Next Fest 25|3 Day 3

Today was a good day, with no bad titles, really. And some titles that very unexpectedly sucked me in. Day 3 continues the trend of being the best day of the Fest

Highlights: Fat Goblins, Dinocop, MOTORSLICE

Dinocop

Dinocop on Steam

When dinosaurs were brought back to life, none wanted to be a cop, so humans made you: Dinocop. Investigate the guests of the Cretaceous hotel to crack a meaty case that will confront you with your most profound existential dilemma. Who brought human meat to the dinosaur rights convention ?

STEAM

You're the only dinosaur cop, solving dinosaur crimes. The game leans strongly into the absurdity of dinos existing in a human world. The gameplay is mostly inspecting environment and talking with various dinos, all to unlock new dialogue options to progress the case. Relatively simple, but the writing is very enjoyable, and the hotel is teeming with lively characters. Good stuff

Hoomanz!

Hoomanz! on Steam

Scare away all the invading Hoomanz! A stealth-adventure game packed with coziness and humour, featuring non-combat gameplay & family-friendly content. Play as Shoo, the mythical guardian of Planet Erf, with a hidden dual nature. Darkness is nature’s friend, light is its enemy.

STEAM

Hoomanz! is a stealth game, all about scaring hoomanz that are encroaching on your forest. Your job is to stress them out, so that you can jumpscare them out of existence. The game is very forgiving, and the hoomanz have maybe two braincells to their name, but it's perfect for a more casual stealth experience

Repel The Rifts

Repel The Rifts on Steam

Repel the Rifts is a roguelite tower defense game where you lead a commander through an alien world, uncovering new terrain each wave, drafting powerful upgrades, and constructing defenses to hold back the chaos.

STEAM

A roguelite tower defense. You expand the roads on which enemies come to you, place turrets, and do your best in defending your commander. I like the isometric pixel art and the varied terrain height buffs, so even though similar games have been made, this one feels like it's standing on its own legs, and making a fun game in the process

Origament: A Paper Adventure

Origament: A Paper Adventure on Steam

✉️ Become a living letter and find your way to the one who still waits for you! Fly, sail, roll, solve puzzles, uncover secrets, and travel through time and continents!😸

STEAM

A 3D platformer where you're a magical letter able to transform into various origami shapes to traverse water, land, and air. There is a bit of an uncanny feeling to the realistic world (I think a stylized artstyle would've worked way better for the game) but as far as the gameplay goes it's some very simple obstacles across a linear adventure with frequent checkpoints. Nothing too crazy

MOTORSLICE

MOTORSLICE on Steam

Parkour through the ruins of a megastructure, climb massive bosses, and hunt down every construction equipment in this slice of life action-adventure with immaculate vibes.

STEAM

This game sure has vibes. Can't exactly pinpoint what kind, but I think that's kind of the point. The concrete megastructures, the serenity, the little mini challenges in retrieving optional orbs. It surpassed my expectations going in, because seeing the amount of yellow paint in the game made my expectations low. You won't ever be lost as to where to go next for too long, but getting from A to B is the fun part. I feel like some minor polish is still needed to the movement system, but I'm looking forward to trying this one out eventually

Decks of Dexterity

Decks of Dexterity on Steam

The bullet hell card game! Decks of Dexterity fuses bullet hell shooter gameplay with a strategic turn based card game. Discover cards to gain abilities and unleash powerful combos!

STEAM

A deckbuilder bullet hell. It's a strange combo, and while there is something here, I'm not convinced it works that well. The constant drawing of cards makes the game essentially turn-based, and it's really hard to accurately dodge bullets when time keep pauses for you or your opponent to use a card. It's polished and has a high-contrast style to it, but I'd only recommend it if you like checking out more experimental titles

A curious aspect of this game is that when it launches it doesn't actually appear on the taskbar, nor is Steam able to take screenshots. I thought I took a recording of it, but that is nowhere to be seen too, so it'll have to be a rare instance of a screenshotless entry. Check out the Steam page above for the ones the devs made!

Pieced Together

Pieced Together on Steam

Pieced Together is a cozy scrapbooking game that takes you on a heartfelt journey about friendship and getting older. Sort items, solve gentle puzzles, and decorate the scrapbook as you uncover the story piece by piece.

STEAM

A story of a friendship that you follow by going through (and crafting) a scrapbook. Each page has a theme for you to assemble bits of your past: photos, stickers, drawings and alike. It's strongly story-focused, but can be a cozy journey if you enjoy the scrapbook aesthetic, as the game really leans into it across both gameplay and UI. Sometimes there were some odd framedrops, but for the most part a polished ride

Fat Goblins

Fat Goblins on Steam

Prepare for goblin-packed, hat-stealing, and princess-fattening team based 16v16 combat! Siege the castle walls, rescue your pudgy princess, fatten up the enemy princess with delicious meat, unlock new hats & weapons, and kill each other repeatedly in silly and chaotic PvP war!

STEAM

A chaotic multiplayer goblin battlefield. At first I was worried how an indie studio could manage 16v16 battles without things like long queue times, but turns out this game just has a constant battle happening, and it drops you in whenever you connect. What isn't players is bots, and while not the smartest it matters little in the constant chaos. In short, multiplayer works, and it is pure multiplayer sandbox chaos of trying to steal (back?) your princess from the other players castle. Glorious mayhem