Valve’s October Steam Next Fest is the last celebration for this year of games soon to be released. The Steam Next Fest has developer chats, live streams, and hundreds of demos available to download and play. You can try out the demos from October 9th until October 16th.
At LadiesGamers, we have some recommendations for a few demos you should check out.
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley
Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley was the first demo I tried; while it’s not a particularly long demo, it is adorable.
This is a musical adventure game in which Snufkin must restore harmony to Moominvalley. A series of horrible parks have appeared all over the valley, ruining the valley’s natural balance.
The demo shows you the opening scenes and lets you play a small part where you help some creatures, use Snufkin’s harmonica, and sneak past the pesky park keepers.
Furthermore, Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is based on the beloved characters from Tove Jansson’s stories. The book characters will all appear in the game when it’s released next year.
Wood & Weather
Wood & Weather is a single-player god-game set in a lovely wooden toy city. In the demo, you get to play as a blue hand. Additionally, with the help of a wizard, you impress, inspire, and help the locals by manipulating the open world and changing the Weather to solve puzzles and quests.
I enjoyed playing as a blue hand, and the wooden town and people remind me of a very old children’s TV show, the Wooden Tops, from many years ago, long before my time, of course!
Sayri: The Beginning
Another interesting demo I played was the puzzle platformer Sayri: The Beginning. Unfortunately, Sayri has been forced to flee and has landed in the beautiful world of Ayris. The demo allows you to explore a small section of the Ayris. It is an absolutely gorgeous world with some environmental puzzles.
When the game is released, you can explore the planet and discover every secret Ayris offers. Form new friendships with curious locals along the way, uncover the truth behind what happened, and find a new home for Sayri.
Paper Trail
Paper Trail is a top-down puzzle adventure about leaving home. Additionally, the unique thing about Paper Trail is it’s set in a foldable, paper world. A world that you fold over as you play the game.
As you progress through Paper Trail, you fold and join paths together so you can move on. However, the more you play the game and solve puzzles, the more you’ll have to contort, spin, rotate, and twist the world around you as you try to untangle the puzzle of the Paper Trail.
Wanderful
In Wanderful, you create your own story. You place tiles down to expand the world and explore.
Your journey starts in the middle of a map, and you are only equipped with a few tiles. By placing the tiles, the fog around it disappears. Tiles are placed to uncover landscapes, creatures and wonders to generate more tiles, allowing you to continue your journey. The demo is bright, colourful and very inviting.
Laysara: Summit Kingdom
Laysara: Summit Kingdom is a city builder that tasks you with creating a new home for your people forced out of the lowlands.
Furthermore, you build a civilization on the side of a mountain, which is challenging because you have limited space. You can try out your skills in the demo and build a small settlement on the mountain. It is a great concept for a city-building game and is different from the normal simulation games in this genre.
Pioneers of Pagonia
At the beginning of October, I played an extended version of the Pioneers of Pagonia demo. You can try out the demo for yourself and enjoy this lovely game. It is a city builder about exploration and expanding your settlement.
Additionally, the fantastical and inviting world of Pagonia is where you will make carefully considered decisions and cause thousands of bustling inhabitants to satisfy your orders. Read more about Pioneers of Pagonia in our demo impressions article here.