Tag: Steam Next Fest

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop – Demo Impressions

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. Fast is panic. Oops, let me repair that for you. Repeat.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop

Developer: Beard Envy

Release Date: November 2024

Come on down to Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, for all your roguelite spaceship repair simulation needs!

WARNING: Untested genre not suitable for people with tentacles for arms or an aversion to dying horrifically. Side effects include improved reading comprehension under pressure and a furry fetish.

Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop is a roguelite puzzle game that is built around minigames. We have been soulbound tasked to run the local Rocket Shop, and not only do passers by need their ships fixing to the highest standard for you know, safety, we have rent to pay and the better job we do, the more sweet sweet space cash we earn.

This is a game about problem solving, following instructions and being strategic where it matters. In focused mode you can take your time, meticulously getting to know the machines you are repairing and the components within. In frantic mode, the more jobs that you get done within a certain timeframe, the more money you earn. Personally, I enjoyed the idea of frantic mode, feeling reminiscent of games like Among Us, Tin Can, Keep Talking and No One Explodes and Papers, Please. However, for me, focused mode was the way to go, feeling more akin to House Flipper or a building flat pack furniture situation, allowing me to take my time, dig deep into the detailed and amusing instruction manual, and still somehow manage to do something wrong.

Not only does the gameplay have a high concentration yet flow state inducing element to it, the entire design is great. Everything is simple enough and clear to read, while also being very distinct and colourful. Everything you click on is responsive and makes visual changes that communicate to the player clearly. The design of the different aliens arriving at the shop and the vehicles in tow are creative and fun, the dialogue is funny, the random events that occur always made me smirk and I continued to be surprised at the new things occurring each run.

The game has run based progression that is erased when you die/lose, as well as a classic meta progression system that ticks over with you onto your next run. Dialogue and scenareos are slightly altered each run, adding more elements and allowing forward momentum as you get more familiar with the loop. It is the type of game where familiarity is going to help you improve equally as much as the upgrades.

The attention to detail is fantastic, the game play is silky smooth and my time with the demo was an absolute joy. I am going to be keeping an eye on this one for sure.

Demo Length – 2+ Hours
At a glance
+ High concentration yet flow state gameplay.
+ Funny.
+ Polished.
+ Two key options for gameplay offer different experiences.
+ Keeps on giving.
+ The roguelite aspects feel seamless.

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The Operator – Demo Impressions

I’ll be your newly hired guy in the chair. How can I help you today?

The Operator

Developer: Bureau 81

Release Date: 22 July 2024

Welcome to the FDI. As our newest Operator, your role is to use your detective skills to assist our field agents and investigate mysterious crimes. Use cutting-edge FDI software to dig for clues, solve puzzles, and uncover the truth.

In The Operator, we take control of a high security computer, using the tools available to us – such as a person database, evidence files, photo and video analysis and more – to assist the agents that are out in the field.

I have played a few games that take place within a computer interface and I am thoroughly impressed at how this particular game has implemented it so far. In order to recieve files to investigate we communicate with agents via phone call. These are fully voiced and continue running regardless of whether we are listening intently, or furiously doing our own research in our other files. It is all transcribed and logged in-case you need to re-read and the dialogue itself feels natural and easy to follow.

At it’s heart this is a puzzle game. We are provided with information and questions, and it is up to us to solve the query, whether it is as simple as finding someone’s last known address, or a little more complex like pointing out discrepancies in a victims testimony. A notable point is that we don’t loose access to the previous case we were working. I am very curious to see how far they take this. Can you imagine the web of mystery that we could uncover, finding minor, seemingly unrelated details that weave together further down the line, unravelling a mystery that we didn’t even know we were trying to solve? Someone get me a corkboard and some string!

While the demo is brief, it told me everything that I need to know about how The Operator plays, showing that I am not in for a railroaded experience and will be required to use my brain in detective-like ways. Not only that, it laid plenty of ground to get me feeling very intrigued. The opening minutes of the game set a scene that is unexpected for a computer based experience, and the final minutes confirmed that there is more going on than meets the eye.

Demo Length – 30 mins
At a glance
+ Polished.
+ Allows player freedom.
+ An unexpected but intriguing mystery.
+ Potential for some complexity.
+ Very user friendly.
+ Good voice acting and dialogue.

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Vampire Therapist – Demo Impressions

Centuries of experience brings centuries of baggage.

Vampire Therapist

Developer: Little Bat Games

Release Date: 18 July 2024

Guide vampires through centuries of emotional baggage, decades of delusions and the odd bout of self-loathing with real cognitive behavioral therapy concepts and become a Vampire Therapist! Even vampires need a shoulder to cry on when a neck to bite just won’t do.

Vampire Therapist caused my brain such conflicting opinions that despite the game not feeling entirely for me, I had to write up some impressions. Generally, if I don’t completely vibe with a game then I don’t do a write up as indies need all the help they can get, deserve all of the love, and if a game is not for me that is ok, it is probably for someone else. This demo, just like life, had its peaks and valleys, and once I got to the summit I just wanted to shout about it, despite the trudging I felt I had to do to get there.

The complication with writing about my valley is that it is all about the tone of the game, which of course is entirely subjective. Horniness around vampires feels like a well established trope at this point, and while I believe it is supposed to contrast with any more serious tones occurring, I just personally didn’t find it endearing at all. If anything, it was a little off-putting. However, once I reached the meat of the game, it felt worth it.

Vampire Therapist is a visual novel where we play as Sam, a vampire with a mission to help other vampires. Over his centuries alive he has met a few people and learned some things. He is now ready to pay it forward under the mentorship of an already established therapist. While part of me expected a meme game, it didn’t take long from this point to provide me with legitimate profound moments, suddenly making me want to take it a whole lot more seriously.

As Sam is chatting to his new mentor about himself, you are taught about certain thought patterns that can occur – generally unhelpful but sometimes involuntary habits that you may not even recognise that you are doing. The aim of the game is to recognise when your client is expressing these behaviours, identifying which it is and calling them out on it. In the demo I spoke to two clients, and since then I have also caught myself doing almost every one of these same behaviours in real life. That is what flipped my opinion of the game and made me want to play more despite not enjoying the rest of the style very much.

Anyone who has ever had therapy before knows that therapists can’t solve your problems. What they can do is give you a safe space to address things, and share tools, growing your own toolbox so that you are better equipped to deal with the challenges that face you. I feel like, so far, the game represents that really well.

Overall.. I could be bitter, deciding not to play or recommend the game as the tone is not catered to me. OR, I could take the parts that resonate, let go of my control fallacy enjoy the game for what it is, which for me is a thought provoking environment to practice healthy habits through entertaining stories.

Demo Length – 1 hour
At a glance
+ Could help teach habits of checking and identifying your own thought patterns.
+ Very forgiving, these is no failing.
+ Centuries old characters have so much opportunity to have interesting stories.
+ Fully voice acted.
+ Recurring characters.
+ Treats therapy respectfully.
+/- The tone.

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Goblin Cleanup – Early Impressions

This dungeon is closed for cleaning. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Goblin Cleanup

Developer: Crisalu Games

Release Date: To be announced

A co-op cleaning game where you have to clean and rearrange a dungeon before the next adventurers come to complete it again.

As evidenced by my Powerwash Sim and Crime Scene Cleaner love, I have a bit of a tendency towards a nice, cleaning, task simulator. I am always so grateful when another game pops up like this and they are good. The line between compulsive and boring is surprisingly thin, it would be so easy to misstep, but this demo – along with the other games I mentioned above – sits on the compulsive side.

The game is planned for an Early Access release (no date at the time of writing) and that makes Goblin Cleanup all the more exciting to me. This was a great, fully functional, polished demo that showcases the core concept of the game. Community feedback will inform the direction of the rest of the game and the functionality of the demo makes me have confidence in the developers to really deliver the content.

What I mean by that is everything just worked so well. Goblin Cleanup is a twist on the genre where your job is to clean away the blood and gore of heros and adventurers that have fallen in the clients dungeon. Through the grime you will be both avoiding and resetting traps, placing the furniture back where it belongs and wondering what the heck happened to make such a mess. It is user friendly, snappy and there was only one mechanic that I would have liked an upgrade for.

The traps add a new idea to a tried and tested core, adding a slight order of operations puzzle to ensure maximum efficiency. After all, you don’t want to trip the crossbow to shoot you point blank because you didn’t move a piece of furniture earlier, spilling your own blood and meat over your freshly mopped floor. Navigation is also part of the fun, finding the best way to get the furniture to where it belongs without stepping on a pressure plate because you couldn’t see in front of your feet, because you were carrying furniture. Each dungeon has a large amount of levels, allowing you to experience the journey that the unfortunate heros themselves would face, with interesting winding level design and no way of knowing how to navigate until you try it for yourself.

I can’t speak for the co-op experience as these types of game are a solo endeavour for me, but it is certainly going on my wishlist as a podcast/tv show companion game. I only played 2 levels but I am sold that this is a fun time, worthy of it’s place in the genre. Adding magic to cleaning is an angle I didn’t know that I needed.

Demo Length – 2+ hour
At a glance
+ Another fine example of the genre with its own twist.
+ A funny concept.
+ Plays smoothly.
+ User friendly.
+ Compulsive.
+ Stays on the right side of fun vs tedious (so far).
+/- I did not get as far as levels with enemies yet so I can’t comment on whether that adds a fun challenge or frustration.
– My one problem was walking backwards and forwards so much to get fresh water, I could have used some pockets for my slimes.

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Blue Prince – Demo Impressions

Schrödinger’s Mansion.

Blue Prince

Developer: Dogubomb

Release Date: To be announced

Welcome to Mt. Holly, where every dawn unveils a new mystery. Navigate through shifting corridors and ever-changing chambers in this genre-defying strategy puzzle adventure. But will your unpredictable path lead you to the rumored Room 46?

Blue Prince is a first person, exploration puzzle game where you will be using RNG and resource management to make your way through an ever changing mansion. Almost all of what you find is temporary, but some lessons will stay with you as you reset each day, making another attempt at traversing this bemusing abode.

The gameplay is very decision focused. The house you are exploring is made up of Schrödinger’s rooms – every room simultaneously existing and not until you open the door. What I mean by that is, every door that you open will grant you a choice. Three different types of rooms are presented to you and you can pick which one you want to walk into, adding it into the bluprint map that you carry around with you. Layout, benefits and resources within all need to be carefully considered as you attempt to make your way towards the north of the house. 

I am going to make a potentially strange comparison so bare with me here, but I can’t help but feel a lot of very similar feelings that I get when I play The Binding of Isaac. Blue Prince doesn’t have combat and is an entirely different tone, but RNG and resource management are two stand out mechanics of Isaac, ensuring every run is entirely different and causing difficult decisions. Where Isaac has it’s keys, bombs, coins and health, Blue Prince has keys, gems, coins and steps. You are going to want them all but whether you get them is another question. Movement itself being a currency adds another complication, as your keys aren’t worth anything if you pass out as you open the door.

Continuing with the Isaac theme, you are not going to be able to do everything in one go. The items that you draw in TBoI inform how you play your run – for better or worse. A similar thing happens here, except it isn’t only the items that you have found, it is also the rooms that go with them. For example, you may find a room with dig spots but never make it to a shovel. This coulddd be considered annoying and even cruel, but if you are anything like me, it will trigger the synergy hunting and experimentation part of your brain. No run is wasted when you have a goal to try something new, and even if you don’t succeed, you are likely to run into something else.

The last thing that I want to bring up about my first impressions are how I enjoyed the whole concept of the puzzle solving, from the micro to the macro. Every type of room that you draw may or may not contain something relevent to the overarching mystery. This makes it extremely tempting to use new rooms immediatly, even when there is a chance that they will mess up your route or lead to a dead end. In doing this I managed to find some neat things that I will need to write down on paper for the full game. There are also individual puzzle rooms, containing bite sized puzzles that serve their purpose well. They take less than a minute to solve, you get your reward and then are back to the rest of the problems at hand.

I was impressed that by the end of the demo I had found so many loose ends that I had not found the answer to, and sad that I couldn’t continue on. I have never played a puzzle game like this, it is very unorthodox but it is exactly my flavour of dopamine and I really hope the rest of the game lives up to the first couple of hours.

Demo Length – 1-2 hours
At a glance
+ Overarching macro puzzles.
+ Smaller puzzles within.
+ Tough decisions.
+ Short runs.
+ Time to think.
+ So unique.
+/- Doesn’t hold your hand.
+/- Resource scarcity.
+/- RNG – was fun for the demo but has chance to get frustrating.

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Cryptmaster – Demo Impressions

Use your words.

Cryptmaster

Developer:

Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games

Release Date: 9 May 2024

SAY ANYTHING in this bizarre dungeon adventure where words control everything. Fill in the blanks with text or voice to uncover lost abilities, embark on strange quests, and solve mindbending riddles. Can you conquer the crypt and uncover the mystery at the heart of CRYPTMASTER?

I have never played anything quite like Cryptmaster before, and that is not only down to my lack of dungeon crawling experience. In Cryptmaster, you gain your powers through words. Exploring, finding chests, solving riddles and killing enemies grants you letters, aiding in figuring out your characters next ability in this dynamic game of hang-man.

Is it cruel to make a crew of dead people play hang-man? Probably, but it is also very fitting with the games humorous tone. A huge part of the gameplay is being able to type words at any time, which you can use to take as many guesses at the game of hang-man mentioned above, but also to interact with the world around you. Our ever so slightly demonic looking guide will converse with us depending on what we try to do, resulting in me getting chastised for my virtual kleptomaniac tendencies more times than I should probably admit.

Combat didn’t fully click with me during my two times through the demo. The first time I tried the recommended ‘real time’, but the juggling act of remembering the words and typing them accurately with haste would send me off into a clumsy panic, struggling to decipher whether what I was doing was effective or not. The second time I decided to try the ‘turn based’ approach. While I did get hit less during this mode, I didn’t quite understand what consisted as a turn. Thankfully though, the riddle based sections were enough fun to compensate for the difficulties I was having.

The last section of the demo showed a preview of mechanics yet to come, but it ended before getting to experience them, including some resource management regarding using words. Time will tell whether these mechanics will work for me personally, but I can imagine the audience that thrives on this gameplay. For me, this feels like it would be a really fun live-stream game, as the collaborative effort of solving the riddles and the over-arching word puzzle of the abilities would be a lot of fun for everyone. Not to mention, getting to meet some absolutely bizarre characters with very fun performances.

Demo Length – 45 mins
At a glance
+ The riddles are fun.
+ Being able to type at any time is a great choice.
+ The freedom to explore.
+ Fun performances and character designs.
+ The sketched art direction compliments the word based gameplay.
+ The humour is fun.
– Realtime combat felt difficult, turn based felt confusing.

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The Posthumous Investigation – Demo Impressions

If at first you do not succeed, try and try again, and again, and again

The Posthumous Investigation

Developer: Mother Gaia Studio

Release Date: Coming Soon

Travel to a noir Rio de Janeiro in 1937 and investigate the mystery behind the murder of Brás Cubas, famed character created by Machado de Assis. Until the truth is out, you’ll be trapped in a time loop, amidst a plot full of conspiracy and treason.

The Posthumous Investigation has the makings of a time loop game done right. We have been tasked with solving the murder of a man, hired by the deceased himself to unravel whatever trouble he got himself into. We only have one day but fear not, if at first you do not succeed, try and try again, and again, and again.

The area in which we are investigating is alive, with events happening all around whether you are present to witness them or not. Whether this means you wander into a dramatic confrontation or stumble upon the aftermath of an incident, it makes each loop a joy as it becomes less about being in the right place at the right time, and more about reverse engineering the situation to discover what happened before.

The noir atmosphere and classic cartoon style complement each other wonderfully, setting the scene both in universe and to the player. In contrast, the UI is modern, clean and easily readable, almost as smooth as the jazz occasionally gracing our ears.

Often with these types if games it is impossible to tell in advance how well the full game will hold up. It is going to rely on the mechanics continuing to feel fresh, the story staying interesting and an appropriate runtime. However, the demo did enough to stop me playing. In a good way of course, I am interested enough that I didn’t want to play anymore until I could have the complete experience.

Demo Length – 1+ hour
At a glance
+ All in on the aesthetic.
+ User friendly options to prevent time loop tedium.
+ Lots of events happening inspiring ideas for next loop.
+ Clues carry over but items do not, creating a puzzle in the order of operations.
+/- I didn’t feel the (dialogue) writing was great but it did the job.

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Rusty’s Retirement – Demo Impressions

Not so rusty after all.

Rusty’s Retirement

Developer: Mister Morris Games

Release Date: Q2 2024

Plant crops, produce biofuel, and automate! A relaxing idle-farming simulator that sits at the bottom of your screen while you do other things.

Rusty’s Retirement is an innovative idle game that I imagine we will see inspiring other games of its kind in the years to come.

What makes Rusty’s Retirement stand out from the rest is that it is designed to be accessible when you are doing other things on your PC, whether that is watching YouTube or Twitch, working, or even playing another game. This game sits at the bottom of your screen taking up maybe a quarter of your monitor, allowing you to flick your eyes down to check on your little working farm at any time you please.

Farming and automation feel like a perfect fit for the idle genre, I am surprised I haven’t played this mixture before but I am glad that this one was my first. Growing crops in this game is simultaneously faster and slower than in a regular farming sim. Faster in the sense that you don’t have to wait for in-game days to pass, but slower in the sense that all you have to do is wait, at least early on. As you progress though you can turn your attention to other things such as upgrading your machines for better productivity and decorating your little slice of agricultural heaven.

I had the game running in the background for quite a lot of time during the Steam Next Fest. It is very refreshing to have it sat at the bottom of a second monitor, just checking in every now and again to plant new seeds and checking what I needed to produce in order to unlock the next type of vegetable. The progression doesn’t require a lot of focus but I personally found it nice to take a minute whenever there was a halt in my work and be distracted, ready to focus again once I had planted my seeds.

One thing to note – I wouldn’t really recommend Rusty’s Retirement as a first Idle Game, or at least the version of the demo that I played. This is simply due to the lack of tutorial. I have played a couple of idle games and various automation games but I still wasn’t 100% certain what to do at first glance. Of course, some of the fun for some folk may be figuring that out, but I feel previous familiarity would be very beneficial.

Overall, I honestly think Mister Morris Games are onto something here. I would not at all be surprised to see this concept take off with all sorts of other ideas that I can’t even imagine yet. It is a companion game that doesn’t demand your constant attention all of the time, just being there for you when you have a moment. The way that the larger games industry leans more and more towards live service and monetization every passing year, demanding full attention, daily logins or thousands of hours, Rusty’s Retirement feels humble, elegant and for the player. I wish them all of the success.

Demo Length – 8+ hours
At a glance
+ A genius innovative idea.
+ Cozy vibes.
+ ‘Always on top’ option allows me to interact with other windows without hiding or affecting the game.
+/- Only as engaging as it needs to be (allowing you to get back to work between planting sessions)
– Could use a small tutorial

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Crypt Custodian – Demo Impressions

One man’s trash is another cat’s treasure.

Crypt Custodian

Developer: Kyle Thompson

Release Date: 2024

Crypt Custodian is a charming metroidvania about cleaning up the afterlife. Play as Pluto- a mischievous cat who has died, and is sentenced to be the afterworlds janitor… FOREVER! Hang out with other doomed ghosts, battle beasts, and explore a vastly expansive landscape.

For a game that I expected to be action packed and all about the combat, I did not expect to be so completely and utterly charmed by the writing, dialogue and characters of Crypt Custodian, while a beat later holding back a tear.

The Crypt Custodian demo was huge. Every time that I thought ‘there can’t possibly be more’, there was more. More areas, more mechanics, more enemies. So much in fact that I didn’t complete this one. I reached a boss but after multiple attempts and multiple failures, I had to call time. There were optional upgrades that I could have pursued that could have helped me, as well as areas that I had yet to explore, so I am confident that with more time I could have made it through.

Generally, the game felt good to play. There is an overall reminiscence of Dark Souls with the bonfire-esque shrines, but the combat almost reminded me of The Binding of Isaac, not in mechanics but in rhythm. As you progress, you will meet new enemies and master the patterns of beating them, with that continuously being shaken up as you come across new waves and combinations. The health system is the other similarity being simple to understand, being hit takes away 1 health. Get hit 3 more times and you die. I personally didn’t get along with the dodge cooldown, finding myself frustrated at times, but there are difficulty options including both an easy mode and more personalised settings in the assist section of the settings menu.

Crypt Custodian is as much about exploring as it is about fighting, with worthy puzzles scattered around, sometimes halting and sometimes guiding your progress. The simple, colourful aesthetic perfectly complements the dark humour of the game and while I don’t have a hankering to continue with the fighting side of the game (which would be impossible to avoid as there are enemies around every corner), I could see myself making use of the difficulty features to make it though the rest as I feel quite enamoured by the world and the characters within.

Demo Length – 1+ hour
At a glance
+ Humour
+ Characters
+ Aesthetic
+ Exploration
+ Puzzles
+ Difficulty options
+/- Combat

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Astronomics – Demo Impressions

We’re bringing the factory to you.

Astronomics

Developer: Numizmatic

Release Date: Coming Soon (Early Access)

Top-down action and space exploration meet asteroid mining automation! Command a faithful crew of bots and get to work in the asteroid belt. Impress your employer, upgrade your equipment, fight off pirates and save up for that ticket to Earth so you can finally come home… for the very first time.

Astronomics isn’t your typical automation game. Where often you would expect to build from a fixed base outwards, mining ores, constructing and optimising your structures, in Astronomics, we bring the factory to the asteroids.

This game is all about collection. The more resources that we collect, the more one time use machines we can build to speed up collection. The more that we then collect, the more we can bring back and sell. The more that we sell, the more we can upgrade our machines to speed up collection, and so on.

The overall goal is to buy a ticket to earth, which is gradually done by taking a percentage of our earning. These are earned through expeditions. As the player, we get to take a look at asteroids that are close to our base spaceship (space base? base ship?) and make our choice which ones to deplete based on how much time they will remain within the radius of our reach.

This game isn’t going to be for everyone, but I particularly wanted to highlight it as it has a satisfying loop. My favourite part of automation games tends to be the beginning, with the task of getting established. Once things progress, they can sometimes become too complex or too stagnant for me, both of which inevitably cause me to lose interest. Since in Astronomics you are always visiting new areas, you get to do the beginning part over and over, with the progression from manual labour, to commanding an entire workforce of robots.

In Astroneer I enjoyed driving around collecting scrap. In Sea of Thieves I enjoy sailing around collecting treasure. This is a game about collecting, but this time with tools, and I will be keeping an eye on the development through Early Access and beyond.

Demo Length – 50 mins
At a glance
+ Expedition based gameplay.
+ Growing your team feels satisfying.
+ Going to new spaces and making priorities on the fly.
+/- A slow start (for me this made upgrades feel very valuable but won’t be for everyone).
+/- I didn’t have many interactions with Pirates so I can’t say how balanced is feels.

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