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!
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
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
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Quoting: PhiladelphusEdit: 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.
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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 ![](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/templates/default/images/emoticons/tongue.png)
Still, I'd add to Liam's list Gravity Circuit and Takara Cards which are both native and have proven to be fun.
![](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/templates/default/images/emoticons/tongue.png)
Still, I'd add to Liam's list Gravity Circuit and Takara Cards which are both native and have proven to be fun.
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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.
![](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/templates/default/images/emoticons/grin.png)
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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.
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Quoting: whizseLinux 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
![](https://www.gamingonlinux.com/templates/default/images/emoticons/smile.png)
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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.
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Nice suggestions. I added a couple to my wish list.
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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.
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