6 Standout Games from indie.io’s Lineup in Steam’s Next Fest

Over the past fewer years, Steam’s Next Fest has go a invaluable showcase of upcoming games, peculiarly from indie developers. It includes escaped demos from participating games, livestreams, and interviews with developers that tin assistance shed a airy connected games made by passionate people.

Next Fest has regularly featured games from indie.io, a publishing level that works with developers of each shapes and sizes. The latest Next Fest conscionable landed today, volition past until June 16, and has 25 antithetic titles from indie.io — the astir games the level has ever had successful 1 Next Fest. You tin spot the afloat lineup connected this page, and there’s a small thing for each benignant of gamer, including old-school co-op RPGs, rhythm-driven brawlers, spellcrafting roguelites, cozy farming sims, and enactment games.

There’s a batch to take from, but we picked what we deliberation are the six standouts of the radical that each person playable demos and besides amusement the wide scope of options connected offer:

Shrine’s Legacy

A wide throwback to the SNES epoch of 16-bit games, Shrine’s Legacy is an enactment RPG that follows a brace of heroes connected a quest to prevention the satellite of Ardemia. You’ll request to find 8 elemental magic gems to reconstruct the fabled Sword of the Shrine and usage its powerfulness to vanquish the evil unit that threatens the world. The demo allows you to play a beauteous sizable chunk of the game, with 2 towns, 2 dungeons, and 3 brag battles. You’ll get a glimpse astatine the character-driven communicative and a consciousness of the game’s tone, with immoderate goofy moments and melodramatic twists mixed in. You tin play it successful sofa co-op wherever you each power 1 of the characters, oregon play it solo and person the crippled power the 2nd character.

Troublemaker 2: Beyond Dream

Troublemaker 2 is an open-world action-comedy beat-em-up game, which is not a operation of hyphenated words you spot precise often. It’s the sequel to 2023’s Troublemaker and follows the Parakacuk pack from the archetypal and a set called Beyond Dream done the metropolis of South Jayakarta. The demo drops you into the metropolis successful the mediate of the crippled with escaped roam unlocked, truthful you’ll person entree to the full city. You tin locomotion astir municipality getting successful thoroughfare brawls, find immoderate broadside jobs to implicit for the section populace, oregon conscionable chill astatine the euphony studio, wherever you tin play rhythm-based minigames. The demo has a full of 12 broadside quests and minigames (one of which turns you into a cow, truthful that should springiness you an thought of the tone).

Don’t Die, Collect Loot

Gotta emotion a crippled whose rubric beauteous overmuch spells it out, right? Don’t Die, Collect Loot is an arcade roguelite RPG wherever you mow done enemies successful chaotic bullet-hell combat and stitchery loot. If you’re the benignant of idiosyncratic who finds it oddly satisfying watching your EXP barroom capable up, past this is the crippled for you. In fact, you person three bars to ticker capable up: your EXP, accomplishment points, and probe points. The demo lets you play arsenic 1 of 3 classes: the Adventurer, Arcanist, and Beastmaster, each with their ain accomplishment trees and gear, and each with overpowered abilities to instrumentality vantage of. Whichever people you choose, you’ll tackle the Endless Nightmare mode, a never-ending situation wherever the lone extremity is to past arsenic agelong arsenic imaginable and stitchery arsenic overmuch loot arsenic you can. Perfect your physique and vie for a spot connected the planetary leaderboard. If you play the demo during Next Fest, you tin look disconnected with the exclusive superboss Alethia and get unsocial items that won’t beryllium disposable immoderate different time, truthful don’t miss out.

Mythrealm

Mythrealm is simply a single-player third-person phantasy RPG wherever you play arsenic the adventurer Alaris, who has been summoned to this satellite by a mysterious magic. Demons person caused the wizards of Zelanar to disappear, putting the satellite successful peril. You’ll request to usage your wit, skill, and weapons to decision the demons, rescue the wizards, and prevention the world. Alaris volition commencement arsenic a novice adventurer, but arsenic she grows, you tin take whether to usher her down the way of a melee warrior, archer, oregon mage. You’ll besides request to utilize jumping and platforming to navigate treacherous environments and find hidden items. The demo lets you research the archetypal level of Mythrealm, wherever a legendary warhammer is hidden. Can you find it?

Aris Arcanum

In this Victorian-era, spellcraft-focused roguelite, you are Clyde, a student who was connected a way to becoming person of the expansive room of Aris. But now, an alien entity that was sealed wrong the room has twisted the minds of the different scholars, and the room is facing ruin. You indispensable dive into its now-corrupted halls, decision those who were erstwhile your chap scholars, and look cosmic horrors connected the way to cleansing the library. On each run, you’ll trade caller spells that tin pb to a assortment of antithetic builds, encouraging you to trial antithetic possibilities to find your favorites. The demo offers a look astatine an aboriginal physique of Aris Arcanum, giving you a sensation of the gameplay and communicative structure. You’ll besides beryllium capable to instrumentality connected an aboriginal broadside quest and look disconnected against a brag encounter, and there’s ever much to experimentation with connected consequent runs.

Heroes of Mount Dragon

Heroes of Mount Dragon is simply a side-scrolling brawler developed by RuniQ, a Canadian indie workplace mostly made up of erstwhile employees of Activision, Beenox, and Ubisoft. You’ll take from 1 of 8 heroes, each of whom tin alteration into almighty dragons and laic discarded to the battlefield. You tin play solo oregon squad up with 3 friends successful sofa co-op oregon online, and you’ll request to negociate your hero’s unsocial abilities, dragon transformations, and almighty upgrades to marque it through. You tin besides vie against your friends for supremacy, and you tin usage devious curses to disrupt them — electrify them, shrink them, oregon flip their controls. In the demo, you’ll person entree to 4 of the 8 heroes and tin research fractional of the game’s archetypal kingdom (there volition beryllium a full of 4 kingdoms successful the last game).