The gaming world is buzzing with excitement this week as some of the industry’s most anticipated events converge to deliver an unforgettable experience for PC gamers everywhere. Whether you’re a hardcore strategy enthusiast, an indie game supporter, or someone who simply enjoys exploring creative storytelling in interactive formats, this week has something special waiting for you. From the highly anticipated Steam Next Fest 2024 showcasing hundreds of upcoming titles to Double Fine’s latest experimental narrative adventure, the gaming calendar is absolutely packed with opportunities to discover your next obsession.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about this week’s gaming highlights, from how to make the most of Steam Next Fest to hidden gems you absolutely shouldn’t miss. We’ll also dive deep into why events like these matter for the gaming community and how they’re shaping the future of interactive entertainment.
Table of Contents
What’s Steam Next Fest, and Why You Should Care
If you’ve never heard of Steam Next Fest, here’s a quick rundown. It’s like a digital game fair, showcasing hundreds (yes, hundreds) of upcoming PC games. You can try out early demos, watch livestreams, and chat directly with developers. The big idea? You get to try before you buy.
This year’s Next Fest kicked off on June 10 and runs until June 17. That’s a full week jam-packed with new content. If you’ve ever walked through a game store feeling unsure about what to try next, this is your chance to test the waters — and for free!
The History and Evolution of Steam Next Fest
Steam Next Fest has become one of the most important events in the PC gaming calendar since its inception. Originally known as the Steam Game Festival, Valve rebranded and restructured the event to better serve both developers and players. The festival typically runs four times a year, each iteration bringing a fresh wave of innovative titles to the platform.
What makes Steam Next Fest particularly special is its democratic approach to game discovery. Unlike traditional gaming conventions that require expensive tickets and travel arrangements, Steam Next Fest brings the convention experience directly to your computer. Anyone with a Steam account can participate, regardless of location or budget. This accessibility has helped countless indie developers find their audience and allowed gamers to discover titles they might never have encountered otherwise.
The event has grown exponentially since its early days. What started as a modest showcase has evolved into a massive celebration of gaming creativity, featuring everything from solo developer passion projects to ambitious titles from established indie studios. The numbers speak for themselves: each Next Fest typically features over 500 demos, attracts millions of players worldwide, and generates significant wishlisting activity that can make or break a game’s launch.
Why It’s Worth Checking Out
Free Hands-On Demos: No commitment, just good old-fashioned tryouts. In an era where game prices continue to climb and disappointing launches have become all too common, the ability to actually play a game before making a purchase decision is invaluable. These aren’t just trailers or screenshots—you’re getting real, playable builds that give you a genuine feel for the gameplay, mechanics, and overall vibe of each title.
Discover Indies: Indie developers love this event. You’ll find games you’d never see on a billboard. The indie gaming scene has consistently proven to be one of the most innovative sectors of the industry, giving us genre-defining titles like Stardew Valley, Hollow Knight, and Celeste. Steam Next Fest provides a platform for the next generation of indie masterpieces to find their audience. These are the games that take creative risks, explore unconventional mechanics, and tell stories that major publishers might consider too niche or experimental.
Wishlist Early: Spot future hits and add them to your Steam wishlist right away. Wishlisting isn’t just about keeping track of games you’re interested in—it’s also a powerful way to support developers. High wishlist numbers help games gain visibility on Steam’s algorithm, appear in more recommendations, and can even influence publisher funding decisions. Plus, you’ll get notified when these games launch, go on sale, or release major updates.
Direct Developer Interaction: One of the most underrated aspects of Steam Next Fest is the opportunity to engage directly with the people making these games. Many developers host livestreams during the festival, participate in community discussions, and actively respond to feedback. This direct line of communication is rare in the gaming industry and provides invaluable insights into the creative process while giving you the chance to influence a game’s development.
Want an example? Imagine walking through a virtual arcade where every cabinet is something brand-new and exciting—and you get unlimited tokens. That’s Steam Next Fest in a nutshell.
Breakout Stars: Demos You Don’t Want to Miss
With so many demos available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But here are a few standout picks that are catching a lot of attention:
Yooka-Replaylee: Nostalgia Meets Modern Polish
Yooka-Replaylee is a polished-up remake of the colorful 3D platformer from the creators of Banjo-Kazooie. It’s got charm, vibrant worlds, and that classic N64-era feel. For those who grew up during the golden age of platformers, this remake promises to recapture that magic while addressing the original’s shortcomings.
The original Yooka-Laylee was a love letter to classic collect-a-thon platformers, but it launched to mixed reviews. Some criticized its camera controls, level design, and pacing issues. Playtonic Games took this feedback seriously, and Yooka-Replaylee represents their commitment to delivering the experience fans truly wanted. The remake features redesigned levels with improved flow, enhanced movement mechanics, refined camera controls, and a reorchestrated soundtrack that brings new life to Grant Kirkhope’s memorable compositions.
What makes this demo particularly exciting is how it demonstrates the team’s willingness to not just remaster but genuinely reimagine their work. The visual overhaul is stunning, with vibrant colors and detailed environments that pop on modern displays. Character animations have been refined to feel more responsive and expressive. Even the collectibles have been rebalanced to reduce busywork while maintaining that satisfying exploration loop that made the genre great.
For newcomers to the series, this is the perfect entry point. For veterans who felt let down by the original, this is the redemption arc you’ve been waiting for.
Millennia: Grand Strategy Gets a Fresh Perspective
Millennia is a new historical strategy game from Paradox. If you’ve ever sunk hours into Civilization and thought, “Could use more drama,” this might be for you. Paradox Interactive has built their reputation on deep, complex strategy games that reward careful planning and historical knowledge, and Millennia appears to be their most ambitious historical project yet.
What sets Millennia apart from other 4X strategy games is its unique approach to alternate history. Rather than following a predetermined historical timeline, the game features a branching system where pivotal decisions can lead humanity down dramatically different paths. Imagine a world where the Bronze Age Collapse never happened, or where an early industrial revolution sparked in ancient China. These aren’t just aesthetic changes—they fundamentally alter the technologies, government systems, and cultural developments available to civilizations.
The demo showcases the game’s intricate economic systems, where resource management goes beyond simple stockpiling. Trade networks, technological advancement, and cultural development all interconnect in ways that create emergent gameplay scenarios. Diplomatic systems feel weighty and consequential, with alliances and betrayals that echo through centuries of gameplay.
Combat, while turn-based, incorporates sophisticated tactical elements that reward strategic positioning and combined arms tactics. The demo suggests that military conquest is just one path to victory, with cultural, economic, and technological supremacy offering equally viable alternatives.
For fans of Civilization, Crusader Kings, or Europa Universalis, Millennia represents an exciting evolution of the grand strategy formula with enough unique elements to justify its existence alongside these established titans.
Anger Foot: Chaotic Action Redefined
Anger Foot: The name says it all. It’s loud, fast, eye-popping mayhem—and yes, your foot is a weapon. In a gaming landscape often dominated by familiar formulas, Anger Foot bursts onto the scene with the energy of a caffeine-fueled fever dream rendered in day-glo colors.
Developed by the creators of Broforce, Anger Foot takes the “door-kicking simulator” concept to its absolute extreme. Every level is a tightly designed gauntlet of enemies, obstacles, and destructible environments, all designed to be demolished by your primary weapon: an incredibly powerful foot. The core gameplay loop is simple—kick down doors, kick enemies, kick objects at other enemies, and kick your way to the exit—but the execution is anything but straightforward.
What makes Anger Foot special is its commitment to pure, unfiltered arcade action. Levels are short and intense, typically lasting under a minute, but perfecting your run requires memorizing enemy patterns, mastering the movement system, and finding the optimal path through each arena. The game encourages aggressive, forward-momentum gameplay where hesitation equals death. It’s Hotline Miami meets Doom Eternal, with a color palette borrowed from vaporwave aesthetics.
The demo showcases the game’s variety through different shoe types, each offering unique abilities and modifying your approach to levels. Some shoes let you kick projectiles back at enemies, others provide defensive capabilities, and some just make your kicks even more absurdly powerful. This variety suggests significant replayability, with players able to tackle the same levels using completely different strategies.
Sound design deserves special mention—the bone-crunching impact of every kick is immensely satisfying, backed by a pulsing electronic soundtrack that perfectly complements the frenetic action. Anger Foot isn’t trying to be profound or revolutionary; it’s laser-focused on delivering pure, skill-based action that respects your time while providing substantial challenge.
Pro Tips for Navigating Steam Next Fest
Search for “Next Fest” in Steam’s search bar and scroll through the demos. You’re guaranteed to find hidden gems. However, with hundreds of options available, here are some strategies to help you get the most out of the event:
Use Filters Wisely: Steam’s filtering system allows you to narrow demos by genre, theme, and player mode. If you know you’re interested in roguelikes, strategy games, or cozy simulators, use these filters to immediately reduce the overwhelming number of options to a more manageable selection.
Check the Most Wishlisted Tab: While popularity isn’t everything, the most wishlisted games during Next Fest often represent titles with significant buzz and community anticipation. This tab is a good starting point if you’re completely overwhelmed and need somewhere to begin.
Explore the Underrepresented Section: Conversely, some of the most innovative and interesting games might not have massive wishlist numbers simply because they’re from unknown developers or explore unconventional concepts. The “hidden gems” section and browsing by recent additions can uncover experiences you’d never find otherwise.
Set Time Limits: With limited time and unlimited demos, it’s easy to spend hours downloading games and then never playing them. Consider setting a personal rule: play each demo for at least 20-30 minutes before deciding whether to continue or move on. This gives you enough time to get past tutorial phases and experience the core gameplay loop.
Leave Feedback: Developers genuinely value player feedback during Next Fest. If you encounter bugs, have suggestions for improvement, or simply want to express what you loved about a demo, leave a review or comment. Many developers actively monitor this feedback and use it to improve their games before launch.
Create a Wishlist Strategy: Don’t just wishlist everything that seems mildly interesting. Be selective, focusing on games you genuinely plan to purchase at launch or during a sale. A curated wishlist is more useful than one cluttered with hundreds of titles you’ll never actually buy.
Double Fine’s Sentient Lighthouse Adventure: “The Cave of Liveness”
Leave it to Double Fine to come up with something totally unexpected. This week, they’ve dropped a short experimental game called The Cave of Liveness. And no, your eyes aren’t tricking you—it’s built around a lighthouse with a mind of its own.
What’s It All About?
This isn’t your typical video game. There’s little action and no combat. Instead, it’s more like an interactive storybook, with powerful narration, eerie moods, and a quirky sense of humor. Think of it like reading a mysterious, slightly weird children’s book—only in game form.
The visuals are simple, almost like a pop-up book. The story centers around a lighthouse that watches over a small coastal town… and starts developing feelings about its job. Poetic, right? It’s a peaceful escape from all the usual chaos-rich shooters and RPGs.
Double Fine Productions has built their reputation on creative storytelling and willingness to experiment with unconventional game concepts. From the cult classic Psychonauts to the creative documentary adventure Double Fine Adventure, the studio has consistently prioritized artistic vision over commercial formulas. The Cave of Liveness continues this tradition, offering something that challenges our preconceptions about what games can be.
The narrative explores themes of purpose, observation, and the relationship between guardians and those they protect. The lighthouse, as protagonist, experiences the passage of time differently than humans, witnessing generations of coastal inhabitants living their lives within its protective beam. This perspective creates a contemplative, almost melancholic atmosphere that’s rare in interactive entertainment.
What’s particularly clever about The Cave of Liveness is how it uses game mechanics to reinforce its themes. Your interactions are minimal but meaningful—each choice represents years or decades of the lighthouse’s existence, emphasizing the weight of its eternal watch. The game asks philosophical questions without providing easy answers: What is the nature of duty? Can inanimate objects develop consciousness through prolonged purpose? What does it mean to care for something you can only observe, never truly interact with?
Best part? It’s completely free on Steam. Just download it and enjoy. No strings attached.
Why It’s Worth Your Time
Story-First Experience: Ideal if you’re craving something thoughtful and different. In an industry often criticized for prioritizing gameplay mechanics over narrative substance, The Cave of Liveness represents the opposite extreme—a game where the story is the entire experience, and traditional gameplay takes a backseat to emotional resonance and thematic exploration.
Bite-Sized: You can finish it in under an hour, perfect for a break. Not every gaming experience needs to be a 100-hour epic. Sometimes the most impactful stories are the ones that know exactly how long they need to be. The Cave of Liveness respects your time while delivering a complete, satisfying narrative arc. It’s perfect for those evenings when you want to experience something meaningful but don’t have hours to invest.
Original Design: With its pop-up book style and poetic voice-over, it stands out. The visual presentation is deliberately simplistic, using flat, stylized graphics that evoke children’s literature illustration. This aesthetic choice isn’t a limitation but a deliberate artistic decision that complements the fable-like narrative tone. The voice-over narration is particularly noteworthy, delivering the lighthouse’s internal monologue with the gravitas and poetry of a literary audiobook.
Creative Palette Cleanser: Sometimes you need a break from the usual gaming diet of action, progression systems, and competitive challenges. The Cave of Liveness offers a completely different kind of engagement—contemplative, artistic, and emotionally resonant. It’s the gaming equivalent of visiting an art gallery or reading a short story collection.
In a sea of fast-paced and grind-heavy games, The Cave of Liveness is like sipping tea during a thunderstorm. Serene, a bit strange, and quietly powerful.
The Importance of Experimental Games
The Cave of Liveness represents something increasingly rare in modern gaming: genuine experimentation. As budgets for AAA games balloon and financial risk-aversion becomes the norm, experimental titles that prioritize artistic expression over commercial viability become crucial for the medium’s continued evolution.
These games expand our understanding of what interactive entertainment can be. They challenge developers to think beyond established genres and conventional mechanics. They provide audiences with experiences that couldn’t exist in any other medium. And they often influence mainstream gaming in unexpected ways—many features we take for granted in today’s blockbusters originated in experimental indie titles that dared to try something different.
By releasing The Cave of Liveness for free, Double Fine removes all barriers to entry. There’s no financial investment required, no commitment beyond an hour of your time. This accessibility is crucial for experimental work—it allows the broadest possible audience to engage with unconventional ideas without risk.
Keep Your Eyes Peeled for These Other Gems
Beyond the demo flood and Double Fine’s latest release, a few more things are worth watching this week in the world of PC games:
Deep Rock Galactic: New Expansion Content
New Expansion for Deep Rock Galactic: If you love chaotic co-op mining with space dwarves and giant bugs, there’s more content rolling out. Deep Rock Galactic has become one of the most beloved co-op games on PC, building a dedicated community through consistent updates, fair monetization, and gameplay that perfectly balances teamwork with chaos.
The latest expansion continues the game’s tradition of adding substantial content without splitting the player base. Ghost Ship Games has mastered the live-service model—delivering regular updates that feel generous rather than exploitative, with cosmetic-only monetization that never impacts gameplay balance.
What makes Deep Rock Galactic special is how it encourages genuine cooperation while remaining accessible to casual players. Missions require team coordination to succeed, but the game’s systems are designed to facilitate natural collaboration rather than demanding military precision. Each of the four classes fills a distinct role, and the procedurally generated cave systems ensure that every mission feels fresh.
The new expansion introduces additional mission types, new enemies with unique behaviors, expanded weapon modifications, and more cosmetic options for personalizing your dwarf. For existing players, this represents dozens of hours of new content. For newcomers, it’s yet another reason to join one of PC gaming’s friendliest communities.
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank: Absurdist Comedy Gold
Turnip Boy Robs a Bank: Yes, that’s the actual title. It’s part comedy, part chaos, and all retro-style fun. Imagine a vegetable staging a stick-up… because why not? The sequel to the surprisingly charming Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, this new installment escalates the absurdist premise while refining the gameplay formula.
Turnip Boy’s world operates on a wonderfully bizarre internal logic where anthropomorphic produce engages in criminal activities while making references to gaming culture and internet humor. It’s the kind of game that winks at the player constantly, fully aware of its own ridiculousness while committing completely to the bit.
The bank robbery premise allows for more structured gameplay than its predecessor, with heist planning mechanics, multiple approaches to objectives, and consequences for different choices. Despite the goofy premise, the actual gameplay is surprisingly competent, featuring tight controls, clever puzzles, and satisfying progression systems.
What elevates Turnip Boy above simple meme-game status is its genuine wit. The writing is sharp, the visual gags are well-timed, and the game never leans too heavily on any single joke. It’s comfort food gaming—nothing revolutionary, but executed with enough charm and competence to justify its existence.
Hades II: Early Access Evolution
Hades II Early Access Ongoing: While it launched earlier this spring, lots of players are still discovering its mechanics and new twists. If you liked the first one, the sequel’s shaping up beautifully. Supergiant Games set an impossibly high bar with the original Hades, a game that perfected the roguelike formula while delivering a narrative experience that actually justified the genre’s repetitive structure.
Hades II takes everything that worked about the original and expands it. The combat feels even more fluid and responsive, with new weapons that offer dramatically different playstyles. The boon system has been refined, creating more interesting synergies and build possibilities. The cast of characters has expanded, each with the same quality of writing, voice acting, and character development that made the original’s cast so memorable.
What’s particularly impressive is how Supergiant has used Early Access. Rather than treating it as glorified beta testing, they’re genuinely using player feedback to refine balance, adjust difficulty curves, and polish every aspect of the experience. Regular updates add new content, fix issues, and implement community suggestions, making players feel like genuine participants in the development process.
For roguelike fans, Hades II is essential. For action game enthusiasts looking for responsive combat and endless replayability, it’s equally compelling. And for narrative-focused players who typically avoid roguelikes, it offers the same story-driven hook that made the original a breakthrough success.
Not All That Glitters: Managing Expectations
Of course, not every project hits the mark. Some demos feel a bit rough or unfinished—but that’s the beauty of an event like Steam Next Fest. You’re getting a behind-the-scenes peek at works-in-progress. It’s like test-driving a car that’s still being built.
Understanding the Demo Experience
Demos serve multiple purposes, and it’s important to approach them with appropriate expectations. These aren’t finished products—they’re snapshots of games at various stages of development. Some demos are highly polished vertical slices designed to showcase the game’s potential at its absolute best. Others are more honest representations of work-in-progress, complete with rough edges, placeholder assets, and incomplete features.
When evaluating demos, consider several factors:
Technical Performance: Is the demo struggling with optimization issues? This is common in early builds and doesn’t necessarily reflect the final product’s performance. However, it’s worth noting if a game runs poorly, as it might indicate development challenges or ambitious technical requirements.
Core Gameplay Feel: Does the basic gameplay loop feel satisfying? This is more important than polish—a game with rough graphics but excellent core mechanics has more potential than a beautiful game with boring gameplay.
Design Vision: Can you see what the developers are trying to achieve? Sometimes a demo doesn’t fully succeed in execution but clearly demonstrates an interesting concept or unique approach worth supporting.
Development Stage: Many demos include information about the game’s development timeline. A demo for a game releasing in six months should be more polished than one slated for release in two years.
The Value of Constructive Feedback
If you spot a game that doesn’t feel quite there yet, keep an eye on it. Developers use this feedback to polish, tweak, and improve before launch. Have a constructive suggestion? Many devs are actively reading reviews and comments during the Fest.
Good feedback is specific, actionable, and focused on your actual experience rather than demands for different content. Instead of “This game sucks,” try “The movement felt too slow for the pace of combat” or “I had trouble understanding the resource management system because the tutorial skipped explaining X.”
Remember that developers are real people who’ve poured enormous time, energy, and often personal finances into these projects. Constructive criticism helps them improve. Harsh negativity without substance just demoralizes and provides no actionable information.
Many successful games have undergone dramatic improvements between their Next Fest demos and final release based on player feedback. Your thoughtful input could genuinely improve a game for everyone.
So, How Should You Spend Your Week?
Easy: fire up your Steam app, click on the Next Fest tab, and start downloading a few demos that catch your eye. Explore something totally different. Maybe a farming simulator… or a foot-kick shooter. Whatever you’re into, there’s likely a demo that hits the right notes.
Creating Your Personal Gaming Schedule
With so much content available and only a week to experience it all, strategic planning helps maximize your Next Fest experience:
Day 1-2: Explore and Download: Spend your first sessions browsing the catalog and downloading demos that interest you. Don’t feel pressured to play everything immediately—just get a healthy variety downloaded and ready.
Day 3-5: Deep Dives: Focus on actually playing demos. Give each game enough time to show you its core mechanics, but don’t feel obligated to finish every demo. Your goal is to identify games worth wishlisting, not to complete everything.
Day 6: Second Chances: Revisit demos that intrigued you but didn’t immediately click. Sometimes games need a second session to reveal their depth.
Day 7: Final Discoveries and Wrap-Up: Do one last browse for anything you missed, play any high-priority demos you haven’t gotten to, and finalize your wishlist with the games you genuinely want to buy.
Beyond the Demos: Community Engagement
Steam Next Fest isn’t just about playing demos—it’s about participating in a community-wide celebration of upcoming games. Watch developer livestreams to learn about design decisions and development challenges. Join discussions on game-specific forums to share strategies and discoveries with other players. Follow developers on social media to stay updated on development progress beyond the festival.
And hey, don’t sleep on The Cave of Liveness. If nothing else, it’s proof that video games can still surprise us, even in small, quiet ways.
The Bigger Picture: Why Events Like This Matter
Steam Next Fest represents something valuable beyond the immediate fun of trying new games. It’s a democratizing force in an industry often dominated by massive marketing budgets and established franchises.
Supporting Independent Development
Independent developers face enormous challenges bringing their games to market. They compete for attention against titles with multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. They often lack the resources for extensive playtesting or lengthy development cycles. Events like Next Fest level the playing field somewhat, giving indie titles the same platform as games from established publishers.
When you try a demo from a small developer, wishlist their game, and leave thoughtful feedback, you’re directly supporting independent game development. You’re helping someone’s creative vision find an audience. You’re potentially enabling someone to continue making games as a career rather than abandoning their dreams due to financial pressure.
Influencing Industry Trends
The games that generate buzz during Next Fest influence broader industry trends. Publishers pay attention to what players respond to during these events. Successful demos can lead to publishing deals, funding for expansion, and increased development resources. Conversely, mechanics or concepts that fall flat help developers avoid dead ends and focus on what works.
Your participation and feedback genuinely shapes the future of gaming. The genres, mechanics, and design philosophies that dominate gaming five years from now are being prototyped and tested in demos available right now.
Building Community
Next Fest creates shared experiences across the global gaming community. Players worldwide are trying the same demos, discovering the same hidden gems, and discussing their findings in online spaces. This creates cultural touchpoints and shared references that strengthen gaming communities.
These community connections matter. They turn gaming from a solitary activity into a social experience. They help players feel connected to something larger than themselves. And they create the passionate fan bases that support games long-term, creating modding communities, strategy guides, fan art, and all the creative output that extends a game’s life far beyond its launch.
Final Thoughts
This week in PC gaming is like a big potluck dinner. Everyone’s brought something to the table—a lovingly crafted short story here, a jaw-dropping strategy game over there, and even a criminal vegetable for a little comic relief.
The common thread? Creativity. Whether you play for five minutes or five hours, there’s a lot to discover. And you don’t need to spend a dime.
Gaming continues to evolve as a medium, pushing boundaries in storytelling, artistic expression, and interactive design. Events like Steam Next Fest showcase this evolution in real-time, providing windows into gaming’s future while celebrating its creative present.
The titles available this week represent thousands of hours of human creativity, passion, and technical skill. Behind every demo is a team (or individual) who believed in their vision enough to invest enormous resources bringing it to life. Some of these games will become massive successes. Others will find small but devoted audiences. And a few might not succeed commercially but will influence future games in unexpected ways.
Your role as a player is simple: stay curious, stay open-minded, and give these games a fair chance. Try something outside your comfort zone. Support creative risks. Engage thoughtfully with what you play. And remember that every major game franchise started somewhere—perhaps the next generation-defining title is sitting in Next Fest’s catalog right now, waiting for you to discover it.
So dive in, explore those demos, and let yourself get lost in something new. Who knows—you might just find your next favorite game hiding in the digital crowd.
Happy gaming!