Steam Games Festival Wrap Up - Your favourite demo/s?

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Did you try any of the "hundreds" (900+ as claimed by Valve... I didn't count :P) of demos available over the weekend? Which ones are your favourite/s?

For me, I have too big a list to add here but there are a couple of surprises:

Omno - Fun jumping puzzles with amazing abilities and relaxing atmosphere. Love the cool and unique "end of demo" as well - no spoilers :)
Grounded - It's a survival game where you play as a teen who was the unwitting participant of a "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"-style experiment. This was actually similar to a game idea I had last year after being reminded of the film, but I guess I was late to the party :P Would love to be able to "tame" insects and use them as mounts or pets though. Oh and I got myself killed by soldier ants, gnats, ladybirds that rammed into my character like a tank, and even spiders... so that was a lot of fun :P
Book of Demons: Hellcard - Only the co-op multiplayer mode is available and it's surprisingly strategic and addictive to play. I also love the co-op aspect of the gameplay and along with a fellow stranger/player, we've managed to reach the final boss where we both got our asses promptly handed back to us because the end boss is designed to be that way. You see, every player that reached the end boss will contribute whatever damage they can to take down the boss. It's a cumulative effort There's no need for chat or an entire list of "signals" (there's only a single "ping" that we can use to alert the other about a certain enemy) for us to figure out how to work together.
Undungeon - A roguelite with amazing pixel art that's not too difficult to play and doesn't have a harsh death penalty if you remembered to save at the designated save points. Reminds me of Sparklite with a dash of old-school Fallout, and it seems like the game has a crafting aspect (there are "resources" that I could pick up and hoard) which isn't revealed in the demo.
Arietta of Spirits - Another Sparklite-like roguelite but with a more relatable story. The game's not too difficult either, but it's definitely a lot simpler than Undungeon with fewer "abilities" (there's a huge variety of bombs as well as gear and runes to mix and match in the latter).
The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos - Love tactical RPGs and this one has a nice dash of whimsy in it, and the game really knows how to tempt someone (me) to do something that they have explicitly said not to just to see what happens. Barely made it out alive :P
Popup Dungeon - Another turn-based RPG with a purportedly amazing editor, which I'm sad to say I didn't really get to try out. The campaign is very RNG-based though and getting dealt a bad dice roll can really hurt your chances later on.
Ghostrunner - An incredibly-cool, cyberpunk-themed slasher-speedrunner where you play as a ninja. Reminds me strongly of Distance which I've completed after rage-quitting several times but with a lot more insane ninja moves. Probably not the sort of game I'd buy to play, unless I want to torture myself with even more rage-quits, but I really love the atmosphere in the game and of course, the cool moves.
Learning Factory - It's a supply chain-focused shop sim where you gather a variety of resources, turn them into more valuable products, and then sell them to inter-dimensional cats at your cat shop. Interesting premise and gameplay. Still lacks some quality of life features though like being able to build long stretches of conveyor belts without having to click to place each tile one by one.
Snowtopia - a theme park tycoon-like game but instead of a theme park, you build a ski resort! Seems a bit bare bones at the moment (only a few buildings) but I reckon that's likely because it's a demo. Game looks good so far, though the tutorial could use a bit more tweaking - took me wayyy too long to figure out why my ski lifts and runs are "not connected" despite being connected to the highlighted area that's near to the entrance.

Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by many of the demos I've tried. Although not all of them are hits, I have added a number of the best ones to my wishlist and I'm happy to say that those that are already there, remained there :) Note that I didn't include any of the demos I've played during the LudoNarra Con in the list above - there are some really great ones there too!

These events are truly fantastic for great indie games to gain the exposure they sorely need but seriously, a single weekend is simply not enough for someone who has wide ranging interests. Didn't get to try several of the games that I wanted to try due to work and life :/ (Builders of Egypt and Touch Type Tale, for instance) Some of the demos but not the two I've mentioned are still available now though.

Of course, a compulsory GA :)

3 years ago*

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Did you even play the demos, bro?

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Yes

What demos?

43 Comments

Droj

I downloaded about 15, ended up not having time to play any. Family, new dog, all very time consuming. "Time-limited" demos also annoy me. shrug

3 years ago