State of the Steam Demos Through 2024
I’ve gone over so many game demos over years within the span of this review thing, and I started wondering how many out of which ones I’ve played that I’ve later picked up, as well as which others have actually come out and how they’re doing. I know for sure there have been games that ended up on my radar because I played the demo for them, but I’m just wondering how my interests in demos have overlapped with my interests in games. And with the next round of Next Fest things underway, I figured I’d have a look at these before posting my thoughts on more current demos.
I’ll be grouping the demos by year played and listing their statuses as well as notes on if I’ve played the game or not.
2019 Demos
These demos were a handful from when this concept of having trade show demos available for a short time to people other than certified members of the press was getting started. This ended up really picking up later on and I had a new activity for the review stuff.
- System Shock Remake: Out in 2023, decent reviews
A classic FPS thing now in super graphics. I haven’t played this one but good to know this one did well enough. Now I’m certain I have a machine that can run this well.
- SkateBIRD: Out in 2021, decent reviews
A “tiny hawk” skateboarding thing with physics. I played this on the Xbone through Game Pass. It was a bit of a janky time and kind of a pain to get through though at least the birds are cute. It mainly just made me want a better modern Tony Hawk and not just meme games similar to Goat Simulator.
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale: Out in 2021, really high reviews
An artist angst game with cute graphics. I played a bit of this from Game Pass on PC. It’s interesting and cute but I wasn’t really drawn in enough to finish playing.
- Spiritfarer: Out in 2020, really high reviews
I played this a bit on Game Pass and later picked it up to continue playing at some point. It’s an interesting animated game dealing with the land of the dead with neat character designs.
2020 Demos
The home-playable demos really picked up here because what else are you going to do while trying to avoid dying horribly? I definitely have played some things that I tried here.
- Superliminal: Out in 2019 (2020 on Steam), really high reviews
A wacky perspective puzzle thing. I played this on the Xbone through Game Pass. Neat puzzle game with perspective tricks overall.
- Moncage: Out in 2021, decent reviews
Kinda forgot this one happened. Haven’t played the full thing, it involves some kinda cube perspective thing.
- Backworlds: Out in 2020, decent reviews
A sort of platformer. Apparently this is free. Maybe I was playing the full version unknowingly. Still seems student project-y.
- Filament: Out in 2020, decent reviews
A puzzle game about connecting wires around things to matching things set on a space thing. Haven’t played this one.
- Genesis Noir: Out in 2021, okay reviews
A weird artsy puzzle game narrative kinda thing that I played on Game Pass on PC. It only had my interest because it was so abstract, but it was a little more grounded in the full version. Interesting art stuff at least.
- Lost Words: Out in 2020 (2021 on Steam), really high reviews
A puzzle platformer narrative thing that didn’t grab me during the demo so I skipped over this one. It also started as a Stadia exclusive.
- Garden Story: Out in 2021, decent reviews
A top-down Zelda-like thing starring a grape or plum or something. Seems okay but not quite my thing at the moment, also for some reason all the Steam screenshots are Korean.
- Backbone: Out in 2021, middling reviews, now known as Tails Noir
A point and click set in a usual dystopian setting but animals. I played a bit of this through Game Pass. Kinda interesting but didn’t hold me. Also had weird stealth segments wedged in.
- Nine Noir Lives: Out in 2022, decent reviews
An attempted comedic noir story. Not sure how they fixed this one up, also still looks like a bit of a weird art style for what it is with big head cartoon cats dealing with murder. Haven’t followed up on this.
- Papetura: Out in 2021, decent reviews
Kinda forgot this one but it looks interesting being a handmade sorta point and click deal. I ended up getting this in a bundle deal while working on this list.
- RoboCo: Early access in 2022, decent reviews
A robot building puzzle game like Besiege. I haven’t picked this one up and it might have been put on hold to focus on some Quest-exclusive version instead, which makes me want to not consider this one even more.
- Automaton: Out in 2020, now delisted
Apparently I had a rough time with this one and now the game no longer exists, as I had to hunt down the Steam page. I instead find so many other games called Automaton, or some variation of the word, that are still up and probably control better.
- Mutropolis: Out in 2021, decent reviews
Point and click game I forgot about.
- Chinatown Detective Agency: Out in 2022, middling reviews
I was a little interested in this one due to how it felt like having to play Carmen Sandiego while looking up things, but there’s an inherent flaw in looking up puzzle stuff online because it’s likely it’ll pull up specific game guides instead of Wikipedia pages or whatever. That and apparently inability to save freely in case of interruptions seems to have tanked this one.
- Hello Guest: Hello Neighbor 2 out in 2022 but this only published as “pre-alpha” in 2020, mostly decent reviews for HN2 but better for this one
The whole “neighbor genre” thing was a bit annoying. I found this demo a bit funny when I played at least, due to the weird chicken man AI and not knowing what was going on.
- Coromon: Out in 2022, decent reviews
I remember thinking this one was too similar to its inspiration. I’d rather play either regular Pokémon with its weird modern jank or indie stuff that’s more distant yet a similar idea, like a later demo further on this list.
- Metamorphosis: Out in 2020, decent reviews
The demo for this one was real short and didn’t show much and I’m not sure what else to really go for here. Apparently one of the puzzles is easily broken I guess.
- Balsa Model Flight Simulator: Early access in 2021, since delisted and released as KitHack in 2024
A model plane simulator, like Kerbal but more grounded. I have enough trouble with Kerbal as it is and I think that game’s early access sequel is effectively dead at the moment, yet somehow being sold.
- Grounded: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A survival game about fighting bugs mostly. Didn’t really appeal to me since I’m a bit tired of general survival games, yet I’m still a fan of rats maps.
- Destroy All Humans! Remastered: Out in 2020, really high reviews
A polished up alien invasion shooter playing as the alien. I enjoyed the original and picked this one up to play later since it fixes up a few things and mouse aiming is nice.
- Of Bird And Cage: Out in 2021, decent reviews
A musical Telltale-like kinda thing, designed like between when that company did actual adventure games and interactive movies. Apparently it’s also pretty broken and the musical aspect places time limits on segments. Sounds a bit annoying to get into.
- Observer: System Redux: Out in 2020, decent reviews
A remaster or reworking of a narrative horror game that had only came out a few years before. They apparently left in the arbitrary stealth parts, but somehow it’s better than it was before, so I’d hate to see how that was prior. Not sure if I’d go into this one.
- Manifold Garden: Out in 2019 (2020 on Steam), really high reviews
One of those weird dimensional puzzle games. Don’t think I’ll pick this one up even though I enjoyed Antichamber and things like it.
- Glitchphobia: “Coming soon”
Some weird abstract walking thing to find glitches in the world/reality or something. This one didn’t impress me before. Seems abandoned.
- Calico: Out in 2020, decent reviews
A game that I think involves running a cat cafe but there’s also magic and a town and such. I really enjoyed this demo and eventually got a copy of the game in a bundle. I should check it out in full and see how much of the whole “doing everything and then funny physics happen” sticks.
2021 Demos
Many more demos as this whole thing kept going.
- Balan Wonderworld: Out in 2021, middling reviews
So this one didn’t go over well. Another one of those “spiritual successor led by high profile director or someone” that bombed, sorta based around NiGHTS but not entirely. I found the demo weird too apparently.
- SkateBIRD: See above
- Squadron 51: Out in 2022, high reviews, now known as Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers
I found this demo charming at least, adhering to the whole B-movie aspect, but being a side scrolling shooter I wasn’t entirely interested.
- Alekon: Out in 2021, very high reviews
Pokémon Snap without Pokémon but with different creatures and also random minigames apparently, but also more freedom after a point. Could be neat.
- Builder Simulator: Out in 2022, okay reviews
The demo broke on me apparently. Another one of those job simulator things that I’ve already seen plenty of. And yet I recently found a disc collection of generic job simulators at a thrift store that I might try to get working.
- Stay Out of the House: Out in 2022, very high reviews
I’m not a fan of these Puppet Combo “everything must be unreadably blurry and also extremely loud at random times” things. At least the filters can be turned off to a more sensible level. However it’s possible to be better at jumpscare type stuff without making the user go deaf.
- Gal*Gun Returns: Out in 2021, decent reviews
Yeah, no thanks. Really only good for a laugh but I’m not into this stuff. It’s a lot of usual hentai type tropes but it’s not straight up porn, just almost.
- Copy Editor: Out in 2021, middling reviews
Regular expressions. If you’re not worried at the prospect of that then you’re likely either not a programmer or a master at these. This is of those programmer tutorials that teaches how to do these things, but most people will just look up how to do this online like with any other coding issue. Or I guess now tell some “AI” to do it and wonder why it doesn’t work until they hammer the generation button a few (dozen) more times.
- Ice Cream Truck: “Coming soon”
Having to solve animal problems with emotional ice cream, and some sub-story about a balloon. Not sure if or when this will end up coming out.
- Time Loader: Out in 2021, decent reviews
A puzzle platformer thing about a time traveling robot thing. I forgot this one was a thing and not sure I’d go for it.
- Stuffed: Early access in 2021, out in 2024, okay reviews
Call of Duty Zombies but toys so Germany and Australia can play it I guess. I didn’t get into this at all. I’m not even into regular Call of Duty Zombies. I’m barely into Call of Duty as it is and especially not any recent ones.
- Tamarindos Freaking Dinner: Out in 2024, okay reviews
A very weird thing. Apparently only fairly recently came out and is apparently “live” in terms of adding new content monthly or something.
- Scarlet Nexus: Out in 2021, decent reviews
I played this demo on the Xbone, and from this until a certain point later on the list are also Xbone demos. It’s a very anime action game. I’m not sure what’s notable about this one really.
- Justice Sucks Recharged: Out in 2022, now known as Justice Sucks: Tactical Vacuum Action
They really went more for the stealth action angle on this one which I thought would limit the potential of this concept. But apparently on top of that they added more wacky stuff to try to balance it out. I don’t think I’d go for this.
- The Eternal Cylinder: Out in 2021 (2022 on Steam), high reviews
A weird wildlife game about a creature versus a very long cylinder that somehow flattens a planet by rolling, except there’s ways to pause it. Didn’t feel like getting this one.
- Faraday Protocol: Out in 2021, decent reviews
Forgot about this one as well. One of those puzzle room kinda games but with a light gun or something.
- Tunic: Out in 2022, high reviews
Fox Zelda but I think the goal is to assemble a manual or something? Also the combat is that usual vein of “brutal souls-like ultra hardcore dodge everything” or whatever so therefore I’m not interested.
- BattleCakes: Early access in 2023, out in 2024, decent reviews
A basic kinda RPG looking thing but cupcakes I guess. Seemed easy and didn’t feel like going for this.
- Clouzy!: Out in 2022, middling reviews
The last group of Xbone demos for now. Apparently a farming game but also there’s a weird cat and clouds. Not my thing and apparently not great.
- Crisp Cube: Out in 2021, okay-ish reviews
Intelligent Qube (or I.Q.) but there’s a corgi in a suit. That’s pretty much it. Not sure how much else is different. I found a copy of the original later on.
- Misc. A Tiny Tale: “Coming soon”
A Chibi-Robo-esque kinda adventure but split up into open sequential levels with various tasks to unlock a gate to the next. Given its likely inspirations it’s got my interest, and is still in active development by the looks of it, so hopefully this one comes out sooner than “soon”.
- Road 96: Out in 2021, decent reviews
A narrative adventure/walking simulator mixed with Oregon Trail roguelite-ish elements about crossing Not America in a 90s-looking timeframe as a hitchhiker while trying to not die to strangers or the government. Yeah, it’s an indie game. Not feeling this one though.
- Industria: Out in 2021, okay reviews
Some kinda late Cold-War kinda robot shooter. I vaguely remember playing this but didn’t get interested in it. Apparently there’s a sequel in development.
- Sable: Out in 2021, decent reviews
An open world job fair set in a sci-fi desert where everyone wears masks related to their careers, also there’s hoverbikes. It has a particular art style going on as well, like a 2D frame animated cartoon but is in 3D with outlines and smooth motions. I eventually checked this one out more in depth on Game Pass and picked it up to continue outside of it. And I did get past that one beetle part in the full game, though climbing can still be weird sometimes and the camera even weirder at times.
- Lawn Mowing Simulator: Out in 2021, okay-ish reviews
Another job simulator. Not as “satisfying” as Power Wash Simulator though so I didn’t bother with this.
- Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan: Out in 2021, decent reviews
An RPG where you fight with words. Definitely one of those indie style concepts that’s stuck around. Also the whole old cartoon aesthetic. I didn’t end up picking this one up since the “combat” style didn’t quite grab me.
- TOEM: Out in 2021, very high reviews
A black and white cartoon photography game about solving tasks to help out the towns on the path to a special landmark event thing. It’s a pretty cute game and I was interested enough from the demo that I picked it up and have been playing it on my Steam Deck.
- Iron Rebellion: Early access in 2021, out in 2024, okay-ish reviews
A VR mech simulator, which of course sounds great on paper. I looked at this pretty early on and it only recently released in full. Turns out it’s more focused as a multiplayer game of course which means I’ve lost interest, and apparently the player drop-off indicates a lot of others have as well.
- Sentenced VR: Out in 2021, middling reviews
A weird narrative execution simulator which for some reason has weird blue and pink graphics, and when I played it the movement controls were kinda broken for my setup. I found this demo to be way more hilarious than thought-provoking given all the ways I could screw with NPCs. After this, I eventually got Blade and Sorcery, which is pretty much all I wanted from this game and then some.
- Gamecine: Early access in 2022, out in 2024(?), okay-ish reviews
The typical “hey check out what you can do in VR” thing that lasts literally a couple minutes, just in case someone who vomits profusely whenever VR stuff happens more than a few minutes can barely survive it. Or whatever the reason for short VR “experiences” as they’re called. I’d only had the Index setup for about half a year when I got to this demo so I was already fairly used to what VR can do. There’s better tech demos out there. Like The Lab, which is a free thing I messed with a bit while getting accustomed.
- Paranormal Detective: Escape from the 90’s: Out in 2022, decent reviews
An escape room VR thing that leans heavily on nostalgia. Somehow screwing around in an arcade solves a mystery I guess. Didn’t get into this one.
- The Secret of Retropolis: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A point and click in VR with stretchy arms. The demo was way too short to get a feel for this so not sure how long the actual game ended up being, but the reviews seem to indicate about an hour if that.
- The Good Life: Out in 2021, okay-ish reviews
I played this on Xbone, along with the last few demos for this year, and this one ran poorly. It claims to be a “debt repayment RPG” a.k.a. quasi-Animal Crossing, and there’s something about animals as well. It also wants to be quirky but I didn’t pick up well on that.
- Overpass: Rhythm Roadtrip: Out in 2019, decent reviews
There are at least two games called Overpass on Steam, but this one had a certain subtitle on the Xbone to differentiate. It’s a rhythm game about staring up while on a road trip and hitting the button as things go by. Good if you like that aesthetic, not exactly what I’m looking for though.
- Space Boat: “Coming soon”
Haven’t heard anything since about this cat type narrative adventure thing, but apparently it’s still happening? It seemed like a typical point and click style approach but with more direct control yet still the usual excessive snark about the state of games or something.
- Lonesome Village: Out in 2022, okay reviews
A top down 2D exploration puzzle type thing. When I played the demo it seemed broken, but fortunately this seems to not be the case for the full thing, though I wasn’t sold on it either way. However I did end up checking out a demo of a later game from this developer by happenstance.
2022 Demos
By this point, the Steam Next Fest thing was here to stay so I just tried to hop in whenever I could to play whatever looked neat. I also had to take the first opportunity I could to replace the failing graphics card in my PC as soon as I found a reasonable offer for a fairly equal replacement.
- Albert Wilde: Quantum P.I.: Out in 2025, high reviews, now known as Cat Detective Albert Wilde
A sorta recurring theme of cat-based noir games. Has kind of a weird stop-motion animation style mixed with smooth motions and an old film filter. Also when I played the demo there seemed to be a lot of lines talking about nipples and anuses as if that’s all cats were known for, plus the mouse sensitivity seemed really low. I haven’t looked at this one since, but it did come out recently.
- Aethernaut: Out in 2022, middling reviews
Another puzzle room game that ended up being confusing when I played because I wasn’t sure if I was doing the rooms in the right order. Didn’t leave much impression on me.
- Mindhack: Early access in 2023, decent reviews
A visual novel with minigames about rewriting clients’ minds with flowers and happy thoughts and an interesting art style. I forgot about this one and had it confused with some other weird demo I played later on, also about weird therapy with minigames. I just wonder how this one will do when it’s complete.
- Adapt: “Coming soon”
A bit like Spore but focused on the creature phase. I’m guessing that’s because it was the part people seemed to like the most and Spore itself was lacking in a number of places. The demo is still being updated at least. I wasn’t sure what I was doing in the version of the demo I played but maybe there’s more of a direction now.
- A Tale of Paper: Out in 2022, okay reviews, now known as A Tale of Paper: Refolded
A platformer kinda thing I forgot about, but apparently the demo played a bit weirdly and the camera kept breaking. I’ve only heard about this one recently because I got a key in a bundle of random games, and apparently it’s been reworked since then.
- Tinykin: Out in 2022, very high reviews
A Pikmin-esque game, but more like a platformer in an approach similar to Chibi-Robo in terms of level design, but with much more active platforming and traversal. I enjoyed this demo, and I also played through and really enjoyed the full game through Game Pass, to where I named it my Game of the Year for that year.
- The Last Taxi: Out in 2022, okay-ish reviews
A VR game about a future taxi-driving narrative kinda thing I think. This demo kept breaking my well-used graphics card during the intro, but once I actually got far enough to see the actual game a bit, it didn’t really impress me. Also my center position kept getting screwed up for some reason so I had to keep manually resetting it. After all that of course I didn’t have a good impression but part of that was the fault of the hardware.
- Ziggy’s (Not So Good) Cosmic Adventures: Out in 2023, middling reviews
A VR space button pushing thing of sorts that lives up to its mid-subtitle. Somehow flying a spaceship straight forward is needlessly complex and requires sucking the life juice out of clones of the titular character because the batteries keep dying, and then also having to make sure the countless corpses generated by that don’t stink up the cockpit, among a billion other tasks. I found it to be like if they tried to make Job Simulator have actual consequences, which doesn’t really work for that type of experience.
- Virtuoso: Out in 2022, okay reviews
A VR music instrument sandbox thing. The demo was okay but my messing around in it only ended up in making an obnoxious loop. I may have had a better idea of it if I was more musically trained.
- We Are One: Out in 2023, decent reviews
One of those time loop cloning things about shooting enemies in VR with some pre-planned strategy maybe. Neat concept but didn’t get too into this one.
- Agent 64: Spies Never Die: Planned for 2025
Clearly made out of nostalgia for Goldeneye on the N64 down to having similar controls for the controller instead of the usual mouse and keyboard I do for FPS on PC. I’m not entirely sure if the nostalgia is a strong enough selling point for this when there’s much more intriguing retro-style FPS that also tends to move a little bit faster.
- Backfirewall_: Out in 2023, decent reviews
A narrative puzzle game about being an update program inside a device, apparently a smartphone, attempting to replace the current OS with a new version and running against the systems of the phone while doing so. I found the concept potentially interesting but haven’t gotten around to this one since.
- Being a Penguin: “Coming soon”
A narrative penguin simulator thing with low poly graphics and tons of bloom that blinds out the mostly-white environments. Not sure if this one’s coming out any time soon but I don’t think I’d pick this one up.
- Monuments Flipper: Early access in 2022, out in 2024, middling reviews, now known as Monuments Renovator
Another job simulator. Calling it a “flipper” game at first seemed to be riding on the coattails of House Flipper, so the new title seems more accurate to the job. Of course I didn’t find this one exciting at all, or even interesting.
- Pocket Wheels: “Coming soon”
Essentially a driving game made into a Tony Hawk 4 style game with objectives all around the map, plus on a rats map scale. It felt a bit jumbled together but also contrasted a bit with the refined approach of recent car games I was playing at the time. Don’t think I’d get this one.
- Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer: Out in 2023, very high reviews
As far as throwback FPS goes, this one is very throwback down to being the ideas of a late 90s to early 2000s teenager now realized, complete with the edgy metal soundtrack, visuals, and plot expected of the time. I’ve played a bit more of this outside of the demo and have been meaning to get back to it as it’s fun in both classic FPS gameplay and even more so in presentation.
- Android Simulator: “Coming soon”
More of a “run around spaceship and do things” simulator. Needed a lot of work when I played the demo and not sure if this one’s coming out any time soon.
- Metal: Hellsinger: Out in 2022, very high reviews
A rhythm-based FPS in the vein of modern Doom. I had fun with the demo and would like to check out the full version next chance I get. There’s even a VR version now, but that one seems to be weird to control and divisive on how well it actually works there.
- Fech the Ferret: Early access in 2022, okay reviews
A Sonic-esque parkour thing with someone’s neon pink ferret fursona zipping around places. When I played the demo it seemed to be more of a sandbox tech demo thing, but the current version of the game has full levels.
- Restaurant Simulator: Out in 2022, middling reviews
This is among the most “why is this even on Steam” demos I’ve played. It’s a pretty basic collection of assets including a restaurant building and several bikini women who speak in what was certainly text to speech in order to hit on the player. I doubt the full version offers much if anything over the demo that I can tell. Regardless, it’s kinda hilarious from being obvious wish fulfillment for “I want to go to a restaurant and also see hot women”.
- Grand Theft Gato: Vice Kitty: Out in 2023, middling reviews, now known as Heist Kitty: Cats Go a Stray
With an original name like that I’m not surprised they had to change it, but it’s at least kind of a pun on that one game still. It’s a Goat Simulator-esque game about being a cat causing chaos and messing around town. Also with multiplayer. I didn’t get into this one.
- Kaichu: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A dating simulator thing about kaiju going on dates together that also involves wrecking landmarks, presented as a question and answer thing with newscasters being the translation for the player’s sake. It’s very cute but I haven’t gotten around to this one yet.
- LEGO Brawls: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A typical Smash-wannabe with typical battle pass stuff that infests typical modern online games like these. I didn’t really enjoy trying this one. At least it’s not a free-to-play mess and still seems to work apparently.
- The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo: Out in 2023, decent reviews
A stylized animated point and click kinda thing. It seems neat, though apparently it’s pretty short and has a lot of bugs involved, and this is apparently due to disputes with the publisher rushing it out.
- Spark the Electric Jester 3: Out in 2022, very high reviews
A very Sonic-inspired 3D platformer. Neat if you like playing Sonic-adjacent games that are better than some actual Sonic games, though with the volume of such I haven’t gotten to this one.
- BRVR Backrooms Virtual Reality: Out in 2023, high reviews
Another one of those usual interpretations of the Backrooms, that whole creepypasta thing that came from construction photos of an indoor RC car track and spun off into having a bunch of layers and also random monsters. This was in VR as mentioned in the name, and I had issues getting the demo to run in general, plus it controlled weirdly. Still not my thing even if those weren’t issues.
- ShibaInu: Out in 2022, middling reviews
A VR katana slicing rolled bamboo mats simulator named after a dog. That’s pretty much it. Another one of those short VR experiences that I’ve generally grown out of, as in it’s neat to hop in and out of within some bigger that has a variety of things to do such as VRChat but not something I’d get on its own. I can certainly do more with swords alone in the likes of Blade and Sorcery at least.
- Maestro VR: Early access in 2022, middling reviews
I couldn’t get this demo to work, for reasons that I think had to do with how my setup was configured until I toggled some settings later on. Something about a conductor simulator that hasn’t been updated in over a year apparently.
- Mayhem on a Rainbow: “Coming soon”
I found this similar to H3VR (full title: Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades) with the gun focus, but made to be much wackier and neon, plus things like flying spaceships and riding on horseback. It’s more about fighting zombies than sausages. It’s apparently planned to launch soonish in early access. There’s potential here so hopefully that works out.
- RUINSMAGUS: Out in 2022, decent reviews
I couldn’t get this demo to work either due to my setup most likely. It’s some kind of VR anime RPG action sorta thing by the looks of it. I haven’t seen a lot of recommendation for it though so not sure where it’s lacking or if it’s just obscure.
- Wave Break: Out in 2020 (2022 on Steam), decent reviews
A former Stadia exclusive about skateboarding with a boat, a.k.a. “skateboating”. I played this demo on the Xbone and found the concept weird, given that most of the time the boat’s out of the water anyway, so not sure why they went with that outside of just wanting to copy Miami Vice aesthetics. The additional mechanics like HP and some limited combat felt like they didn’t add much.
- Egression: Out in 2022, high reviews
A set of VR escape room puzzles, but the demo didn’t even really go into any rooms, it was just more wandering the lobby and talking about how great it was going to be. That didn’t really sell me but apparently it turned out decent.
- Isle of Pan: Out in 2023, high reviews
A weird dream-like and drug-looking VR photography game. Even the controls seemed slightly weird to me at first but I did have fun wandering around in the demo and seeing what crazy stuff was in there. Not sure if I’d go back to this but I’d have to be in a certain mood probably. Probably not drugs though.
- Grimlord: Early access in 2023, out in 2024, decent reviews
They apparently went full into the whole “souls-like” thing here. As a VR swordfighter, I wonder how they prevent the cheese strategies that are possible in that medium. Either way I think I’m fine with what I’ve got in Blade and Sorcery. I’ve mentioned that game across several summaries here by now, so it should be pretty clear I recommend getting Blade and Sorcery if you get any kind of VR.
- Noun Town: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A VR language learning thing that the demo mainly consisted of finding things and learning what the word for it is in the chosen language. It was apparently hard for me to grab specific things as it would often grab other things further away instead. There’s apparently other things to do in the full game, and this might work for some people, including the non-VR version.
- LEGO Bricktales: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A Lego game about building structures that can hold up to whatever the needed task is while going around a number of worlds. I think I picked this one up in a bundle somewhere recently so I’ll get to it later.
- Tentacle Typer: “Coming soon”
A text editor, but set in a weird environment insisting on typing certain things to advance puzzles and even some form of combat. The demo didn’t have a clear exit option so I had to force quit it. Not sure if this is coming out.
- Cassette Beasts: Out in 2023, very high reviews
Out of all the monster catching games out there during that whole indie rush to provide alternatives to the increasingly crusty official ones, this one caught my attention the most. It takes the 3D with 2D sprites aesthetic from the DS games with a number of odd creature designs that stray from the “comfort zone” of usual Pokémon-like designs, plus a more complex take on type effectiveness as well as being able to merge the two player-side combatants into a unique form per combination, in addition to the weird setting and backstory overall. All I need to do is actually get to playing it, because I did find the demo fun.
- Paraperspective: “Coming soon”
Echochrome but with more colors. Echochrome is that M.C. Escher puzzle game about angling the level so things “line up” with the isometric perspective filling in the blanks, so if two pieces look like they’re connected, they form a full path, plus the potential for gravity shifts. In this case the colors mean that only matching color paths will link together. The demo seemed a bit rough when I played, but it would be nice to see this concept revisited.
- Season: A Letter to the Future: Out in 2023, high reviews
A narrative biking and scrapbooking indie thing. Probably great for those wanting indie stuff about whatever this is about, probably allegorical. For some reason the demo only wanted an ultrawide presentation because games sometimes just want to be “cinematic” I guess.
- The Entropy Centre: Out in 2022, decent reviews
A Portal-like game that instead of a portal gun has a time gun or something that also houses the companion AI. Something I may get to later depending on mood.
2023 Demos
There were a lot of demos I played the previous year, less so for this one as I was getting busier with things. But some interesting ones either way.
- Goodbye Volcano High: Out in 2023, decent reviews
A Telltale-like interactive movie type thing with teenage dinosaurs at the end of the world. Outside of the weirdness that went on around this thing’s development in general, I haven’t heard much about this since. Mainly seems to be for if someone’s just that into dinosaurs but they’re “just like us” as in angsty teens wired to social media. I more checked this one out from just seeing what the fuss was about and didn’t feel like going further than a second demo that released later in the year, which took place a little later in the story and was less buggy.
- Sucker for Love: Date to Die For: Out in 2024, high reviews
Another horror dating simulator thing in a similar vein to its predecessor, but different supernatural being and probably some other mechanics in there. For the record I am a fan of certain alternative dating options including this category, but haven’t played these games specifically.
- Times & Galaxy: Out in 2024, decent reviews
A robo-journalism adventure type game with cute robots and cool character designs overall. I even signed up for the beta in order to see what bugs I could track down while also seeing more of this neat little thing in the process. As far as the full version, I still need to get to playing it as per my usual getting sidetracked.
- Broken Lens: Out in 2024, high reviews
A spot the difference thing from the perspective of a robot with one of two lenses broken, with large scenes that can be panned and zoomed to figure out exactly how stuff’s weird. It has nice art and is good for those who wanna find differences, but not quite my thing.
- Nour: Play With Your Food: Out in 2023, middling reviews
This is a genre I’m gonna end up calling “baby toys” because it’s about mashing buttons so colorful stuff happens on screen. This is about throwing stuff at food and food at stuff mainly. That’s about it. I’m not on every drug so I’m not going for this one.
- Starship Simulator: “Coming soon”
This was a pretty early on tech demo when I played. It’s still in development by the looks of things. Definitely not done yet though.
- Videoverse: Out in 2023, high reviews
A visual novel kinda thing about an alternate anime-looking universe where the hottest console of the 90s was an online limited color yet high-resolution LCD thing complete with message boards and whatnot. Much more of a visual novel than internet simulator, also the demo broke at one point, but I wasn’t really interested anyway.
- Vaudeville: Early access in 2023, middling reviews
This one didn’t work, but mainly it’s one of those “AI” chatbot things that’s shown up a few places now for interactive demos, in terms of trying to figure out how to use that technology without costing everyone’s jobs but then doing that anyway because corporate mindsets.
- Robotherapy: Out in 2023, decent reviews
A weird narrative minigame thing about a therapy robot applying some attempt at therapy on other robots. Didn’t follow up on this one, and this is what I confused Mindhack with earlier. I think I’d prefer Mindhack yet remembered this one just barely more.
- Olliefrog Toad Skater: Planned for 2025
This is pretty much what I wanted SkateBIRD to be, but now with frogs. Long story short, this game controls much better than that from what I played in the demo, and much closer to its inspiration. I’m looking forward to this one coming out, and I even visited the booth at MAGFest last year, near the booth for another skateboard game currently planned to come out this year that’s also got my interest, Skate Story. I did eventually get a copy of Tony Hawk 1+2 on Xbone though, and it’s nice. I just wonder how a followup 3+4 will turn out in the current state of the industry, but would likely pick up the frog game sooner or instead.
- Viewfinder: Out in 2023, high reviews
A photography perspective puzzle thing that apparently has annoying voice acting according to a number of online types, though when I played the demo it didn’t put me off. To be fair, I get why having people randomly chime in during puzzle gameplay can ruin the mood if it seems unfitting. In any case, I have picked this one up since I found the gameplay interesting, but it’s currently in the list of things to get to as usual.
- Home Safety Hotline: Out in 2024, high reviews
A customer support simulator involving dealing with customers who are dealing with problems from mundane to mythical, by use of an early Windows-styled database of all sorts of things. It’s a neat thing though I haven’t played outside of the demo.
- The Invincible: Out in 2023, decent reviews
A narrative first person thing based on a classic Polish sci-fi novel that I hadn’t heard of before checking this out. It looks much like the covers of sci-fi books from around that time with its retrofuturistic tech style, and the whole comic book style of “photographic” slides is intentional as in the full version there’s a comic book built based on the events and paths taken. I did play through the full thing and found it neat.
- Little Kitty, Big City: Out in 2024, very high reviews
A cat exploration game set in a modern Japanese city, a bit like Stray but much more cartoony with lower stakes, plus humans exist. I had some fun with the demo but didn’t follow up on the full game.
- HAELE 3D – Feet Poser Pro: Out in 2024, decent reviews
I forgot I downloaded this one as a joke. The real joke is it didn’t work. It apparently also has VR in case interested parties didn’t find enough of this content in VRChat or whatever. As I’m not a foot guy or an artist in need of such references, I haven’t bothered since. They also now have a hand poser, which sounds more aimed particularly for artists, but that’s partly due to the inherent connotations of feet focus versus hands. Of course there are things about hand attraction too, things I associate more with JoJo Part 4 though.
- A Tiny Sticker Tale: Out in 2023, high reviews
From the makers of Lonesome Village is this game, which came out the same year as Sticky Business, a game I didn’t play the demo of but ended up with anyway through a bundle. However I didn’t get this game, even though between the two I’d thought I’d pick this one since it’s more of a puzzle adventure game with stickers. Either way I haven’t followed up, but it seems fine to me.
- Ebitapes: Planned for 2025
A sketchy 2D style in 3D environments about finding hot mixes from samples found in various places to subvert corporate mindsets or something. There’s a puzzle in order to match what mixes other characters want to hear as well. Neat idea though not sure I’d follow up on this.
2024 Demos
The most recent set of demos in this summary from last year.
- Harold Halibut: Out in 2024, decent reviews
A handcrafted adventure game similar to other handcrafted adventure games in recent years, set in an underwater city made from a crash landed colony ship. It is a neat style to make use of photorealistic graphics power. The demo was a pretty long first chunk of the game, partly due to pacing, even with a sprint button option. I’ve considered looking into this one at least, though I’d need to clear some good time and disk space.
- Lightyear Frontier: Early access in 2024, decent reviews
I’m not really into farming games at the moment, and even adding mechs didn’t quite get this one appealing to me. Neat idea though, but currently the most farming kinda thing I’ve enjoyed involves slimes.
- Summerhouse: Out in 2024, very high reviews
Think Tiny Glade but 2D. Nice for people who want to do that sort of thing, but I’m not really feeling the whole “slap arbitrary blocks together into cozy cottages” thing myself. I just end up making things either typically utilitarian for games where there’s more than just making a house, or going totally abstract for art type programs such as this.
- Pacific Drive: Out in 2024, decent reviews
A survival roguelite kinda driving game set in Washington State but it’s all messed up with the supernatural. Given my control preferences I kept swapping between controller and mouse and keyboard when I went between driving and on foot, and the demo handled that decently. It’s the sort of scenario where the Steam Controller would possibly work best and maybe I should have tried that out here. It seems like a cool game but it’s not quite my kind of game in execution.
- Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip: Out in 2024, very high reviews
A game quite similar to Simpsons Hit and Run in gameplay, but with goofier cartoon presentation and no worry about the police coming after the player for smacking NPCs up and down the street. I ended up picking this one up and have played a fair bit on my Steam Deck.
- Goblin Cleanup: Early access planned for 2025
A cleaning simulator multiplayer thing set in dungeons. I like Viscera Cleanup Detail but I was turned off a bit from this one’s approach of modern “progression” stuff like needing XP to get new skins and levels and such. I feel it fits the chaotic nature more to just be able to jump into whatever levels at least for this kind of game. Also it didn’t feel as potentially chaotic as VCD.
- Building Relationships: Planned for 2025
An exploration dating game about a house that rolls and jumps and meets other buildings. It’s a very weird indie concept and I found the demo fun with its approach. I hope this one does well.
- The August Before: “Coming soon”
A 3D narrative packing thing. I didn’t really get into this one even though I’ve enjoyed games and “games” about going through people’s stuff to figure out what they were up to before.
- Global Farmer: Early access in 2024, middling reviews
I didn’t really play this one because I just wanted to see if it would let me farm Antarctica and it didn’t. It also seems very hands-off which probably isn’t what farming enthusiasts want from what I can tell, given the farming simulators I’ve seen get more attention involve actually doing the things.
- Star Trucker: Out in 2024, okay reviews
This demo was less spaceship delivery and more constantly fixing the broken spaceship because I lightly brushed up against a random object every few minutes even though I was sure the path was clear. Even the Earth-based truck simulators aren’t this annoying.
- Mech Builder: Out in 2024, middling reviews
An attempt at a model building simulator that’s pretty simplified and also features mostly if not entirely “AI” generated designs as it turns out, which probably explains why I didn’t find those designs particularly interesting on top of the lack of interest in the program itself. And now the same developer is making a “waifu builder” which just seems less appealing and also probably uses “slop factory” assets. I say stick with model kits, or find a better model kit simulator otherwise, preferably in 3D to get more of the feel for it. Even if you want to build a fleshy anime waifu. I’ve seen those model kits, though they’re still plastic thankfully.
- Just Crow Things: Out in 2024, high reviews
A cute bird game about causing chaos and other activities, plus verticality given the bird can fly in this one. I found this demo fun and will look into picking this up later.
- Caravan SandWitch: Out in 2024, high reviews
Some kinda exploration narrative thing with driving and climbing and such in a desert sorta world that also has frog people. Might be interested in this one depending on mood.
- Amber Isle: Out in 2024, decent reviews
A shop simulator involving dinosaurs. The demo felt buggy when I played and I wasn’t impressed by the actual gameplay since I was hoping it wasn’t just going to be a shop simulator with some other minor things tacked on. The dino character maker is neat at least.
- MR. ELEVATOR: “Coming soon”
A weird flat graphic 3D puzzle thing that was entirely in Japanese when I played the demo. Even if I was more fluent in the language to know more about what was going on, the hand controls were also weird and I had to kinda mess with the keys until I could figure it out and not feel like I softlocked it by picking up two things at once.
- Pawn Planet: Early access in 2024, decent reviews
This demo felt generic and not entirely functional. Probably more a streamer bait kinda game here by concept, given how many of these particular kind of “store simulators” I’ve seen, though at least this one’s a little different than usual since it’s more about exchanging used goods instead of stocking a million boxes on shelves.
- Spectacle: Effectively canceled
An interesting puzzle concept about winking and blinking and doing other vision-related stuff as some kinda lizard creature. Apparently the studio involved here was hit by the ongoing industry collapse and shifted games to a more “safe” genre of tower defense using some of the same assets from this one, which is a shame for puzzle enthusiasts who are also non-enthusiasts of tower defense.
- Creatures of Ava: Out in 2024, decent reviews
An action game about not attacking but trying to purify the environment from some kinda threat. I didn’t really get into this one but it felt like half of that Star Fox Adventures game.
- SCHiM: Out in 2024, middling reviews
This demo looked interesting but there was such a weirdly long focus on some guy whose shadow this playable creature comes from before getting to more of the actual levels. Then the actual gameplay is a bit trial and error and kinda just sticking along for the ride on certain moving shadows to see if it goes the right direction, which kinda just shifts whenever because there aren’t entirely clear goals either. I didn’t feel like following up on this one.
- Critter Cove: Early access in 2024, very high reviews
A village manager with exploration and very light survival mechanics, like if Animal Crossing New Horizons was a bit more leaning in the deserted island angle, plus some post-apocalyptic stuff in there for good measure. Plus a pretty involved character creator that does anything from humans to animals to some kinda robots even. I ended up picking this one up later on and it’s been a bit of fun when I’m in the mood.
- LOK Digital: Out in 2024, high reviews
A letter puzzle game about finding certain words and using their attached properties to fill in the grids, all to help these cute sock-looking worm things build their world. It also doesn’t always say exactly what to do when a new concept arrives, just to “trust the learning process”. I picked this one up as well as the mechanics and aesthetics all seemed great.
- DEATHGRIP: Planned for 2025
Not Death Grips, but more like Episode I Racer, but less exciting. I think I’ll stick to the licensed game for now.
- Weyrdlets: Out in 2024, okay-ish reviews
I didn’t play this because it required a new kind of account just for the demo. You’d think the demo would let you try before committing to a mandatory login, but this ended up being a free program with microtransactions anyway. It claims to increase productivity and relaxation and stuff, but I’d rather stick to a desktop thingy that isn’t sending credit card info either knowingly or unknowingly.
- Blood Typers: Out in 2025, decent reviews
This one very recently came out. It’s a weird Resident Evil-esque kinda thing where typing either words or random letters moves and does things, so not quite like Typing of the Dead. Not sure about this one though.
- Techno Banter: Out in 2025, decent reviews
A neon 3D with pixelated 2D characters bouncer confrontation simulator thing. Interesting style though I wonder how it holds up later on with all the stuff that was hinted at in the demo. Might consider this later.
- Cordbot: “Coming soon”
A puzzle room game but from an outside perspective. The demo was frustrating given the short cord length and the even shorter battery, essentially having to rush through puzzles while also dealing with the inability to plug in the plugs easily.
- Thank Goodness You’re Here!: Out in 2024, very high reviews
A British helper adventure game about getting in all sorts of wacky scenarios and slapping things around. It was interesting from what I was able to play in the demo and I might look at the full thing later.
- Akimbot: Out in 2024, decent reviews
Ratchet and Clank but everyone’s robots. Decent enough PS2/PS3 action platformer style action platforming, though wondering about the incentive to use the player’s own weapons that aren’t just what’s found in the level, as well as not sure about evading attacks while using melee and how much damage a low-level enemy can handle seeming a bit much. Haven’t followed up on this yet but considering it for later.
- The Big Catch: “Coming soon”
I didn’t entirely get the movement system here, it’s part fishing and part parkour and it didn’t quite click. Probably not looking into this one later.
- Looped: Out in 2024, high reviews
An artsy point and click based on a short film involving time travel wormholes and wolves or foxes involved with rockets. Seems like a short little thing that I might check out later.
- Waltz & Jam: “Coming soon”
A top-down-ish adventure game about a ghost and a ghost dog. Didn’t really get into this one.
- A Last Song: Out in 2024, decent reviews, now known as Melobot – A Last Song
A robot uses music to grow plants and do things, insisting that the player learns exactly which note is on which button but has the option to just show the buttons anyway. Also not really into this one.
- PILLORY: “Coming soon”
An abstract RPG thing involving mood-based combat and having to manage moods as well as the usual enough stats. Interesting ideas of course but also didn’t get sucked into this one’s style.
So that’s demos across several years. Outside of the latest demos which still have a bit to go, a bunch are still up in the air apparently and a number I doubt will ever come out, but most did eventually release. And of course I didn’t pick up the majority of the games after they came out, which is either because I forgot about them until looking back and now have them back on my list, or more likely because I wasn’t a fan of the demo or the finished product turned out not so impressive. But I did grab a few at least. Now to see what this year has for demos.