October Steam Next Fest Demos That Captured Our Hearts

The October Steam Next Fest has unleashed another armada of demos to lay waste to your free time. As usual, there's a ridiculous quantity of brilliant in-development games to check out – far too many for any one person to tackle. So unless you've invented a time loop to test them all, we've gathered some great places to start. Below you'll find the best Steam Next Fest demos that we’ve given a go. Who knows? Maybe you’ll fall in love with them just as much we did.

Wilmot Works It Out

Occasionally, all you need is to play a game that’s a Nice Time. And the laid-back puzzles of Wilmot Works It Out are most certainly that. The Steam Next Fest demo sees boxes of puzzle pieces dropped off at smiling cube Wilmot’s door (presumably in his days off from working in the warehouse). All you have to do is arrange the constituents into a lovely piece of art. Once finished, you can stick it up on your wall. There’s a hint about extra elements to the story of your postwoman, but mostly you’ll be picking up or pushing pieces around to make pictures of apples, jellyfish, and more. It’s a bit like completing jigsaws, but without any of those fiddly connecting parts.

Adorn your walls with art in the Steam Next Fest demo for Wilmot Works It Out here.

Bloodshed

Bloodshed takes Vampire Survivors and crams it into a first-person boomer shooter. It taps that inspiration heavily, including similar progression mechanics and even upgrade chests that spew catchy tunes. The demo offers the chance to sprint around one low-poly village level, blasting increasing numbers of zombies and cultists as you attempt to survive for 20 minutes. Your weapons fire automatically, but you do actually need to aim, and the first-person setup makes levels a bit more interesting thanks to the added verticality and the ability to jump.

The Steam Next Fest demo for Bloodshed is much easier than Vampire Survivors, mind. We beat it on our first attempt. By the end of the time limit, those cultists and demons will be erupting into pixelated fountains of blood any time you step nearby thanks to an arsenal of upgraded weapons and powers.

Banish hellspawn with the Steam Next Fest demo for Bloodshed here.

Mandragora

Plenty of side-on games have taken hefty inspiration from the Dark Souls series, but few tend to match the first game’s slower pace. The combat in Mandragora’s grim fantasy world is all about careful patience. Managing your stamina bar and timing dodges well. The game is also quite fetching, with an almost oil painted look to the lighting and artistic palette. The Steam Next Fest demo takes you through a few bandit camps, lets you delve into a town sewer (featuring toxic rats, naturally), and even offers the chance to brave a haunted house. You can also dip your battle-weary toes into the rather daunting skill tree with each level up.

Ready your blade in the Steam Next Fest demo for Mandragora here.

While Waiting

While Waiting is a game about, well, waiting. Each scene offers a brief vignette of waiting for some event to occur. It might be for some traffic to shift, for a soccer shot, or, as the game begins, for your birth to occur. “Completing” each level is as simple as doing nothing, but you can also fill your alotted time with several other entertaining diversions, some of which earn stickers on a notepad. Waiting for the baton in a relay, you can walk to the sidelines to try your hand at being a cheerleader, or sneakily untie a competitor’s laces. All accompanied by some pleasant piano music. Waiting may take time and patience, but it doesn’t have to be boring.

Take your time with the Steam Next Fest demo for While Waiting here.

Rift of the NecroDancer

Rhythm games are very much not our strongpoint, but it's hard to disagree with the welcoming block-colored cartoon art of Rift of the NecroDancer. This new spinoff to Crypt of the NecroDancer mostly sees you tapping keys to defeat skeletons and slimes that bop down a Guitar Hero-style track in time to the level's beat. Each enemy type adds additional rules to remember, including lane-shifting patterns, off-tempo movements, multiple taps, and plenty more. It's surprisingly tricky, especially if you're a tempo trainee like us.

Time your taps in the Steam Next Fest demo for Rift of the NecroDancer here.

If our October Steam Next Fest demos aren't enough for you, you can also take a look at which games caught our interest last time with our previous June collection here.