Steam NextFest has never been bigger and with hundreds of games featured, careful curation has never been more important. Because there is such a wealth of games, we need a metric for what to include. For the purpose of this article it goes something like: Would the full release warrant coverage on this site?

This means we leave out a lot of good stuff, like games with simple mechanical inventions, bite-sized hooks, and more casually focused player engagement. Many more games were tested but our selection represents the best of the best. Games that should be added to your wishlist but also ideally purchased at release.

It takes valuable time + resources to create demos for games, so we’d like to encourage developers to keep their demos up for as long as it benefits them, and our readers to play, wishlist, and support any of these games that pique their interests.

Birdcage

Do you like it hardcore? Birdcage is for you. For shmup purists and die hards who insist upon the authentic article. This is damn close. And it plays like a lost Treasure / Cave classic. A real beauty that works as a shooter with sword mechanics and just has a lot of good ideas tied to novel scoring. A terrific first look at a deeply promising new shmup.

Constance

Now that Silksong has came out and met expectations, the Metroidvania genre may breathe freely again. As you were. Constance offers a lighter approach mechanically, shifting the weight more to thematics. Constance is about a paintbrush wielding artist who explores a world conjured up by their own declining mental health. See, light and breathable. Also beautiful. It’s a very pretty, bright, colorful game, and it moves well. A fine next step after something so category-defining. You don’t even have to wait a decade to play more of it. Constance will be available in November!

Final Sentence

An innovative typing game where mistakes come with severe consequences: typos and missed keystrokes are punishable by death. Such a clever spin on the usual model for typing games, making this the most high pressure and sweat-inducing of its kind. Whereas in games like Typing of the Dead (2000), your typing is an offensive mechanic, in Final Sentence, each keystroke is a survival mechanism. Feels trendy, built around the tension of games like Buckshot Roulette (2023) and the modern post-FNAF model of leaving the player explicitly vulnerable and stationary, but giving them some mechanical toolset by which they can survive under such harsh circumstances. If they’re clever. Would like to see more refinement, and perhaps fewer silly played-out meme phrases, for the sake of the theme, but part of it is that you don’t get to choose what you type. Lovely idea to have the player effectively type out the tutorial instructions, great design integration here, waiting for just a little refinement around the edges. Final Sentence is innovative and bold and with multiplayer options, has a good chance to be one of the best typing games available.

Fur Squadron Phoenix

One important function of the modern indie game is that it can fill in spaces that have been arbitrarily abandoned. Anyone would like a well-crafted new Star Fox game. That’s what Fur Squadron Phoenix is, a tidy on-rail shooter that is decent enough to admit its influences outright.

Lumines Arise

Lumines is back! And it’s been given the “Tetris Effect” treatment from the very same devs at Enhance. The outcome is evidently phenomenal. Must play game.

Skate Story

A magnificent exhibition of style applied to mechanical refinement, Skate Story is a splashy indie showpiece that could well be the next great skateboarding videogame. The game takes new risks and has a stellar, out there presentation unlike any skating game before it. The demo is also a solid exhibition of intent. We can’t wait to see the finished product.