The best new PC game demos I played from Steam Next Fest

A strategic road trip, a railroad battler, a Pokémon riff on Vampire Survivors, and more

Keep Driving. Screenshot: YCJY Games

Haunted by missing Balatro’s breakout moment in last February’s Steam Next Fest, I committed myself earlier this week to trying as many free PC demos as I could in this week’s version of the event.

What playable teases of future greatness could be in the October Next Fest?

Confronted with a lengthy list, I wondered: Should I try a game called Is This Game Trying To Kill Me? Should I see why a police simulator called The Precinct is near the top of the most-played charts? Is a souls-like called AI Limit for me? (It wasn’t.)

While writing this intro, I checked the Next Fest homepage and found more and more demos I wanted to try. Behold! A listing for a game called Proverbs that is…

• “a picross/minesweeper hybrid” (okay, but so are other games?)…

• “featuring a single ENORMOUS puzzle” (huh, that’s interesting)…

• “inspired by Bruegel the Elder's 1559 painting ‘Netherlandish Proverbs’ (wait, what? I need to try that!)

Note: Five minutes later, after playing it a bit… yeah, Proverbs is a good one!

Life this week has diminished my full Next Fest ambitions. I didn’t try as many demos as I’d hoped. But here are some that were interesting…