as usual, i’m late writing about steam next fest, but here we go anyway. sticking to just a couple sentences for each demo because the bulk of my attention is elsewhere at the moment and i think it worked pretty well last time. thanks for reading. love you.

screaming head (jzps games, q4 2025)

screaming head is about a screaming head whose four wives are kidnapped by the body he previously used as a secret agent. it does this thing where it fills the levels with eyes but doesn’t tell you not to collect the eyes until the end of the first stage and then it’s like, “hey you collected too many eyes and now your wife is dead,” and i thought that was funny.

is this seat taken? (poti poti studio, to be announced)

the little shape characters in is this seat taken? look like the guys from snipperclips but as far as i can tell the snipperclips people didn’t make this game. the smart puzzle iteration in the demo makes me very interested in seeing what they have in store for the full release.

level devil (unept, march 25)

most levels in level devil need to be played at least twice because they all do something to troll you. sensible chuckles all around.

shotgun cop man (deadtoast entertainment, to be announced)

i already posted this on bluesky but i’m nothing if not efficient so here goes: if i made something even 1/100 as good as shotgun cop man i could die happy and fulfilled.

bionic bay (psychoflow studio/mureena oy, april 17)

bionic bay is a massive adventure game in the same vein as limbo and inside with a surprisingly long demo. i feel like the simplistic art style of the main character and the elaborate environments clash a little but it’s easy to ignore when you’re jumping and diving all over the place.

despelote (julián cordero/sebastian valbuena, may 1)

i learned ecuadorian history, i ran from class to recess to kick a soccer ball around with my friends, and i ate dinner with my family. i can’t wait to play more despelote.

mashina (talha and jack co, 2025)

mashina is the next game from the folks behind judero, by favorite game of 2024. the demo is short but charming as all heck.

house of necrosis (warkus, coming soon)

i generally don’t like describing games like this but house of necrosis is like if resident evil had a baby with shiren the wanderer and it’s fairy god mothers were the battle cutscenes from final fantasy 7. ate up lots of my time even in its pre-release form.

kill the music (nikko nikko, 2025)

i’m surprised more people aren’t talking about kill the music because, at least out of the games i played, it feels like the one most likely to break into the mainstream when it launches later this year. superb aesthetics mixed with tight rhythm-based gameplay and all the dopamine hits inherent to auto-attacking games like vampire survivors, especially since it frees you up to really get your timing down and build up big combos.