No matter how many reviews you read, or streams you watch, there’s nothing like getting hands on with a game for receiving a sense of whether you’ll enjoy it or not. Which makes events like the tri-annual Steam Next Fest (taking place typically in February, June and October) important for putting upcoming titles on your radar and expanding your wishlist.

Optimally positioned at the end of the Summer Game Fest period, when games are already top of mind for a lot of people, the weeklong June Next Fest – which consists of hundreds of free playable PC demos as well as developer livestreams and chats – has already run its course. That said, this year’s event page is still up and many game samples are still downloadable.

We trawled through the vast selection, and tried out several demos, to spotlight our top five standouts. But first, some notable mentions:

Mythmatch, from Team Artichoke, isn’t quite to our gameplay tastes but the vibrant visual style and humour packed into the writing really elevates this Greek Mythology-themed life sim, which sees Artemis trying to find her place among both Gods and Mortals. There’s a lot of challenge and depth here behind the cuteness, as the game’s primary match-three-items-to-make-something-new mechanic ramps up in difficulty. Release date to be announced.

REKA could be classified as a life sim too, as there is home customisation, resource collection, cooking, crafting and villager interaction. That said, its Slavic folklore setting makes it quite different and quite special. Instead of being a cutesy farming witch game, you play as an apprentice to Baba Jaga, and your cottage roams around on chicken legs. From Emberstorm Entertainment and Fireshine Games, REKA is rough around the edges right now, but that adds to the charm. Plus, it’s hella atmospheric (though not nearly as grim as Bramble) and features sharp dialogue. REKA has an August 2024 Early Access release.

Now for our top five demos from the most recent Next Fest, in no particular order.

Tiny Bookshop

We’ve already dedicated a whole post to casual management sim Tiny Bookshop, but it has to be mentioned again as one of our demo standouts from the Next Fest period.

Made by German studio neoludic games, with the backing of publisher Skystone Games, Tiny Bookshop lets players pack up their lives and relocate to the idyllic seaside town of Bookstonbury to run a mobile second-hand bookshop.

The game is peak vicarious wish fulfilment as you set up shop in picturesque locations every day, become part of the colourful community and customise your dream store space. However, Tiny Bookshop is also about successfully running a business, and that comes with some serious gameplay strategy as you invest in stock, tailor your shelves to the different patrons in different areas, and make good recommendations that end in sales. It’s this combination of laid-back and challenging that makes Tiny Bookshop so compelling.

Tiny Bookshop is coming to PC at a yet-unannounced date.

Caravan SandWitch

The mark of a good demo is that you end it with a bit of disappointment, because you would have happily continued playing. That’s the sense given off by Caravan SandWitch, from Studio Plane Toast and Dear Villagers.

Ignore the misleading title, which has life sim connotations. Caravan SandWitch is a wholesome, engrossing and inclusive exploratory adventure that comes across like a cheery take on Fallout.

In Caravan SandWitch, you play as Sauge, a young woman who returns to her harsh and over-exploited home planet to search for her missing sister. To achieve her mission, Sauge is gifted a van which she can upgrade with collected resources in order to access new areas of the map. She’s also aided at times by the diverse locals – who are making the best of their challenging situation – and rediscovers the sense of community she abandoned.

Featuring a varied landscape peppered with ruins and abandoned buildings, Caravan SandWitch is an absolute delight to explore, whether in your vehicle or on foot. It’s clearly been lovingly designed, and is a very good looking indie game. File this one alongside Planet of Lana.

Caravan SandWitch has a planned 2024 release date, and is coming to PC, Nintendo Switch and PS5.

The Star Named EOS

If you love environmental puzzles, look no further than The Star Named EOS, from Silver Lining Studio and PLAYISM. Story-rich adventure The Star Named EOS is the follow-up release from the same Taiwanese developers that made the Ghibli-esque Behind the Frame, and that fact is important for two reasons.

One: While the similarly hand-drawn Behind the Frame was centred on painting as an artform, The Star Named EOS shifts its focus to photography. Aspiring photographer Dei sets out to follow in the footsteps of his absent mother, and starts to piece together a family mystery by plunging into recreated moments previously captured on film by his mom.

Two: The Star named EOS has really dialled up the puzzle component, which was featherlight in Silver Lining’s previous effort. The new game is cerebrally rewarding at the same time it tells a quiet and touching tale. The dialogue strains at times to be resonant, likely producing eye rolls from the more cynical players, but there’s no denying that this game is a visually lush and mentally involving as it marries past and present in a magical realist way.

The Star Named EOS is out next month, on 23 July, for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS and Xbox Series X|S.

While Waiting

Like Caravan SandWitch above, While Waiting came out of nowhere to surprise with just how enjoyable and engaging it is.

A complete tonal change of pace from Optillusion, the makers of sombre perspective-change puzzler Moncage, While Waiting is best described as a casual comedic puzzle game that “explores the art of waiting.” The game features over 100 highly familiar waiting situations, spanning one human life. We’re talking mundane scenarios from sitting in traffic to queuing for an office elevator, to desperately needing the bathroom when all the restroom stalls are occupied.

Players can just let these instances play out – there’s no way to speed them up – or you can kill time by trying to tick off meaningless optional tasks, turning each scene into a set of puzzles to solve. Set to jaunty classical music, While Waiting is about finding meaning and amusement in every moment of life, even the apparently most boring, and the result is a set of bite-sized level treats that leave you smiling.

While Waiting is coming to PC and mobile (the natural platform choice for this one!) with an anticipated release window of 2025.

The Alters

From 11 bit studios, the makers of Frostpunk and This War of Mine, comes genre-blending The Alters, which is probably best described as a sci-fi survival base builder… with a difference.

Players assume the role of everyman Jan Dolski, the lone survivor of a spaceship crash on an unexplored planet. Jan has just eight days to power up his mobile base and get out of there before a deadly wave of solar radiation roasts everything. However, there are only so many work hours in the day, and he’s just one man, who tires easily. The solution? Collect a unique mineral on the planet, and combine it with your base’s Womb unit to call forth alternate versions of Jan to help out with resource collection, base maintenance, and so on. However, each Jan is different, and in addition to all the tasks required to stay alive, you have to manage the alters’ psychological needs too.

The Alters, should appeal to fans of hard, but accessible, science fiction like the works of Andy Weir – complete with dashes of smartass humour. It also doesn’t hurt that The Alters is a gorgeous game, with serious design smarts. The modular build of Jan’s base, and its visual representation, is especially striking.

The Alters has a planned 2024 release date, for PC, plus PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. The game will also be coming to both PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass on day one.