Steam NextFest - A Whole Lot of Demo

[EvilRoy]

So I found this on my main page today. Apparently this has happened before but I either didn't notice or don't remember seeing it so I probably blew it off last time.

For those who don't know, Steam is doing a week long thing where they have literal hundreds of demos for upcoming games available for anyone to try out. They are limited by either a timer or how far you can get and this all seems to vary from game to game. I couldn't find a reference to a minimum or maximum playtime requirement set out by Steam so this is probably just a best foot forward decision made by each dev.

I'm trying to go through the list here and get some stuff to recommend to everybody but... literal hundreds of games. Never been more spoiled for choice in my life. The dubiously good news is some of these suck on sight so at least they're easy to knock off the list.

Thus far I have EXO One and Strange Horticulture downloading to try out based on a couple posts on news sites and such talking them up, and hopefully whether I like those or not will give me an idea of how to aim my future demos.

Anybody else trying anything from the mound of future games?

 

[Dalisclock]

Thanks for the tip. I'll take a look at it when I get a chance. I tried one of the earlier ones and got some interesting ideas.

 

[EvilRoy]

Strange Horticulture is reasonably fun. Its one of those games that would have been on newgrounds a decade ago - you have racks of plants and you have to figure out which one to give customers based on their description or the name of the plant. Trick is, the plants aren't labelled. You can put labels on as you go but the only way to be sure you got the name right is to successfully give it to a customer. That's it. Ain't much to it. I'd probably pay a fiver?

EXO One is a game where you're a ball. You can increase gravity to shoot down slopes and drop gravity to launch off peaks. And that's all. This is one of those games where I'm glad I got to play a demo so I know I don't want to buy it, but the demo did the game no favors because a lot of people are gonna realize the fairly hyped indie game is just an arty wanderabout.

Mythbusters has a demo that I'm downloading. It better be fucking good considering the demo is 5 gigs. I'm honestly kind of perplexed by this though. What kind of name recognition does Mythbusters get anymore?

 

[Worgen]

I was hoping someone else would make a post about this. I have made posts before but its time consuming and I am feeling very lazy.

Anyway, the best ones I've played so far are Starship Troopers, Hunt the Night, Fallen Aces, Inscryption, and Supplice. I know there is a demo of Project Warlock 2, but I liked the first game so I have already decided I'm getting that one. Ex Zodiac is also really cool but I played its demo last time.

 

[Worgen]

Just played Bird Cafe. Its the cutest coffee based visual novel I have ever played.

 

[EvilRoy]

Mythbusters uh... I guess its faithful? Like relatively? Each myth is broken into tasks, you perform the tasks to various accolades and yeah. Its fine? I still don't get why this game is being made now, although I'll admit I have no idea if its actually legit - they definitely didn't get likeness rights anywhere.

I'm scraping around for some more options right now, there are so many similar games its hard to know where to go... I'll do a couple you suggested there Worgen, but otherwise I dunno.

 

[Dalisclock]

B.I.O.T.A.

An interesting little run and gun game where you're running around an infested Astroid with super deformed characters killing monsters and collecting resources to buy weapons. Notably has a very Game Boy look to it but controls far better then the game boy ever did. Also allows you to change out the color palette between a lot of different choices.

It wasn't bad but not really something I'm looking for right now.

Terror of Hemasaurus

It's a huge Homage to Rampage, where you play as a massive monster who is thawed by melting glaciers and goes on a destructive rampage across the world. The Twist(which is revealed a the beginning of the game) is that a cult apparently created him in the future and sent him back in time to get frozen so he'd get thawed out by melting ice caps to drive home that Climate Change is a very real danger to everyone, because apparently the threat of sea level rise, increased natural disasters, drought, famine, etc isn't enough people to really get off their ass to care about the issue, so a Kaiju with have to do instead. The cult is also happy to sacrifice themselves to teach you how to kill everyone, for "Maximum simulation value".

Despite the grisly nature of that, the Humor is very tongue in cheek and the game doesn't take itself very seriously with the emphasis on breaking shit and eating people aside from the obvious "Climate Chang is bad" message. What I played was enjoyable and I'll keep an eye on it. I definitely don't mind playing Rampage again. It also feels like there's a subtle "twist" of, well, if seeing a giant unfrozen monster thawed by climate change doesn't get people to change their ways, by the time the Kajiu is done, there will be substantially fewer people left to destroy the environment anyway.

I also enjoy the fact the buildings are constructed so that if you damage one side of a building too much, the part above where you caused the damage will topple and fall onto other buildings, destroying them as well. The demo also shows you can kick cars into buildings to damage them quickly and throw people into the blades of circling news helicopters "to give then a show". It's juvenile and stupid and I think I'm sold on this.

Hunt the Night(thanks @Worgen )

So this feels like a cross between Hyper Light Drifter and Bloodborne and honestly I think I'm in love already. Sure, a lot of this feels pulled from both games but it feels like it gels really nicely and I'm keeping a close eye on this.

 

[Worgen]

Two other really cool ones are

Rift Breaker which is an awesome base builder/planetary invasion for the glory of humanity game (which comes out in a couple weeks) and Kaiju Wars which is kind of like advanced wars but instead of fighting enemy armies you are fighting godzilla.

 

[EvilRoy]

Last day is today and unfortunately I didn't really end up playing anything else. Real life got in the way a little bit - its season end at my work and that means late nights. Still, even though I didn't find many that I would consider winners, it was nice playing through some games and seeing what kind of indie stuff is coming up.

 

[Worgen]

Last day is today and unfortunately I didn't really end up playing anything else. Real life got in the way a little bit - its season end at my work and that means late nights. Still, even though I didn't find many that I would consider winners, it was nice playing through some games and seeing what kind of indie stuff is coming up.

It might be over but Steam is having a free weekend for Phoenix Point, its kinda neat, but... I don't know, doesn't feel like as much love went into it as xcom. Still worth a shot though.

 

[Dalisclock]

The Good Life.

So I was informed that this is actually a Swery game in one of the other threads and totally didn't realize that at the time I played the demo. And it explains a bit about some of the wierdness and jank, for sure.

Anyway, the game is about a New York City Photographer named Naomi who, with a whopping $30 million(yes, you read that right) in debt to her name, is sent to a small English village in the middle of nowhere that's known as "The happiest place on Earth" to investigate it and find out why. It's a cute little place and Naomi fucking hates it from the get go(She's honestly a bit abrasive and it got on my nerves a bit at times) but she finds out that at night the townsfolk turn into Dogs and Cats because....well, that's part of the mystery Innit. Soon after, Noami also gains this ability(to change into a Dog or a Cat, each with different abilities) on the fly and sets out to find out why this is happening.

Part of this, and the primary money making mechanic of the game, is to take photos of people and things around the town as part of the main and side quests, which earns her money to spend and pay off her ginormous debt. Luckily rent is free(because the town gifts her a cottage when she arrives) and she has plenty of food to eat when she shows up. Also, a lot of the stuff in the town is fairly cheap. There's an implied farming game as well, since her cottage comes with a garden with planter boxes and she can find/buy seeds and such, but the demo didn't talk about this and knowing it was a demo I didn't bother trying the farming part.

The story so far involves Naomi trying to figure out the deal with the cat/dog thing(which the demo doesn't answer) but there are hints something darker may be going on under the small town veneer(I was getting "Hot Fuzz" vibes and if you've seen that movie you know what I mean). It's a weird feeling though because certain bits seem to play the quaint littlie English Village thing straight and even given the sense there's something magical about the place. And honestly I don't know where they plan to take this.

In general, the game reminds me of "My Time at Portia" with the Rural atmosphere focused on the small town with your primary money making gimmick(in this case photography) and the implied DARK SECRET under the charming small town surface and for me the question would be where is this going? Is it about the mystery of the town? Is it about Naomi realizing the country life is really the Good Life and wanting to stay there forever? Is it meant to get Naomi to grow as a person and stop being kind of a prick? Is it a slow 60+ hour life sim like Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia where the plot is kinda there in the background but mostly you're meant to take it slow, or is it a plot driven game with some photography work to pass the time? I don't know yet and that's why I'm not sure how I feel about this.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Anyway, the game is about a New York City Photographer named Naomi who, with a whopping $30 million(yes, you read that right) in debt to her name....

Sounds like she missed two or three months of rent in Manhattan.

 

[Dalisclock]

Sounds like she missed two or three months of rent in Manhattan.

I assumed she or someone she knew had to go to the Hospital and didn't have medical insurance but that works too.

To qoute Futurama:
Fry: "Do Refrigerators still come in boxes?"
Bender: "Yeah and the rents are outrageous!"

 

[EvilRoy]

So I was informed that this is actually a Swery game in one of the other threads and totally didn't realize that at the time I played the demo. And it explains a bit about some of the wierdness and jank, for sure.

I'm sorry I missed that one, I've been waiting to hear more about it for quite a while now. I thought it had actually been shelved considering Swery had been part of some other games recently, but it looks like it will actually be releasing fairly soon.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm sorry I missed that one, I've been waiting to hear more about it for quite a while now. I thought it had actually been shelved considering Swery had been part of some other games recently, but it looks like it will actually be releasing fairly soon.

It comes out in a week, it looks like. And apparently you can still download the Demo if you want.

Heads up that the demo is basically the prologue, and it took me about 1-2 hours to finish. I was also running everywhere and mainlining the critical path as well.

 

[PsychedelicDiamond]

The Good Life.

So I was informed that this is actually a Swery game in one of the other threads and totally didn't realize that at the time I played the demo. And it explains a bit about some of the wierdness and jank, for sure.

Anyway, the game is about a New York City Photographer named Naomi who, with a whopping $30 million(yes, you read that right) in debt to her name, is sent to a small English village in the middle of nowhere that's known as "The happiest place on Earth" to investigate it and find out why. It's a cute little place and Naomi fucking hates it from the get go(She's honestly a bit abrasive and it got on my nerves a bit at times) but she finds out that at night the townsfolk turn into Dogs and Cats because....well, that's part of the mystery Innit. Soon after, Noami also gains this ability(to change into a Dog or a Cat, each with different abilities) on the fly and sets out to find out why this is happening.

Part of this, and the primary money making mechanic of the game, is to take photos of people and things around the town as part of the main and side quests, which earns her money to spend and pay off her ginormous debt. Luckily rent is free(because the town gifts her a cottage when she arrives) and she has plenty of food to eat when she shows up. Also, a lot of the stuff in the town is fairly cheap. There's an implied farming game as well, since her cottage comes with a garden with planter boxes and she can find/buy seeds and such, but the demo didn't talk about this and knowing it was a demo I didn't bother trying the farming part.

The story so far involves Naomi trying to figure out the deal with the cat/dog thing(which the demo doesn't answer) but there are hints something darker may be going on under the small town veneer(I was getting "Hot Fuzz" vibes and if you've seen that movie you know what I mean). It's a weird feeling though because certain bits seem to play the quaint littlie English Village thing straight and even given the sense there's something magical about the place. And honestly I don't know where they plan to take this.

In general, the game reminds me of "My Time at Portia" with the Rural atmosphere focused on the small town with your primary money making gimmick(in this case photography) and the implied DARK SECRET under the charming small town surface and for me the question would be where is this going? Is it about the mystery of the town? Is it about Naomi realizing the country life is really the Good Life and wanting to stay there forever? Is it meant to get Naomi to grow as a person and stop being kind of a prick? Is it a slow 60+ hour life sim like Stardew Valley and My Time at Portia where the plot is kinda there in the background but mostly you're meant to take it slow, or is it a plot driven game with some photography work to pass the time? I don't know yet and that's why I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Structurally, the game shares a lot of DNA with Deadly Premonition, where you've got the mainquest and a whole lot of side activities and quests do distract yourself from it. I reckon at some point a murder mystery is gonna come into it, too.

I enjoyed the demo. Swery's writing is whimsical, which one may or may not find likable, but at least there's a certain hook to it. I'm not sure I expect the story to be good but from the prologue alone, I want to know where it's going and I want to see these characters develop. I like games that balance out their plot with easy going, slice of live stuff. It's why Bully is probably my favourite Rockstar game.

It feels like a return to form for Swery. Deadly Premonition 2, while having some fun writing, played poorly, ran even poorer and looked absolutely awful, even compared to how low budget DP1 looked. Not even I could wring much enjoyment out of it. Good Life seems like a major improvement over it. Performs fine on PC, has a stylized artstyle that seems to make up for its shortcomings and, at least as far as the demo goes, doesn't seem to commit any major sins when it comes to quest design.

So, I'm actually looking forward to the full game.