My report from day 1

Orbyss — 3D puzzles with spheres

Thoughts before playing: Pretty, abstract 3D puzzle game. But what's the killer feature? Like the portal gun from Portal or the camera from Viewfinder?

This is what it would be like to play the PlayStation 2 boot sequence as a puzzle game, with floating cubes and coloured sparks whizzing around in an abstract void. You get to control some balls, rolling them around the level to press buttons and zoom through pipes.

This demo shows some early levels, featuring some fairly stimulating puzzles, but it failed to really grab me. The slow pacing and pure abstractness of the game's setting aren't getting me excited to play more. I just never got to that "aha" point where I realized what made the game special. In comparison, another puzzle game demo I played in a past Next Fest, The Art of Reflection, didn't waste any time showing off its key feature of jumping through mirrors.

I'm going to pass on this game, but I know someone is going to like it.

Panta Rhei — Atmospheric top-down adventure with time manipulation

The game produced an error when launching it, which I fixed by forcing Steam to run it with Proton Experimental.

2D animated cutscenes? Hell yeah, I love that kind of effort. The in-game 3D art also does a good job capturing that illustrative feel of the cutscenes. Atmospheric top-down adventure with cool art and light RPG elements? I liked Bastion and Tunic, so maybe this could be up my alley, too. The game's premise and worldbuilding interest me. You play as a young guardian of time and use your time powers to fight the monsters ravaging the world.

But gameplay-wise, this demo is rough. I found the melee combat to be unsatisfyingly sluggish. There's a bug where falling off the world makes you permanently faster when you respawn, and I was definitely running way too fast by the end of the demo. The game is tagged as a roguelike (aka "choose some randomly drawn upgrades") on its store page, but there wasn't much time in the demo to really appreciate any of those upgrades in action.

I'll pass. It's really unfortunate that this demo disappointed me, since this game still might grab me if it gets in better shape.

I spent a good long time browsing through the piles of thumbnails to make myself a tall list. It's a mix of games I'm excited for, games that look interesting to me, and weird games. Since I spent so much time today browsing for games, I haven't actually played much today on day 1.

Some thoughts on my list

• Bits & Bops has already had a demo for months now, but for Next Fest, there's a new minigame to play. Also, I backed this game on Kickstarter, so I'm obviously interested in seeing this game be good. And I think it is.
• SourceWorld is a Half-Life 2 mod participating in Next Fest! It's an FPS dungeon crawler! The Source engine isn't dying anytime soon.
• Oddcore has a really flashy trailer. I actually first heard of it from seeing it get front page attention on Newgrounds. It could be the first game set in "liminal spaces" that isn't utterly boring or crap.
• Funi Raccoon Game is on this list because the trailer is stupid and I want to see more of it. I have high hopes.
• Why, yes, those are three games featuring a black cat as playable character.

I tried a bunch of these today and yesterday. EDIT: also tacked on impressions of demos for After Inc: Revival, Kaizen: A Factory Story, and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.

In the "Shut Up and Take My Money" tier:

• Bits & Bops - Sure, it's a total Rhythm Heaven clone but, hey, why mess with a winning formula? Still, I worry about devs borrowing this heavily from Nintendo titles these days 😬
• Dispatch - I only needed 10 minutes with this to know I'm sold. The animation is gorgeous and it has a hell of a cast. Between this and Expedition 33, how are new studios getting these people!?
• Mina the Hollower - Shovel Knight's the best retro game I've seen and I didn't need to see much of Mina to know that Yacht Club delivered again. It's got a Zelda vibe (the jump especially feels just like it did in Link's Awakening) along with all that other 8-bit-with-present-day-game-design goodness. I also cut this one short so I can enjoy it in full later. Day 1 for me.

Pretty good but a couple hiccups:

• Forestrike - Hey, PlayStation gamepad glyphs! Always appreciated. Outstanding atmosphere in general. The pixel graphics are interesting; the character design reminds me of old Sierra games. I wonder if at some point during dev they considered just not going roguelite? There's real storytelling talent here and I think a linear game with increasing complexity might have been even better (and helped to not undercut the narrative as roguelite progression tends to do).
• inKonbini - Very short demo, but the gameplay seems it'd be good and vibe is cozy. Really strange that the written Japanese is gibberish. It seems too elaborate to be placeholder text, so I wonder what the story there is? It takes me out of the life sim aspect of this a bit.
• Kaizen: A Factory Story - I found a lot to like with this. I tend not to like puzzle games, but when I find one that's interesting, I tend to really like it. The setting is also great. After a very short demo, the only thing I'm not sure on is how long the full game is going to be. I'd like to get this, but the price has to be right.
• MIO: Memories in Orbit - This one was up and down for me across the board: music, gameplay, systems, visuals. The tutorial sections are outstanding work and worth the download for that alone (there's one right away). While I think the metroidvania design here is good, I wasn't sold on the graphics. At times it's difficult to parse out what's a platform and what's background, and there are weird blind spots with camera on top of that. I also can't believe they went with the map system from Hollow Knight, the only real negative of that game.
• Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - I see this one just went 1.0 after an early access period, and critic reviews have been mixed. Understandable why old Elder Scrolls fans are feeling this is scratching an itch. I think there's a lot to like here, but I might ultimately skip it. The prevailing thought I kept getting through the demo is that this studio's next game is going to be great.

Not for me:

• After Inc: Revival - This ended up playing more like a clicker game than I was expecting. This seems not bad, but this isn't my kind of game.
• BALL X PIT - The gameplay pacing on this is unpleasant, with the roguelite elements stopping the action too much. Kept wanting to get into a flow state and was constantly interrupted.
• Bloodgrounds - All the other demos I played came ready with story and this one feels underbaked in that department. What I played of the demo was almost all gameplay. Didn't see much that sets it apart from the pack.
• Dice Gambit - I don't think this strategy game gets the basics down well enough to add on the dice layer. Feels like one move should be guaranteed regardless of rolls (and lack of move undo is unfortunate also). The art style also isn't for me.

Jump Ship for sure.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2841820/Jump_Ship_Demo/

Definitely got some rough spots though.

I am loving Cleared Hot. It brings me back to my youth when MicroProse reigned supreme.

Ratatan!

Jump Ship and Moonlighter 2

Jump ship, rogue point, and mycopunk. Pretty solid demos to try out. They definitely need more content for release, but all of them are decently fun.

I want to try disco as dead (rhythm beat'em up) and pioner (mmo stalker looking game)

Platypus Reclayed
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2912430/Platypus_Reclayed/

Remake of the 2002 shoot-em-up game led by the original creator Anthony Flack.

It felt so good playing the demo. It feels just like the original but with significantly higher fidelity visuals — just how it should be. I have a lot of nostalgia attached to this game and I can't wait for the full game to release.

This wasn't part of Next Fest, but I devoured 'Tainted Grail - Fall of Avalon'. Excellent demo.

One I've been waiting for for a while, "It has my face" Admittedly I didn't find it on the nextfest page. I found it well over a year ago when it was still DoubleMe. The original was super addicting and I like the direction the story seems to be going in the demo.

Also trying to be patient for Clover Pit

And Gone Fishing has some promise to it. Not everybody's bag, but my buddies and I all found the demo pretty fun.

Baby Steps demo is up.

This one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3259820/Alices_World_Demo/

It's a nifty little game where the protagonist and the player are treated as separate characters. Some girl found herself in an apocalyptic world, and the player appears as a disembodied voice to lend assistance. What I like about this one is that the protag has some Tales-esque skits to chat with the player directly.

This one is REAL rough, not much interesting I've seen

I watched a bit of Life Below played on a stream. If you like colony sims and coral reefs, check it out.

I like shareware

Surprised nobody has mentioned Wildgate. It's really fun! Different take on the Jumpship idea with a lot better execution (but they're at different stages of dev to be fair!).

The demo for the update of Camp Keepalive is worth checking out
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3702210/Camp_Keepalive_Endless_Summer_Demo/
It's a nice, casual strategy game that still keeps you thinking.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2509200/ERA_ONE/

Era One looks interesting, but i don't have time to try it.

I'll plug The Stickman: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2781680/The_Stickman/

It was made by Simple Shark, who I know from his Rocket League Maps and Lethemyr videos.

I haven't tried the Next Fest demo yet but I'm going to shout out Road to Vostok. It's kind of like a single player version of Escape From Tarkov. You have a hideout/shelter, you go out to looting and then you get to come back and improve your hideout. The hideout customization is excellent. Outside you have to deal with enemies, environment, food, hydration, energy etc. and if you die outside you lose what you had on you.

Everwind is fantastic. Fixes just about every complaint I have about Minecraft, and I say that as someone who bought Minecraft back in alpha. There are things that could be improved, but even where I think there's room for improvement the baseline always seems to be "It's already better than Minecraft". For example I really feel like the combat could do with a dodge mechanic and harsher stamina management, but that's based on comparing it to stuff like Dark Souls. Even in its current state it absolutely clowns on Minecraft's combat.

The artstyle is lovely, the building and crafting feels really good, the range of furniture and decorations you can build is massive, and you get to build and fly an airship. And that's not an afterthought, it's a core part of the game and feels really, really good.

Skate Story was a real trip. I love the surreality of the thing. It may be my favorite skateboarding game apart from Tony Hawk.

Final Sentence has been great in short sessions - it's a keyboard typing battle royale with a gritty 1940s atmosphere

It's not Next Fest specific, but the Ball X Pit demo has absolutely grabbed me by the throat and won't let go.

I've played like 5 hours of just the demo alone and I cannot wait for the full release.

As usual, I haven't even played anything yet. I've just been thoroughly browsing for games to put on my list, and it's a long one this time. At the top of my list of games I want to try are:

• Bubsy 4D
• Ultimate Sheep Raccoon
• Mesmalie
• Time Snatcher Handy
• Myths are 100% True
• FUNKYHEART
• MONUMENTUM

Roughly ordered by my interest levels:

It's not something I found in Next Fest, but if we're talking demos, Trails in the Sky is something I've been having fun playing recently. The demo is surprisingly long too.

Million Depth demo is pretty good.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3991920/Million_Depth_Demo/

For those who don't know you can see the games people are playing during that event in steamdb

I played so far.
Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era - nice demo but the graphics map interest points blends with background and it looks like it's unbalanced.
Alchemy Factory - automation game / shop simulator - also nice demo but the controls are a little clunky and hard to get used to.

G-Rebels demo is back. I just love how nimble the ship is in this one. Fully upgraded you can get up to insane speeds with it darting around the cyberpunk style city. Personally I think they should make more of that, so that you can fly through more narrow gaps and maybe even underground tunnels. Also I've been watching their Discord for a while and they seem to be really going full steam ahead (no pun intended) with this one. Can't wait for the full game 🙂

RogueJack21.
Basically Slay the Spire meets Black Jack. Very fun, the UI is great and the animations are super smooth.

Skate Story.
Skating game with insanely trippy visuals, great music, runs super smooth even on my aging PC.

FEED MY MECH.
Iron Lung meets the Resource management/Task juggling of FNAF. Descend thousands of feet into an abandoned underground colony in your Mech and retrieve what's left. Beware your surroundings.

Time Snatcher Handy.
Roguelike bullet hell where you can freeze time at will, but only for 60 seconds. These seconds serve both as your health and currency, so you gotta be really careful with how you utilize it.

rome burns and nero fiddles - i’m no exception