Steam Next Fest: October 2023 Edition – here’s a list of demos you can try

Steam Next Fest: October 2023 Edition has kicked off, and there are so many demos available and it’s a bit overwhelming.

As usual with these fests, we try to comb through the lot and pull out a few interesting demos for you to look at.

Steam Next Fest: October 2023 Edition runs through October 16, and alongside demos, many developers are hosting livestreams to discuss their upcoming releases. There are also chats with the devs that will continue for the duration.

So, without further ado, below you will find a sampling of the demos we found. There are hundreds and hundreds of others available, so head over to Steam and start browsing.

Fans of the first Ghostrunner will be pleased to hear its sequel, Ghostrunner 2, has a demo available for Steam Next Fext; if you have been wanting to give the stealth-strategy pirate game Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew a try, you’re in luck; the colorful medieval fantasy city builder Pioneers of Pagonia can be tried as well, and it’s definitely something I plan on giving a go because I like the looks of it; hellish turn-based grand strategy game Solium Infernum isn’t out until 2024, but right now, you can try to become the new ruler of Hell early; if you have been looing forward to The Talos Principle 2, there’s a demo available for it ahead of its Novemeber release; and you really need to try out the demo for the Devolver Digital-published game Wizard with a Gun, an online cooperative sandbox survival game that has some super cool graphics; and here’s a demo for Enshrouded, a co-op survival action RPG for up to 16 players that currently sits at number 20 on the Steam Most Wishlisted list.

Cat lovers should have a look at Cats on Duty, a rather humorous looking RTS, tower defense, and match-3 game where you arm a bunch of cats with weapons to defeat hordes of formidable foes; and another game about cats is the lovely cozy life sim RPG Cattails: Wildwood Story where you become a cat and lead your colony into the mysterious Wildwood where you will build a thriving town, hunt prey, harvest herbs, collect magical treasures, and defend your new home from intruders. Sounds like a plan to me!; if you ever fantasized about managing a zoo, you can do just that in Zoo Simulator and you can give the demo a try today. Speaking of animals, as a little girl, I was obsessed with horses (as many are), and nothing has changed since becoming an adult – so I am probably going to give this demo for My Horse: Bonded Spirits a try. In it, you build a bond with your horse, complete tasks, and try to rebuild a run-down stud farm.

A prolouge demo for upcoming action-adventure game Weko The Mask Gatherer is available, and it puts you in the shoes of a gecko on a quest to collect powerful masks to fight back the darkness; there’s the modern text-based adventure with cool pixel art, I Doesn’t Exist, which is classic Zork meets Existential that explores themes of control, isolation and mental health; if you want something more gritty, there’s rogue-lite FPS Soulslinger Envoy of Death which puts you in the cowboy boots of a gunslinger in limbo fighting a ruthless organization harvesting souls; those into classic CRPGs from the 1990s and early 2000s should download the demo for Passageway of the Ancients; and Last Chicken Games as a demo available for the fun-looking, action-packed arcade shooter Jett Rider.

There’s a demo available for Farm Manager World, an interesting looking sim that lets you manage a farm across global locations. The developer, Cleaversan Games, has another interesting game in development titled Dragonscale Monastery that tasks you with building a dragon sanctuary. There isn’t a demo available for it, but I thought I’d mention it anyway since it looks interesting; World War I buffs should have a look at RTS game Last Train Home which tasks you with trying to bring your soldiers home post-war onboard an armored train while caught in the middle of a civil war between Russia’s Red and White Armies; on the other end of the spectrum is action RPG Monolith: Requiem of the Ancients where you try to protect a mystical world under threat by dark forces; and head over to the Songs of Silence page on Steam and hit the download button. It’s a lovely-looking story-rich game that’s a unique mix of turn-based kingdom management, exploration, and hero development, contrasted with short and intense real-time battles.

KarmaZoo is another Devlover Digital-published title and it’s an altruistic, cooperative platformer where up to 10 random players help each other with the unique abilities of 50 different characters all for the sake of good Karma; side-scrolling, soul-shifting sandbox action adventure game Amedama is another interesting looking title set in feudal Japan during the last years of the Edo period starring a soul on a quest to find his sister within seven days; just in time for spooky season is the demo for Reveil, a narrative first-person psycho-thriller that focuses on story, puzzles and exploration; you ca try out thefirst-person factory building simulation game Foundry which is set in an endless procedurally generated voxel world; if you are more into sims, upcoming colony simulator Ascent of Ashes has a one-hour demo allowing you to try basic base building, survival, needs management, character customization, exploration, and combat; you can try out the brutal first person melee action game Unawake; you can play as one of the Merry Men in the co-op Robin Hood-inspired game Gangs of Sherwood; and there’s Sovereign Syndicate, a rather interesting looking Victorian steampunk RPG that uses tarot cards instead of dice.

A demo for free-to-play multiplayer shooter Histera is also available. This fast-paced game features a battlefield that changes on the fly in real-time. There’s also the interesting looking JustAxe, a 2D platformer with puzzles and interactive environments. If you’re looking for something cozy, check out the demo for Wild Country, a competitive card game with city-building elements; and one demo I will absolutley try is the one for Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley. It’s a musical adventure game in which Snufkin needs to restore the harmony of Moominvalley, after a series of grotesque parks has appeared and ruined the valley’s natural balance.

If you are looking for a fast-paced third-person shooter with rogue-lite elements, check out the demo for Simulakros. Here’s a demo for folks who like to shoot zombies: Last Whisper. This online solo/co-op/multiplayer survival game is set in a post-apocalyptic open world where a virus has turned humanity into mutants and zombies. Those looking for something less stressful should try the demo for management and simulation game SeaOrama: World of Shipping. The game has you starting your own shipping company with a fleet of over 17 types of ships and 90 port locations. There’s also Deadly Rain, a surival-horror FPS set in a post-apocalyptic, abandoned village full of mutants; you can also download demos for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and SpellRogue. The former is a Deep Rock Galactic spin-off that’s a shoot’em up with destructible environments, while the latter blends deck building with roguelike gameplay.

So there you have it! A massive wall of text full of links to some really cool demos you can download until October 16. Have fun, and let us know which ones you’ll be trying!