three or more matching treats in a string. When a string is made, the treats are removed and added to a cat’s food bowl. Longer strings result in higher scores. As the player scores points, the virtual cat’s happiness level also increases.
