Steam Nextfest – October 2022
Posted on October 10, 2022 by Aywren
Today is the last day of Steam Nextfest in October 2022. I wish these events were a little bit longer, or at least, the demos stayed longer. I did pick up a number of demos to try this time around, which included…
So far, I’ve only not played three of them at the time of writing this. I’m not sure if I’ll get around to playing them before the demos aren’t available anymore, but if I do, I will update this post.
Here’s what I’ve played so far!
The Garden Path
Much like the demo, without a cover in my library, Garden Path just didn’t feel like the kind of game I expected from the description and art style. It was the style that drew me in at first, but once in motion, I couldn’t get past the weird character walk animation (hopefully that’ll be changed).
I thought the game was pretty, but after the initial introduction, I was lost as to what I needed to do. The controls seemed convoluted and I quickly forgot how to do what with what buttons after it was explained to me. There was just too much to it for the type of game it seemed to be.
Singing to fish was interesting, but again, more complex than it needed to be.
I didn’t put a lot of time into this demo because it quickly became apparent that I didn’t know where to go or what to do and I wasn’t particularly captivated by it. Might be a better game once it’s in a finished state.
Hotel Renovator
This had a House Flipper sim-type feel to it, which was exactly what I thought it would be. Instead of fixing up houses, you’re fixing up rooms in a hotel.
The game worked fine for what it was, but being able to switch between items/furniture and place them was more of a chore than it should have been control-wise. It wasn’t at all intuitive to me that I could page through objects – I happened to stumble upon it accidentally.
I also don’t care for the real physics in the game. I tried five times to place a soap dispenser on the edge of the sink and it kept falling off. I’d rather have a click and place type system. Not a game breaker, but something that would annoy me.
I did complete this demo and thought it was pretty good for what it was trying to do overall.
Inkulinati
I just don’t know. It’s a platformed strategy game about bored artists drawing animals and sending them to fight each other. I got the jist of it and even beat the first map, but after that, I had my fill of what it was trying to do. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy strat games, and I love the idea of medieval warfare with animal art, but there were small annoyances that just put me off.
Probably would be lots of fun for folks who enjoy that kind of game.
Potionomics
I’d have to say this was the highlight of the demos I tried. I enjoyed it immensely, love the animation and art style, loved the concepts and the stories and would have continued playing past the demo if allowed. It’s on my wishlist – certainly one to keep an eye on.
Storyteller
The concept of this game drew me to try it – telling stories by dropping character and scenes into story frames. It turns out this is a bit of a puzzle game – each story tells you the outcome that you need to achieve. You place the scenes and characters in the right places to make it happen.
I was able to figure out all the stories (one gave me trouble, but I got it in the end) and complete the demo. I felt like it’s an interesting concept, but there doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of variance. You can’t change the story to make your own, you have to meet the game’s required outcome.
Once you figure out the puzzle, I don’t feel like there’s much replayability – at least, not from what I’ve seen in the demo. Maybe the finished release will be different?
Demos Not Yet Tried
The following demos I haven’t had a chance to get to yet. Some of them I picked up mostly because they were card and deck building oriented, and I’ve wanted to explore more of that.
- Flateye
- Hellcard
- Wildfrost
If I do manage to play these demos before they’re no longer available, as I noted above, I’ll update this post!
Have you tried any of these, and if so, what did you think? Did you have a favorite demo this time around?