Game News Steam Next Fest, October 2022: Demos of upcoming RPGs available from October 3rd to 10th

[Infinitron]

Tags: Dungeons of the Amber Griffin; Frozengem Studio; High North Studios; Sinister Design; SKALD: Against the Black Priory; Steam Next Fest; Tiny Trinket Games; Together in Battle; Zoria: Age of Shattering

It's time for our regularly scheduled roundup of notable RPG demos that are participating in this year's October edition of Steam Next Fest. Appearing for the first time is the recently announced Kashubian dungeon crawler Dungeons of the Amber Griffin, whose developers also put together a brief new trailer for the occasion. However, the highlight of the event might be the new build of anticipated retro RPG SKALD: Against the Black Priory, which has now been delayed to 2023. Here's the list:

Dungeons of the Amber Griffin
SKALD: Against the Black Priory
Together in Battle
Zoria: Age of Shattering​

As usual, the demos will be available until the end of Steam Next Fest on October 10th, although it's possible that their developers will choose to keep them up afterwards. There are various developer livestreams scheduled over the course of the event, although I'm not sure these particular games are doing any this time.

 

[Falksi]

Dungeons of the Amber Griffin​

​

First thing that came to my mind...

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

SKALD has my (mild) interest, but it reeks of vaporware. I like what they're doing mechanically, which is not something I commonly find in many CPRG systems. While I did play some Goldbox games on an old x386 I fixed-up (in 2000?), I don't have any nostalgia for games of this era. It's rare that one interests me. I hope they actually release this in 2023.

 

[MicoSelva]

That's a new demo for Zoria. Supposedly much improved (and double the filesize) compared to the jankfest of the previous one.

 

[Lord of Riva]

I played the Demo to Dungeons of the Amber griffin.

It's not good, Graphics are a mess, which does not matter that much.
The UI and class descriptions are not really helpful it's intransparent and throws words around that just do not help me understand what is going on.
The Spell System is both a mess and barely functional in the demo.
There is no real content as far as i could see unless you want to see maps full of monsters, and when I say full I mean it.
There are loads of Usability issues I have but those can easily be fixed I guess.
Armor does break, seemingly randomly and there seems no clear way to fix it.
Movement is way to fast you can basically dodge tens of monsters at the same time.
The game is too dark and for some reason the night is like 6 times as long as the day.
DnD style spells per rest + Mana cost is a really odd choice for this kind of game.

In the end the game seems to lack coherent vision on what the gameplay actually is, having a Dungeon Master style combat as it's sole mechanic is simply not enough.

 

[Mordru]

Steam Ecchh Fest

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Amber griffin looks like a little like MMX in a way but I really didn't get into MMX because ubishit online all the time crap.

Skald I hope releases.

Together in battle.... uh NO!

Zoria won't let me add the demo to my library for some damn reason.

Note to twitter self:

 

[luj1]

Zoria: Age of Shattering

this has to be one of those games you dont want to play based on name alone

similar to wolcen: lords of mayhem or kingdoms of amalur: reckoning