Steam Next Fest February 2026: The 22 Best Game Demos

Hope you’ve got your gaming rig sorted and your Steam Deck handy. The February 2026 Steam Next Fest — which runs from February 23 to March 2 — is here, and it’s bringing thousands of upcoming game demos to your virtual doorstep. 

From a spiritual follow-up to an indie legend to a game starring… checks notes… a bus (?!), this season’s Next Fest is already shaping up to be one to remember. At a time when AAA game development looks more uncertain than ever, there’s nothing like some wildly inventive indies to stir the soul and get you excited to game in 2026.

Not sure exactly where to start? Not to worry. Over the next week, our team will be scouring Steam for memorable and promising demos, so you can cut right to the good stuff. Bookmark this page and check back regularly, as we share our top demos from Steam Next Fest February 2026.

– David Silbert, Editor

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all of the games included on this list are playable both on PC and on Steam Deck. (Certain demos might take some finagling to set up, but they do run!)

The 22 Best Demos of Steam Next Fest (February 2026)

Hopefully you’re reading this during the February 2026 Steam Next Fest. But if you’re late to the party, don’t worry — many of these terrific demos are still available for you to play. From turn-based RPGs to cozy narrative adventures, here are the best experiences we sampled during the week.

Prefer to skim the list and hop to a specific entry? We’ve got you:

• Alabaster Dawn
• Altered Alma
• Coffee Talk: Tokyo
• Denshattack!
• Dosa Divas
• Flock Around
• Gambonanza
• Horses of Hoofprint Bay
• inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories
• Letter Lost
• Map Map – A Game About Maps
• The Mermaid Mask
• Outbound
• People of Note
• The Ratline
• Replaced
• Ruin: Beast City
• Tukoni: Forest Keepers
• Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors
• Wax Heads
• The Witch’s Bakery
• Zero Parades for Dead Spies

Alabaster Dawn

I went into Alabaster Dawn already a fan of Radical Fish Games thanks to CrossCode. I came out of the demo genuinely blown away. This isn’t just a follow-up — it feels like Radical Fish is building on CrossCode in every possible way.

The demo is hefty, offering multiple hours of content and even teasing glimpses of endgame abilities. It opens with an emotionally charged apocalypse: The gods fall silent, their champions abandoned, and a village seeks refuge underground before emerging into a blighted world determined to fight back. The prologue alone is gripping, setting up a mystery surrounding a force called Nyx and a world unraveling at the seams.

Visually, it’s stunning. Gorgeous sprite work blends seamlessly with 3D environments, and the animation is absurdly smooth. Combat is fast, responsive, and deeply satisfying — tight dashes, parries, and divine weapons like swords and crossbows all feel incredible to use. On top of that, the demo features clever environmental puzzles that break up combat and reward exploration.

You play as Juno Olira, a cast-out “Chosen” navigating a fractured world, gradually expanding your abilities through a robust skill tree. Along the way, you meet Cabbage, a spirit companion known as a water pig — essentially an adorable capybara. Yes, I would protect Cabbage at all costs.

The orchestral soundtrack swells with tension and melancholy, and every system feels confident and polished. I left the demo ready to throw my wallet at the screen.

– Written by Donovan Harrell

Developer: Radical Fish Games
Publisher: Radical Fish Games
Release date: TBD
Play the demo!

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Altered Alma

I play a ton of great metroidvanias, so it takes something special to make me stop scrolling and dive in. Altered Alma, developed by 2Awesome Studio and published by Critical Reflex, absolutely did that. The demo grabbed me immediately with its neon-drenched cyberpunk world and striking anime-inspired sprite work. As Jack — a blade-wielding enforcer on the run in a dystopian Neo Barcelona — you’re thrust into an arresting, animated introduction and a city full of towering holograms, cyborg crusaders, and wanted posters plastered on every street.

Combat feels like a love letter to Mega Man Zero: tight three-hit sword combos, air dashes, wall jumps, and a parry that deflects projectiles all flow together smoothly. Your health cores recharge when you attack, which pushes you to stay aggressive. Later in the demo, you unlock the Quantum Blade, letting you teleport through walls, zip from enemy to enemy, and execute brutal finishers — a standout moment that made me grin. You also have Vera, a robot companion who navigates tiny chasms and hacks terminals, adding nice variety to traversal. Vera’s also got some secrets to uncover, too.

There’s personality everywhere you look: richly detailed backgrounds, a catchy synth soundtrack, and a mysterious narrative hinting at romance options and ancient starships. Movement can feel just a tad floaty at times, and I hit one progression glitch, but if 2Awesome Studio irons those issues out, Altered Alma could be a real standout.

– Written by Donovan Harrell

Developer: 2Awesome Studio
Publisher: Critical Reflex
Release date: TBD
Play the demo!

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Coffee Talk: Tokyo 

Toge Productions’ 2020 Coffee Talk was one of the games that helped me get through the pandemic lockdown months. It reminded me of the world outside: cozy coffee shops, meeting new people, thoughtful conversations. The 2023 sequel was similarly heartwarming. Both games take place in an alternate-reality version of Seattle with fantasy creatures. In the third game, players enter a new shop in Tokyo. 

While a different setting, the demo for Coffee Talk: Tokyo is instantly familiar. Once again there are brick walls, lo-fi beats, and the soothing sound effects of an espresso machine. The first customer is even a visitor from Seattle. Coffee Talk: Tokyo pushes the envelope on its cast with both the technological (there’s a cyborg-like person) and the paranormal (one of the first customers is a ghost!). 

I played about 20 minutes of the demo. So far, the writing doesn’t seem quite as good as previous iterations. Coffee Talk: Tokyo is the first game in the series with outside support via Chorus Worldwide Games, so that may be why — or perhaps it’s just the demo and it’s too early to tell. I’m hopeful for the full game. In the meantime, I just booted up the original on my Switch for a cozy replay.

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Chorus Worldwide Games, Toge Productions
Publisher: Chorus Worldwide Games
Release date: May 21, 2026
Play the demo!

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Denshattack!

Announced at Gamescom 2025, Denshattack! is like if Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi had a baby… and that baby was a bright-yellow city bus. As Emi, a ramen delivery driver with a serious need for speed, you’ll grind rails, make death-defying jumps, and pull off smooth tricks — all within a hulking (yet surprisingly nimble) vehicle. 

Unlike Crazy Taxi, you won’t deliver passengers around town with your speed machine, and perhaps that’s for the best. Instead, Denshattack! leans heavily into the Dreamcast classic’s aesthetic, with bright colors, frenetic, vehicle-based movement, and a dazzling cityscape. Add in a cel-shaded style, terrific music, and a slew of tricks that would make Jet Set Radio jealous, and you have all the makings of old-school cool, made new.

Over the course of 30 minutes, I sampled a few levels from the beginning of the game. While I’ve played plenty of trick-based games of its ilk — OlliOlli: Switch Stance being a particular favorite — I’ve yet to see one with quite the complexity of Denshattack! Between hopping different tracks, breaking around tight corners, wall-running (yes, you heard that right), landing tricks, and about 20 other mechanics, there’s a level of depth to this game that’s betrayed by its surface-level goofiness. (To be clear, I love the goofiness.)

In any other timeline, selling a game centered around a hopping, borderline sentient bus would be far-fetched, if not impossible. But Denshattack! exists, and based on my demo time, it’s humming like a V12 engine.

– Written by David Silbert

Developer: Undercoders
Publisher: Fireshine Games
Release date: June 17, 2026
Play the demo!

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Dosa Divas

Outerloop Games seems to love three things very much: cooking, family, and turn-based combat. In 2023, the studio released Thirsty Suitors, a game about whipping up dishes and dishing out some hurt as you return home for your sister’s wedding. Three years later, the devs are back with Dosa Divas, a game about serving up dosas and clobbering salarymen as you team up with your long-lost sister to defeat your other, not-physically-lost-but-morally-bankrupt sister.

As someone who never played Thirsty Suitors but has been meaning to, I had to give Dosa Divas a spin. Despite the similarities between games, this is an all-new title with a unique world, characters, locales, and mechanics. Knowing I can always go back to enjoy Outerloop’s prior work, I booted up the demo.

Immediately, I was hooked. The demo opens with sisters Samara and Amani chatting after being reunited after 10 years apart. In a week’s time, they will return home to their parents, who previously ran a family restaurant before an argument tore the sisters apart. First, however, they must meet with their youngest sister Lina who, in the time since the break-up, has developed a fast-food chain that threatens the very nature of cooking. Practically no one enjoys home-cooked meals anymore, instead eating “LinaMeals”: sludge you eat out of a tube.

In other words, the world is in dire shape. Together with their sentient, mecha food truck, Samara and Amani embark on a quest to meet up with Lina and snap her out of her mega-corp madness.

From there, the demo slowly introduced its mechanics. I explored a town on the sisters’ adventure, chatting with NPCs while doing battle with Lina’s lackeys. Combat is a traditional turn-based affair powered by Paper Mario-esque button timing and Octopath Traveler’s boost and break systems. Outside of combat, I collected ingredients like mangos and coconuts, went fishing, and whipped together dosas through various quick-time events. By fulfilling food requests for various NPCs, I was able to improve the town’s morale — and unlock new moves my characters could then bring into battle.

Though the demo lasted 90 minutes, it went by in a blink. Everything gels so well, and the duality of the experience — part combat, part cozy food-delivery game — reminds me of another genre-blurring indie that we here at The Punished Backlog adore: Battle Chef Brigade. (Just making that comparison makes me giddy with excitement.) Add in gorgeous visuals, excellent writing, and — most importantly — a Naruto run animation for our favorite mech, and I think Outerloop may have something very special on its hands.

– Written by David Silbert

Developer: Outerloop Games
Publishers: Outerloop Games, Outersloth
Release date: April 14, 2026
Play the demo!

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Flock Around

I am obsessed with Flock Around. Its Steam Next Fest demo takes everything that’s fun and meditative about real-life bird-watching and successfully transforms it into a video game experience. Here, birds will fly away, but they’ll also come back. Birds that otherwise would never be in the same region can be found along the same streams. I found it so incredibly satisfying to hear a little twitter, then stop, listen, and look around for the Dark-Eyed Junko I knew had to be nearby. 

Flock Around reminds me a lot (in a good way) of the multiplayer mountain-climbing game PEAK. There’s a similar colorful, silly, derpy aesthetic. Players are meant to spend time in a lobby together, finding birds and filling out a guidebook that has a Pokémon Snap-like mission of capturing images of the birds from different angles. The player earns points and in-game dollars for any photos they take, enabling them to quickly upgrade their gear and buy birdseed. And, just like in PEAK, when you exit the lobby, the game is over. I was already thinking how fun it would be to goof around with friends, snapping pictures of birds. Developer Secret Plan is in good hands with publishing support from Outersloth, makers of Among Us. 

The only thing I wish Flock Around had that it doesn’t currently have (at least based on the demo) is a single-player campaign. I’d love to flesh out my guidebook on my own time and save my progress. I found wandering around the map (with no fall damage!) to be incredibly relaxing, delightful, and satisfying. Because, as my husband well knows, I am not actually that good at real-life bird-watching. But in Flock Around, I’m a pro.

Correction: It turns out that your guidebook can carry over between rooms, so I can “catch ’em all” if ’em is bird photos!

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Secret Plan Games
Publisher: Secret Plan Games, Outersloth
Release date: TBD
Play the demo!

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Gambonanza

Our team loves ourselves some Balatro. Back in the game’s heyday, we would theorycraft potential builds, post screenshots of our nuttiest runs, and share our wildest DLC desires. Two years and change removed, that fire has dulled some, but there remain a few steadfast Balatro sickos who are waiting patiently for a sequel (shoutout Allison McDaniel).

Well, Gambonanza may not be Balatro 2… but it might as well be. Everything about the game screams LocalThunk’s smash hit, from the pixel art to the UI to the “gambits” (jokers) to the round-based boss fights. The big difference here, however, is that rather than stacking the deck in your favor, you’re stacking the chessboard.

I came into Gambonanza only knowing that last piece (pun intended). I had no clue it was a roguelike, or that it was inspired heavily by LocalThunk. Once I made the connection, my mind ran wild: A bit on the nose, isn’t it? Two years later, and we already have a Balatro-like? After just one run, though, the cynic in me shut up. I was hooked.

Turns out, Gambonanza may be a Balatro-like, but it’s a damn good one at that. Everything about the 2024 classic translates perfectly to the chessboard, with just enough design creativity and ingenuity to feel fresh. For five hours, I tried different builds: One gave my pawns the moveset of knights, allowing me to promote them to queens at a blistering pace. Another gave me the chance to skip my opponent’s turn upon placing a new chess piece on the board. It works exactly how you’d expect, and it’s awesome.

There are some balance hiccups. Some gambits feel useless in their current state, and it’s hard not to feel like your run is busted if you can’t build around queens. That said, the foundation here is promising, and developer Blukulélé is already taking feedback from fans to make it even better. With the right tweaks, this might be my new obsession.

– Written by David Silbert

Developer: Blukulélé
Publishers: Sidekick Publishing, Stray Fawn Publishing
Release date: May 1, 2026
Play the demo!

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Horses of Hoofprint Bay

I, and many others who know more than I, have written about how there was a plethora of (good) horse games in the 1990s and then nothing over the past few decades. With the demo for Horses of Hoofprint Bay, this wrong has been righted. 

I played the demo on my Steam Deck, and while I had to launch it in compatibility mode and remap the controls for it to work, it does indeed run. Though I played only for about 30 minutes, I easily could’ve played for a few hours. The demo for Horses of Hoofprint Bay shows an incredible amount of promise — riding, grooming, friendship, caretaking, stable management and building, contests, and breeding. The hand-drawn art style brings it all together.

Just like the horses within, this game has a great pedigree: It’s being published by The Mane Quest, best known as the blog of preeminent video game horse authority Alice Ruppert. Ruppert has created, analyzed, and consulted on video games for years, and I love that she’s expanding into publishing. I cannot wait to ride off into the sunset in Hoofprint Bay.

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Thogli Studios 
Publisher: The Mane Quest 
Release date: TBD
Play the demo!

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inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories

The rain is coming down, but the lights are on in the tiny convenience store by the bridge. This little shop is a haven for anyone looking for water, a can of cat food, instant ramen, or just a bit of respite from the world outside. I still fondly remember my corner New York City bodega, my Rhode Island gas station grocery store, and my New Orleans we-sell-everything spot. inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories, the upcoming debut game from Nagai Industries, is a love letter to those stores.

In the short-but-sweet demo (which played great on my Steam Deck), players are introduced to Makoto Hayakawa, a college student on break who is working the night shift at her aunt’s convenience store set in 1990s Japan. I loved exploring the store, impressed with the intricacy of the details of products and employee items in the backroom. I felt safe and secure, quietly straightening chairs and making sure shelves were stocked with the right items. It’s a colorful and cozy (but not boring) world that I look forward to returning to.

In the prologue, players get to meet a regular, Chief, who is coming at night specifically to avoid seeing Makoto’s aunt during the day. When he reminisced about a particular soda brand — which I had just stocked up — being his favorite as a young man, I instantly knew I’d do anything for this man. Hopefully, that’ll include mending the bridges between him and my aunt in the full game.

Luckily, I won’t have to wait too long. inKONBINI: One Store. Many Stories releases at the end of April.

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Nagai Industries
Publisher: Nagai Industries, Beep Japan Inc.
Release date: April 30, 2026
Play the demo!

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Letter Lost

I am a huge geek for snail mail and mystery games, so when I saw that there was a new game combining the two, I thought, Hell yeah. Then, I started the demo for Letter Lost and I almost quit immediately because it is spooky as hell, and I am a big scaredy cat. 

The player awakens in a freaky dungeon cell in the basement of a remote island post office, where they seem to be trapped in a permanent position. Customers come to a window that is reminiscent of Strange Horticulture and its sequel, Strange Antiquities, talking through a paned glass with mysterious requests. Players have to stamp and send mail correctly, and if they mess up, a threatening infraction notice comes through a pneumatic tube. The game reminds me of Slay the Princess and 999 vibes. 

The writing of Letter Lost is both funny and scary. In this ornate 3D world, players can open up letters, sass their suspiciously chipper boss, and try to escape by solving puzzles and exploring. To be honest, I am not sure I am brave enough to finish my job at Letter Lost, but after I put it down, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, wondering what secrets this post office held. 

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: FlatNine Games
Publisher: FlatNine Games 
Release date: May 2026
Play the demo!

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Map Map – A Game About Maps

Map Map – A Game About Maps is a very charming game about, you guessed it, making maps. In this cozy puzzle game, players take on the role of an unnamed youth who is traveling about an ocean in a floating houseboat of adventuring kids who are looking for a long-lost treasure. (One of the loading screens even makes a One Piece reference.) 

I played the demo for Map Map for about 30 minutes, and I’ll likely dive back in after finishing writing. In each level, players land on an island with missions from the different kids on the boat involving various locations on the island. Players have to carefully study an island’s outline, consider cardinal directions, count paces, and examine landmarks to correctly identify the desired location on a map. Players can use a touchscreen for drawing, which was a little janky when I tried it, but I loved the concept. I unlocked stickers toward the end of my playthrough, and I loved taking my cartographer skills to the next level.

Map Map is interesting while still being relaxing. There’s no time limit per island, which is nice not to feel rushed. After putting a pushpin on your map for where the target location is, you’ll get a score on a scale of one to three stars, a la real-world geography game GeoGuessr. You can continue or try again if you want a better score, though there’s really no pressure to get it “exactly right.” The only time you’ll really have to try hard is if you want to find buried treasure with “X marks the spot” objectives.

Map Map’s hand-drawn art style is blocky and colorful. The music is delightful, contributing heavily to my positive mood while playing the game. A little less cute are the characters’ dialogue lines; their audio is always “mapmapmapmap” no matter what their written dialogue is. This is a clever way around voicing all the lines, similar to how the characters in Animal Crossing talk, but I found it a little annoying here. The writing is fun, but when a robot kid is muttering the word “map” repeatedly, it’s a bit distracting. Luckily, you can turn off these sounds. The demo as a whole feels very conscientious of the player’s experience. 

Map Map invites players to make sense of the world around them in a calm, safe, friendly way. I don’t know about you, but I sure could use some of that in my life. 

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Pipapo Games
Publisher: Pipapo Games
Release date: Q2 2026
Play the demo!

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The Mermaid Mask

I’ve recommended SFB Games’ 2019 murder mystery game Tangle Tower so many times that I have lost count. It’s a habit; I don’t even think about what I liked about the game anymore — I just tell people to play it. When I booted up the demo for their long-awaited sequel, The Mermaid Mask, I instantly remembered why. 

The short but good demo for The Mermaid Mask shows that SFB Games has spent time and energy investing in their next mystery game. (In the intermediary, they also released the lauded survival horror game Crow Country in 2024, but I’m a scaredy cat and didn’t play that.) Everything here seems like more of the same but better. When I heard Detective Grimoire and Sally’s snarky banter, I murmured to myself, “We’re so back.”

The Mermaid Mask returns with humorous dialogue, that gloriously haunting music, and the same rich, unique illustrations we’ve come to expect from the series. The map, hinted at briefly, promises many locations. Clues can now be picked up and examined “three-dimensionally” by spinning them around. Puzzles and case files return with more detail than before.

There is a limited number of rooms that can be explored in the demo, with lots of items that can be clicked on and discussed. I played the whole demo in about 15 minutes. I’ve been keeping an eye out for The Mermaid Mask for over five years, and SFB Games is confident that 2026 is finally the year. I’d say I can’t wait, but I’ve waited this long — I’ll be patient and wait a bit more. Good things are worth waiting for.

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: SFB Games
Publisher: SFB Games
Release date: TBD 2026
Play the demo!

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Outbound

I am a millennial woman with a dog and a car, and I’ve been on Instagram before; of course I’ve seen and admired those amazing travel influencers who road trip with their dogs! It’s a life that seems both easily attainable (just get up and go!) and deeply unattainable (but what about jobs, laundry, family, back problems, and all of life’s other trappings?). In Outbound, realizing that dream gets a bit easier. 

I didn’t play Outbound’s demo for very long, but I very much admired its vibes. In a new game, players can customize the exterior of their camper van along with a fun, colorful character creator. Then, players hit the road, driving through an area that looks like the American Southwest. I didn’t have a very good sense of what Outbound’s objectives would be about — there seem to be some radio towers to reach (which gave me brief Firewatch vibes), and players can light campfires (but not put them out? Which felt dangerous to me and one misstep in the simulation). It’s billed as a “cozy, open-world exploration” game, so perhaps it will be more of a sandbox experience than a focused mission.

The developers state that their demo is an early gameplay build designed to convey the vibe of what they’re going for with the full game. Being behind the wheel felt similar to other road trip video games like Glitchhikers, Road 96, Pacific Drive, Overland, and The Long Drive. Notably, the Outbound demo does not feature the dog (sad!!!) and progress can’t be carried over, so you’ll be trying it out more to get a feel for it. 

The gameplay has two camera settings — one in the dashboard, and one in a more bird’s-eye view behind the van. The dashboard view made me a bit nauseous motion-wise, but when in the rear camera view, the van felt like it was moving much slower and was harder to maneuver. I imagine these will be adjusted through the game’s development, as you’ll be able to craft and build things to upgrade your van as well. The full game promises a co-op mode including the chance to build a sustainable house with friends and garden, fulfilling yet another millennial dream of the friend compound somewhere in the woods.

I’m not a big fan of driving games in general, but the Outbound demo succeeds in capturing the wistful romanticism of hitting the road with my good boy. 

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Square Glade Games
Publisher: Square Glade Games
Release date: Q2 2026
Play the demo!

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People of Note

Whether you loved it, liked it, or thought it was overhyped, there’s no denying the influence of last year’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — particularly on RPG culture. For two decades, it’s felt like turn-based games have been put out to pasture, with series like Persona and Like a Dragon serving as rare exceptions rather than the norm. Clair Obscur changed that narrative completely, proving without a doubt that old-school RPGs can not only survive today, but also thrive (and win a bunch of awards too).

People of Note is the latest addition to this turn-based renaissance. Published by Annapurna, this adventure is best described as Final Fantasy X meets KPop Demon Hunters. An odd pairing on the surface, I know, but it makes more sense once you get a chance to try the game out.

You play as Cadence, a young pop singer who dreams of stardom. After missing placement in a popular song competition, she embarks on a quest to assemble the world’s greatest musicians and create a group act that no one would dare pass up. The Steam Next Fest demo drops players into Chapter 2 of the game, with Cadence recruiting her first ally: the legendary but retired guitar player Fret.

Like Final Fantasy X, you’ll navigate fixed-camera environments, explore towns filled with shops and NPCs, and engage in battles with a heavy emphasis on turn priority and team synergy. Where the Demon Hunters influence comes into play is, well, everywhere else — from Cadence’s idol aesthetic to the inclusion of some gorgeously animated singing sequences, complete with original songs.

While the demo’s combat is on the easy side, I’m excited to see what trials Cadence, Fret, and the rest of this ragtag garage band will face in the full game. At the very least, we should expect some serious earworms.

– Written by David Silbert

Developer: Iridium Studios
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Release date: April 7, 2026
Play the demo!

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The Ratline

The Ratline joins mystery games like The Roottrees Are Dead and Her Story by putting players behind a corkboard and asking them to sort through a bunch of clues to find the truth. 

The Steam Next Fest demo has some noticeable weaknesses. There are a lot of grammatical errors, which is tough for a game that includes quite a bit of reading. Additionally, the controls (at least on Steam Deck) are pretty finicky. But my biggest struggle so far is the overarching plot. Players take on the role of Saul Perlman, a private detective, who is tasked in the 1970s by a mysterious client to hunt down escaped Nazis. Perlman, who is definitely coded as Jewish, doesn’t seem to really care about his assigned project and, if anything, seems annoyed that he isn’t getting paid more, which I found weird and confusing. 

Where The Ratline’s demo succeeds is in its stylish look and puzzle-piecing gameplay. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of detail in functions like a Rolodex, call transcripts, and photo analysis. Plus, you get to pet your dog who snores gently by a rainy window while jazz plays on the radio. I think The Ratline certainly needs some work before it’s ready to launch, but detective fans will enjoy the satisfaction of correctly identifying the bad guys. 

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: OwlSkip Games
Publisher: OwlSkip Games
Release date: March 17, 2026
Play the demo!

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Replaced

The Replaced demo already dropped a week or so ago, and by all indications, the long-awaited indie game from Sad Cat Studios seems to have been worth the wait. From a beautiful world in motion to an intriguing narrative and some promising combat mechanics, Replaced is a thrill ride I can’t wait to discover in a few short weeks. Check out my full thoughts by reading my Replaced demo impressions.

– Written by Gary Wilson

Developer: Sad Cat Studios
Publisher: Thunderful Publishing
Release date: April 14, 2026
Play the demo!

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Ruin: Beast City

The aesthetic for Ruin: Beast City immediately spoke to me. A Black protagonist with a clean cut that isn’t the usual Killmonger fade. Killer7-inspired cel-shaded noir visuals. Fixed, cinematic camera angles straight out of classic survival horror. Developed and published by DascuMaru, this is a boss fight-centered action game in the vein of Furi, and I wish more games like this existed.

You play as Adama, a hitman navigating a cryptic narrative filled with references to a looming plot to “destroy everything” and a mysterious handler who may or may not be controlling you. The demo features three brutal duels: a broadsword-wielding maniac and his massive wolf, a sassy fencer with a butterfly-like transformation, and more surprises I won’t spoil. Never underestimate these bosses. They will flip the script on you instantly.

Combat is minimalist, almost cryptic. Systems aren’t fully explained. At first, I was conflicted. The “long block” mechanic opens up mash-heavy clashes that let you unload massive damage — sometimes. Successful hits restore health, but you’re expected to discover these intricacies through failure. In between blocks, you have the opportunity to use “gun counters” to add in additional damage. Sometimes I wanted clearer feedback, especially with boss health and the game’s power-up mechanic, which rewards you for successful consecutive dodges and blocks. Other times, I respected the restraint. Most of the time, the camera pissed me off, especially when bosses used frantic AOE attacks and I lost sight of them.

But once I found the rhythm, combat turned into a dance — and dance I did, weaving between slashes to frantic breakcore beats, clashing blades and stealing health back at the last second. I’m intrigued. I have questions. Above all, I can’t wait to uncover Ruin: Beast City’s secrets.

– Written by Donovan Harrell

Developer: DascuMaru
Publisher: DascuMaru
Release date: Q2 2026
Play the demo!

Tukoni: Forest Keepers

I played Tukoni: Forest Keepers after playing the extremely creepy Letter Lost, and wow, I have never been so quickly soothed and calmed. 

Tukoni: Forest Keepers is a video game based on award-winning children’s books by the Ukrainian artist Oksana Bula. The art is absolutely gorgeous, inviting players into a rich and colorful world. You take on the role of a little grey critter with a backpack who explores a forest level to help out the local denizens by solving puzzles and finding the necessary items. Lighthearted music fuels the cozy atmosphere. I felt like I was truly part of this wholesome little community. 

I loved the half hour that I spent in Tukoni: Forest Keepers. Characters don’t speak, so it’s up to the player to review drawings and context clues. I enjoyed learning its internal logic and solving riddles. Plus, at any moment, players can have their little forest guardian sit down and sip tea from a thermos. Absolutely dreamy. 

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Dream Operator
Publisher: Dream Operator
Release date: TBD 2026
Play the demo!

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Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard from Vampire Survivors

When I heard that Vampire Survivors was getting a strange first-person spin-off, I was skeptical. The original was one of my games of the year — dirt cheap, wildly addictive, and dripping with Castlevania-inspired chaos. So when developer poncle announced a first-person card-battler dungeon crawler, I didn’t know what to expect.

I was wrong to doubt.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard takes the core dopamine loop of Vampire Survivors and completely reimagines it for its new genre format. Instead of auto-attacking hordes in open fields, you navigate tighter, more structured spaces while playing cards from a randomized hand each turn. Energy limits force you to think strategically about attack sequencing, as you try to survive the oncoming hordes of the undead.

Relics like Pancake Stacker and Gem Hammer expand builds even further, letting you socket gems into cards and push synergy into absurd territory, just like its predecessor. Survivors discovered in coffins now modify your deck draws, granting armor, experience boosts, or bonuses tied to specific card colors. It’s more deliberate and strategic than the original, yet somehow just as addictive.

The 2D sprites transition shockingly well into 2.5D space. Secrets are tucked into environments that you just kind of headbutt until they reveal themselves. Over time, builds evolve you into an absurdly powerful killing machine, just like they did in Vampire Survivors. And the roguelike elements are somehow deeper than ever. I’m truly impressed with how seamlessly and creatively the weapons and items I’ve gotten used to over the years have been reimagined for this new style of gameplay. You never would’ve guessed they came from another game.

The transition from Vampire Survivors will be even smoother if you don’t lie to yourself. It will never be “just one more run.”

– Written by Donovan Harrell

Developer: poncle
Publisher: poncle
Release date: TBD
Play the demo!

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Wax Heads

Wax Heads is an upcoming indie from Patattie Games where players operate a struggling record store, serving customers and finding the perfect product to sell them. The Wax Heads demo includes the first three days of the story — plenty of time to get used to the gameplay and become invested in the narrative. 

A lot of the joy of Wax Heads for me is the absolutely stunning art style. Every single in-game graphic has clearly been created with a great deal of love; the characters are all super distinctive, with each member of the eccentric clientele feeling nicely fleshed out. The attention to detail is hard not to notice. 

While the gameplay in Wax Heads leans heavily on organization and shop management, the dialogue and story exploration are what make the game feel so incredibly full of life. Even just in the short demo, Wax Heads manages to beautifully capture the drama and difficulties that come with familial disagreements (and working retail in general). The tumultuous disbanding of the punk band Becoming Violet is a huge driving force of the story so far, and it’s going to be really interesting to see where that plotline goes and how the writers choose to explore it.

After the first in-game day of the demo, I thought the customer service sections of Wax Heads were going to be way too easy. I had perfectly matched up customers with their desired records, so I prepared myself for what I imagined would be a cakewalk. I’m happy to report that I was quickly proven wrong. The second day massively opens up the scope of the store and the records available to suggest to customers, making it a lot harder to find the perfect record for each customer — and a lot more entertaining.

– Written by Scarlet Hardy

Developer: Patattie Games
Publisher: Curve Games
Release date: May 5, 2026
Play the demo!

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The Witch’s Bakery

The demo for The Witch’s Bakery is absolutely adorable. Lunne flies on her broom to Paris to open up a bakery where she can make and sell baguettes and croissants with the help of her cat-like familiar. It’s dreamy. The demo already exemplifies how cozy games masterfully blend work with relaxing (read this great piece at Mothership that explores why that works so well). 

I love games that challenge me to min-max efficiency management (I love logistics in my everyday life, so this will surprise no one who knows me), and I find cooking and restaurant games do this best because the built-in mechanic for placing and serving orders already gives that time crunch. In another lifetime, I was a food journalist, and I still love the magic that a good meal can bring. I’ve enjoyed a freemium mobile game called Delicious World off and on for years, but it has a ton of ads and eventually the pay-to-play ceiling becomes impossible. The Witch’s Bakery seems like the game I’ve been waiting for.

The Witch’s Bakery is half bakery-management, half RPG-visual novel, and all charming. The 2D anime art style shaped by French influence is beautiful. Even in the demo, I can see the game fulfilling its promises to build relationships with friends, explore Paris, and decorate the bakery. I played the demo for about half an hour; I’m not sure if the progress in the demo will carry over, but I’m eager for the full release either way. This will be Sunny Lab’s first game, and it already looks delicious. Bon appetit! 

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: Sunny Lab
Publisher: Silver Lining Interactive
Release date: Q2 2026
Play the demo!

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Zero Parades for Dead Spies

Zero Parades for Dead Spies is ZA/UM’s first game since their 2019 mega-success Disco Elysium and its massive 2021 update, Disco Elysium – The Final Cut (which was my personal Game of the Year). Since then, many of the studio’s founders and original creators have left; the controversies have been well-documented. I was skeptical coming into this demo, but having played it for an hour, it’s clear to me that ZA/UM knew they had something to prove here.

The vibes, right out of the gate, are awesome. I was instantly hooked by a mysterious, dramatic, grainy, black-and-white spy briefing. I felt excited by the story of a spy on a redemptive journey to prove herself. The gameplay of exploring, gathering clues, and talking to potential leads all felt natural and compelling, albeit familiar.

There are many similarities to Disco Elysium. The protagonist stumbles out of a bathroom into a messy apartment in an almost identical waking scene. The art style is very similar, though one could argue this is part of the studio’s signature style. On the right-hand side, there is a written narrative of what’s occurring, along with dialogue and action choices. Your character also has skill points and different specialties. In the demo, you’ll pick from one of three pre-made skill sets, but you can create your own in the full game.

On the other hand, there are also interesting differences. If the player-character gets too anxious, one of their skills takes a hit — my normally charming spy had a bit harder time hiding their emotions after getting nervous, which felt quite relatable. The scenes and movement feel much more dynamic than in Disco Elysium. There’s a particularly impressive bazaar space where NPCs move around and talk to each other. Additionally, because you play a spy who’s going a bit rogue, the mission objectives aren’t quite as clear as the protagonist of Disco, who had a murder to solve. 

Zero Parades for Dead Spies’ demo is stylish and exciting, and it can be played for about three hours in a mix of the main quest and side activities. (Some content, apparently, has been cut to avoid spoilers.) Progress does not carry over to the full game; I played for about an hour and will likely return and go a little wild with my choices since they won’t matter long-term. The demo is available only until March 15, so get your play time in now.

While fun, the demo is a little rough around the edges. It’s hard to tell what buttons do what or how likely you’ll have dice success with certain rolls. Not all of the lines are voiced (the narrator is clearly paying homage to Amelia Tyler’s incredible work as the Baldur’s Gate 3 narrator) or match up with the written text, but that makes sense as the writing and voice-acting are likely the last to be finalized in the lead-up to launch. 

So far, the choices also don’t feel as broad as in Disco Elysium. My character usually had two to three ways to reply in a conversation, and tonally, her choices always felt similarly snarky. Additionally, my spy at one point knocked over a catatonic man in a chair, and I felt bad about it, but I had no option to put him back in, just leaving him in a pile on the floor. 

Role-playing games succeed when they let players feel like they have some ownership of how their character will behave, and ZA/UM is taking big swings here, inspired not just by its previous title but also by the success of Baldur’s Gate 3. Only time will tell if this spy can change her ways. I, for one, will be eager to find out the answer.

– Written by Amanda Tien

Developer: ZA/UM
Publisher: ZA/UM
Release date: TBD 2026
Play the demo!

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What Were Your Favorite Next Fest Demos?

Let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear what games we missed and whether they’re still available on Steam to check out. As always, thanks for reading.✌🏼