A few times every year, Steam has an event for all the PC gamers who want to try many different up-and-coming games, mostly indie titles that need to get their name out there and are launching soon called Steam Next Fest.
Naturally, it’s that time of the year again, and Next Fest 2023 starts back up on October 9th.
As is tradition with these Next Fests, that means hundreds of game demos to sift through, hours of content from games you can try before you buy, and plenty of live streams to accompany the whole thing.
On top of that, plenty of games (especially the ones whose devs are already featured at Next Fest) are going on sale, so keep an eye on that wishlist.
What Games Will Be Featured In Steam Next Fest?
To be clear, we don’t get a list of every game featured at Next Fest until it’s up and running, and even then, a few more will join the lineup as the event goes on.
That said, devs will often independently post that they will be showcasing their game at this Next Fest before the event starts, so keep an eye out on their social media and whatnot.
That said, one decently big one we know of is Make Way, a chaotic multiplayer racing game where you build all the tracks yourselves, competing against other players to create the best track. It’s pretty cool, and it has a demo out already on Steam; it’s presumably getting a new one because of Next Fest 2023.
On top of that, we got several games shown off in the Next Fest 2023 livestream trailer, so I’ll quickly run through all of those. All of these games either already have demos or will when shown off in Next Fest, so keep an eye on them and try them out.
- Asura the Striker is an homage to games like Lightning Force and After Burner but wholly redone in 3D with a lot more anime.
- TEVI is a bullet hell metroidvania, similar to Deelit in Wonder Labyrinth, focusing heavily on combat and magic.
- Spanky is a comedic platformer and party game, similar to Fall Guys, but focused more on 4-8 player multiplayer.
- Stronghold: Definitive Edition is a remastering of the 2001 RTS, now with built-in Steam Multiplayer and upgraded visuals.
- Looks Good is a casual and charming puzzle game where you sort items and clean up clutter in several different themes.
- Été is a beautifully minimalistic painting game where you collect ideas, put them onto your paintings, and explore.
- Mike’s Garden is a match-3 puzzle game under the charming pretense of helping a man named Mike prune his garden.
- An Action Roguelite for when you have 20 minutes to spare is precisely what it sounds like, being all that and focused on projectiles.
- Checkmate Showdown is chess, but every time the pieces collide, they must go toe to toe in a fighting game.
- Chrono Hunter is a VR action adventure where you grapple, shoot, and explore a big world with your time-traveling abilities.
- Detective Dotson is a mystery and exploration game under the guise of a charming 2D platformer set in India.
- Rolling Fur – A Cat Puzzle Adventure is a puzzle game where you roll around as a cat cube and do some light platforming.
- Doggy Don’t Care has you run around as a dog and cause chaos, similar to Untitled Goose Game.
- Below the Stone is a Dwarvish roguelike where you explore deeper and deeper into caves.
- A Date with Death is a visual novel where you date the Grim Reaper and hunt for your soul.
- Against Great Darkness is a Touhou-style bullet hell roguelike, letting you shoot and weave through patterns endlessly.
- A Webbing Journey is a chill exploration game where you explore an island as a silly spider.
- The Last Exterminator is a Quake and Doom 64-styled retro FPS where you take on an alien invasion.
- Relentless Frontier is an all-original game running on a modified version of DOOM, having you take on hordes of enemies.
- Love’s Crescendo is half dating sim and visual novel and half rhythm game, having you hit beats to get dates.
- Lose Ctrl is a driving game that focuses on dark humor and will change how your keyboard works to mess with you.
- Arcane Assembly is a Metroidvania where you must use Visual Coding to program all your spells and attacks.
- Battlecore Robots is a loving tribute to the Custom Robo series, giving you control of mechs and having you battle with four players.
All of these games will be running on the Steam Next Fest page from October 9th to October 16th, and they all look well worth checking out. On top of that, tons of other, smaller games will be shown off, too, so browsing the Next Fest page is not a bad idea.
Further Reading
If you want to hear more about up-and-coming indies or some big hitters you know and love, stick here for more.
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