The trailer pretty much tells you outright that this isn't a game, more like a level-editor that lets you build a scene from prefab blocks and then look at what you made. For something that's supposed to release in less than a month, it has a surprising number of issues and bugs, too. The artwork is nice, but I have no idea who this is supposed to be for.
Interesting take on classic top-down arcade action, but ruined IMHO by too much rogue-lite design - no powerups and instead having to die over and over to slowly save up on loot to buy health upgrades is not my idea of fun.
Sounds good on paper ("Katamari, but also a golf game"), but the golf game is barely there - the tee-off is barebones, there's no putting, there's no different clubs, it might as well be pinball. Almost feels like the golf bit was an afterthought. Navigating the boost-pads needs quicker reactions than you can reasonably have with a controller, so mouse-keyboard centric, too. Needs work, but releases in two weeks, so - pass.
Good looking metroidvania, plays well, too, but the difficulty is for pros who have been mainlining metroidvanias for years, so not for a scrub like me.
Will anybody anywhere ever make a Backrooms-themed game on Steam that is not garbage (or even simply not get abandoned before release)? This one's probably not gonna be the one either.
This is the 50GB download demo. Apparently the game has been in production in some way or another for 12 years now and had a failed Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign at some point, but will actually get released after all this year. The game's assets have all been created and built as physical miniatures first and then 3D-scanned into the game engine (which explains a lot of the long production time). Somewhat unfortunately the game itself seems to be just yet another German point and click though, with slow, plodding storytelling and writing that wants to be funny but gets stuck halfway between the level of dad jokes and sketch comedy from 50 years ago. 50 gigs of fun this demo is not. The claymation look is this game's strongest selling point and I'm not sure it's enough to sell me on it. At least the emphasis seems to be on storytelling rather than puzzling, there seems to be no object inventory.
Superb looking and rock-solid playing metroidvania with art direction from Niklas 'El Huervo' Åkerblad of Hotline Miami fame. Easy wishlist and recommendation for everyone who enjoys C O L O R S and metroidvanias.
A modern remake of the 16/32-bit home-computer and Gameboy classic Bubble Ghost. Production quality is flawless, the looks are very nicely done and cute (the original games from the 1990s were not exactly good-looking, so this isn't just a weird attempt at nostalgia cash-grabbing, this really looks like a labor of love) and most importantly, the game still will make anybody rage HARD a couple of levels in. Wishlisted and recommended for anybody, not just people who remember the original.
This one really surprised me - I had never heard of this game before and it wasn't part of any promotions or trailer shows, I just found it while clicking through the Next Fest page. The intro and the small tutorial area right at the start do not look like much at all (in fact, they look startingly like a 7th generation console game), but then the game opens up and the reason why the asset and texture detail is sometimes a bit on the low side becomes clear - the maps are huge! Gameplay is stealth-centric, but lets the player choose whether to be a silent assassin or a shadow that just slips by enemies without even harming them. The gameplay had me hooked pretty quickly. Wishlisted and really looking forward to the finished product.
Dang, and I still have 10 more demos downloaded ...