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PayPalHere we go again, a mad dash to play as many demos as possible with the Steam Next Fest - February 2026 event now live.
I'm hoping that more developers will choose to keep their demos live, as a lot of them tend to vanish pretty quickly after the event closes. There's a certain level of FOMO to these events, but they're still a great way to potentially try out something that could end up being your next purchase. As usual there will also be a number of developer chats and livestreams throughout the week.
The official trailer:
Direct Link
You can see various demos I've already highlighted with our Demo article tag. I'll continue our usual coverage sprinkled in with and demos that jump out at me over the next week. Be sure to leave a comment or two highlighting some of your own favourites from Steam Next Fest.
Here's some recent favourites, gems I think you should check out:
- Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes
- Lexispell
- Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War
- STICKER/BALL
- Wireworks
See the full event on the Steam store.
The event runs through until Monday March 2nd at 10AM. Pacific / 6PM UTC.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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that starship troopers game looks cool, gonna add that to my list of demos. Thanks :)
Here's my list of interests / demos that I'm going to try out (same as my post in cyberspace.online)
- [Ardenfall](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1837770/Ardenfall_Demo/) - "first-person RPG inspired by Morrowind" - you had me at morrowind (one of my all time favs)
- [REPLACED](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4261860/REPLACED_Demo/) - a 2d side scroller cyberpunk adventure. Art / lore / story / visuals look absolutely killer awesome.
- [SpaceCraft](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3276050/SpaceCraft/) - I'm a sucker for a good space sim. I'm not much on base building or logistics though, so this could go either way for me.
- [Chipmatic](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3780950/Chipmatic/) - "incremental factory building game where you control a mining robot" - looks like a really cool digging game for the steam deck
- [Dead Fibers](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2834670/Dead_Fibers/) - looks / sounds kind of like a fps immersive sim? That's one of my fav genres, but hard to do right, so we shall see.
What's everyone else got on their radar?
[FOREHEAD CHIP](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4352260/Forehead_Chip_Demo/) - a nostalgic pixel-platformer inspired by 80s and 90s sci-fi, play a single-player narrative campaign with multiple-endings, or battle with your friends in PVP arenas!
I mean... once you finish the Replaced demo ;)
Every evening, when its finally getting quieter, i look at all my games already, cannot decide what to play next and... go for a round of brotato and go to bed. Sigh.
For FPS enjoyers, there's the GZDoom game [Hedon Bloodrite](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1072150/Hedon_Bloodrite/). Most fun I've had with a FPS since First Encounter Assault Recon ('Fear').
For those who like their action turn-based, there's [House of Necrosis](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2005870/House_of_Necrosis/), a bit like if Silent Hill 1 had a baby with Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.
For those looking for something more chill and cosy, there's [Lake](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118240/Lake/). Be a computer-related professional who takes a 2 week sabbatical to deliver mail in her hometown.
And finally, my most anticipated game since Pillars of Eternity, the retro platformer [Double Shake](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1445190/DoubleShake/).
Last edited by tmtvl on 23 Feb 2026 at 8:38 pm UTC
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