Question of the Week: With Steam Next Fest launching a ton of demos onto the service, do you typically play demos to sample games, or do you just jump right in and buy ones you’re interested in? (And did you have a favorite from Next Fest?)
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I usually do not play demos because my “to play” list is extremely backlogged. I usually decide to add games to that list via word of mouth and by trailers of the game. Playing a game from my backlog while listening to VGA talk about another interesting game is an ouroborosly good time for me.
As for a favorite Steamfest game. Wanderstop sounds really interesting, but I’ll have to say Is This Seat Taken. I love cozy puzzles games and I haven’t really played one since Toem, so I’m excited to pick that up and play when my backlog diminishes enough to let me do that.
I usually don't buy a game because of a demo, but I also rarely buy games at launch. I did spend a lot of time with the old ps1 demo disks when I was a kid, sometimes I still think about Kula World (or Roll Away, as it is known in NA).
As for the demo, definitely Wheel World . It's a very chill game, where you find an old bike possessed by a spirit, who needs your help to find the legendary parts stolen from the bike. It's an open world game, with lots of secrets and a very charming and colorful world, shame the demo is so short.
Oh, thanks! Looks just like it, I'll give it a try. That said, the reason I remember the demo is not for the fun times I had with it, but because the game where you move an inflatable ball ready to fall into an endless abyss, complete with tank controls, gave my child self a sense of pure dread 💀
I LOVE Nextfest! I relish in the chance to play hundreds of demos of various degrees of creativity, development, and playability. I'm much more likely to play your game if there is a demo.
I played several demos last week, but the one that had me intrigued to see more was DECK OF HAUNTS, a deck builder where you get to play as a haunted house trying to exit wandering humans into your mansion. Kill them or drive them insane, gain points, and expand your house into a labyrinthian horror
It needs gameplay development, and most importantly a zoom so you can see your victims driven to madness, but the foundation is really solid and look forward to learning more!
I used to be way more into demos during the PS1 / PC gaming magazine demo disk era but I sort of fell off as we saw demos become way less common in the following years. I get the impression they are back on the upswing now and I'm starting to check them out a little more often
One thing I've actually really enjoyed is streaming demos and giving my live reactions and discussing with folks on the stream, that sort of thing is a lot of fun and is actually probably my favorite way to engage with demos these days
I try demos but since you often don't end up getting the trophies/achievements if the progress carries over i just get a brief taste of the material not play the full length of it. This is a change from when I was young where I played all the demo discs to death.
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2850490/Axyz/