I've still got a few I want to try but there were 24 games off my wishlest in this fest with a demo, only 1 I think I'd tried before? Insane. Not going to do all of them but hit quite a few.
Ocelot Sunrise. Big meh from me. It doesn't do anything new for the bullet heaven genre and honestly the demo looks more barebones than the initial release of Vampire Survivors. The style in-game isn't even the most comic-book-esque I don't think, it's missing a bit of something. It feels like "comic book" graphics inspired games remain doomed to mediocrity.
Time Survivors. This is still a little meh but there is some novelty here. The graphics are weird, kinda less pixely Diablo style animation? It's weird but not bad. The whole premise is at least amusing, playing as Abe Lincoln with a flail, crossbow, and fireballs is a thing. It does things a little different by having upgrades outside of runs tied to characters and weapons, I dunno how much that will give it lasting power though.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor was probably my favorite bullet heaven of the ones I played. It adds the mining, plus waves sort of like Brotato but more dynamic (the wave ends when you kill the boss and you have to make it to the pod, like the main game). Unless it's crazy expensive I'll likely pick it up.
Fatalzone. This one is a maybe. It has base upgrades and some kind of merc-management, with your characters getting mutations and needing to rest / be healed, and you can upgrade the mercs themselves (I'm assuming if you die in a run the merc is gone, so permadeath in a bullet heaven is novel here). The levels are way more dynamic too, the first extraction is 2 minutes in, then 2 more minutes, then every 5 minutes at default upgrade tier (you can upgrade that to give yourself more waves of 2 minute extracts). Given that the 20-30 minute runs are done to death, this alone may make it worth a shot.
Microcivilization. I legitimately do not know if I liked this or not. The demo is clearly leaving out some systems, and it really comes down to how much those add. For the demo it feels too active for an idle game and too idle for an active game, and got really repetitive because the "best" choices are pretty clear cut.
Draken's Shrine. Apparently inspired by some game, but I played like 3 minutes before quitting. The settings were bugged to where it wouldn't let me use a controller, and the M+KB controls were AWFUL. I'm not sure if the six-point aim is the same with controller but if it is I wouldn't touch it anyway.
Blade of the Netherworld. Something about actiony roguelike Chinese games lately, lots of jank, but kinda fun anyway. I worry it'd be really grindy and repetitive but hard to tell off the demo. Some of the flashy stuff you can do with just your basic moveset is very fun, but the random rooms aren't super interesting (although they rarely are in these kinds of games). I'm gonna keep my eye on it.
Vexlands. This felt like a worse Forager. I played for maybe 30 minutes and was tired of the cycle already - there's more stuff in the game but I'm not convinced you engage with it in a fun way.
Tevi. I ended up disliking ribi-rabi (or however it's spelled) because of the terrible level scaling, but that seems absent here so it's already more promising. You can't drop through platforms for some reason? In a metroidvania? That feels illegal and added some extra backtracking for no reason but maybe final game will be different. The map was pretty terrible. The combat and systems are interesting and look fun though.
Arcane Assembly. Unless I missed something, this is truly the shortest demo I think I've found. BUT, it does introduce you to just enough to pique my interest. I created a rapid-fire orb machine gun spell where each orb had another orb orbiting it. Orb. There have been a few other "program spells" concept games in the past that never went anywhere so if it delivers a full game that's enough for me. Also I am hoping it just doesn't even try to be balanced and you can annihilate your enemies with broken nonsense.
Laika: Aged Through Blood. Jesus, those content warnings at the beginning ARE NOT A JOKE. This game might be too depressing for me and I play lots of walking simulators. It's really hard to get the hang of but it could be fun but yikes. Honestly if the first 3 minutes are the worst of it, I'll probably give the full version a shot.
I'm for sure giving Solium Infernum and The Last Flame a shot, not sure if I'll get to anything else because now I haven't played BG3 in two days because I've been playing demos.
