Demo round-up for Steam Next Fest 2022
It wasn't that long ago that Steam showcased the top upcoming adventure games, but for those who missed out last time or are coming back for more, the Next Fest is underway! This time the genre has to share the floor with others (boo!), but there are still plenty of great new adventures on display. Along with a variety of developer interviews, livestream broadcasts, and community events, there are loads of demos up for grabs, but act fast! Many if not all of these playable samplers will be available only until Monday, February 28th, so the clock is ticking. New games may be added to the list as more demos come online, so be sure to check back later to find out the latest!
Aethernaut
Aethernaut is a first-person puzzle game set in a claustrophobic steampunk world. You must solve puzzle rooms using light, sensors, portals and time travel to gather the aether vials and access the core of the Construct. You are guided by Doctor Louis Cornell, who explains how the Construct came to be abandoned and why you were chosen to help save it. Soon, however, unsettling voices start creeping into your mind, warning you against the doctor and pleading for your help.
Albert Wilde: Quantum P.I.
Albert Wilde is down on his luck. He’s broke, he’s friendless, he can’t get a girl, and his landlord won’t let him pee on the office wall anymore. When a pole-dancing flamingo stumbles upon a dead body in an abandoned warehouse, Albert decides that solving the case will also solve all his other problems. If only life were so simple...
Beacon Pines
Luka is just trying to grow up as the world falls down. Something’s afoot in Beacon Pines and he and his friends are the only ones taking notice. Sneak out late, investigate creepy labs, throw some pigs, uncover the truth, and maybe survive the summer.
Behind the Beyond
Behind the Beyond is the tale of a young lad who sets off to find a job but finds a wondrous adventure instead. Explore a truly magical world and solve the mysteries of the Kingdom Behind the Beyond playing as Johnny, the youngest son of a poor man, and his companion the Fox.
Children of Silentown
Lucy is a young girl growing up in a village deep in a forest inhabited by monsters. People disappearing is nothing uncommon in the village, but this time, Lucy is old enough to investigate on her own. Or so she thinks.
Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit
Milda, a smart, good-looking girl from Chicago, is in her room Skyping with her friend Dana when she hears a knock on the door. The postman hands a large envelope to Milda and leaves. It’s an official letter from a law firm informing Milda that her grandfather has passed away and she has inherited his house and all of his belongings as she is the last living relative. Milda’s life is about to take a surprising and adventurous turn.
Desolatium
You have to solve a series of murders that occurred around the end of 2019 in an abandoned town in Spain. But this will just be the beginning of your story... Gather clues, solve intricate puzzles and be ready to face cults and primeval Gods on a journey thousands of years into the past to find the source of that evil. Find out who is behind all this madness through the intertwined stories of four characters from different times and places, and defeat whoever is responsible for it... Or lose your sanity and join your enemy. But be careful! The paths you choose and the decisions you make will lead to different outcomes, and not all of them will be pleasant.
FAR: Changing Tides
Control Toe, a hero trapped in a drowned landscape with little chance of survival. When you find an abandoned ship, your journey to safety will take you across the horizon in a desperate bid for freedom as Toe seeks answers about what happened to this place.
FixFox
Arriving on a curious planet, Vix and her toolbox Tin explore the new world, fixing machines with unconventional tools and eating cozy meals with kind robot locals. On an epic adventure, the duo repair an interstellar beacon, construct giant mechs, and unravel a cosmic mystery that transcends existence.
Forest Grove
Zooey Kunstimatigaard, the teenage heiress to a billion-dollar tech fortune, was reported missing by her stepmother Mary. She was last seen in her bedroom in Forest Grove, Oregon. The Remote Forensics Bureau uses this as an opportunity to roll out their newest technology, the Nanodeck, to investigate the scene, collect evidence, and unmask the truths behind her disappearance. Relationships and secrets must be revealed. If foul play is suspected, those responsible must be brought to justice!
Gordian Rooms 2: A curious island
Shortly after the events of the first game, you have somehow set sail to a mysterious island in order to become a full fledged member of the Gordian Society! Will you become one of the chosen few? Various beautiful locations and mind bending mysteries await you on the Isle of Lye, one of the many testing locations of the Gordian Society. Venture into underground caverns, make your way through dungeons and explore the grand mansion of Lye.
Hazel Sky
Sent to an island far from home in the flying city of Gideon, Shane must pass the trials and return as an engineer or face banishment. Connected via radio, Shane and fellow trainee engineer Erin strike up an illicit friendship – a friendship that will change the way Shane sees the world. For Shane, the trials are his destiny, but destiny and desire rarely align, and in a world divided between honored engineers and reviled artists, Shane finds himself torn. The trials, events in Gideon, and an unlikely romance tell the bittersweet story of love, ambition, and a society on the brink of something new.
If Fusion Were That Easy
Daniel is a young physicist who likes to get himself into messes from which he has to free himself again. With him is George, a crazy guy who is often helpful but all the more confused. Cold fusion is on the verge of a breakthrough, but today things have spiraled out of control. Daniel seems to be the only one who can still stop a disaster. But he needs help – and the Clan is in his way, a mysterious association that causes Daniel a lot of trouble. Can our hero find a way to stop the inevitable and save the world? What does the Clan want? And are things really as they seem?
Intruder in Antiquonia
What do a convent gardener, a police inspector, and an ambulance driver have in common? Besides living in a town that rejects internet adoption, they will join forces to help Sarah, a young woman with amnesia, uncover the enigma of her intriguing past. Are you ready to explore this peculiar town, and face the challenges that await behind Sarah's memories?
Little Orpheus
Ivan Ivanovich is sent to the centre of the earth in his atomic exploration capsule, the Little Orpheus. He vanishes for three years and then suddenly reappears, claiming to have made all sorts of inconceivable discoveries! We join Ivan as he faces the terrifying General Yurkovoi in a dark interrogation room and begins to spin a fantastic story about lost kingdoms, underground oceans, mad explorers and ancient civilizations…
Lost in Play
Distracted while playing, a brother and sister lose their way and the journey back through imaginary and surreal landscapes begins. On their way they encounter magical and magnificent creatures such as a horned beast, a giant stork, magical seaweed, friendly frogs and traveling goblins. They will need to overcome their fears, solve puzzles and stick together to find their way home.
Lucy Dreaming
Lucy has a recurring nightmare! Guide her in her journey to discover the secrets of dream control so that she can face her demons and finally put her nightmares behind her. Learn how to influence the environment and characters that manifest while you’re dreaming to build up your confidence, unlock hidden memories, and solve puzzles between dreams and the real world.
Lunar Axe
After a major earthquake in the city, the ruins of an old building collapse and you end up trapped inside a large abandoned house. Find a way out and unravel the mystery of the inexplicable tremors, meet the guardian spirit of a mystical artifact, and learn its relation to recent events, before it's too late.
Nine Noir Lives
Welcome to Meow Meow Furrington. Capital city of cats, cartels, and crime. A city that will just as soon claw your eyes out as lick your face. Explore the hangouts and high points of this feline furtopia. Discover characters both kooky and dangerous. Solve the mystery of a murder that threatens to spill into the city like an overturned saucer of milk and ignite a war between the powerful Montameeuw and Catulet families.
The Past Within
You are faced with solving a mystery for someone you know to be dead. The only way to solve the puzzles is to communicate with the past. Different times, different perspectives, a singular goal. Cooperate with a partner and fulfill Albert Vanderboom's legacy!
Read Only Memories: Neurodiver
Take on the role of ES88, a telepath employed by a powerful organization called MINERVA, specializing in neurotechnology and extrasensory projection phenomena. In exchange for a procedure equipping her with a Neurodiver, a powerful genetically engineered device allowing ES88 to dive into others’ memories, ES88 gave up her identity and memories. A rogue Esper, a naturally gifted psychic, is on the loose and wreaking havoc through the subconscious minds of Neo-San Francisco. Track down this mysterious rogue known as the Golden Butterfly by using the Neurodiver to search the memories in which it hides.
Recursive Ruin
Explore an infinitely fractal world of strange beauty and mind-bending physics. Inhabit a despondent artist in search of meaning… and experience a bittersweet story that cascades into the surreal.
Silt
Alone in an underwater abyss, you are a diver searching the deep to uncover long-forgotten mysteries. Explore the depths, possessing the creatures around you to solve environmental puzzles and travel deeper into the darkness. Discover a surreal ocean world where nature has evolved into increasingly bizarre forms in order to survive. Traverse stunning underwater vistas and discover strange creatures, unexplored ruins and ancient machinery hidden in the deep. Confront giant deep sea goliaths and harness their power to awaken a long-dormant force at the centre of the abyss.
Soulflow
Someone is going to die. You are a soul able to inhabit the bodies of the people and other creatures you encounter, and your freedom depends on finding out who is nearing the end before time runs out.
Surviving the Humans
Cooper is a zombie who rises from his grave in a cemetery in the 1980s knowing absolutely nothing about his past. Accompany him and guide Cooper through an epic story where he learns what it means to be a zombie and how to change humanity's misconception about his kind.
To Hell with the Ugly
Rock Bailey is a blond and strikingly handsome young man who refuses to have sex until the day he turns twenty. During a party at the Zooty Slammer jazz club, Rocky is drugged and kidnapped. He wakes up in a strange hospital but manages to escape unharmed. With memories of the evening still hazy in his mind, Rocky is determined to track down his abductors and get to the bottom of his kidnapping.
A Twisted Tale
Accompany Vio on her unintentional journey through various realms. Explore broken cities, pirate ships in jungles and other unreal places.
Verne: The Shape of Fantasy
The famous writer has been trapped in a parallel world where all his works coexist, forming a place full of adventures, dangers and fantasy. The story is based mainly on Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and Journey to the Center of the Earth, and sees Verne traveling aboard the mythical Nautilus to find a way to return imagination and creativity to a world invaded by gray industrialization.
Where the Heart Leads
After pursuing his dog down a mysterious sinkhole that appeared on his farm, Whit Anderson descends into the darkness but emerges in a realm beyond his imagining. Here in this strange world, constantly shifting like the stops and starts of a dream, Whit bears witness to the story of his life and gains the power to change it.
Who Is He: Let Me Out
One night Alvin wakes up from a nightmare to find his mother missing. All the doors are locked, and he doesn't know what happened. With help from his little sister, Alvin gets out of the house only to realize that all the villagers are missing. Then things get even stranger when ghosts appear out of nowhere.
The Wreck
At 36, Junon’s life is in pieces: her career has stalled, she’s emotionally numb, and her personal life is falling apart. Things come to a head when she’s called to the ER to find her estranged mother in critical condition. This is the most important day of Junon’s life, and unless something changes, it might be her last.
