Five Demos to Check Out From October’s Steam Next Fest

Windblown

Release Date: October 24, 2024 [Early Access]

Since Dead Cells set a new bar for action roguelikes more than six years ago, it’s been tough to find many other games that have lived up to lightning-fast play, specifically when it comes to its perfectly tuned, dopamine-releasing dodge roll that made every fight feel fair no matter how many foes clogged the screen. After Motion Twin’s controversial decision to suddenly end development on their beloved title, there’s even more pressure on their follow-up, Windblown, to land. Thankfully, from what I’ve played, we may be in for another winner. While their latest looks less visually distinctive than Dead Cells, it maintains the twitchy, fast-paced flow that made its predecessor downright hypnotic. And once again, I’m left wondering what Faustian bargain they had to strike to make dodging feel this good.

Here, we play as a Leaper, someone able to defy death as they fight through a shifting world known as the Vortex. Like Motion Twin’s previous game, this is an action roguelike where you brave hordes of enemies, hone a build, and gradually improve your arsenal across runs. On its face, it has a great deal in common with the isometric action of Hades and the progression systems of most other games in this style, but thankfully, it plays so well you likely won’t mind that familiarity. It gets the genre’s basics down—different weapons felt varied and fun in their own ways, and I was already getting a feel for strategies around upgrades that made these runs feel unique—but what really sets it apart is just how quick and punchy it is to zip between laser blasts and sword slashes as you carve up robotic adversaries. Each time you do a successful dodge, there’s a pitch-perfect woosh sound effect that never gets old, and the pin-point precision of this maneuver provides what you need to weave through clusters of baddies. There’s also co-op, which I didn’t get a chance to check out, and I’m curious how this frenetic experience will play when your buddies are filling the screen with projectiles and emotes. While Dead Cells is a tough act to follow, Windblown’s snappy controls leave me quite optimistic.

Rift of the NecroDancer

Release Date: 2024

I’ll admit that when I saw the first trailer for Rift of the Necrodancer, its lane-based rhythm gameplay seemed like a bit of a step back compared to its predecessor, Crypt of the NecroDancer, which innovatively combined Rogue-style dungeon crawling with a steady thrum of musical movement. But having played this spin-off, I was surprised to find how much new it brings to this well-trodden territory. Once again, we follow Cadence, but this time around, she’s fighting creatures that approach like notes in a traditional rhythm game—when they land in front of you, you hit the direction corresponding with their lane to give them a bonk. I went into this experience wondering how difficult a three-lane rhythm game could really be, but it turns out that the answer is very. What makes it so tough is that unlike Guitar Hero, where the notes obediently glide down the screen in a single file line, here you’re up against critters with a mind of their own. Each note is represented by a monster, like slimes, skeletons, or dragons, and each type comes with unique movement patterns. On top of this, certain ones take multiple hits to defeat, while others require landing half-notes and other tricky timings as they move across the field in a frenetic blitz that reminds me of those GDQ streams where people play unhinged Stepmania tracks or other games with fan-made charts for the true genre sickos.

These seemingly simple twists have big consequences, making these defeating creatures almost feel like you’re reading actual notes, each coming with meaning beyond just what lane they’re in. Of course, you’re just hitting directions on a controller or keyboard, but the music and monsters come together to create some real rhythm game bliss. While all this is tricky to deal with, thankfully, the game features numerous difficulty settings, a robust training mode, and some of the best audio and visual syncing tests I’ve seen in this kind of game, granting you the tools to overcome waves of supernatural fiends. While we haven’t gotten a full look at the story mode yet, which will have mini-games that break out of these lanes, the core gameplay already feels quite harmonious.

Knights in Tight Spaces

Release Date: TBD

Those familiar with Ground Shatter’s previous game, Fights in Tight Spaces, will immediately find themselves at home with the cheekily named Knights in Tight Spaces, a strategically rewarding roguelike deckbuilder where you play out a fantasy RPG campaign. You’re tasked with navigating a tactics-style grid while using cards to move, attack, guard, and more. Like in its predecessor, if you or your opponent are pushed out of this small arena, it means instant death, meaning positioning and clever use of attacks that move your adversaries are essential. Using cards, you’ll orchestrate visceral fights that involve clobbering, grappling, and generally manhandling your enemies as you set up environmental kills and try to avoid taking a spill. On top of this, there are plenty of classic fantasy RPG accouterments, and you’ll have to consider your characters’ classes, abilities, and equipment while putting together a party of adventurers who can survive these quests. Some cards can only be used by characters with specific equipment types and abilities, making putting together a good deck tricky because your party shares the same cards. While this style of game is nuanced, and it frequently takes a whole bunch of runs to suss out how well all their systems fit together, I’ve liked what I played of this one so far quite a bit. Between its compelling focus on tactics and ample room for card drafting optimizations, Knights in Tight Spaces seems to pack a punch.

Mushroom Musume

Release Date: Q4 2024

Mushroom Musume is a damp, dark fairytale of a visual novel that surprised me with its unique tone and sharp writing. At the start, you play as the Recluse, a lonely hermit desperate for company. Luckily (sort of) for them, they meet the Witch of the Woods, who promises them a daughter—specifically one grown from mushrooms. It’s a strange setup, and it only gets stranger as the game quickly shifts from a simple VN, into a management/life sim where you nurture a fungal child, before switching into the most interesting mode of all, where you control this mildewy daughter in a choice-driven adventure full of dice rolls. Across my 40-minute play session, things branched in wildly different directions, and I frequently felt the weight of past decisions across a randomized array of encounters, culminating in one out of dozens of endings (apparently, the full game will be even longer, with even more conclusions). What binds it all together is the tone, which is less grim in the juvenile, children’s book parody sort of way and more in the Brothers Grimm sense, equally full of whimsy and sinister turns that riff on backwoods folklore. While strange, there is an undercurrent of warmth to it all, or at least there can be, depending on your decisions. Equal turns disturbing and endearing, Mushroom Musume is a charming oddity.

Elijah Gonzalez is an assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Twitter @eli_gonzalez11.