wizard with a gun: didn't love it, felt a little too slow and repetitive for me. gonna have to wait and see what the full game looks like.
fortune's run: this game goes so hard, can't wait for it to release. if you like imm sims check this out. this is one of those games that isn't lying about the difficulty - even medium is pretty challenging. also the music is good enough to make me wish they released soundtracks for demos
excited to try valley peaks, viewfinder, and hammerwatch 2 whenever i get a chance
Botany Manor – low poly indie game where the puzzles are figuring out how to grow plants. the low poly is done well and feels very painterly and cozy! the puzzles feel very short and easy to solve, and I suspect that won't really change in the full game. I'm hoping it'll be a $10 to $15 dollar game that I can pick up and complete in a weekend.
Jusant – a slightly janky but enjoyable rock climbing game. I'd be very curious to know if actual rock climbers feel it was represented well here? I think rock climbing in general isn't usually the focus of an entire game so it's neat to see it become the main game mechanic here. the physics can be a bit janky if you do things that you're probably not supposed to do (eg. I almost got stuck with the rope under a metal support beam once) but as long as you don't try to break it, things go well. If this releases around the $20 to $30 price point it'll be a definite buy from me.
Sticky Business – create your own stickers and sell them! the final game needs a much broader range of options for your sticker creation, and needs a better UI view of all your stickers once you start packing them for orders. the writing feels a little clunky and generic, but it helps provide a little motivation for why you're selling the stickers. also has a slider for music in the options but was dead silent in the demo?? honestly got my fill of it during the demo so I can't see myself picking up the full release.
Haven't played it yet, but I'm looking forward to trying the demo of Stray Gods – it's got the Greek Gods vibe of Hades, and I'm a Dragon Age fan so have to give it a shot for David Gaider's writing.
Oh and I also have to plug the demo for Horticular! It's a relaxing, gorgeous, and satisfying garden design sim. I'm super excited for the full release of the game whenever it comes out; I played ~10 hours straight last year when the demo first launched, and it looks like it's been well polished for this year's Next Fest.
Not sure if it's on Steam NextFest, but recently played the demo for Jumplight Odyssey, and had a lot of fun with it. Art style is great, and I enjoyed what I was able to play of the main gameplay loop. I loved FTL when it came out but always wanted a little more RPG type elements and it looks like Jumplight might scratch that itch really well. The base-building/Xcom feel is also a big plus.
Back to the Dawn. Pretty cool prison escape game. Reminds me of the gameplay of Kindergarten with it being more of a serious story and world (with a little bit of sillyness). Seems like the full game will be pretty fun!
Hammerwatch 2 with a friend. Its Fun and i 100% play it on release.
Primitive Society Simulator... It has Graphic Bugs for me and is sadly unplayble because of it.
Paleo Pines, also a little buggy but cute. Verry relaxing Game. The biggest Problem for me is the short view distance and that the Characters look a little stale.
Everyone should try the SteamWorld Build demo, it's super fun. It's a pretty relaxed settlement builder / city management game set in the same universe as the SteamWorld Dig games, with a focus on synergising and exploration rather than on spinning plates to balance resources like you see in more hardcore city management games.
I wanted to, but despite the page saying it supports controller, the demo does not, and I can't be bothered trying to set up steam deck mappings for a demo.
Oh, thanks for bringing this to my attention! My problem with city building games is usually just that, too stressful. I don't mind being attacked every once in a while, for example, but if being slightly unprepared to deal with an attack means total failure, then I tend to go play something else...
Yeah I'm much the same lmao. The other thing I struggle with is when your resources get too low and workers start dying/leaving/whatever so that it becomes even harder to get the resources you need! SteamWorld Build avoids this - instead of punishing you for not having resources, instead it just rewards you for having excess resources, so for example the citizens will work faster if you have excess resources but if you don't then they still work at the default speed.
Oh also, another one to check out is a game called Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles. It's a really cool twist on the settlement game where you don't deal with resources in numbers, instead the resources can only travel a certain distance away from the harvesting location. It's also got a cool system where you switch between building mode and an exploration mode where you can fly an airship around and discover new locations / new resources / events with other factions.
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