Game News Steam Game Festival, Summer Edition: Demos of upcoming RPGs available from June 16th to 22nd

[Infinitron]

Tags: Almkaz Games; Animmal; Artefacts Studio; Blue Bottle Games; Code Three Fifty One; Curious Panda Games; Fabled Lands; Lost Pilgrims Studio; Ostranauts; Prime Games; Project Haven; Sinister Design; Solasta: Crown of the Magister; Steam Next Fest; Tactical Adventures; The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos; The Fellowship Saga; The Iron Oath; The Way of Wrath; Tiny Trinket Games; Together in Battle; Vagrus - The Riven Realms; Zoria: Age of Shattering

Just as the cancellation of E3 has led press conferences to be held on digital stages and developer interviews to be held in digital booths, so has the expo itself been moved onto a digital showfloor. During the Steam Summer Game Festival which begins today and will last until June 22nd, over 900 game demos will be available to download, including a decent number of demos for upcoming RPGs. Some of these are titles that we're already quite familiar with, whether because they've had private beta builds, earlier demos and free prologues, or have simply shown a lot of gameplay footage on YouTube. But there are some that are genuinely being unveiled to the world for the first time today, which is pretty cool. Here's a list of noteworthy RPG demos that we've spotted:

Fabled Lands
Ostranauts
Project Haven
Solasta: Crown of the Magister
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
The Fellowship Saga
The Iron Oath
The Way of Wrath
Together in Battle
Vagrus - The Riven Realms
Zoria: Age of Shattering
​

As part of the event, most of these games have developer livestreams and Q&A sessions scheduled over the next week. You can find the details on those on their Steam pages. Enjoy!

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

When does this start ? I checked Solasta and there are no demos available (unless it's not through the Steam app).

 

[Infinitron]

When does this start ? I checked Solasta and there are no demos available (unless it's not through the Steam app).

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Have someone play every demo in a row and write something about them.

 

[Excommunicator]

I hope this means demos become a thing again!

 

[Tavernking]

I finish exams on the 23rd...

 

[Morality Games]

Iron Oath systems remind me a bit of a pixel art Battle Brothers. Also reminds me of the abilities from Banner Saga that were about damage but also about crowd controlling them into different hexagons so you could set up combos using the special attacks of other units. None of the weird Armor/Health bar mechanics though, it's just a regular health bar.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I hope this means demos become a thing again!

There have been steady trickle of game demos during past few years, but nothing on this scale.

I wonder what those (I think it was Ubisoft) sales people that said "demos lower sales" thinks about this?

 

[Morality Games]

Demos indeed lower sales if your game sucks and you are trying to sell the idea rather than a fully realized product. Those "lower sales" are gamers realizing that the dream pitched in your trailer was a trick.

 

[ItsChon]

None of the weird Armor/Health bar mechanics though, it's just a regular health bar.

Wasn't weird at all. If you don't get the Armor/Attack system within ten minutes of tinkering around with it, you mighttttttt be retarded. I actually thought it added some depth to an otherwise simple combat system, and allowed the player to make some really interesting team compositions. On top of that, it ensured that you'd need to branch out and use more than just your standard group of heroes depending on the type of enemy you were going to fight.

 

[AdolfSatan]

y u no link Golden Fall 2, Infinitron ?

 

[ItsChon]

y u no link Golden Fall 2, Infinitron ?

It wasn't made by Obsidian.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Project Haven looks really awesome, tactical system has lots of options. Not your 2AP nuXCOM stuff. Bit stiff anims, but ok for alpha. Only annoying thing is that targeting seems to be always first person? I'll be keeping a close eye on this one, as I'm getting bit of Troubleshooter vibe without the weeaboo (or the waifus).

 

[Nortar]

Only annoying thing is that targeting seems to be always first person?

Yeah, manual aiming is their schtick. Maybe they hope it would attract the FPS crowd.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Another game that some codexers might like, given that I'm not the only one who likes Unbound: Worlds Apart. Not as good as Ori based on the demo, but quite fun, and the "portal" mechanic is quite interesting. The controls feel bit off, and lack fluidity of Ori. Graphics are nice, but a bit too clean and sharp IMO, though they certainly have a style to them. Level design (based on demo) is reasonably interesting, though there's plenty of places where your timing needs to be practically perfect (while playing on normal).

Edit: since it's not an RPG and this is a thread about upcoming RPGs, which this definitely is not, Infinitron, feel free to nuke.

 

[Bladderfish]

Project Haven looks really awesome, tactical system has lots of options. Not your 2AP nuXCOM stuff. Bit stiff anims, but ok for alpha. Only annoying thing is that targeting seems to be always first person? I'll be keeping a close eye on this one, as I'm getting bit of Troubleshooter vibe without the weeaboo (or the waifus).

They need to do something about the repetitive voices and the UI, though. After five minutes the "ladycramps" line was irritating. The UI feels vague and badly designed. The combination of having to right click on the ground then left click on the look icon is bizarre. Plus, having some of the icons on screen but some hidden in a right click menu just, I don't know, it needs work.

In other news, Solasta has a shit camera and awkward animations, but the combat is very fun and the character creation is top notch (aside from the fact every one is as ugly as fuck and there's barely any faces to choose from).

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Bladderfish I agree on your comment about UI, that needs work. It both seems super busy, and not very functional at the same time. Can't say anything about audio, I play most of the games with no audio, prefer silence.

 

[Van-d-all]

Only annoying thing is that targeting seems to be always first person?

That's the Phoenix Point schtick, and it's here to stay like the 2AP. I've already seen at least 3 games with it.

Project Haven is pretty much a less vaporware End State clone going for Cyberpunk hype.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I honestly never play demos and usually wait a year or more for massive packets usually with included DLC. How complete is a demo? I'd assume it'd be just enough to whet an appetite or turn you away if it was just tripe in one's personal opinion.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

To me, a demo is enough to add it to wishlist, then completely ignore it until it's been released, patched, and on first or second sale post-launch.

 

[Thac0]

With steams ultra generous refund system who even needs a demo? 2 hours of playing the game straight is enough to know wether the game is good or not.

Its better for the dev aswell, because with a Demo the demo has to convince me that the game is good enough to buy it, with refunds the game just has to not convince me its bad enough to refund. I spend a lot more $ on niche shit after they implemented that.

 

[Infinitron]

I think you guys are missing the point here. These aren't your traditional game demos that are released alongside the game in order to entice people to buy the full version. These games aren't out yet. For some of them, the demos are our very first look at them. It's meant to be like going to an event like PAX or Gamescom, but online.

That's the Phoenix Point schtick, and it's here to stay like the 2AP. I've already seen at least 3 games with it.

It's much older than Phoenix Point.

 

[Thac0]

I think you guys are missing the point here. These aren't your traditional game demos that are released alongside the game in order to entice people to buy the full version. These games aren't out yet. For some of them, the demos are our very first look at them. It's meant to be like going to an event like PAX or Gamescom, but online.

Half of the games on Steam arent out yet, all early acces and other garbage.

But fair enough, seems like I am not the target audience for that. I never go to gamesconventions, if the alpha demos are worse than the game I played a worse version than on release, if they are better I get disappointed.

It's much older than Phoenix Point.

First time I have seen over the shoulder aiming in a tactical game was Valkyria Chronicles from 2008. I bet its even older than that, its pretty intuitive for natural line of sight simulation.

 

[Van-d-all]

It's much older than Phoenix Point.

So was the 2AP.

 

[Thonius]

WOW FREE DEMOS! Is that legal?