Thaaaat... looks like Venom is a playable character!

Venom is actually in the demo if you want to try him out before the release.

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Still few more

Jackal [External Link]

Violent murder simulator. There seems to be plot of guy allying himself with god of death or something. Otherwise it's stylistic kill everybody in a level game. Kind of fun, though can get bit difficult at times.

There's a recent article.

Desktop Town [External Link]
Some kind of minimalistic city builder. Seems to be inspired other games that kind of sit on desktop while you do something else. Though at least in case actively playing can get boring as money generation is very slow. I'm not familiar enough with a genre to suggest something better other than the proper city builders.

Cosmotiles [External Link]
Terraform a planet tile at a time. Basically you buy land and then start laying hexagonal weird tetrominoes. Quite simple and gets boring pretty fast. Maybe play Dorfromantik instead.

The Séance of Blake Manor [External Link]
Bit more serious detective game from Darkside Detective games. Comicbook style graphics and first person view.

The deduction side is tried and true form a sentence thing, but there's hotel full of mysteries to solve. Only bit worrying thing is time limit. I have no idea how they have solved getting stuck if the time runs out. For other blunders autosaves seem to be a solution.

But there's always room for one more good mystery game, so it went to wishlist.

My Tiny Landscape [External Link]

This goes into same genre than Cosmotiles, but this one is more inspired by Terra Nil. You basically place different terrain tiles and try to maximize your combos. Not a bad game as such, but I got bit tired of it. Not as fast as with Cosmotiles though. Would have to check what Terra Nil does right to figure out what's missing.

Chowdown Kitty [External Link]
Match 3 game about feeding cats. Special feature is that each cat has their favorite food. Actual gameplay is solid enough, but all the extra fluff gets into the way. Playing next level requires at least four clicks.

Nice touch however is that all the grades sound like you did good. For example worst grade D is Delicious. But game is bunch of almosts, though I can see maybe somebody enjoying this anyway.

Pancito Merge [External Link]
If Dogpile was Suika roguelite, this one is more traditional. It's about Mexican cousisine and the special feature is that you can sell random things that you have already placed. So if something that can't be easily merged is at the bottom, you probably can sell it at some point. I didn't notice that you can rotate the pieces and music gets bit repetitive. But still has lot of charm.

Maybe only reason why this is not getting into my wishlist is that I'm not totally convinced about their roadmap. There's promise of new bakeries, but if they're more of the same, the game doesn't have much longevity.

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Few More

Truckful [External Link]
There's recent article about this one.

If you don't feel like reading it, it's kind of roadtrip simulator with physics based cargo and some horror elements. Takes a moment to figure out what logic the controls follow and get them into muscle memory. Plays bit like side scroller due to the camera angle. Which people complain about.

Kind of has charm, but I'm not sure if I would have patience for it, unless the story gets more interesting later in the game.

Adorable Adventures [External Link]

Play as a boar. Nice narration and sense of smell is integrated nicely into the game. Bit on the cozier side, though you can race a bit. Downside is that there are some places where you can fall through level and the game has no handling for that at all. So remember to save when you make progress.

Bit odd one out in the cozy genre due the graphical fidelity and system requirements. But it does look pretty.

Winnie's Hole [External Link]
There's also recent article about this one.

If you don't want to read more detailed description from the article, it's kind of body horror deck builder with Tetris like elements. You play as virus inside Winnie the Pooh, which explains why the story deviates quite lot from the children books.

I guess it's fun enough. Could see myself playing it if I wouldn't have anything else to play. Which is very unlikely to happen.

Effulgence RPG [External Link]
There's recent article about this.

The user interface is confusing at first. But at least the ASCII art is is gorgeus. The actual gameplay is RPG battles with some resource management.

Got mildly frustrated and didn't feel like playing all the way through. I guess the resource management part felt bit unfair, but that could have been skill issue.

Lifted [External Link]
There's recent article about this one. Certainly cinematic puzzle platformer describes this one nicely. It's aiming for Indiana Jones vibe, though none of the main characters are directly lifted from it. Platforming requires some precision. Though there's some difficulty settings and one of the settings makes platforming easier. I guess with default settings, it can be bit confusing where you need to go, especially towards end of the demo. The final action piece doesn't feel as snappy as it could be.

Goes into almost wishlist territory. But still maybe if I have a cinematic platformer itch...

Dogpile [External Link]
There's also recent https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/10/merge-dogs-to-make-bigger-dogs-in-the-roguelike-deckbuilder-dogpile/ about this one. This one is basically roguelite Suika clone and market is not flooded with those...

If you have missed whole Suika craze, it's basically game with you merge balls to make bigger balls with added difficulty of balls bouncing around. Of course in Dogpile balls are replaced by dogs. But as it's rogue-lite, there's all kinds of upgrade systems and a shop.

Even when I'm not exactly a dog person, it's fun. Once you figure out what to do, the demo is actually winnable. Interesting to see if they make things more difficult in the final game. At least if they add more things, getting just the right synergies will be less likely.

Have to see how this develops. As cat person, I'm bit hesitant to add it my wishlist, but it is tempting.

Dream Garden [External Link]
It's one of those cozy build a diorama games. You can modify terrain and add items.

I can see somebody else playing this, but I know from experience that games like this don't hold my attention long.

Game About Feeding A Black Hole [External Link]
Incremental game about feeding asteroids to a black hole. Once you actually make some progress in the upgrades, things get lot more satisfying.

Maybe if it's cheap enough, though few surprise twists could be good, otherwise it gets too repetitive.

Megabonk [External Link]
This one has recent article. Just had to try why it's so popular. And I can see why. While it's heavily inspired by Vampire Survivors, kind of deranged humor and 3D makes it it's own thing. Some of the enemies are quite bonkers.

Wishlist material.

Also small In The Black [External Link] update. The tutorial mission shows how hard it is to hit to a moving target. Luckily the second ship has missiles. Certainly requires some practice, but I'm not sure how much plot there's going to be. I guess I'll have to keep trying it some more.

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Few more today

Earth Must Die [External Link]

There's recent article about this. But just in case you missed it, it's traditional point & click adventure. It goes bit into adult humor territory as gore and sex, though in quite cartoony way. Puzzles in the demo are on the easier side. Kind of almost wishlist territory.

In The Black [External Link]
Basically it's space combat simulator with newtonian physics simulation. Tutorials didn't lean on that properly, but at least acceleration was covered in detail. Though I already know from Rings of Saturn that speed kills...

Maybe I'll try more of it later. My rest of the evening went to the next one...

Powerwash Simulator 2 [External Link]
Haven't played the first one. If you have missed the game entirely, it's more or less what it says in the title. The second one has apparently more content and multi stage levels among other things. Small annoyances come from hard to reach places, but ultimately there's nothing that crouching and jumping can't solve.

Once you get bit of routine into things, your mind might start wander somewhere else while the grime slowly vanishes.

This one actually goes into the wishlist. Especially if the price is not too steep, could buy it right away when it releases.

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Less today, but better quality.

Beneath [External Link]
Beneath is Cthulhu inspired horror FPS. Demo has less Lovecraft though, but trailer has stronger vibe. Practically it seems to be some mix between Doom 3 and Half-Life. I guess worst thing is that it really doesn't do anything that hasn't been done before, but towards the end there's bit more sense of purpose. There's even more hints about the storyline.

Kind of mixed thing is that there's no manual saving. If things get too difficult, it gets frustrating. But when the balance is just about right, it's more tense than it would be possible with a save anywhere system.

Kind of almost wishlist material. Don't know though if I would have enough patience to play it all the way through. Though at least there's easier difficulty level available.

The Last Caretaker [External Link]
The Last Caretaker is openworld survival crafting game, but it does things bit differently. In the demo you do lot of door opening and connecting cables. And draining batteries. Didn't get a chance to punch a tree at all. Based on the store page, it's vaguely similar to Raft if it had robot as player character.

Store page hints also that there's more. For example small things like saving humanity.

While the demo was fun, there were some issues though. The recycler seems to be quite poorly introduced. And it's pretty essential in advancing the demo. Had to read the discussions to figure out where it could be.

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I played few demos tonight, but most had issues

Best one first:
Star Trek: Voyager - Across the Unknown [External Link]

I'm not sure if this is actually part of the fest, but as demo is available right now, it doesn't matter that much.

While not perfect, having possibility to diverge a bit from what happens in TV series is fun. And resource management and base building is fun enough too. Space battles seem to be bit too simplistic though in practice. Though it still could be even more fun with voice acting from original cast and with original music.

There was article a while back if you want to find more discussion about it.

Stellar Archipelago [External Link]
Steam though I like openworld survival craft games. And Stellar Archipelago does have little bit of charm with practically building stuff on a small asteroid. But problem is that there the fun ends. It's way too basic, even when the premise is kind of cool.

XenoHaven [External Link]
My Japanese is not good enough to play this. Store page claims having English as option, but couldn't understand the menus enough to find where to enable it. Maybe they could just modify the store page a bit to advertise it as Japanese learning game.

But if actually understand Japanese, you get to enslave monsters and run cafes. Or something.

debris [External Link]
This should be drone building and asteroid mining simulator. It's just bit convoluted with barely any tutorial. If you actually try to play it, the top left corner thing can gather resources if you browse through the options. That actually should make it possible to launch a drone. What happened me though was the the freeplay dialog refused to close. So I gave up.

Trade Anchor [External Link]
Space trading game, what's not to like. Though intro wasn't very promising as it was very laggy. Problem is though that there doesn't seem to be easy way to scroll the screen. There might be ways to work around it, but they're bit too inconsistent.

But basically you fly between star systems and buy resources. Then you try to find systems that wants the resource and is willing to pay higher price. I didn't saw any indications how much profit or loss you are making with the sale, so you need to rely on your memory. Or make notes.

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Do you play Janeway? Or are you the captain in the timeline where Janeway never existed/died/didn't join Starfleet?

Think I saw Chakotee and Janeway in one of the shots near the end of that trailer, so presumably you're playing her, as captain.

I didn't play the demo all the way through yet, but practically you're playing as Janeway as captain. Don't know if they're going to do some kind of switcheroo in the full game, but probably not.

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side note: something is super wrong with the steam desktop app for the next fest home page. At least for me. The top recommendations for me are "parkour time attack anime third person" games. I have absolutely zero interest in that whatsoever, and have exactly 0 games in my library with those tags.

Then moving down, the next recommended category is "minigames games" (terrible recommendation) and the next recommended category after that is "soundtrack games" (terrible recommendation) and then it goes to "all titles".

It's like they swapped my recommendation profile for a total stranger?

That's odd. I have space sim and openworld survival craft games, which would make sense from No Mans Sky perspective.

Though for me, finding unsuitable game categories is somewhat hard. I probably have at least one game for large number of genres.

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Just had time to empty my demo backlog a bit and two of them happen to be part of Steam Next Fest

Marvel Cosmic Invasion [External Link]
There's a article a while back, but for those who missed it, it's basically beat'em up from developers of Shredders Revenge. Character are bit different and you get to switch between two of them during the levels. All the basic hitting, grabbing and special moves are there. There's even flying characters, though I didn't get landing in my muscle memory as I always tried pushing downwards direction, but it's apparently A button.

Monsters are Coming! Rock & Road [External Link]
This one had article also a while ago. Basically it's bit similar to Ball X Pit, but without the balls. It has moving city that attacks enemies and you can build with level ups. Levels also have resources you can gather, though it's always compromise between defending the city and gathering resources. Luckily city can be enhanced with resource generation, so you don't always have to risk yourself and the city.

I guess it would be more fun, if Ball X Pit wouldn't exist. Also the music in the demo is bit repetitive.

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I have over half of the games. Didn't play Chicken Police more than an hour, but what I remember it was kind of noir conversation game with unique style. Store page indicates that there might be also something else to it.

Strangeland is bit more traditional point & click adventure. World building is deranged in a good way. There's plenty of mystery as it kind of goes Twin Peaks and Dark Seed route. Got probably preoccupied with something else and played only 90 minutes.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is better than Strangeland in some ways. It does kind of Stephen King style of mix of mundane and pure horror. Then ending is maybe not as good as the beginning and the middle, but still good enough that I actually finished it.

Disco Elysium I have, but haven't really played. I guess waiting for suitable moment, which probably doesn't come soon. I have heard plenty of good things about it though.

Genesis Noir is game where you have to figure things out on your own. But at least it's not too difficult. Though when I tried to resume it after long time not playing it, it got too confusing.

So all in all, seems to be good bundle.

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