Quoting: rklOne frustrating thing I find about Steam Next Fest is that it's not obvious that the vast majority of the demos self-destruct after a certain number of days and, even worse, you're not told when a demo will disappear. I personally think Next Fest demos should stay up until at least the game is launched (and maybe even beyond that, possibly with a revision based on the launched full game).

There are far too many demos to try in just one week, so I end up having to quickly trawl through gaming sites (inc. GoL of course) for recommendations, install them all and then work through them. Snag is that even installed demos won't run if they've been pulled from Steam, which is another reason I find the whole experience unsatisfying.

Steam Next Fest is replacement for physical festivals where you get to play the demo only by visiting the booth. So I guess on the positive side we get demos that stay quite a while after the fest. Though still it's annoying as you might have to dig quite deep to know if demo is actually time limited or not.

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Quoting: g000hTried out and enjoying Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - It's very similar to a Vampire Survivors style game, but you're in an isometrically-oriented cave-system that you need to mine out. Mined resources contribute towards your weapon and equipment upgrades.

I found the demo bit before the fest, so I got a head start. Deep Rock Galactic as a survivors clone does bring something fresh to the genre.

Let's see how much time I have for this fest. I started playing leftovers from last one, so it might take a while to catch up.

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I tried the demo earlier and it was bit lacking. Majority are liking it though, so it has clearly found its audience. Demo is still available though, so you can always give it a try.

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Quoting: Essoje

Quoting: AnzaBased on the first fifteen minutes, Holocure just cause any addiction for me.

I'm going to assume you meant that to be a negative based on the context from the rest of your post.
From my perspective as a Gameplay Andy, the true 'meat' of most VS clones are locked behind meta progression, so it's rare that you'll have a complete experience of the gameplay loop within 15 minutes - with exceptions, of course.
To remain on topic, HoloCure doesn't give your characters Specials until after you have enough coins to unlock them in the shop, and those happen to be character-defining powers. Similarly, other mutators are also locked behind the shop (with the exception of food buffs, that are locked behind meta-meta gameplay), and most weapons and items are locked behind achievements - as you can see, you are unlikely to experience the current best a VS clone has to give you until you are at least a few hours deep in then. Do with this information what you will.

Quoting: Essoje

Quoting: AnzaBased on the first fifteen minutes, Holocure just cause any addiction for me.

I'm going to assume you meant that to be a negative based on the context from the rest of your post.
From my perspective as a Gameplay Andy, the true 'meat' of most VS clones are locked behind meta progression, so it's rare that you'll have a complete experience of the gameplay loop within 15 minutes - with exceptions, of course.
To remain on topic, HoloCure doesn't give your characters Specials until after you have enough coins to unlock them in the shop, and those happen to be character-defining powers. Similarly, other mutators are also locked behind the shop (with the exception of food buffs, that are locked behind meta-meta gameplay), and most weapons and items are locked behind achievements - as you can see, you are unlikely to experience the current best a VS clone has to give you until you are at least a few hours deep in then. Do with this information what you will.

That could be the root cause of the problem. Going in more less blind, it's hard to know does the game throw in something unique or is it again just more of the same. I have played demos of few Vampire Survivors clones and problem with demos that they're just small slice of the game.

I'll keep playing Holocure for a while. Halls of Torments has just got update, so that's going to take chunk of my time too.

PS: I confused Soulstone Survivors with Soul Survivors, I actually haven't played the latter

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Based on the first fifteen minutes, Holocure just cause any addiction for me. Though so far only Halls of Torment has really clicked (though should try Vampire Survivors some day).

I guess I should play little bit more to form proper opinion. Most likely I was quite confused during playing Halls of Torment too, especially during first fifteen minutes.

Quoting: nwildnerI'm now playing Soul Survivors, which was already shown here on GOL and while it is still on early access it has the nice concept of classes with specific powers(like Halls of Torment) in which make the gameplay really fun and also a retro styled pixelart aesthetic.

I'm bit curious, what makes Soul Survivors click for you? I played the prologue and while it was fun, it was ultimately bit forgettable.

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Quoting: Grifter

Quoting: ThibugAnd there is a demo, too!

maybe i'm missing something really obvious but where is the link/button to the demo? i can't find it :(

Might have been time limited to the Next Fest. Seems to be still available to play if you installed it, but those that missed the window, the download link is gone from the Steam store page.

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Based on demo it's is bit confusing for the veterans, but there are somewhat familiar analogues of the old buildings, though they don't work exactly the same than before. I'm not sure if the changes are big enough for me to instantly buy this, but still quite refreshing change to the old gameplay.

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Quoting: Nezchan

Quoting: Anza

Quoting: NezchanPaleo Pines You can pet the dinosaur. What the heck else do you need to know?

There's bit more to it. It's kind of Stardew Valley, but you tame dinosaurs. Wasn't exciting enough for me to actually finish the demo, but maybe for bit younger audience...

Honestly, I was being pithy. I bounced off it too, in the end, although I can see the charm.

Two things I didn't like were not the greatest signposting, like where I got a quest to search the pen at someone's house with no clue where their house actually was (I never did find it before quitting). The other is how it taught me dino taming before setting me up to have somewhere to keep it, so the poor thing was dreadfully unhappy as a result. I think that would frustrate a kid playing.

There are actual signposts, but they tell you about one place and that's it. Graphically they look like that you would be able to find direction to many places with the signpost.

I think you're supposed to find the right houses by seeing the person in the map. Though the grandmas house you're tasked to visit is behind blockage and could be outside the map. I had to follow all the roads in order to find the right blockage. I'm not sure if anybody told me the right direction, but I might not have been paying attention.

Also I think the map is mirrored, can't bother to start the game again in order to test it properly. More playtesting needed seems to be the theme of the game at the moment. Luckily it hasn't been released yet.

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Again, ordered from most exciting to least exciting.

The Invicible
Sci-fi walking simulator with bit of soviet aesthetic. If you have played Firewatch, you might have general idea what to expect. These kind of games are more of a vehicles for experiencing the story, there might be just enough gameplay in there to aid the immersion. I do like the lore and the story though and that's what matters. Most worrying thing might be the linearity.

Little Kitty, Big City
Non sci-fi version of Stray. It takes a while to get hang of it, but once you get hang of it, there's few cat like things to do and some side quests to do. Cat like things include dropping things that are in high places, hunting birds and tripping people over. There's some risk of things feeling grindy as tasks involve doing same thing over and over again. Though I don't know if some of them are actually necessary for completing the game. Might be there just for achievement hunters and completionists.

Battle Shapers
Another roguelite FPS. Levels are not that graphically diverse, but game mechanics are solid enough. Another worrying thing is that game seems to missing certain oumph that for example Doom games have (there's certainly some Doom 2016 influence in there). Fighting robots instead of demons might give some disadvantage in that department.

Might need bit more hints what all the abilities do and how to activate them. There's quite many of them and some of the are bit vague what they do.

Also boss battles are bit underwhelming. There's some build up where boss makes sure to let the player know who's the boss, but then you can't really be sure which of the enemies is actually the boss. Bosses are usually bigger than rest of the enemies, but not here.

Some potential in there, though needs more work to be the best roguelite FPS out there.

Quoting: PhiladelphusStation to Station: this one got to what I surmise is the main menu, but was all blurry so that I couldn't make anything out. Clicking around made it sound like I was clicking buttons, but I couldn't figure out how to un-blur it. I'd similarly appreciate if anyone figures out how to make it work.

Worked for me without any twiddling. Puzzle game about transporting resources via railways. Seems solid enough (assuming you're lucky like me and it works without issues).

Quoting: NezchanPaleo Pines You can pet the dinosaur. What the heck else do you need to know?

There's bit more to it. It's kind of Stardew Valley, but you tame dinosaurs. Wasn't exciting enough for me to actually finish the demo, but maybe for bit younger audience...

Van Hellswing
Roguelite FPS with retro look. I like the aesthetics, nice usage of colors and resolution is not too low. Demo though doesn't seem to involve procedural generation, so it gets boring quite quickly. Based on trailer there's at least second level, where movement mechanics seem to be bit more essential.

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Again, I try to arrange game in from most interesting to least interesting. Though with better quality games, things are quite subjective.

Quoting: PhiladelphusJumplight Odyssey: a bit like FTL: Faster Than Light, as you flee from jump point to jump point in front of an encroaching indomitable enemy. Except instead of an 8-crew-max ship you've got a capital ship which can hold dozens of crew members; my ship started with 68 people and I rescued several more during the demo. There's also a bit of ship-design as you can build new rooms in some empty areas of the ship, so there's some long-term upgrade and strategy. I didn't let the enemy catch up with me so I don't know what combat looks like (from the trailer there's hostile boarders, at least!), but I like the feeling of captaining a large ship and keeping watch over a bigger crew than you could get in FTL. I didn't get great FPS from it (~15-20), and there weren't really video options to change, but I'm willing to bet that'll improve as the game develops.

I don't have that much to add. Tutorial and user interface could be bit better. Keyboard shortcuts to the decks would be nice, though I din't check if it's already implemented. During the short demo there's maybe four decks that you actually care about.

Animated cutscenes are nice touch. Hard to say if there's enough story to warrant more of them. Smaller nice touch is that some of the notifications come from the crew.

Have to see how the final game turns out. Lot empty rooms might indicate that building stuff in a hurry is the norm, so might have do custom ship if you want to plan things out bit better. Kind of almost wishlistable. Though I should get back to Space Haven, it has had lot of progress.

Quoting: NezchanKingdom Eighties is basically the same old Kingdom game loop, except you play as the leader of a group of teens on bicycles recruiting kids to do chores for money and fight the monsters. It's a fun reskin of the concept. One gripe, there's no way to quit and you need to hit close from the Steam library page.

I had same quit problem. Also some of the game mechanics have been changed around a bit. I couldn't figure out at first how to attack the gates, but apparently you have to first hire "knights" and then push the dumpster close enough the gate so attacking force gets protection behind it. Without the dumpster attacking force might advance in direction of the gate, but retreat behind safety after a while.

Game was typical for me. Just built everything I can. Took too long and got overrun by from opposite side while I was attacking the other side.

Quoting: NezchanLies of P (Steam Play) For a lot of people, this is the star of the show this year, and certainly the highest profile. Basically Pinnochio as a Soulsborne game. Runs surprisingly well on my admittedly not-so-cutting-edge machine, no problems at all. About what you'd expect: stylish, ruined environments, interesting enemy designs, stamina management and a lot of combat rolls. I'm not great at it, but it seems solid enough.

Like the souls games, this might be bit of acquired taste. Took a while to familiarize myself with the controls and when I finally figured out how to block, I blocked in wrong direction. At that point I gave up. Probably if I played it again, I might do better.

Aesthetics are indeed quite nice as said.

Quoting: PhiladelphusOne Lonely Outpost: I couldn't get this one to run. I tried the latest half-dozen Proton versions, and the best I could get was 6.3-8, where it ended up on a loading screen forever. Otherwise I just got a pure white screen and some sounds that sounded like a logo splash screen. I'm not super-competent at fiddling with launch options, so if anyone finds out (or has some suggestions on) how to run this I'd appreciate it.

Worked for me for some reason. I didn't even fiddle with anything. Could have just changed the Proton version to latest (I had Proton 6 as default, no wonder some games didn't work with the default version)

In the demo there's farming, mining, dusting archaeological artifacts and crafting.There's also surveying which is just wandering around the area and hoping to find the target locations.

While it's kind of Stardew Valley with protagonist being stranded in space, it didn't totally click for me. Stardew Valley didn't either, so it might be that I need more exciting tasks and more plot development which is what Graveyard Keeper provided. I'm bit worried that this one might be bit forgettable.

Quoting: NezchanMoonstone Island doesn't work on Linux (Steam Play) or Steam Deck as far as I can tell. Pity, it's the main thing I wanted to try.

Didn't work for me either. Didn't dig deeper.

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