Hi there! Welcome to my inaugural blog post! Today, we have the finest mini reviews for a ton of game demos I played during the most recent Steam NextFest! If you're here from my newsletter, you've already read the first handful, so you can go ahead and pick up here to skip those!
Defrag Incremental from Pollo Arcade Low Bit
Review: Fun for what it is: something to leave up while doing something else nearby/number go up but make it retro and nostalgic for Millennials/Gen X.
Would I buy it: Maybe, for a couple bucks (under $5)
How long did I play the demo: at least an hour/the entire available demo
Business 98 from Five Foot Games
Review: Graphics are a fun nostalgia hit, but the mechanics are a little hard to understand when you first get started. It was fun for a bit, but there's no "storyline" or anything to really hold it together, so I got a bit bored.
Would I buy it: No
How long did I play the demo: just under an hour
Deck of Potential from Aeongth XVI
Review: An interesting mix of bullet heaven and deck building with a side of roguelike, too. There's also a card merge mechanic to upgrade your spells in different ways and stuff. Pretty fun.
Would I buy it: Yes (under $10)
How long did I play the demo: an hour
The Little Land from RasterCat & Karus
Review: A strategy god-sim where you watch over some lil' guys, trying to keep them safe from danger. Some minor gathering and crafting mechanics to buff your guys etc. This was a cute and fun game.
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: an hour/the entire available demo
Dice Carnival from Phantom Script Studio
Review: A number-go-up roguelike based on dice and tokens and overall upgrades. A variety of play choices and a fun theme, but the graphics style just wasn't really for me and I felt like I got bored quickly
Would I buy it: No
How long did I play the demo: 30 minutes
Alchemist's Arcana from WeaveGameStudio
Review: Similar to Strange Horticulture/Strange Antiquities, but with stones in addition to some herbs. The demo doesn't give access to all the tools to determine what things are, but it's fun and the plot seems interesting!
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: an hour/the entire available demo
Neat from Korova Games
Review: A lot like Unpacking, but with a to-do list. I loved the art style of this one and really had a lot of fun with it. There's really just so many little bits and things to put away.
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: an hour and a half/the entire available demo
Cold Case: The Red Dress Murder from Nessie Games
Review: An interesting take on the investigation/murder mystery genre where you have to scour evidence and reports for keywords (that are all helpfully highlighted but not always relevent!) in order to make your conclusion via fill-in-the-blanks. I really enjoyed this one!
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: the entire available demo
Gambition from EasternLamp
Review: A chess-based roguelike deckbuilder where you have to puzzle out which pieces to play when in order to come out the victor. A very fun and interesting take on the genres!
Would I buy it: Maybe (under $5)
How long did I play the demo: Just under a half an hour
Gnome Glade from Vkedepi
Review: A cozy city builder with both deckbuilding and merging to upgrade your buildings. It's cute and seems fun, but there isn't really much in the way of tutorials etc. It seems simple on the surface, but there's definitely an element of strategy and focus needed to get far.
Would I buy it: Maybe (under $5)
How long did I play the demo: Less than 15 minutes before getting bored
Grit Shot from Nithic
Review: A basketball arcade game roguelike with a similar visual feel to CloverPit, lots of different upgrade options both for your balls and your basket shots.
Would I buy it: Maybe (under $10)
How long did I play the demo: 30 minutes
Scriver: A Word Game from doughbody
Review: Scrabble-style word-making game with upgrades and variants to increase your score. Fun to play and gives similar vibes as the Bookworm games.
Would I buy it: Yes (under $10)
How long did I play the demo: 45 minutes
Rites & Receipts from Infinite Inbox
Review: Similar vibes to Papers, Please but you need to check for correct ritual requests rather than documentation and earn enough to pay rent and live, etc etc.
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: about 40 minutes/the first few days of the 8 days available to play in the demo
Life's Too Short from Pixel Ghost
Review: An adventure game where you play as a ghost and collect items from around the mansion to solve problems and so forth. I love stuff like this and the graphics are a super cute pixel style
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: about 10 minutes/the entire available demo
The Sorting Bureau from Apelsinka Games
Review: Similar in vibes to A Little to the Left. This is a really nice kind of 'zone out' game, if that's your thing. The ability to rewatch your sorting is pretty fun, too. And I liked the levels where you could sort to your liking.
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: almost an hour and a half/the entire available demo
Burn With me from Nozomu Games
Review: A dark, occult-themed deckbuilder where you summon new creatures for your deck with the cards you already have. Synergies/interactions between cards make things a bit more strategic. The description says about 30 artists were used for the card art and everything about it is wonderful to look at.
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: an hour/the entire available demo
World's Greatest Author from Petter Malmehed
Review: A weird incremental sort of game where you act as ghostwriter for some bigwig author with the aims of becoming The World's Greatest Author yourself. Use income from the books you write to upgrade the numbers of keys you can press (energy) while you hunt for items (plot points) and eventually unlock other genres and other upgrades.
Would I buy it: Yes (under $10)
How long did I play the demo: over an hour
ReStory: Chill Electronic Repairs from Mandragora & tinyBuild
Review: A fun and detailed electronics repair sim set in Japan. Lots of different options (even in the demo) and it seems like the full game will offer a full suite of fun characters to interact with and change their story slightly based on your conversation choices.
Would I buy it: Yes
How long did I play the demo: over two hours/the entire available demo
If you made it this far, thanks! I hope you found at least one or two new games to throw on your wishlist or pick up! I have a bunch more demos to get through, even though NextFest is over, so I might put together another one of these in the near future!