Top Demos from Steam Next Fest October 2023 - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of our October 2023 Steam Next Fest coverage! We're working through the selection of Steam demos on offer and highlighting which ones we're excited about! Check out Part 1 of this series if you missed it!

Here is Part 2 of our Steam Next Fest October 2023 game recommendations:

Quick Note: These demos generally aren't based on the final build of the game, so the performance of the demos on the Steam Deck is not indicative of the final product and can change dramatically on release.

Steam Next Fest October 2023 Recommendations Part 2:

Make Way (Coming Soon)

Make Way is an interesting take on the Top-Down Racing genre, taking inspiration from Ultimate Chicken Horse. Make Way asks players to first *build* the track and then *race* on the track they just built. Everyone has to select a track piece at the start of a round and then add it to the current track, gradually building a larger, more complex track that everyone has to race on. Keep up with the pack to keep earning points!

It supports both online and local multiplayer, along with full controller support. The demo also ran great on my Steam Deck, with the potential to lower the settings and TDP if you wanted a bit of extra battery life. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

FOUNDRY (Coming Soon)

I wasn't sure if I was looking at Satisfactory when I first saw FOUNDRY. But as it turns out, it has some interesting changes to make it a perfectly unique game in its own right. The world is made up of procedurally generated voxels, similar to Minecraft, but the game has a certain beauty/charm to it that other voxel games I've played have lacked.

In addition to being visually pleasing, FOUNDRY offers you the chance to build complex factories and production lines. Right now, there are no enemies present in the game, which I think is something Satisfactory also suffers from. There's little chance of "things going wrong" in the game; however, the developers have said that they are evaluating having some sort of mechanic that applies "pressure to the player" in the future. Hopefully, that will have a bearing on how you construct your factories.

The game does run okay on the Steam Deck, lowering settings to their minimum. I saw the Deck hitting 60FPS, and you can run at a higher visual quality and maintain 30FPS quite well. There is no controller support in the demo, but there is a developer-made input layout that does the job quite well for the Deck's controls.

Robocraft 2 (November 7, 2023)

This one kind of snuck up on me. I was a big player of the original Robocraft when it launched on Steam years ago. It tasked players with creating robot vehicles, either wheeled, flying, hovering, etc., and then battling them out in big team battles to see who had built the most efficient war machine.

Robocraft 2 is no different. Build your vehicle, go into combat, and hope you did the first part right! Additionally, unlike Robocraft 1, this game version has turrets and vehicles dotted around the battlefield that you can commandeer. You can also leave your vehicle and fight on foot if you must.

Performance isn't great on the Steam Deck. Even on the lowest settings, I wasn't able to hold or even reach 60FPS. However, you can achieve a stable 30FPS. This isn't great for a competitive shooting game, but the game is playable. There's currently no controller support for the game, but developers have confirmed it's "coming sooner than you might think." So, it may be ready for the game's launch in November.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (Q1 2024)

As the name might suggest, Deep Rock Galactic (DRG): Survivor is a "Survivor-like", a recently established genre made popular by indie hit Vampire Survivors.

DRG: Survivor follows the same ideas; shooting is done automatically for you, like Vampire Survivors. But, in somewhat of a change, DRG: Survivor adds a bit of depth to the game by allowing you to mine resources; these resources can be used between levels to buy upgrades for your equipment. We can still upgrade equipment and get new weapons by collecting the XP that enemies drop upon death, too.

The demo doesn't have any graphics settings we can play with, but the Steam Deck does manage 60FPS a lot of the time. When a swarm happens, and there are potentially 100+ enemies on screen, we get dips into the 50s and occasionally 40s, but given the type of game, it's not a deal-breaker at all and remains perfectly playable. The game has some controller support and does control fine on the Deck.

For now, DRG: Survivor is a single-player experience; the developers didn't elaborate much on a potential multiplayer mode. Other than that, the gameplay will be continually assessed through development.

Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator (Q1 2024)

This is a bit of a different one. We all need to relax sometimes, and Garden Life seems like a pretty good way to do it! This game is exactly what it sounds like. You start off with a fairly unkempt and debris-ridden garden, and it's your job to clean it up and make it beautiful!

You have a variety of flowers/plants and decorations at your disposal to make the garden just how you like it. They're aiming for a Spring release, so hopefully, this will coincide with the growing season in the Northern Hemisphere. But I think this could be just the kind of game you'd enjoy in the Wintertime.

The performance is a little sketchy at the moment. Running on Low settings with Ultra textures, the Steam Deck varies around 35-40FPS at the beginning of the game, but that could drop as you clear up and place more objects in your garden.

Right now, the playing area is fairly small, but I'm hoping we will see that expand closer to release. Either way, you should check out the demo to see if it's a game you could be interested in!

Sky: Children of the Light (Coming Soon)

Sky: Children of the Light is a peaceful, award-winning MMO designed to help players meaningfully connect with one another. You are a Child of the Light with a magical cape, set out into a wide world to find others like yourself. All are welcome in this cozy, open-world adventure above the clouds!

Oh man is this game relaxing. This was originally an iOS game that I knew of, but I never found the time to try it. Now that I have, I am pretty sure this will be a Steam Deck game I will be playing a lot. The demo runs great on the Steam Deck, keeping at 60 FPS without going over 11W battery drain. The demo does default to a KB+M controller scheme, but it does have controller support if you switch to the Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad option.

The Thaumaturge (December 5th, 2023)

The Thaumaturge is a story-driven RPG with morally ambiguous choices, taking place in the culturally diverse world of early 20th century Warsaw. In this world, Salutors exist: esoteric beings that only Thaumaturges can truly perceive and use for their needs.

I love how the game looks, it is awesome, but it does have some issues on the Steam Deck. Outside areas seem to dip heavily and can go down to 20 FPS, but inside areas are able to reach 60 without issues. The game also does have Steam Deck-specific graphical options. So, I have confidence the full release's performance will be better than this demo. Even still, I think the game is incredibly interesting and highly recommend trying it, just be wary of performance when outside.

Parkour Legends (Q4 2023)

Complete time-trial courses in this fast-paced side-scrolling parkour platformer. Gain speed boosts and build momentum as you vault over obstacles, slide under objects, run on walls, and rebound over impossible gaps. Collect hard-to-reach gear. Style your runner. Climb leaderboards. Become a legend!

Parkour Legends works flawlessly on the Steam Deck. It doesn't dip from 60 at all and keeps a very low battery drain. The developer even mentioned that the game has full Steam Deck support, and basing this off the demo, I am inclined to agree! It is a lot of fun, even though I suck at my timing.

American Arcadia (November 15th, 2023)

American Arcadia is a cinematic puzzle game that combines a 2.5D platformer and first-person game to tell the tale of a thrilling escape. Experience the extraordinary story of Trevor, an average man escaping from the world's most popular reality tv show.

While there are some drops here and there, the game generally performs well without going over 18W at Medium settings with a 30 FPS lock. There are some drops when going into new areas, but once a few second pass, it stabilizes relatively quick. I have high hopes for the release!

YOHANE THE PARHELION -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE- (November 16, 2023)

Yohane the Parhelion is an official spin-off of "Love Live! Sunshine". Yohane's fantasy world sets the stage for a 2D metroidvania in "Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue"!

Yohane looks like it should be running at under 7W with 60 FPS, and it achieves this most of the time, but I did notice some areas and parts where the battery drain will go up to 12W. Setting a TDP limit of 12 fixes this and keeps the battery drain down, but it is weird. Regardless, the game is awesome and will be great on the Steam Deck!

Skybreakers (Coming Soon)

An action-packed roguelike game with a unique ink-wash painting aesthetic. Choose from a variety of classes, arm yourself with a vast array of weapons, and create your own unique build by combining artifacts, random talents, abilities, and bonds. Use unique abilities to defeat a variety of devils.

Shocking runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck no matter how busy it gets. I don't believe the battery ever went above 9W and it stuck to 60 FPS the entire time. The game is a ton of fun and I highly recommend checking it out!

Anima Flux (Coming Soon)

Anima Flux is a co-op metroidvania with two genetically enhanced soldiers, special agents of a theocratic dictatorial regime. Fight your way through swarms of mutants through a desolate, dystopian space city and save humanity's last stronghold, if, of course, anyone is still alive...

There are some issues here and there, but the game runs great at 30 FPS. I love the artwork and fighting mechanics, and it is a pleasure seeing a native Linux build, too. Overall, I am quite pleased with the game and can't wait for the release!

And that's it for Part 2! Look out for Part 3 coming in two days where we will have another set of Steam Next Fest recommendations. Of course, feel free to check out Part 1 for our initial demos we suggest you try out!

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