10 Fantastic Steam Next Fest Demos That Are Great On Steam Deck

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The Steam Next Fest is one of the best events that Valve puts on through Steam. It's a festival to showcase upcoming games and their demos, and it's a great way to highlight indies. I have been making my way through the hundreds and hundreds of great demos, and I wanted to showcase the ones I felt were worth checking out on your Steam Deck.

So, here are 10 awesome demos that will be great to enjoy on the Steam Deck.

Steam Next Fest June 2026 Recommendations For Steam Deck

Duskfade

Duskfade was one of the games I was really looking forward to this year, and the demo doesn’t disappoint. It’s very clearly inspired by PS2 Classics, like Kingdom Hearts and Jak and Daxter. The PS2 charm shines through it, in a gorgeous world with some enjoyable combat. Based on the demo, I would say my hype for it hasn’t gone away whatsoever.

It also appears like they are going to be optimizing for the Steam Deck. The demo has a specific quality preset for the Steam Deck, and with it, we have a beautiful-looking game running at 30 FPS. There may be some spots we can optimize further, but for the most part, it runs really well and feels great. I’m hoping the full release continues this.

Swordcery

This was one of the first demos recommended to us by the developer over on Twitter/X, and I was hooked by the premise. A roguelike ARPG where there are tons of different types of blades, which can range from practical ones, like dual swords, to insane ones, like a giant shark. The combat is solid, and unique swords definitely steal the show. Each one has its own abilities, which can also range from practical, like a ranged air slice, to weird, like rolling two dice, and the number shown on there shows how many times it will attack. There’s a lot of promise with its systems, roguelike elements, and progression, and this is definitely one I recommend wishlisting and trying out.

The Steam Deck performance can range, but it will generally stick above 30 FPS on the default settings. It definitely needs some optimization work, but I can see this being a great game to play on the go.

Moldrise

As soon as I saw the store page for Moldrise, I knew I had to try it out. If you are a huge fan of artistic, horror, indie games like Mouthwashing, this one is going to be perfect for you. We essentially are going up and down a building as someone who has mold on their foot that is slowly taking over their body. We’ll have to manage our hunger, thirst, and infection as we find ways to get up to the roof of our apartment complex. It’s got that gorgeous, retro aesthetic, creepy atmosphere, weird characters, and artistic style that gives me the same feeling Mouthwashing did.

On top of that, it’s amazing to play on the Steam Deck. It runs at 60 FPS and sticks to a battery drain under 10W. Part of the reason I tried this game out was that the developer commented on our Twitter/X post with a picture showing he developed certain parts of the game on the Deck. I’m very glad he did, because this is by far one of my favorite demos that I’ve played so far during the Steam Next Fest.

Normal Golf Game

I remember seeing this game in a recent presentation, and I thought it looked hilarious. Country to what the name suggests, this is not a normal golf game. However, that’s what makes it so much fun. We have to control the swing and angle of how we hit the ball, which is extremely hard to do, but that’s part of the charm. There will be lots of failed hits, but we will always get back up to try and try again. On top of that, making your character so obviously someone standing in front of a green screen was a great move. It’s challenging, physics-based, and can be frustrating, but that doesn’t take away from how great this game is going to be when it releases.

I was a little worried for this one since it didn’t seem to have any controller support, but I was pleasantly surprised. The performance is okay, hitting 60 FPS when walking around but dropping down to the 40 to 50 range when golfing, but the controller support is there and works pretty well. I can see why keyboard and mouse are better, but this works, and I was able to do pretty well in 15% of my shots.

Ignoble

This is a weird, incremental roguelike where we need to kill people quickly, harvest their blood, and get stronger and stronger as we try to fight more and more enemies. This is when I was a bit surprised, but I really like the concept. Our health is constantly draining; the only way to stop it from draining so quickly is to keep on fighting. Encourage us to fight quickly rather than strategically, and as we get more powerful, we will be able to get more blood to upgrade ourselves further. It’s simple, yet very effective.

On top of that, it runs beautifully on the Steam Deck. We do have to force Proton manually, but otherwise, it plays at a perfect 60 FPS with under 10W battery drain. This isn’t something I’m surprised by, given how the game looks, but it’s still very nice and really fun to play on the go.

Deep Dish Dungeon

A classic co-op dungeon-crawling experience where we will need to work together, fight creatures, craft tools, and cook great food. There are usually lots of bells and whistles for these kinds of games, but this one is just simple, to the point, and has the greatest aesthetic.

However, Steam Deck performance is what surprised me the most. I expected worse, but I was able to handle 90 FPS with a relatively low battery drain. There were some spots where battery drain did spike up, but setting a 60 FPS limit fixed it entirely. I have a little doubt that this is going to be a great game to play on the go.

Brazilian Drug Dealer Before 4

I genuinely have no idea what I just tried. There was definitely shooting, but the rest is a blur. What even is this game?

On the plus side, it’s very playable on the Steam Deck. It can hit 60 FPS completely and stay there while under 15W battery drain. Now, if only I could figure out what this game actually is.

Silver Pines

If someone were to take the style of horror from classic Resident Evil games and put it in a 2D metroidvania, we would get Silver Pines. We play as a detective who has been hired to find a musician. However, the place is deserted, and there are creatures around. It’s a beautiful experience, with an awesome aesthetic and engaging gameplay so far. There were so many aspects that I love, like how we use items to complete puzzles, and I’ll be watching for this release.

It also runs spectacularly on the Steam Deck, hitting 60 FPS a majority of the time with around 15W battery drain. There were some areas that did drain a little more, and a few where the frame rate would drop for a few seconds, but none of it harmed the overall experience.

Ringash

If you ever wondered how Devil May Cry would look and feel in the top-down view, this is going to be the game for you. It’s filled to the brim with action, rewards you for using combos between your skills and attacks, and is extremely fast-paced. It’s exactly what I was hoping it would be, and I really hope it continues this run for its release.

However, it does need a little bit of optimization work on the Steam Deck. This is a game that needs 60 FPS to truly feel amazing, and while it hits that for the most part on the default settings, there were some areas I found where there were some bottlenecks and drops. As long as they can iron it out, this is going to be a must-have game for portable play.

Screenbound

This is a game that I have been watching and looking forward to for quite some time, and playing felt a little surreal. Having to focus on two different perspectives at one time was not nearly as jarring as unexpected, and if anything, it may make playing the game exciting. Constantly swapping between the two perspectives to find hidden items that help us platform through levels is fulfilling when it all works out, and I can’t wait to see what the full game will be like.

It’s also much better on the Steam Deck than I expected. It started off a little bit shaky, going down to 15 FPS, but as soon as we got to the levels, I was able to stick to 30 FPS and above. I’m hoping that the full game will have more optimization, since there isn’t a ton of visual detail going on in this world, but time will tell.

And those are our recommendations so far! There are so many more amazing demos, so I recommend heading to the main page to find even more to try out.

Let us know in the comments which demos you tried as well; we would love some other recommendations to check out!

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