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Steam Next Fest, June demos highlighted in roundup

gamingJun 17, 20262082,682

Steam Next Fest demo waves on June 15 and June 22 prompted writers and streamers to publish roundups recommending standout playable demos. Notable picks included vholume, praised for its atmospheric speed-running parkour, and Hyper Bun Buster, lauded for tight combat and rollback multiplayer, while curated 'AI-free' lists highlighted Meaningless Random Numbers, Rizz Dungeon, Casualties Unknown, and Wizards 95. Showcase hosts and streamers solicited demo submissions and encouraged wishlists as many indie teams released demos and new devlogs during the festival. This matters because the festival gives small teams visibility and wishlist traction before launch, and curated guides help players find high-quality indie demos amid the event's large demo pool and growing number of AI-assisted projects.

Casey Explosion
@caseyexplosion.bsky.social

Hey folks, it's time for another #ShowCasey - STEAM NEXT FEST edition! Dear indie developers, do you have a demo in the Steam Next you'd like to get some more eyeballs on? Reply with a link to your demo's page, and a quick elevator pitch for your game! Only one rule: Strictly no generative AI!

9345d ago
DUCK_BERET58

HYPER BUN BUSTER: ROCKET HAMMER ACTION is a top-down bump combat action game about a bunny girl who uses her giant hammer to hit enemies into other enemies! store.steampowered.com/app/3605570/...

Chris Perry25

Oh!ware is a roguelike deck builder based off of the classic board game Mancala steeped in African mythology. store.steampowered.com/app/4334030/...

Sos "Wishlist Lazy Kickers" Sosowski21

Lazy Kickers is an incremental soccer manager but also farming! Grow balls from plants, shoot goal for coins, score trillions and turn the playing field into total chaos! Also playable as a desktop widget! 100% handmade human work from free-range human (that’s me!) bsky.app/profile/soso...

emzdanowicz15

Tormentum 2 devs reached out to me (they're Polish as well), maybe you can RT this demo since I think you will love the vibes xd store.steampowered.com/app/931060/T...

Ori-Warui -Wishlist KNUCKLE JET10

We've got Knuckle Jet in there, it's a 2.5d, off-the-wall, jetpunk ricochet flight action game! store.steampowered.com/app/3199470/...

RedEye Games | Miney Golf demo live on Steam!8

Hey I appreciate the support, as always! Miney Golf's my solodev effort to make a multiplayer mini golf game where you collect and place landmines to blow up your opponents' courses (and maybe your own)! Good to pick up and put down quickly with friends :) TY! store.steampowered.com/app/4266140/...

The Bonsai Treehouse6

My comrade’s game ‘Cloud Sculptor’ could use some attention: it’s a first person puzzle platformer about…well, sculpting clouds! :P store.steampowered.com/app/4101700/...

Nauris
@nauris.bsky.social

Every small indie dev who uses AI art on their steam game, and steam capsules should now go on steam next fest to check the top charts of the fest and see how much ai crap is there. Then think long and hard if you're not shooting yourself in the foot by using that crap. The answer is pretty clear.

11746d ago
Lizzy18

my immediate thought when i see ai thumbnails and capsules is that if they can't even be bothered to make a first impression, why would i ever be bothered to play it, let alone spend money on it? ethics of ai aside, using it is an advertisement that you're lazy and don't care about your thing.

Taaamas12

I feel like the prevalence of AI in Indie Games is really not brought up enough compared to the prevalence in big AAA games. There's been SO many Indie Games I've seen go big and viral and all the while people gloss over the blatant AI art on the menu or textures throughout the game, or even voices

Polyducks6

I saw a game which looked like dumb fun, but there was something off about it, like an asset flip vibe. I saw the AI disclaimer and reversed out of there so quick I almost clipped a pedestrian. It's giving half-assed and cheap, like boarding a ship via a plywood gangplank.

Star Hunter | Play Witchy Tower on Steam or Itch.io4

I don't even get it Coding is fun. Figuring out difficult problems and shaders is fun. Drawing is fun. Spriting is fun. Putting original music someone made for you into the game is fun. Banging on pots or sifting through libraries and mangling them in in Audacity is fun. Why skip out on any of this?

Demilune 🌛3

I agree with the sentiment but to me the critique from the quality angle falls a bit short.The real problems are working conditions for artists and devs, the stealing of everyone’s data and the multiple disastrous environmental and economic consequences. These people are simply being irresponsible.

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