Hello and welcome to my little Steam Next Fest Showcase. This showcase is something I wanted to do for a while now and finally got my tired butt to bring you all a, maybe, first read of what some of this demos are all about.

The rules are simple:
I play the demos recommended by steam for me, after that I choose random demos to spice things up a notch. Every demo has to be played for 20min (if possible).

Normally, my girlfriend and I to this in turns with randomized demos and see who could last the longest. Trust me there is a lot of trash out there to explore. :P

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Legend of Mortal Demo

Developer: Obb Studio Inc.
Release date: 14 Jun, 2024
Recommend: ?

Steam description:
The game world is set in a turbulent state and the mighty Tang-Man declines. The threats from the old enemies keep coming one after another.As a nobody, will you choose either to leave yourself out of it or to fight for Tang-Man's future and turning the tide? The journey of yours,is unpredictable.

Opinion:
Well, the presentation looked nice but I have no idea what is going on due to the game not having an english localization. I think that the game is a mix of Visual Novel, Auto-Battler and RPG elements. Looks interesting, maybe I give it another try when they have added a language I can understand. xD

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Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

Developer: KT Racing
Release date: 12 Sep, 2024
Recommend: NO!!

Steam description:
TDUSC is a lifestyle and social experience that redefines what an open-world racing game can be. Explore a fully recreated Hong Kong Island. Take to the road behind the wheel of exceptional cars and live the ultimate life of luxury.

Opinion:
Test Drive Unlimited 2 is one of my all time favorites. Even though the game is dated and servers are dead, I still crave the mix of buying cars, racing around with them and come home to your luxurious abode to chill around. When I spotted the demo I was really excited to see what they did, except I couldn´t play even one second of it. A memo to all developers:

If you think, being forced to create an account (Email and Password etc) for a DEMO, then you are part of the problem and should not be rewarded. Yes, that's right you need to create an account with the publisher Nacon to play the demo. No thanks...

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Crashlands 2

Developer: Butterscotch Shenanigans
Release date: 2024
Recommend: Yes

Steam description:
Slap your way across a vibrant world where interstellar friendships are the key to your survival. Befriend eccentric aliens, craft bizarre weaponry, and stick it to the man in this sequel to the award-winning open world crafting RPG Crashlands.

Opinion:
Not having played the first game, I had no idea what was awaiting me. To my surprise it is a charming looking, isometric, adventure game with crafting, combat and a great amount of funny dialog and visuals. If you like the shows created by the youtuber "TheOdd1sOut" you will right be at home. Without knowing, I even played the game for twice the allotted time before checking the clock. Maybe I should start playing the first game in between my challenge games soon. We´ll, see...

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Aloft Demo

Developer: Astrolabe Interactive Inc.
Release date: Q3 2024
Recommend: Maybe, if someone likes crafting Survival with a twist.

Steam description:
Soar the skies in Aloft, the co-op sandbox survival game set in a world of floating islands. Build any island into a skyship, your home in the clouds. Find lost knowledge, cure the fungal corruption, and brave the hurricane to restore the ecosystem.

Opinion:
Plays like a typical crafting survival game, gather resources, build stuff, craft gear etc. Here, the kicker is the ability to glide through the air and claim floating island to drive them around. The performance is pretty bad for a game with a simple cell-shaded look and even with 50fps I got really annoying microstutters. Gameplay wise the crafting is cookie-cutter and is like all the other crafting survival games out there. After my time I had all the necessary crafting recipes but the resource gathering is really slow, sadly I couldn´t get to the island driving part. I can see the potential here and give it a shy recommendation for fans of the genre.

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Duckside Demo

Developer: tinyBuild Riga
Release date: To be announced
Recommend: Maybe, if someone likes pvp crafting Survival or ducks or Rust.

Steam description:
Imagine DayZ or Rust but you're a duck. A persistent world survival game with PVP, PVE, crafting, base building and hat wearing ducks, wielding weapons.

Opinion:
The description is pretty bang on. You are a duck, which can carry guns, you can fly, you can build and craft. That´s it. Plays pretty much like rust, just with hugely better performance.

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First Dwarf Demo

Developer: Star Drifters
Release date: 19 Jun, 2024
Recommend: Yes

Steam description:
If there’s one thing dwarves are better at than grooming their beards, it's engineering. Jump into your mech, build a base and explore the crumbled fantasy world in this immersive action RPG. Will you manage to survive its dangers?

Opinion:
A third person base building game with dwarfs? Oh yes! The game seems to be a cool blend between automation and colony building, You control a dwarf ... in a MECH, it can fight, gather resources and needs mana to run. I love it. Graphics are good enough, the performance seems okay. To be honest, I liked the demo and played a little longer then 20min and I want more, a clear recommendation from me.

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Enotria: The Last Song Demo

Developer: Jyamma Games
Release date: 19 Sep, 2024
Recommend: Yes

Steam description:
Enotria: The Last Song is a soulslike set in a beautiful sun-lit world inspired by Italian folklore where the brightest sun casts the darkest shadow. Wear unique role-altering masks, face formidable foes and alter reality with the power of Ardore to unravel the secrets of Enotria.

Opinion:
Italian dark souls, why not? The artstyle is amazing, after you leave the tutorial dungeon you are greeted by a big beautiful sunflower field. They used dark souls as the foundation for the combat system, whats cool is changing masks changes the playstyle on the fly, even mid combat. Changing masks reminds me of the Shells in Mortal Shell, they both try to solve the inflexibility of the characters. In Enotria you can have three different masks as loadouts which can differ greatly, not the right weapon or damage type? Just one push on the d-pad and you have a complete different set ready and I can see the potential in that. Unfortunately the game needs a little bit more polish, the performance keeps tanking in random intervals, some of the hitboxes are yanky and the enemies are way to fast to react to the play especially when entering a fight. All in all I see that the game could be a real banger, so I give a recommendation.

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Airborne Empire Demo

Developer: The Wandering Band LLC
Release date: Q3 2024
Recommend: Maybe

Steam description:
Build your sky city while exploring a vast landscape in this Open World RPG City Builder. Combining the methodical construction and management of a city builder; the unique lift, balance, and propulsion needed for a flying city; and the compelling characters, dangers, and adventures of an RPG!

Opinion:
I like the premise of building a city in the sky, it allows for interesting challenges and gameplay ideas. But for using such an interesting concept, the gameplay is actually pretty bland to be honest. Of course, it could be that 20min is not enough time for the game to deploy its deeper mechanics, but the way you are gathering resources from the ground is just really uninteresting and uninspired to me.

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Goblin Cleanup Demo

Developer: Crisalu Games
Release date: To be announced
Recommend: Yes

Steam description:
A co-op cleaning game where you have to clean and rearrange a dungeon before the next adventurers come to complete it again.

Opinion:
Visera Cleanup in a Fantasy Dungeon. It is simple, it offers Co-op, it has a button to show you what you forget. Using a dungeon theme is not new for this kind of game, but something feels right about it, the visuals, the details and the traps feel like one mold. Me and my friend can see to play this for a couple of evenings, so it gets a recommendation.

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Kaiserpunk Demo

Developer: Overseer Games
Release date: Q3 2024
Recommend: Maybe

Steam description:
Build and conquer in Kaiserpunk, the ultimate city builder and grand strategy combo set in an alternative 20th century world. Engage in epic battles on land, sea, and air, or use your economic power to emerge as the ultimate victor.

Opinion:
First off, the performance is ass, everything on low and I get only 26 fps, that's beyond bad. I do, however, like the base idea behind the game and the chosen theme. Kaiserpunk explores an alternate timeline of what would have happened if everyone who went to sign the Treaty of Versailles got murdered and couldn´t establish the treaty. You are the leader of a city state and need to rebuild everything in a combat ridden world, so you start building between the ruins of old villages and cities to get your own city of the ground. I do like the demo and will probably check it out if it is released, but the poor performance lets me give it a weak recommendation.

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Dungeon Clawler Demo

Developer: Stray Fawn Studio
Release date: Q3 2024
Recommend: Yes

Steam description:
Dungeon Clawler is a Roguelike Claw Machine Deckbuilder. Build your unique deck, fight enemies by grabbing weapons and items from a claw machine and find special artifacts that help you on your quest to reclaim something you lost... Aim carefully to claw your way through this dungeon!

Opinion:
A deckbuilding game where you draw your actions via claw machine? Yes, please. Its a fun little rougelite game where you o to rooms, fight enemies, get rewards and fill your claw machine with items to grab. A simple and fun gameplay loop, definitely a recommendation.

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Aaaand that´s it! Steam Next Fest is over and with that this Showcase comes to a close. I had a bunch of more demos downloaded but due to time constraints, that's as far as I got. Did any of the games piqued your interest?

With that thanks for reading this far and see you again either in the monthly digest series (which I will eventually finish writing the text for) or to the next Steam Next Fest. Keep completionating. :D