next festival is the triennial Steam event where hundreds of developers upload demo builds of their games for you to try for free. And it’s one of the very few things in gaming that just feels unequivocally positive! Indie sits next to, or often above, AAA, there’s nothing about gutting anyone, and it resurrects the lost art of demo in a way that draws the attention of the entire industry. But the number of demos can be a little overwhelming, so let us help you get started.
highlighted during the PC Gaming Show at the Summer Game Fest, The invincible Promise a hardcore sci-fi story based on the work of Stanislaw Lem. Luke recently highlighted
This stunningly beautiful voxel railroad simulation makes building a train network more tempting than daunting. station to stationThe emphasis on minimalism and relaxation underscores this allure. Now there’s a part of the game you can try for yourself, and it really works.
I’m so pleased word factors is just as fun and silly as it looks. The aim of this game is to form all the letters of the alphabet from the letter I, with factories. As you probably know, a C is just a curved I, so you have to run these through a curve factory. And a V consists of two elements joined together below, so you need to use a merge factory for this one. I made a cat out of Is totally! The presentation is nice and easy too, even if the puzzles aren’t, So it’s worth a look.
Galvanic Games Launched at Summer Game Fest, the co-op survival game shone at the show and now has a demo you can play. Wizard with a gun is about exploring the unknown as a wizard, alone or with a buddy, in a sandbox game with all kinds of combat and action.
When I first read about it A little sticker storyI had one wish: for it to feel like the laminated background scenes you get as a kid that you can stick the rubbery, re-sticky stickers on to make up your own stories. It is that! It is exactly like that! Except here: when you put a sticker on a scene, it magically becomes part of the drawing. It’s so awesome that I would love to play with it even if it wasn’t a bunch of cute little puzzles.
Oh, there’s a new album Rusty Lake game is coming! And from this demo it plays like their classic cube escape Games that return to the roots of the series and with all the menacing atmosphere that comes with the idiosyncratic puzzles.
I had never heard of that fall from the throne before, but it’s right on my wish list. It’s the most extraordinary combination of city builder, auto-battler, tower defense, and direct-drive RTS, but all presented in a calm, clear, and minimalist manner. The demo neatly summarizes the instructions and introduces all of these elements in a way that feels straightforward and often surprising.
