It seems that every Steam Next Fest we find more and more titles piling in for players to try out. There are a lot of games available this Summer, but I managed to narrow down my choices to five games that are in very different genres. Now that I had the chance to get a first impression on a handful of titles, let’s reflect on whether or not they are worth visiting once fully released. This list is in no particular order.

Stray Gods

Coming from Summerfall Studios and Humble Games is the music-filled visual novel Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. During their demo, we got a glimpse of how the game will play, as well as a glimpse into later parts of the tale.

Given it is a visual novel, the gameplay consists of watching the story unfold and making choices when prompted. Some choices have plenty of time to be made, but be ready for a few quick time events as choices have to be made during the songs. The choices all resonate a specific personality which you will get to choose at the beginning for your main character. This choice will affect when certain choices can be made. By this I mean that if you choose the headstrong personality (red) you will not be able to choose more empathetic (green) or witty (blue) choices, as those fit the other personalities.

Overall, the voice work is pretty phenomenal and I find it much easier to enjoy a visual novel that is fully voiced. This is going to open up this title to more players on its own, while the musical take on telling the tale is likely to catch even more attention - it’s what caught mine after all. However, from the bit of the story I saw during the demo, I found it to be a bit silly and unnecessarily reactive. I’m not sure a poor plot is something I can overlook personally, given it is the foundation of the tale, but good music is always enjoyable to listen to. With that said, I likely won’t visit this game on launch, but I can see a lot of other people enjoying this game for what it has to offer and I recommend you check it out yourself while you still have the chance.

Stray Gods is officially set to launch on August 3rd for PC via Steam.

Viewfinder

Entering the puzzle game genre with a unique idea is Sad Owl Studios and Thunderful Games with their upcoming picture perspective game Viewfinder. This puzzle game lets you manipulate the pathway with a picture and even ends up putting a camera in your hands to take the pictures yourself.

The controls for this game are pretty simple and the solution in place for when you may get stuck or fall off the map is just as simplistic; you simply rewind until you are at a point you can work forward from. You can even double-tap the rewind button to jump straight to the last key moment, such as just before you took a picture with the camera. The goal of the game is to go from where you start to the teleporter at the end of the level or section. Note that the teleporter has to be upright, so you might need to save the last camera shot to take a picture of the teleporter and place it back down in the upright position.

This game is definitely a unique take on a puzzle adventure and has a very good chance of taking the attention of puzzle fans by storm. I can see people having trouble grasping the concept of having a heightened response to experiencing the camera’s ability of picture manipulation for the first time. It is a very wonder-filled and awe-inspiring type of moment after all. If you are a fan of puzzle games, this is a must-play title!

Viewfinder is planned to launch on July 18th for PC via Steam and PlayStation 5.

The Invincible

Now it’s time to head out on an adventure with a story behind it. For this, I turned to The Invincible from 11 bit studios and Starward Industries which is a mysterious narrative adventure game that is firmly based in sci-fi exploration.

The journey takes part in a later part of the game, but even so, the game is easy to understand, control-wise. After loading up, the first thing it has you do is interact with an open map to pick a pathway to take, but you can actually just go in whichever way you want regardless of what you pick. This is the start of understanding the game and testing what it allows. From my experience in this demo, this game lets you do whatever you want and explore as much as you want to, and the more time you spend looking around the more clues and information you will collect. As you gather information that isn’t told directly, it is added to your journal which can be read in your own time. The main story is told through the actual events that are taking place during the demo and you will learn a rather dire bit of information as well as find a handful of curiosities that don’t have a proper answer or reasoning to them - at least within the demo.

Overall, the demo is pretty short but full of wonderment. There are so many different things you can find and start to learn about, but at the same time, you aren’t entirely sure what is core knowledge and what is excess. This is partially because we didn’t experience the first part of the game, but overall there is definitely a grand event or story to be told and it seems they are going to let the player experience it all first-hand. I definitely look forward to checking this one out when it is fully launched!

The Invincible is set to launch sometime in 2023 on PC via Steam, GOG, and Epic Games Store, as well as consoles.

Mr. Run and Jump

Next, I wanted to turn on a challenge, so for this, I loaded up Mr. Run and Jump by Graphite Lab and Atari. I honestly wasn’t too sure about this title, but after experiencing this platformer through its demo, I have to say that I am impressed.

The game is a sidescroller, so your movement is always either left or right. With the age of video games we are in, platformer titles are now known to have quite a variety of controls, and they don’t disappoint. While it is all available right at the start of the game, it isn’t until a few levels in that you will actually learn all of the talents your character has. Your controls consist of running, rolling as a ball, wall jumping, double jumping, super jumper, and dashing. As you make your way through the levels, you will come across a variety of enemies and obstacles that kill you on contact, along with plenty of blue crystals to collect. There are also hidden areas, which are visible by a red glow near an opening, that have an orb in them. Every level has three of these orbs to collect and to collect them, the room they are in is a challenge that will be harder than the level it is in.

Playing through only the first world of this game, I can see that this game offers a lot of challenges. Not only that, but the potential behind this game to hit the speedrunning community is immense as you can move quickly through levels with proper movement or show your skills by collecting all orbs in the map before completing it. Plus, the fourth level of each map is titled “Void” which ends up being a death wall chase against the player, so this changes the energy of the player’s movement through the level. Overall, it was a lot more fun than I initially expected, and is definitely a platformer title that is going to be fun to beat.

Mr. Run and Jump is set to launch on July 25th for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and AtariVCS.

Galacticare

Ending off my session of demo playthroughs, I slowed things down with a space hospital management simulator game called Galacticare by Brightrock Games and CULT Games. Tycoon games are always an entertaining genre as it lets you run things how you think they would be best and oftentimes confirm it (definitely because we are just that smart).

In this game, you are given a space station that can be turned into a hospital for beings all over space to turn to. Starting off, you place a reception desk and then the game walks you through your first few facilities, such as diagnosis. Once you have a few rooms set up, the reception desk in place, doctors hired, and a break room for the doctors to rest in - also don’t forget to decorate all rooms and the main area along with seating - you will start to be introduced to some of the more unique elements of the game. This includes a giant space creature that you cure once and then he will sell you goods to use in the hospital, along with special contracts such as a business owner that will pay hefty to keep his employees alive (likely following some form of liability event). During this time, you will be introduced to aspects like prioritizing patients, using special items to help guests, and more aspects that go into the details of running the hospital. What they don’t tell you is that you can purchase the rooms around the center and start filling those up with more facilities and doctors so that you can eventually have a fully functioning hospital that works quickly and efficiently!

Having a proper guide from the start of the game definitely helped a lot when getting started because every tycoon sets their menus up differently. I liked how their tutorial gave the fundamentals but ultimately left some of the more unique aspects, such as decorating, up to the player to discover on their own. Hand-holding should only guide the player, not tell them what to do, and this game does that pretty well. However, if this demo featured all the unique aspects of the game, it will likely get stale rather quickly after everything gets put in place. Hopefully, they have more up their sleeve for a full game launch. As for revisiting the game on launch, it is likely that I will, but I am hoping to see more than just what is in the demo.

Galacticare is planned to be released in 2023 for PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, as well as part of the Xbox Game Pass.