Okay, it’s that time of year. We are already in the second month of 2024, and the Steam Next Fest in February 2024 has come and gone. I planned to limit the number of demos I looked at. I resolved to do so many demos every day, a mix of live streams and gameplay footage, and before I realized it, I’d covered 50 demos. So I decided to share my impressions of each demo I played. Because there are 50 demos, I’ll attempt to keep them to at least a small passage per game. Also, to avoid one long article, I am splitting it into several articles. So, let us conclude our adventure through the 50 demos I played during Steam Next Fest.
| STEAM NEXT FEST DAY 8 [FINAL DAY] : FEBRURARY 12, 2024 |
| Game Name |  |
| Developer | Broccoli Games |
| Publisher | Broccoli Games |
| Genre | Wholesome Roguelite |
| Release Date | Q1 2024 |
| Platform | PC |
Coffee Caravan will fuel your passion for coffee! As a cafe manager, you’ll brew, experiment with great recipes, and create your ideal coffee shop on wheels. In this roguelite adventure, you’ll serve customers, unlock new flavors, buy appliances, and take a procedurally created road trip.
So I never expected wholesome and roguelite to be featured in the same category, but then came Coffee Caravan. Now, I’m not saying there aren’t any other wholesome roguelites out there, but I can’t think of many right now. I initially thought Coffee Caravan would be a time management game, and I’m not saying it isn’t, because it is, but I enjoyed how they incorporated the roguelite element to it.
The game can be played using a keyboard, mouse, or controller. I played the game with a controller. The only issue I had was that when you got to the stage, when you had to select the recipes to serve, it glitched, and I had to use the mouse. In addition, you can choose whatever dish to begin with and receive a tutorial. During the game, it tells you how to make the other cocktails, but not in a tutorial fashion. So perhaps including a section for creating the drinks via tutorials would be useful.
Overall, if you like wholesome games and roguelites, then I highly recommend adding Coffee Caravan to your wishlist.
| Game Name |  |
| Developer | Walking Tree Games GmbH |
| Publisher | Starbreeze Publishing |
| Genre | Horror Building Survival Rogue-Like |
| Release Date | Feb 22, 2024 |
| Platforms | PC macOS |
The Tribe Must Survive is a tribe-building game with a lot of survival and rogue-like elements. In the beginning, your Tribe is attempting to live against the darkness and the creatures that lurk in the night. Some of you manage to escape when things become hostile in your original tribe, and you set out to form your own tribe.
Don’t Starve vibes, although a touch darker, were what I got from The Tribe Must Survive. The tutorial is shown to you when you first launch the game, and like many survival games, the rest is up to you to figure out on your own. Upon completing the tutorial game for the first time, I was offered with three distinct starting circumstances when I returned to the game.
I did have fun playing the game and figuring out how to balance it. One of the things that baffled me was the suggestion to place a light source next to the tribe members to help them overcome their fear, but it wasn’t clear what kind of light source was meant to accomplish this. If you like survival games, the game is quite enjoyable and well worth your time. However, as previously mentioned, these kinds of games are trial and error, so you’ll need to play a few times to figure out what really works.
| Game Name |  |
| Developer | Scary Robot |
| Publisher | Scary Robot |
| Genre | Point & Click Adventure |
| Release Date | To Be Announced |
| Platform | PC |
“Danger! Danger!” In this 3D point-and-click adventure game inspired by the television series Lost in Space, take on the roles of Will Robinson, Dr. Smith, and Robot. Discover perilous settings, deceive iconic antagonists, and unravel innumerable riddles and enigmas to save your fellow Jupiter 2 crew members.
I had no idea there was a Lost in Space game in development, so finding it among the Steam Next Fest demos came as a surprise. I’ll start by mentioning that if you’re going to stream or record the game, you ought to disable the music because it is copyrighted. Due to copyright, I had to silence the sound in the video. So I’m hoping that when the full game is released, there will be a toggle for streamer mode so that we can at least stream the game with sound.
Graphically, I felt the game looked great, and it reminded me of Telltale Games’ previous games. I looked into the developer, Scary Robot, and discovered their website, where it appears that the Lost In Space game is their debut PC game and that they are primarily focused on mobile games. The only issue I had with the demo was the controls. Will got stuck when I initially tried to play with the controller, which I believe was due to the fact that I was using a Dualshock controller. I had to restart the game before attempting to play with the keyboard. The keyboard controls are a tad clunky and could be refined more.
Overall, I’m excited to see what happens with the game, which was set to release in 2023 according to Scary Robot’s website. So I’m hoping there will be a release date for Lost In Space – The Adventure Game, because I’d like to play it more.
| Game Name |  |
| Developer | That Guy’s Game |
| Publisher | That Guy’s Game |
| Genre | Funny Point & Click |
| Release Date | April 2024 |
| Platform | PC |
Addicting and humorous, Girlfriend From Hell is an arcade 2D puzzle game. The primary objective of the game is for Miya to get revenge on her lover, Haruto, for not wanting to marry her after five years of being together.
I’m not going to lie: I downloaded Girlfriend From Hell purely because of the title. After watching some gameplay footage of the game, I decided to give it a shot and see what it was all about. I thought the game was humorous, and the concept was intriguing. However, I did have some problems with the game’s controls. For example, if you have more than one monitor and pan to the right, the cursor will leave the game. Locking the cursor to prevent it from leaving the game can help with this.
Another issue is that it appears that all of the items you use to execute pranks on Haruto are constantly in the same place. So, to give some variety to the game, perhaps having the things spawn in different places might offer some variety and depth to the game, preventing it from seeming repetitive.
Overall, a terrific start to the game, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else Girlfriend From Hell has in store.
| Game Name |  |
| Developer | Toydium, Million Edge |
| Publisher | Toydium, Million Edge, Bushiroad Inc. |
| Genre | Side Scroller Puzzle Action Adventure |
| Release Date | May 8, 2024 |
| Platform | PC |
When the protagonist of Gift awakens, he finds himself on a luxurious cruise ship. The game concentrates on his attempts to escape from the sinking ship and a group of passengers for whom he has feelings of nostalgia.
If you took the game Septentrion [SOS in the States] and stripped that god-forsaken timer out of the game and made it a lot more wholesome, then you would have the game Gift. I was drawn in by the graphics of the Gift. Upon playing the game, I enjoyed what I saw and played. The controls flowed {heh heh} well. I think the only issue I had with the demo was that you couldn’t save your progress, which makes sense because it’s a demo. I had gotten pretty far into the demo but had to stop playing due to time constraints, so having the save feature would have been nice, but again, that’s just a personal preference.
Otherwise, I am looking forward to seeing more of what Gift has to offer when it comes on May 8, 2024.
Well, I guess that wraps up the coverage of Steam Next Fest February 2024 Edition. Please keep in mind that all of the games that were featured in these articles were the Steam Next Fest demos of said games, and therefore the footage you see may or may not be featured in the final version of the game. Also, there may be some noticeable bugs in the game. I can admit that this Steam Next Fest was pretty promising, and I look forward to seeing you all at the Steam Next Fest June 2024 Edition, which is currently taking submissions up until February 26, 2024 (11:59 p.m. PST) and will take place from June 10 – June 17, 2024.
