Steam Next Fest turns the Steam store into an all-you-can-eat buffet, and every June I show up starving. This time I played twenty demos. These ten are the ones I can’t stop thinking about, from cozy to unhinged to the one that made me cry. The Fest ends June 22, so go play them!
Woodo
TL;DR
Assemble wooden dioramas until they bloom into color and animation, then fall quietly in love with a lonely city girl named Foxy.
Psst! Click this image to get a TL;DR
- Release date: 2026 (date to be announced)
- Developer: Tiny Monks Tales
- Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
- Platforms: Steam, with PS5, Xbox, and Switch at launch
Woodo was my first demo of the whole event, and oh, it got me. You drag little wooden pieces from a side panel into a frozen diorama, and every time you place one right, the scene warms into color and a tiny animation, with a lovely voice narrating the whole way.
It’s basically a childhood picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, except now you get to poke at it, and see all these pieces come alive. Forty generous minutes later, I was completely soft for Foxy, a city girl trying to win over a frosty town, and the demo has the cheek to cut out the second she finally makes a friend.
Reader, I wishlisted on the spot. Now I’m just sitting here, slightly feral, waiting for them to announce a release date.
Screenbound
TL;DR
Play a 3D world and a 2D handheld at once, survive the dizziness, and platform your way across sky islands toward your missing mom.
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- Release date: September 10, 2026
- Developer: Crescent Moon Games and Radical Forge
- Publisher: Digital Pajamas
- Platforms: Steam | Xbox | PS5
Going from cozy Woodo straight into Screenbound was a proper jolt. You play in 3D on the screen and 2D on a little handheld at once, and the handheld shows you ladders, doors, and cubes that the 3D world is hiding. For the first five minutes, I felt borderline unwell, dizzy enough that I almost gave up.
And then something in my brain rewired itself, and I spent the next forty-six minutes grinning like an idiot, chasing my lost mom across floating sky islands with a chatty companion I’ve since developed real feelings for. My one nagging worry is whether they can keep that buzz going as the mechanics pile up, but there’s a teaser of you conjuring ice to cross gaps, so I think there’s plenty left to keep me hooked.
Wishlist this brain-bending 5D platformer: it’s out September 10, 2026, on PC, Xbox, and PS5.
Silver Pines
TL;DR
A bluffing amnesiac detective, a vanished musician, and a town that turns from Twin Peaks to nightmare while you ration bullets and tape up knives.
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- Release date: October 8, 2026
- Developer: Wych Elm
- Publisher: Team17
- Platforms: Steam | PS5 | Xbox | Switch
I played Silver Pines at night, by accident, but a moody detective-horror like this deserves the dark. I’d gone in expecting a straight detective game, so the horror caught me completely off guard. You wake up with no memory, a payphone rings, a voice tells you you’re investigating the disappearance of one Eddie Velvet, and you do the only sensible thing and bluff along.
The exploring is the easy bit, but the combat completely wrecked me: it fights like Resident Evil 4 in 2D, all taped-up knives and guns you only find if you snoop properly, and it’s mean, lunging the second your guard drops. I refused to drop to story mode and suffered beautifully across one hundred and four generous minutes. The atmosphere is pure Silent Hill fog, then it all turns gorgeously surreal in a way that made my Twin Peaks-loving heart sing.
Wishlist it: Silver Pines creeps out October 8, 2026.
Milki Delivery
TL;DR
Bike fresh milk around a sun-drunk Italian countryside, befriend your cow, and watch a sleepy town slowly wake back up.
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- Release date: 2026 (date to be announced)
- Developer: Blibloop and Doot
- Publisher: Wholesome Games
- Platforms: Steam
Day two, and Milki Delivery was the soft landing I needed after Silver Pines. I knew from showcases it was pretty; I was not ready for how pretty. The title winks at Kiki’s Delivery Service, and it all looks like a sun-drunk Italian postcard.
You’re a milk courier whose best friend is her cow, Milki, and you can pet her, feed her hay, and share marshmallows by the bonfire, which is when I decided I’d die for this cow. The loop is gentle and never stressed me, mostly because my character naps constantly, flopping onto benches like the patron saint of self-care. Underneath sits a sweet premise: cows have nearly vanished, so every delivery helps the town breathe again. Playing it is a hug to the soul.
Wishlist it: Milki Delivery arrives sometime in 2026 on PC.
Virtue and a Sledgehammer
TL;DR
Deconstructeam hands you a sledgehammer, an android-haunted hometown, and a family that never quite knew what to do with you.
Psst! Click this image to get a TL;DR
- Release date: 2026 (date to be announced)
- Developer: Deconstructeam and Selkie Harbour
- Publisher: Devolver Digital
- Platforms: Steam
After all that coziness, Virtue and a Sledgehammer flattened me. It’s a Deconstructeam game, and I knew they write beautifully, so I expected the full game to gut me. I did not expect the demo to. You play Pratelle, who comes home with a sledgehammer and smashes everything in sight, which is gloriously cathartic.
But between swings, flashbacks unspool her family: her sister Nina, a mother who never quite accepted her, robots that say things so cruel and so true they made me flinch. Pratelle is an immigrant and a queer woman, and so am I, and somewhere in those thirty minutes, I noticed tears on my face and kept swinging anyway. I already know the full game will wreck me, probably heal me, and definitely send me to therapy.
Wishlist it: Virtue and a Sledgehammer hits PC in 2026.
Moonlight Peaks
TL;DR
Inherit Dracula’s name, ditch the family business, and run a witchy farmstead where Death naps in a floral shirt and everyone’s romanceable.
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- Release date: July 7, 2026
- Developer: Little Chicken Game Company
- Publisher: XSEED Games
- Platforms: Steam | Switch | Mobile
I am so tired of farming sims. I’ve played them, reviewed them, and quietly decided the genre was done. But Moonlight Peaks might’ve singlehandedly reignited my love for them. It nails every farming-sim fundamental and layers on a vampire twist that earns its keep: critters and crops with deliciously gothic names, plus a version of Death pottering about in a floral shirt, gloriously retired.
You can turn into your cat familiar to sprint, romance the locals, and lean on spells that take the drudgery out of farming. The writing is sharp and very funny, and the demo is the most generous here by miles. I played two hours, never hit a day limit, and could have gone forever. I also met Saga, who is extremely attractive, so that’s decided.
Wishlist it: Moonlight Peaks arrives July 7, 2026, on PC, Switch, and mobile.
Nocturne
TL;DR
Wake in a digital afterlife, hunt for your lost sibling, and fight every monster by nailing its song on a Guitar Hero rhythm.
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- Release date: September 24, 2026
- Developer: Pracy Studios
- Publisher: Pracy Studios
- Platforms: Steam
Nocturne, I also played at night, for no reason. Despite the name, it’s pure RPG, with battles that run on rhythm, like playing Guitar Hero inside Final Fantasy. You arrive in a digital afterlife as the only newcomer in a thousand years, hunting for the sibling you came to find, with a companion called Kimothy at your side.
Every enemy carries its own song, so each fight means replaying their particular beat, and once I’d rebound the fiddly default controls into something my hands trusted, I was banking a charge and unleashing it to stagger enemies mid-swing. The soundtrack is symphonic rock recorded with the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, which is as lavish as that sounds. But the part that stayed with me was the ambience: a dying digital world, one faithful companion, the exact warmth I last felt watching Clannad, which I had not thought about in fifteen years.
Wishlist it: Nocturne arrives September 24, 2026, on PC.
Welcome to Elderfield
TL;DR
Farm, fish, and romance in a cursed town where the news is wrong, sleep is a gamble, and Undertale-grade unease seeps from every object.
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- Release date: 2026 (date to be announced)
- Developer: Chris Cote
- Publisher: Kwalee
- Platforms: Steam
I went into Welcome to Elderfield lukewarm. The aesthetic hadn’t grabbed me, and my heart’s already promised to Grave Seasons, so I figured a farming-horror had little left to show me. And then it floored me. The farming is real but almost incidental; underneath, this is a horror game that occasionally hands you a hoe, and it rattled me in the exact way OFF and Undertale do.
Every object you poke spits out dialogue, every NPC says something faintly unhinged, and something is deeply wrong in this town. The world is openly out to get you: sleep and you roll a die, and a bad number curses you, as does staying out too late or seeing the wrong thing. There’s turn-based combat, fishing, mining, in-game news broadcasts, romance, and a quest log I gleefully overstuffed. The Steam page promises a lot to do, and for once, that undersells it.
Wishlist it: Welcome to Elderfield arrives on PC in 2026, whenever it’s ready.
Shroom and Gloom
TL;DR
Run cardboard dungeons with two decks, one to explore and one to fight, and roast the mushroom locals before the Gloom eats you.
Psst! Click this image to get a TL;DR
- Release date: Early Access, Q3 2026
- Developer: Team Lazerbeam
- Publisher: Devolver Digital
- Platforms: Steam
I have had my fill of deckbuilders and roguelikes lately; there have been far too many. And then Shroom and Gloom earned its place in the pile-up by doing something genuinely its own. It’s a first-person double-deck builder where everything looks handmade out of cardboard, and you run dungeons with two separate decks.
The clever part is that exploration itself is a deck: spot a locked door and play Key to open it or Bash to smash it, or dig up a marked mound with Shovel. Press on, and the Gloom, a creeping dark energy, starts eating your health whenever you rest to refresh a bad hand, so every stop is a small gamble. Then a fight breaks out and your explore deck swaps for a combat deck you earned along the way. One run in and I could already feel it sinking its hooks in, the same way Slay the Spire 2 has eaten two hundred hours of my year.
Wishlist it: Shroom and Gloom hits Steam Early Access in Q3 2026.
Spiritstead
TL;DR
Build a magic village by hand, then recruit spirits to do your chores, unlocked by stunts as odd as roasting a chicken on the bonfire.
Psst! Click this image to get a TL;DR
- Release date: To be announced
- Developer: Turbo Dog Games
- Publisher: Turbo Dog Games
- Platforms: Steam
Spiritstead was one of my last demos, freshly announced and immediately gorgeous, a hand-drawn storybook on the same tier as Milki Delivery. It’s a cozy city builder set in a world of magic: you raise a home, hand a worker to a production station for wood or food, build more houses, and keep your villagers fed and happy with a bonfire to rest at.
The lovely twist is the spirits. At first you click every felled log and harvested crop into storage yourself, then you find a portal, earn a spirit, and it starts gathering for you, and the relief is delicious. You unlock more in gleefully odd ways, like balancing a chicken over the bonfire for three seconds. Mine bugged out and refused to transform, a reminder this one is still early, which the missing release date gives them room to fix. If Dorfromantik or Fabledom scratched an itch for you, this is aimed squarely at the same spot.
Wishlist it to give the devs the support to get it there.
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