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An event so big no one person can play through it all - Steam Next Fest June 2026 is live with thousands of demos so you can try before release. Like with previous events there will be developer livestreams going on as well. The event runs through June 22nd at 10am pacific / 5pm UTC.

Valve's official trailer is below:

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As for some initial quick recommendations? I have a good few gems here that I think are worth your time (and in no particular order):

And as always, you can check out our own dedicated Demo tag for various games we've already covered at any point. You don't need to wait for some special event - we cover games nearly every day here on GamingOnLinux. We'll continue going through and highlight others as we find them amongst our normal news tips and other articles so keep an eye out.

See the event on the Steam store.

You can also use our comments below to drop your own suggestions for people to pick up and play.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Demo, Event, Misc, Steam
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11 comments
Petethegoat 10 hours ago
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highly recommend the divine frequency demo, imo it's something really special. dark, fuzzy, and intense uzdoom based dungeon crawling. super satisfying gunplay.
Jarmer 5 hours ago
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Quoting: Petethegoathighly recommend the divine frequency demo, imo it's something really special. dark, fuzzy, and intense uzdoom based dungeon crawling. super satisfying gunplay.
put links my man!

[Divine Frequency](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2548880/Divine_Frequency/)
Jarmer 5 hours ago
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Holy shitballs SO MANY DEMOS ... whew a little overwhelming.

That Casualties Unknown looks AWESOME. Love weird stuff like that.

For me, here's a small list of things that look pretty awesome from a quick peek at the store front for the fest:

[Ghostpunk](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4378490/Ghostpunk/) - Investigate paranormal cases using a 1990s CRT terminal. Analyze photos. Decode audio. Interrogate suspects and decide what’s real

[Holonoptic](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4305470/Holonoptic/) - economic simulation and party-based RPG into a story-rich corporate alpine cyberpunk.

[Enarian Online](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4218510/Enarian_Online/) - text based ARPG experience that fuses classic adventure with modern action-packed gameplay

[Soul Diagnosis](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4657690/Soul_Diagnosis/) - dialogue-rich isometric cRPG where you are haunted by your mistakes. Navigate a labyrinthine hospital conspiracy, engage in fisticuffs with inanimate objects, and leverage your fractured psyche to survive.
PaldinoX 5 hours ago
If you're as addicted to FromSoftware games as I am, I HIGHLY recommend the demo for Mortal Shell 2. It may be the best non-FromSoft Souls-Like game I've ever played.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2584270/Mortal_Shell_II/
Salvatos 4 hours ago
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Anyone have a link to SteamDB showing only demos without AI like last year? The official store listing is getting unusable at this point.
Liam Squires-Hand 4 hours ago
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Quoting: SalvatosAnyone have a link to SteamDB showing only demos without AI like last year? The official store listing is getting unusable at this point.
https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList%5Btags%5D%5B0%5D=-AI%20Content%20Disclosed&refinementList%5BappType%5D%5B0%5D=Demo
Salvatos 3 hours ago
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Thanks Liam. I seem to recall that you liked Roadwarden, so you may want to check out South of the March. Very different art style, more old school and gritty, but not too dissimilar in terms of gameplay. I enjoyed the writing and tense atmosphere.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4628420/South_of_the_March/
Jarmer 3 hours ago
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Quoting: Liam Squires-Hand
Quoting: SalvatosAnyone have a link to SteamDB showing only demos without AI like last year? The official store listing is getting unusable at this point.
https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList%5Btags%5D%5B0%5D=-AI%20Content%20Disclosed&refinementList%5BappType%5D%5B0%5D=Demo
omg what irony.

that listing page which searches for games that don't have any ai in them, is itself powered by ai. It seems you cannot even escape it when you are actively trying to. 😫
Liam Squires-Hand 3 hours ago
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Quoting: Jarmer
Quoting: Liam Squires-Hand
Quoting: SalvatosAnyone have a link to SteamDB showing only demos without AI like last year? The official store listing is getting unusable at this point.
https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList%5Btags%5D%5B0%5D=-AI%20Content%20Disclosed&refinementList%5BappType%5D%5B0%5D=Demo
omg what irony.

that listing page which searches for games that don't have any ai in them, is itself powered by ai. It seems you cannot even escape it when you are actively trying to. 😫
Huh, you must be seeing something I'm not. I've not heard of SteamDB using any AI?
Jarmer 2 hours ago
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Quoting: Liam Squires-Hand
Quoting: Jarmer
Quoting: Liam Squires-Hand
Quoting: SalvatosAnyone have a link to SteamDB showing only demos without AI like last year? The official store listing is getting unusable at this point.
https://steamdb.info/instantsearch/?refinementList%5Btags%5D%5B0%5D=-AI%20Content%20Disclosed&refinementList%5BappType%5D%5B0%5D=Demo
omg what irony.

that listing page which searches for games that don't have any ai in them, is itself powered by ai. It seems you cannot even escape it when you are actively trying to. 😫
Huh, you must be seeing something I'm not. I've not heard of SteamDB using any AI?
that steamdb search and filter page is powered by algolia (top right). When you click on their logo, it takes you here https://www.algolia.com/ which says:

"Agentic. Generative. Search. One AI retrieval platform to power them all"
Liam Squires-Hand 1 hour ago
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They used algolia for quite a long time before the AI hype, I can't see how any AI would help with their search filtering because it's basic stuff.
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