The Steam Next Fest Demos That Surprised Us

Steam Next Fest should really be about discovery. But when thousands of demos spring onto the storefront, I usually retreat to the genres I know best. No longer: June’s showcase was a chance to do things differently. With a vacation rudely overlapping the event, I downloaded a wealth of unusual demos to enjoy during travels with my Steam Deck.

Unfortunately, my worst suspicions were confirmed: games outside of my horror, shooter, and action-RPG genre staples are good, actually! All those demos, missed in Steam Next Fests past. The good news? I now have plenty more to look forward to, and potentially, so do you! These Steam Next Fest demos wouldn’t normally have been my first picks, but as I discovered, they're more than worth a wishlist.

Tiny Glade

I’m not usually one for games without goals. Give me a boss to overcome and I’ll sharpen whatever digital weapons I need to better them. Set me down in a sandbox, however, and I’ll typically flail around, struggling to find a purpose for pushing buttons. The problem, apparently, wasn’t the games but where I was playing them. Because sat sleepily on a multi-hour train, Tiny Glade’s charming Steam Next Fest demo proved the ideal canvas for creativity.

Tiny Glade grants exactly what the name suggests: a patch of grass in the midst of a forest. Within this bucolic alcove, you’re given simple tools to paint your own European medieval ruins, castles, and houses. This isn’t a management sim, though; there are no people, and you don’t need to tinker with any economic sliders. Walls, roads, and even castles simply rise at the sweep of your cursor. You pick the item you want and draw where you'd like it to be, tweaking the height and color once it’s in place. It’s an experience more akin to doodling or playing with oil paints than cultivating a real town.

The Tiny Glade Steam Next Fest demo offers only a handful of tools in an extremely limited space, but that was enough to convince me that even the longest journey would vanish while crafting its miniature dioramas. And the best part? When your castle is complete, the second game begins: lining up the ideal shot in the built-in photo mode.

Calm yourself with castles via Tiny Glade's Steam page here.

What The Car?

I thoroughly enjoyed comedy anti-golf game What The Golf. So first, let me clarify why What The Car is even on this list: It’s not that I didn’t trust developer Triband to follow up with another enjoyable game. It’s more that I felt like the concept didn’t carry through. Golf's fundamentals are simple: Hit a tiny ball with a stick until it goes into a hole. Understanding that is makes What The Golf’s inversions of expectation all the funnier. But an automobile isn’t a sport. So how exactly would What the Car deliver on that idea?

The answer is that it doesn’t, really. But also that it doesn’t matter. What The Car’s demo is so much fun that within minutes I’d forgotten the title altogether. The core premise being played with here is racing, not cars. Each level presents a course to careen through, but like a Mario Party minigame with the rules explanation missing, you’re left scrambling to figure out how things work every time. The first level gives your car legs, but before long you’ll be swimming through rivers with a fish tail, or firing a football cannon out of the trunk to move. Things only get weirder the further you progress.

It helps, too, that What The Car’s Steam Next Fest demo is ludicrously generous. Each level is short, but there’s a hearty look here at just how ridiculous the full game is likely to be. If you give it a crack, be sure to hunt down the many secrets hidden in both levels and the overworld. And a reminder to self: sometimes it’s best to stop worrying about the grander design and just embrace the entertainment.

Rev your engine, legs, or, er, flippers on What The Car's Steam page here.

Aero GPX

I thought I’d left F-Zero behind. More than two decades have passed since the supersonic speed of the GameCube’s F-Zero GX scorched a neon trail through my teenage mind. Nintendo has seemingly finished with the franchise, and I'd convinced myself that I had in turn. Until I tried Aero GPX. Dammit it all, I'm back.

Aero GPX is an unabashed lover letter to Nintendo's dormant racing series. It's F-Zero in all but name, right down to the inclusion of a Big Blue tube level. The biggest deviation from the source comes in the separation of boost power from your car's health pool. It's a decision that makes pushing your vehicle to the brink a little less thrilling. But as a plus, newcomers will actually be able to finish a race.

Aero GPX also introduces brief flying segments. They release the tension a little and offer a new stat element for certain cars to excel in. There are some lovely touches, too, such as the roar of a crowd raising as you whizz past spectator stands. I didn't realize quite how much I'd missed the howl of an electric guitar accompanying supersonic hover cars tussling on a track. And since Nintendo didn't deliver any F-Zero news in its June Nintendo Direct, it's up to Aero GPX to fill the adrenaline-craving void I've rediscovered in my heart.

Race over to Aero GPX's Steam page here.

The Crush House

The Crush house describes itself brilliantly as a thirst-person shooter. That's a descriptor with quite some versatility, because you're just as likely to be filming sink taps as you are derrières. The setup is that you're the camera person for a Love Island-style reality dating show. You know the gist: a group of clashing personalities are invited into a flashy house with a pool. Break ups and make ups are an inevitability. The job is to film and live broadcast their fights, smooches, and pretty much anything else your unconventional audience is in the mood for.

About that audience: each day you'll have different groups tuning in, and they're all looking for something specific from the show. Suburban Moms just want to check out classy hotties, Voyeurs only enjoy it when you film from a distance, and Cinema Students are desperate for interesting and unconventional camera angles. There are weirder ones, too, like plumbers keen to see the literal waterworks. And yeah, butt lovers just want to look at butts.

Finding the right shots based on audience comments and reactions is the key to hitting broadcast targets each day. Those requests can get a bit gratingly repetitive – seriously, how many times do you want me to film a cactus, plant fans? – but the concept of The Crush House is so ridiculous and unique that the demo is well worth experiencing nonetheless.

Get capturing in The Crush House on Steam here.

Even if you missed out on the June 2024 Steam Next Fest, most of the included demos remain available. You can still visit the event page to see and download demos for more of the most popular games.