Next Fest 26|1 Day 4

Another short day, but in turn I made sure to have some excellent demos lined up. Expect a lot more random and strange things tomorrow!

Highlights: Shantytown, Snacktorio, The Mermaid Mask

The Mermaid Mask

The Mermaid Mask on Steam

An impossible locked-room murder: Captain Mortuga lies dead beside an ancient cauldron aboard the world’s strangest submarine, crewed by sketchy suspects. A handcrafted point-and-click with sharp humour and tricky puzzles. Dive into the next mystery from the creators of Tangle Tower & Crow Country.

STEAM

The Mermaid Mask is a murder mystery from the makers of Tangle Tower, offering a detective duo on another paranormal(?) case. There are deductions to be made, and puzzles to be solved. the voice acting is excellent, and so is the art. Good stuff all around

Nightscape

Nightscape on Steam

A young girl and her goat friend explore a world where the stars have fallen to earth. Nightscape is a 2.5D atmospheric adventure where you wield stellar powers, explore an ancient Arabian land, and overcome deadly creatures. Help Layla return the stars to the sky and find her missing father.

STEAM

Nightscape is okay. A 2.5D adventure game with some light puzzles and enemy encounters. There is room for improvement across the combat, movement, and animation; but the overall visual style is pleasant to look at, even if the areas are a bit desolate at times

Snacktorio

Snacktorio on Steam

Snacktorio is a factory-cooking automation game where you build and scale food production lines to feed the beasts threatening to consume your world. Manage strange ingredients across sprawling cooking factories to keep the monsters fed while you uncover what’s stirring their growing appetites…

STEAM

A 2D factory game about creating meals and delivering them to the hungry void beasts. It's split into levels which felt odd at first, but it really does flow well and allows for the levels to each pose its own structural challenges as you try and spaghetti all the ingredients to from the pumps to the ovens and onto the table. It's very good, and surprisingly long for a demo

The Ratline

The Ratline on Steam

A murdered priest. A secret list. Hunt Nazi fugitives across the globe in this gritty 1971 detective thriller. Analyze evidence, follow leads, and make sharp deductions before the trail goes cold. From the creators of Family, Rivals, Conspiracy, Echo Beach and Riley & Rochelle.

STEAM

The Ratline isn't a flawless detective game, but it is nonetheless intriguing. It doesn't hold your hand (though it provides hints) so you really need to dig through all the evidence to discover the new identities of your suspects. Additionally, the cases are all inter-weaved, with evidence and characters from earlier cases being useful or downright necessary to solve future ones

ShantyTown

ShantyTown on Steam

ShantyTown is a relaxing diorama-building game about finding beauty in everyday chaos. Bring new locations to life, stack your urban buildings high, and fill each little nook and cranny with your own touch. Try your hand at shaping a cosy little city that is unique to you.

STEAM

A diorama building game where you pack a lot of buildings and details into a really tight space forcing creative placement of things, sometimes on top of each other. I have a soft spot for dioramas, but they all look delightful. Screenshots can only do so much to a complex 3D object, but after discovering that you can see your previous builds from your future ones, I had to frame my lighthouse town from my pipeline station, and I think it came out pretty well