Next Fest 25|1 Day 7

And finally, the last day of this edition of Next Fest. As always, I post this earlier than usual so that if any of the demos sound interesting you still have time to check them out

Highlights: Aethermancer, AVENGE MYSELF, Shrink Rooms

Shrink Rooms

Shrink Rooms on Steam

Shrink Rooms is a round-based puzzle game. You need to solve a series of pushing box puzzles within a limited number of steps to escape, otherwise you will be crushed into a puddle of meat by shrinking walls of the level.

STEAM

A challenging puzzle game where the play area shrinks as you move around. This small gimmick adds a lot to the box-pushing mechanics, with some of the puzzles requiring a decent amount of thought to solve

AFTERBLAST

AFTERBLAST on Steam

AFTERBLAST is a challenging FPS rogue-lite action game. Play solo or in co-op. Features dynamic gameplay with randomly generated dungeons. Obtain powerful abilities, weapons and find a way to save your planet. Stand up against the gods and defeat hordes of monsters.

STEAM

FPS Roguelike you can play solo or co-op. Very run-of-the-mill kinda stuff with lotsa enemies, projectiles, buffs, and everything else you'd expect. Scrap that. Something didn't quite make sense so I went back to the game after finishing the demo. Turns out the first time around the tutorial pop-up did not appear, and I had no idea I'm meant to grapple onto glowing enemies to do a finisher. Now the game has a better flow to it, as you zip from enemy to enemy, depleting their health enough to finish them and jump to the next. Still somewhat generic, but at least the boss no longer takes 10 minutes because of all the minions it spawns

Little Problems

Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game on Steam

Little Problems is a Cozy Detective game about solving mysteries around minor inconveniences, everyday misunderstandings, and of course, little problems. This game is not about saving the world; it’s about enriching it, one case at a time.

STEAM

A small mystery games, where instead of murders and deep conspiracies, the mysteries are things like "who broke your favorite mug?" The deduction aspect of the game is solid, but there occasionally is a need to repeatedly go back and forth between a piece of evidence you're referencing and your solution/notes board. It's not horrible, but it defeats the point of having notes in the game if screenshots/real notepad is still faster. Still, good low-stakes chill mystery title

Blobun

Blobun on Steam

You are a blob bunny. Your goal? Touch every tile! Get your slime all over the place and overcome tricks and traps as you make your way through this casual puzzle game.

STEAM

A simple puzzle game about visiting every square of the grid with your ever-expanding slimey body. There is potential for the full game to have some more difficult puzzles, but as it stands it's a pretty casual puzzle experience

AVENGE MYSELF

AVENGE MYSELF on Steam

Reject gravity. Go fast. A speedrunning FPS with gravity-defying physics-based movement. Find your own routes through stages and move like you’ve never moved before.

STEAM

A speedrunner's delight. The levels are so open-ended that it's not only about going fast, but also about figuring out what route will actually let you chain your momentum most efficiently, which is an aspect of speedrunning that games like these often underplay. Oh, and you can run on walls and ceilings, which makes it even more 3D than you'd expect. And to top it all of, it's actually difficult! For better and worse, you actually do need to be good at going fast to progress

Aethermancer

Aethermancer on Steam

Monster Taming meets Roguelite. Become the Aethermancer and fight alongside mythical creatures. Explore the ever-changing Fractured Ruins, plan your moves in challenging turn-based battles, and watch your Monsters grow stronger from previous lives and defy death!

STEAM

And to finish off the Fest, a game I've had my sights on before it even started. A roguelite monster collecting game, from the devs of Monster Sanctuary. The roguelike formula works extremely well to counter the "getting too used to the same team" aspect a lot of games like this have, instead even if you force the same team every time, you'll get different upgrades as you go which will push you towards different playstyles. Combat is fun, artstyle is stellar, and the only downside is that runs in the full game might get very long, if the demo ones can already take 2 hours. Still great high note to end this week of demos on