Game News Steam Next Fest, June 2021: Demos of upcoming RPGs available from June 16th to 22nd

[Andhaira]

Anyone try out Zoria age of shattering? From trailer looks like a decent TB RPG

 

[ArchAngel]

I got it installed on my PC but I have yet to try it.

 

[AndrewCC]

I tried it, but the demo starts somewhere in the middle of the campaing and is frontloaded with lots of mediocre written walls of text so I uninstalled. The combat is very meh from what I can tell.

 

[lukaszek]

there is no light - this game is walking infodump simulator

goblin stone - very charming but its 6 party members rooster and i dont really dig combat

paths & danger -single road to boring experience

soulash - seem cool but combination of ultrawide and controls doesnt really work great for me. If you are to try this start by increasing tile size in options. Wishlisting for now to test again in future

 

[udm]

Ok I've gone through several demos already and I'm going to lose track of my thoughts if I don't quickly pen them down.

Ones that I didn't like or felt lukewarm about:

• Mechajammer: It's ugly just like a non-binary queer. Combat feels like a roguelike (eg ADOM or even Jupiter Hell). Music is nice, has that Blade Runner "tears in rain" vibe, which is the only good thing I can say about it.
• Giants Uprising: Mildly entertaining game where you play as a giant smashing through buildings, stomping on humans and whacking other giants, but that's about it. Doubt I'll get the full game. I was disappointed that the physics engine wasn't more fleshed out. Buildings are either destroyed or not.
  
• Spire of Sorcery: It's a hand management puzzle game masquerading as a spell-centric fantasy RPG. Overall I see some potential from the overworld map, but it also feels like it could get boring fast.
• A Tale for Anna: Gave this a shot as I was looking for more casual adventure games for my kids, similar to The Inner World and Anna's Quest. Overall not too impressed with it (or the hidden objects genre), but it's ok as a time waster.

Ones that I did like:

• Sacred Fire: It's everything I wanted it to be when it was first talked about on the 'dex. Plays out like a gamebook but with so much depth to it. The writing is well-done too.
• Death Trash: Better and less edgy than I'd initially expected it to be. The combat encounters are pretty fun too once you get better gear. Great ambient tracks too. The downside is there aren't many stat checks, and I don't know how nonlinear the final product will be.

 

[Galdred]

Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?

Making them time limited is optional, and usually a bad call IMO, as it can be hard to checl them all during the small time window of the festival.

 

[CyberWhale]

Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?

Making them time limited is optional, and usually a bad call IMO, as it can be hard to checl them all during the small time window of the festival.

I think they are trying to create an artificial demand by making them time limited - especially for content creators that would otherwise decide to postpone and/or outright skip cover their games.
Can't say if it has that effect or not, but I don't like it for the same reason you've mentioned. Still remember the bitter taste I felt after trying to play one of the demos I downloaded last year only to find out they were not available anymore.

 

[Galdred]

Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?

Making them time limited is optional, and usually a bad call IMO, as it can be hard to checl them all during the small time window of the festival.

I think they are trying to create an artificial demand by making them time limited - especially for content creators that would otherwise decide to postpone and/or outright skip cover their games.
Can't say if it has that effect or not, but I don't like it for the same reason you've mentioned. Still remember the bitter taste I felt after trying to play one of the demos I downloaded last year only to find out they were not available anymore.

This is a game marketing article, so not of direct interest to the player directly, but it explains why it is stupid to do so for the developer too:
https://howtomarketagame.com/2021/05/10/keep-your-free-steam-demo-up-forever/

The only case where it would make sense would be after finding meme grade bugs in the demo build (because the festival is also a huge stress test). Then it may be better to pull the demo out.

 

[ArchAngel]

OK I finally put 1+ hour into Zoria. First impression is some kind of poor man's DOS but I decided to give it a fair shake. It is very rough which is probably to be expected from a demo, but basics of it is basically as boring as DOS with way too many random shitty diablo like items that gives random stats just for equipping them. Combat is like playing MMORPG but turn based and you control all characters. Conversations and characters are completely empty. Skip it unless you played all other turn based RPGs and you need something to play.

 

[Dexter]

Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?

Making them time limited is optional, and usually a bad call IMO, as it can be hard to checl them all during the small time window of the festival.

How do you people not understand that very often these are Early Alpha builds thrown together to showcase the promise of a game and get some early visibility, feedback from prospective customers and potential press, under the understanding that they get treated as such? A lot of the time things like game mechanics, characters etc. are not finalized and it's even missing a (proper) Tutorial, or one at all. Some have been thrown together quickly and are missing essential features like changing your resolution, have bad showstopper bugs, uncompletable missions or even crash issues etc. Many of them even explicitly tell you so:

These ain't the "Demos"/Builds that you want your usual customers to stumble upon a month or two before a game's release and think are representative of the final state and feature set of said game, or what they get when they buy it. It's just a quick peek at an early state of what many devs are working on. In the case of "Lost Eidolons" for instance it's missing higher resolution Options, and doesn't have any voice acting or lip syncing at all, is missing many features and throws you into the middle of the game's story without a Tutorial or any introduction to whoever all these people are and what they want from you. Nonetheless, some developers keep their Demos downloadable after the event ends, but this is obviously not the majority of them. Maybe they should name it "Upcoming Game Alpha Trial Week" or something, so you don't get confused?

 

[ArchAngel]

Ok I tried Spire of Sorcery. I don't know how to even explain this game. Maybe a card game without cards... anyways not my kind of game. Has almost nothing to do with standard RPG genre.
Start of the game overloads you with shitty game mechanics means just to make it more complicated, just like how card games work.
And like card games you do turns based on random stuff you get each turn and you got limitations per turn how much you can do.
As a person that played maybe 2 games of RL card games (at least serious ones) I don't enjoy computer games that play like this.

 

[Galdred]

Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?

Making them time limited is optional, and usually a bad call IMO, as it can be hard to checl them all during the small time window of the festival.

How do you people not understand that very often these are Early Alpha builds thrown together to showcase the promise of a game and get some early visibility, feedback from prospective customers and potential press, under the understanding that they get treated as such? A lot of the time things like game mechanics, characters etc. are not finalized and it's even missing a (proper) Tutorial, or one at all. Some have been thrown together quickly and are missing essential features like changing your resolution, have bad showstopper bugs, uncompletable missions or even crash issues etc. Many of them even explicitly tell you so:

These ain't the "Demos"/Builds that you want your usual customers to stumble upon a month or two before a game's release and think are representative of the final state and feature set of said game, or what they get when they buy it. It's just a quick peek at an early state of what many devs are working on. In the case of "Lost Eidolons" for instance it's missing higher resolution Options, and doesn't have any voice acting or lip syncing at all, is missing many features and throws you into the middle of the game's story without a Tutorial or any introduction to whoever all these people are and what they want from you. Nonetheless, some developers keep their Demos downloadable after the event ends, but this is obviously not the majority of them. Maybe they should name it "Upcoming Game Alpha Trial Week" or something, so you don't get confused?

Except that the Steam festival conditions stipulates that you must release your game within 6 months, and you are supposed to only take part in one, so if all you can assemble at this date is an embarassing demo, maybe the issue is the planned release date. steam festival is also one of the greatest marketing events for indies that cannot afford spending thousdands for a spot at E3, so it's probably better to assemble a demo that doesn't need to be removed one week after.
Having a demo as a separate Steam prologue is considered the best way to make the Steam algorithm work for you, which is pretty huge for a small developer(games that are not out do not get visibility push at all, while a prologue demo let's your game appear in the up and trending, or on friends are playing parts of the store).
So in this festival exemple, having to remove your demo means you should probably have waited for the Autumn festival instead.

 

[Dexter]

Except that the Steam festival conditions stipulates that you must release your game within 6 months, and you are supposed to only take part in one, so if all you can assemble at this date is an embarassing demo, maybe the issue is the planned release date.

"Stipulates" as in "suggests"? And they're going to control and enforce this how? There's Demos I tried a year ago of games that are far from release and that were part of the Valve-made Show/Demo reels for each category this year, like "Cristales", "Industria" or Zoria/Project Haven: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-steam-sales-and-releases-thread.45906/page-1007#post-6770976

There were also many participants this time around, where it's pretty obvious that release is still 1-2 years away.

 

[MicoSelva]

Anyone try out Zoria age of shattering? From trailer looks like a decent TB RPG

I did. It has potential, but the demo is not great as it starts you in a weird place and is front-loaded with story that you have no reason to care about at this point.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Maybe they should name it "Upcoming Game Alpha Trial Week" or something, so you don't get confused?

No one is confused, we know it's the devs' decision. It's just a pointless attempt to replicate the sense of urgency from a IRL event, abandoning the one advantage of digital-only events. YOU ONLY HAVE THREE DAYS! DON'T MISS OUT! Or you could use the event to promote it and then keep it on your game's page, properly labeled as the event playable version that is not necessarily demonstrative of the final product.

"Stipulates" as in "suggests"? And they're going to control and enforce this how?

They obviously can't but they will probably stop taking your requests seriously next time you want to enter your game for an event.

 

[Shodanon]

peripeteia - character says 'hop' while jumping, very polish thing to do indeed. Camera is stretching objects away from center which makes my head hurt and is game breaker for me

Oh man, that's horrible to hear. Have you tried changing the FoV in the options or is that the conversation camera giving you trouble?

 

[lukaszek]

peripeteia - character says 'hop' while jumping, very polish thing to do indeed. Camera is stretching objects away from center which makes my head hurt and is game breaker for me

Oh man, that's horrible to hear. Have you tried changing the FoV in the options or is that the conversation camera giving you trouble?

didnt expect for anyone to read this. Since you took interest ill put some more effort. Ill get back to you once i reinstall and fool with options. Or is there something specific that is not covered yet and I should feed some args to launcher?

 

[Shodanon]

didnt expect for anyone to read this. Since you took interest ill put some more effort. Ill get back to you once i reinstall and fool with options. Or is there something specific that is not covered yet and I should feed some args to launcher?

Nope, it's just a menu option under "graphics". Thank in advance

 

[lukaszek]

didnt expect for anyone to read this. Since you took interest ill put some more effort. Ill get back to you once i reinstall and fool with options. Or is there something specific that is not covered yet and I should feed some args to launcher?

Nope, it's just a menu option under "graphics". Thank in advance

ultra wide 3440x1440, 100 vs 60 fov(max and min with 80 default). Both are the very start of new game(starting position even), sort of centered at pilar and then looked left until its edge would disappear.
my mad paint skills as a bonus

Granted on 60fov floor tiles sort of continue to hold square shape, but pillar shifting/movement is still unnatural