So which Steam Next Fest demos did you like?

The Steam Next Fest has ended, with Valve last night taking down the big banner over their latest event celebrating new demos for indie games. As ever, the demo bonanza was too large to reasonably play everything, so we’ve recommend quite a few games along the way. But how about you? What did you like? What will you be keeping an eye?

Okay but back over to us briefly. I’ll just recap our recommendations: a big blast of 13 to get us started; the Pony Island fella’s card game, Inscryption; hybrid citybuilder/tower defence/RTS Diplomacy Is Not An Option; silly physics game Exhausted Man; sure the new Starship Troopers RTS is okay; the Hollow Knight-esque Haiku The Robot; storyboard-building puzzle game Storyteller; and ‘Morrowind in hell’ RPG Dread Delusion.

My highlight was Dread Delusion. Fantastic cursed vibes, that low-fi world. I spent a lot of time just staring, watching neon tendrils feed the sun (I very much like that it’s called a “neuron star”, what a great and ominous name). It was lovely to see Storyteller pop back up after almost a decade, too.

One demo I found sadly disappointing was retro visual novel Mothmen 1966. I’ve been watching the spooky pulp’s Twitter for a few months, digging the lurid colours, and had high hopes. I did not enjoy needing a boring number of attempts to not die during a complicated coyote attack sequences, having to click through a load of text and menus after the checkpoint every time. But I’ll keep watching, hoping for the full game to not be more of that.

Alright, enough me. What about you? What did you like? What do you want to talk about? What should we all watch out for? Many games have kept demos up past the official end of the Fest (a cheeky wee lock-in), so if you share your faves maybe we can all still enjoy them.