My demo highlights from the June 2026 Steam Next Fest

Auroch Digital
Releasing In 2026

What if Vampire Survivors, but Warhammer? No seriously, that's literally it. Made in collaboration with Poncle, it's the core design and look of Vampire Survivors but with Warhammer characters, enemies and abilities. And even though Auroch Digital's leading this one, they knew exactly what they were making. If you like this genre, try this. If you don't, this won't sell you on it. I like this genre and I indeed like this!

Village Studio
Release to Be Announced

I do love me a good "fake OS" game and I like the concept of the hacking genre, even though I find most of them to be fairly similar to each other. This one's different because aside from nailing the mid-90s vibes, you perform your hacks using a deckbuilder mechanic.

I normally don't like deck builders because I'm just not really into cards in general and I don't find the idea of spending a big chunk of the game optimizing your deck to be that interesting. At least in this demo though, this was fairly streamlined and quick to do and using it to perform the hacks like a turn-based RPG was something I'd never seen before.

The Wild Gentlemen/Kwalee
Release to Be Announced

I really enjoyed the Chicken Police games from this developer before, but this is nothing like those. Instead, this is a disco-punk space horror immersive sim and that sure is a sentence I just wrote. I'd never heard of disco-punk before but it apparently means "What if space was like the 70s?" and yeah, I could get into that.

Being an immersive sim, you can approach things in either a stealthily or forceful way. I will say that if you choose the forceful way at least early on, be prepared for some tough battles. The demo doesn't get too far into the story, but the trailers make it looks like things will get real weird, real fast.

There's something called "The ImSim Curse". This genre had fans who love it (myself among them) but it's notorious for poor sales because too many normie gamers see them as overwhelming or too intimidating. With its unique style and horror focus, this will have an uphill battle but I hope it can break the curse.

Messhoff
Release to Be Announced

Messhoff is most famous for the Nidhogg games, but they've made other stuff too and never let it be said that you put these devs in a box. Now it's their turn to take on the seemingly endless auto shooter genre.

This has kind of stolen the show of this Next Fest and is many people's demo of the event. I can certainly see why. While this is an auto shooter, it ditches some of the most common conventions of the genre, going for a zoomed in side scrolling approach instead of a top down one. It has Messhoff's quintessential lo-fi art style, which I don't mind at all, but am not enamored with as much as some others.

Most importantly, they nailed the game play feel of this. Your character can grip almost any surface, but also move around the world very fast if you master the controls, which you'll have to do to pull off big runs.

This team never flubs mechanical design and they didn't here either. In an unending sea of Vampire Survivors clones, I applaud them for doing something fresh and different.

Deconstructeam/Selkie Harbour/Devolver Digital
Releasing 2026

Deconstructeam makes unique arty games that always have heavy emotional weight to them. My favourite of theirs is still The Red Strings Club. Virtue and a Sledgehammer is a full 3D experience about someone dealing with some kind of major emotional trauma who goes back to their home town (I assume in a dream) and proceeds to smash the place to Hell with a giant hammer.

The demo did a good job of conveying exactly what the ideas of this are without giving too much about the story away beyond family issues and destroying said home town. I might be skeptical if this team didn't have a solid track record already and they say up front that this is a narrative game, meaning the game play will remain simple, but I really want to see where it leads.

Nightdive Studios/Atari
Release to Be Announced

If you're not into Nightdive's exceptional remasters of old games, you can skip this one.

I never played SiN back in the day because it ran like crap on my PC then but I remember it being a weird one. The shooting has a strange and unique feel, even for the time. The characters are writing and plot are all frankly terrible, but in a cheeseball way that will either turn you off or endear you to it.

Despite those faults, SiN was know for being ground breaking in the genre for its time and introducing ideas that we would see in many shooters for years to come and it still has a strong fan base. This is Nightdive so it's getting the absolute S-tier remaster treatment, with enhancements you can disable if you want to play it the old school way and all the expansion content included.

As someone who likes the history of games as much as the games themselves, I'll definitely be picking this up to fill the gap in my knowledge.

Pelikan13
Releasing September 10, 2026

The TakeOver was a very solid Streets of Rage-esque brawler back in 2019. It played well, integrated firearms into the brawler combat in a slick way and had a great 2D/3D hybrid art style. An impressive effort from a solo dev. Now he's back with a sequel and he's blown past his prior achievements.

This improves on basically everything. Cleaner art, better animations, a much better combo system and just more and better everything really. Also, apparently some kind of After Burner type sequence according to the trailer?

I'm continually amazed by what this solo dev has pulled off and it looks like he'll have another banger for the brawler renaissance with this one. I love a good, dumb game about punching gangbangers sometimes and this will do nicely.

Funselektor/Strelka Games
Releasing 2026

Funselektor's claim to fame is making fun racing games with a minimalist art style that's cartoony but also rooted in reality. They previous tackled drifting and rally and now along with a partner studio who has made nothing like this before, they're going after off-road exploration.

If you've played the Saber titles MudRunner, SnowRunner or the less well received Expeditions, you'll get the idea of what they're going for here. This is about taking your truck and going out into the world to find neat things and take in the scenery. It's not about racing and encourages you to take your time and just enjoy the fun of discovery. There are still challenges to be had such as challenge trails or having to carefully navigate tricky terrain to get where you want to go, but it's not about competition, just being in a place.

Best of all, this is confirmed to feature online co-op, which is always how I loved to play the Runner games! I did run into some major performance drops in the drop, but that kind of thing tends to get ironed out closer to launch and Funselektor's other games run like butter so I'm not worried. I'll definitely be firing this up with a friend when it comes out.

Warper Works Studios
Release to Be Announced

If you remember the game Subspace MMO from back in the day (which has a free updated release on Steam), then you are truly an old school player after my own heart. This isn't trying to be a clone or update of that. In fact, it's not even multiplayer. Yet I still think of Subspace every time I look at it.

This is very much a top-down space truckin' game, where you travel the galaxy, trading, fighting and scheming your way to success in whatever way you see fit. The grind will be very real in this, but so will the satisfaction you get at the end of it.

My one complaint is that the sound effects are just plain awful and if they aren't redone before release, I could see them being a deal breaker for many, possibly me as well. But I always love an open space game with pure freedom and it seems these devs do too.

CIRCLEfromDOT/PQube
Releasing July 30, 2026

This is one of the biggest standouts of this Next Fest for me. I adore the Hotline Miami games and while many have tried and often succeeded at imitating them since, few have nailed it so well while also evolving the formula as Kusan has.

Using a combination of fists, guns and special abilities, you'll brutalize your way through levels, both encouraged to go fast and also trying to build up a perfect combo. You're graded after every level and trying again to get the top rank will reward you with more things you can use to enhance your character.

Kusan takes place in a world of anthropomorphic animals, but don't think this is any kind of cute game. The story revealed in just the demo is dark with some really disturbing themes and implications about the kind of world you're playing in.

I went from not knowing this game existed to wanting it on day one because of its demo. If you like this type of thing, do not miss it!

Madbricks/Amber Studio
Releasing 2026

What if Dead Cells, but a 3D brawler with juvenile humour? If you couldn't tell by the title, this doesn't take itself very seriously. You're a well, Mexican Ninja who is going up against ganes of Narcos and Yakuza who come together to make I kid you not, Narkuzas.

They aren't even trying to hide their Dead Cells inspiration, but that's good inspiration to have! The combat definitely isn't as fluid as that game, but this still plays well and with enough unlocks from runs, there's a lot of variety in how you can play it.

I'm sure some will be handwringing about how this is "problematic" and "insensitive" but those of you who enjoy playing games more than whinging about them could find a good time here.

Recurring Dream
Releasing July 17, 2026

Another "fake OS" game, this one's about mystery rather than hacking. You get access to an old computer that your beloved uncle owned before he went into long-term care with dimentia. You find journals and puzzles he created to try to share his experiences and memories with you, only to quickly find out that things aren't what they seem.

The puzzles in the demo started out very easy but were brain-melting by the end and I'm sure they only get tougher from there in the full game. My ADHD will make me have to resist hard just going to walkthroughs when I get stuck, but this feels like something where doing that will just suck the fun out of it because seeing what insane new thing is just past the next challenge is where the thrill comes from.

Watching the Steam trailer, it's clear this will go places if you're willing to put in the time.

Typ1 Games
Releasing Q4, 2026

Another single dev endeavour, this grabbed my attention because it looked like the new F-Zero game Nintendo refuses to give us. What's intersting though is it's less about placing first in a grid of other racers (though there are online modes that will offer that), but instead about racing solo through almost puzzle-like tracks, using special abilities to set the best time to earn medals and leaderboard placement. Almost a bit like Neon White, but with futuristic anti-grav cars.

I've never really seen another racing game like this before. The tutorial is overly long, but once you get past that, there are really cool ideas here. The dev is also very open to feedback and actually responded to my player survey to discuss some of what I said.

Racing is a genre that doesn't often see a lot of innovation and I love to see a solo dev pulling that off.

Crescent Moon Games/Radical Force/Digital Pajamas
Releases September 10, 2026

Another big standout for me that I'll be grabbing day one! This game's been making the rounds for a little while, but we finally got a chance to dig into it.

You're trapped inside a video game, trying to find where your mother has gone. The twist is that y ou're inside a 3D version of a 2D pixel art game. You see both versions on the screen at once and are controlling your character through both, having to rely on elements in both worlds to properly traverse them.

I don't know how the developers managed to create this system without losing their minds because just playing it sometimes messed with my sense of spatial awareness. Aside from the sheer design achievement, this is also a really great platformer that is undoubtedly only going to get weirder and more interesting in the final game. Another one I'll be grabbing day one.

Grey Alien Games/Night Signal Entertainment
Releasing Q1 2026

The 9os full motion video game era is a weird one that I have a lot of nostalgic fondness for. It was full of objectively terrible games that sold like crazy on the back of new technology, but the ones that knew how to leverage it well results in some real gems.

Forbidden Solitare aims to mimic the era and nails it to a degree I haven't seen before. This could absolutely have come out in 1993 and honestly, I'd love to see them do one of those demakes that makes this work on a real computer of the era, but I'm weird like that.

It's premise is that it's a fictional cointroversial horror adventure game where you play a twisted version of Solitaire to win battles and solve puzzles with as so often is the case, things get weird and mysterious in unexpected ways. It sounds boring, but like games of its time, I wanted to finish the hand I was on so I could see the next cool event.

This grabbed my nostalgia in all the right ways and I'll be there day one for it!

Meteor Forge
Releasing July 13, 2026

I'm a huge pinball fan and love seeing video games that take the basic idea and do something cool with it you could only do in a virtual form. Runix tried to turn pinball into a dungeon crawler roguelite, where you're designing builds and doing runs to take on different medievel supernatural creatures.

I enjoyed this, but the sound design is pretty bad and there's some localization issues as well. The demo also lacked level variety and didn't seem very hard, though that might change in the full game. This is due out very soon and I don't see the dev being able to improve these things before it ships, but he may surprise me. Even with those limitations, this could still be worth a try if you like pinball trying something different.

Icosphere/MicroProse Software
Releases Into Early Access July 21, 2026

One of the sequences many remember from the iconic Call of Duty 4 was the AC-130 gunship section. It was a simple on rails segment, but I remember a lot of discussions at the time about how it made people feel uneasy because you were killing large amounts of soliders from a great distance and the pilot and gunner sounded like it was just another boring day at the office for them.

Drone Sector takes the idea of that sequence and turns it into a full-on RTS game unlike any I've seen before. You're in your gunship (which I guess is more of a drone in this case) and firing down on enemies, but you also issue orders to groups of troops on the ground and you have to guide them to objectives, providing cover for them as they go. You have different types of ammo and guns, all of which are limited so you can't just spray and pray.

I finished the demo but even those missions were challenging because you had to think about two distinctive objectives at the same time and because you had to manage your resources, you had to play knowing that it isn't possible to just kill all the enemies on the map so you had to pick your battles.

Another solo dev project doing something new in a genre that I was wondering if there was anything new to do in it. I'll probably wait until it's out of Early Access to pick it up, but I'll be watching this closely. The new incarnation of MicroProse is doing a great job of stick to its predecessor's roots of putting out neat military and strategy games.

Ludic Studios/Twin Sails Interactive
Releases September 23, 2026

Another roguelite, but this one's based around fast, futuristic arena air combat from a side perspective, like Jet Lancer or LUFTRAUSERS. Each mission is a new areana with different objectives, including some huge and quite challenging bosses. You'll unlock upgrades and powers for your jet to make you more powerful after each run in typical roguelite fashion, but you'll keep running into bigger and badder enemies as well.

The demo's sound mix was broken and I could barely hear any sound effects, but I'm sure that'll get ironed out before launch. The controls will take a bit of getting used to, but they're very responsive and the game is fast moving so you'll always need to be paying attention to make the most of each scenario.

Cat Hui Trading/AMATA Games
Releasing 2026

This one's specifically for people who like modern titles made for old systems. This is a new shmup from 2023 that was developed for the NES and actually released on cartridge, now getting a release for Steam and modern consoles.

This is just a package of both the Japanese and North American releases running in emulators with a nice front-end menu, but there's nothing wrong with that if the price is right. As shmups go, this isn't necessarily ground breaking mechanics wise, but it does push the NES hardware to its limit and pulls off some impressive 8-bit visual feats.

I love seeing new homebrew projects like this and hope it finds a home in the growing niche of shmups on PC.

Weird Beluga/Fireshrine Games
Releases August 13, 2026

I love platformers and they're my first love as a gaming genre, but we don't get a ton that really stand out these days. I'd never heard of Duskfade but after playing its very generous demo (it took me over an hour to complete), it leapt onto my rader. It looks great, controls good, has a really cool world based around time and clockwork and some really inventive enemies that inhabit it.

My only big complaint is that I really dislike the cringey, saccharine voice acting that makes the characters come across as annoying whenever they talk. This is obviously locked in and will be in the final game, but the great mechanics counter a lot of that, especially if it doesn't end up being overly wordy. This really impressed me and if you're unsure, the demo is so long that you'll get a very good idea.

Alawar
Releasing 2026

What if Papers, Please but it takes place in a weird "totally not Russian", "totally not Area 51" facility during an alien invasion? I certainly did not see this coming.

You'll do the usual things you do in this genre like checking IDs, but you also have to scan people for anomalies and oddities and check to make sure no infiltrators are sneaking in. If you find some, you might have to order them killed or potentially put them in a holding cell and run weird SCP type experiments on them. You'll also be dispatching missions out into the world to deal with the ongoing invasion as well.

This adds a lot to the formula and also has a weird sense of humour that I dig a lot.

Nathan Grance/Léonard Lemaitre/Niels Tiercelin/IronEqual
Release to Be Announced

This is a parkour speedrunning game that takes place inside levels based around Soviet-era brutalist architecture. The levels are absolutely massive and seem to have multiple different paths you can take through them. Jumping and wallrunning in rapid, unbroken sequences will increase your speed, often to the point where absolute precision will be required to keep your momentum.

Every level has an online leaderboard and you can download a ghost of any other run to put up against your own in the world as you race.

It's a simple concept and design at its heart, but these games live and die on the quality of their level design and these devs nailed that. This wil undoubtedly have a vibrant competitive scene on its leaderboards.

Nick Nieuwoudt/Dominik Latos
Releases August, 2026

Another giant surprise and one of my favourite games of this Next Fest. I couldn't believe when I found out this was a team of two developers.

In this, you are the sole operator of a giant friggin' gun under the control of a mysterious and seemingly oppressive regime and are asked with picking the right shells, lining up shots on your target based on information you're given from the field and destroying what you're told to shoot at without question.

The tutorial makes it seem like things won't be too hard, but things expand quickly and you'll find yourself having to do things like target triangulation, managing resources and operating under strict time pressure.

You have to manually do each step of not only the targeting process, but also everything from aiming the gun, to picking the rounds and charges, to manually loading them into the guns and then tracking the results. Every shot is a long exercise, but also makes every properly executed one feel like a huge achievement, even if you realize you may not be doing it for upstanding reasons.

I've played a lot of shooters in my life, but the sheer feeling of violence you get from firining the Iron Nest and hearing the clipping roar of the gun as the entire screen shakes feels like nothing else. This has some of the most on point sound design and implementation of screen shake I've ever seen and you can feel the shots in your very bones each time you launch one.

I can see this getting very hard and though I know it's a monumental ask that'll never happen, I would adore having co-op in this so I could tackle the challenges with a friend who I've done similar things with in sub simulation games and the like.

You've got to like puzzle games and high-pressure ones at that to like this, but don't miss out on it if you think you might enjoy it. It's a monumental achievement for only two people.

CAPCOM
Releasing September 25, 2026

The only AAA title in the list this time, but it's a good one.

I never played the Onimusha games back in the day, but I know they're beloved. CAPCOM seems to be going from banger to banger the last couple of years because I had way more fun with this than I expected and can't wait for the full release.

It initially looked like a Soulslike and while I have a ton of respect for that genre, I'm not patient enough to get good at them and when I do play them, I summon co-op partners constantly. This however, lands right in the middle of a Soulslike and something like Devil May Cry. You can't just button mash your way through every encounter and need to mix up your moves and watch for opportunities to counter and parry. But the windows to do those things are also quite generous, as are the buffs and healing items you'll find throughout the world.

I always thought that not every Soulslike has to be brutally hard and if this was something like Sekiro, I would have immediately been turned off. This grabbed my attention early though and I didn't want the demo to end when it was over. The English voice acting has been getting a lot of stick and while I agree it doesn't fit the setting, I also didn't think it was that bad personally.

I went from having no interest in this to potentially grabbing it on day one, which I almost never do with AAA games anymore. That's a pretty ringing endorsement. Also, I know they never will but I so wish CAPCOM would license out RE Engine to other developers because it honestly puts Unreal Engine 5 to shame with how good it looks while also running like butter.

Limbic Entertainment/Hooded Horse
Releasing July 31, 2026

Hooded Horse is single-handedly making strategy games mainstream again. I don't think they've had a single miss yet and are just picking winners every single time. Corsair Cove is no exception.

Though it has many differences, this also feels in many ways like a successor to Sid Meier's Pirates! You command a defeated pirate crew that washes up on an island and decides to turn it into their new base. It has a brilliant building system that easily allows you to place structures on the ground and also on the sides of cliffs, just figuring out how to place things intelligently and make them easy to connect together. It works so seamlessly and allows you to make some truly impressive settlements.

You'll grow your colony and eventually, build ships that you'll use both for defense and to sent out on missions to raid other settlements and fight back against the kingdom that oppressed you. You don't have granular control over your ships, instead sending them to pre-determined locations to explore and complete missions. Combat is turn-based where you pick pre-made actions and roll the odds to see the outcome.

This is a smart system that allows for a lot of depth to how you explore and build, while also making sure that things stay fast and fluid and don't get too overwhelming. You can also change the game speed and pause at any time like many other city builders.

This is all punctuated by a goofy sense of humour, making this feel more like a swashbuckling tale than a somber and serious one.

Hooded Horse just don't miss and this is going to be another banger I think. I like strategy games but haven't found the time for many lately. I think I'll be finding some for Corsair Cove.

14 Hours Productions/Fellow Traveller
Releasing 2026

This is a sort of strategy and visual novel hybrid where choices really matter. It's almost like you're playing a Metal Gear Solid game, except you're the person on the other side of the radio.

Everything is text and presented in a very almost DOS-like way, but with bombastic music on top of it. You control the remnants of an operative squad that gets shot down over a base in the Antarctic and have to try to salvage their mission while getting ridden by the big brass.

There's lots of crazy, Metal Gear-esque characters and multiple ways to approach each situation. I'm not sure if any of them can explicitly result in failure, but you can definitely change the outcomes in significant ways.

I don't think this will be for everyone, especially with how much reading seems to be involved, but I really like the aesthetic and being the one with only partial control over the situation. I'll be keeping watch on this one.